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diff --git a/old/65588-0.txt b/old/65588-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 61eb4a4..0000000 --- a/old/65588-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7563 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Evacuation of England, by L. P. (Louis -Pope) Gratacap - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Evacuation of England - The Twist in the Gulf Stream - - -Author: L. P. (Louis Pope) Gratacap - - - -Release Date: June 10, 2021 [eBook #65588] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVACUATION OF ENGLAND*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images digitized by the -Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com) and generously made -available by HathiTrust Digital Library (https://www.hathitrust.org/) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - HathiTrust Digital Library. See - https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433074864483 - - - - - -THE EVACUATION OF ENGLAND - -The Twist in the Gulf Stream - -by - -L. P. GRATACAP - -Author of -“The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars,” -“A Woman of the Ice Age” - - - - - - -New York -Brentano’S -1908 - -Copyright, 1908, by Brentano’s - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. IN WASHINGTON, APRIL, 1909 5 - - II. THE LECTURE 38 - - III. BALTIMORE, MAY 29, 1909 66 - - IV. GETTYSBURG, MAY 30, 1909 102 - - V. THE EVICTION OF SCOTLAND 131 - - VI. THE TERROR OF IT 170 - - VII. IN LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1910 195 - - VIII. THE EVACUATION 231 - - IX. THE SPECTACLE 274 - - X. ADDENDUM 298 - - - - -THE EVACUATION OF ENGLAND - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -IN WASHINGTON, APRIL, 1909. - - -Alexander Leacraft was regarding with as much interest as his -constitutional lassitude permitted, the progress of a distinctly -audible altercation on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, D. C. The -disputants had not felt it necessary, under the relaxing influences -of a premature spring, to interpose any screen of secrecy, such as a -less exposed position, or subdued voices, between themselves and the -news-mongering (and hungering, let it be added) proletariat of our -nation’s capital. - -A small crowd, composed of the singular human compound always -pervasive and never to be avoided in Washington, which, in that centre -of political sensations, is made up of street loafers, accidental -tourists, perambulating babies, “niggers,” and presumptive statesmen, -enclosed this “argument”; and from his elevated station, within the -front parlor of the McKinley, Mr. Leacraft was afforded a very -excellent view of and an equally distinct hearing of the disagreement -and its principals. - -The two disputants were themselves sufficiently contrasted in -appearance to have allured the casual passer-by to observe their -contrasted methods in debate. One--the taller--was a thin, angular -man with unnaturally long arms, a peculiar swaying habit of body, an -elongated visage, terminating in a short, stubby growth of whiskers, -and a sharp, crackling kind of voice, with unmistakable nasal faults. -He seemed to be a southern man modified by a few imitations of the -northern type. - -He was addressing a bulky, rather disdainful man in a checquered -suit of clothes, who had advanced the season’s fashion by assuming a -straw hat, and whose rosy face, broad and typical features, and yet -not plethoric expansion of body, strong and stalwart frame betokened -much animal force, and reserved power of action. He might have been a -northern man. As Alexander Leacraft looked at them, it was the southern -man who was speaking, and his uplifted arm, at regular intervals, rose -and fell, as the palms of both hands met in a cadence of corroborative -whacks. It may interest the reader to know that the particular time of -this particular incident was April, 1909. - -“Let me tell you this, Mr. Tompkins,” drawled the southerner with -loquacious ease, the crackle and sharpness of his intonation appearing -as his excitement increased, “the necessities of our states demand -the Canal at whatever cost. It will be the avenue for an export trade -to the east, which will convert our stored powers of production into -gold, and it will react upon the whole country north and south in a way -that will make all previous prosperity look like nothing. Our cotton -mills have grown, our mineral resources have been developed; Georgia -and Alabama are to-day competing with your shaft furnaces and steel -mills for the trade of the railroads, and builders; and for that matter -we are building ourselves. We can support a population ten times all -we have to-day; our resources have been just broached, but exhaustion -is a thousand years away. Our rival has been Cuba. She has robbed us -of trade; she has put our sugar plantations out of business; even -her iron, which I will admit is superior in quality, has scaled our -profits on raw ingots, but she can’t hold us down on cotton. Open up -this canal, and we will gather the riches of the Orient; our ships will -fill it with unbroken processions, and in the train of that commerce -in cotton, every section of the Union will furnish its contribution to -swell the argosies of trade. I tell you sir” and the excited speaker, -conscious of an admiring sympathy in the crowd around him, raised his -voice into a musical shout, in which the crackle was quite lost, “the -commerce, the mercantile integrity of these United States will be -restored, and American bottoms for American goods will be no longer a -vain aspiration; it will be a realized dream, an actual fact.” - -He paused, as if the projectile force of his words had deprived him of -breath, and then at the momentary opportunity Mr. Tompkins, in a clear -and metallic voice, with a punctuative force of occasional hesitation, -undertook his friend’s refutation. - -“I’m not contesting the fact, Mr. Snowden,” he said, “that the opening -of the Canal means a good deal to your portion of the country. Does it -mean as much to the rest of the country, and does it mean so much to -you for a long time. You mention cotton. Do you know that the cotton -cultivation of India and Egypt has increased enormously, and that it -is grown with cheaper labor than you can command. You have made the -negro acquainted with his value. You have raised his expectations, you -have thrust him into a hundred avenues of occupation and every one of -his new avocations adds a shilling a day to the worth per man of the -remainder, who stick to field work and cultivate your cotton fields. -The cotton of Egypt and the cotton of India, I mean its manufactured -forms, will go through that canal to Asia and Japan and Polynesia just -as surely as yours will, and it’ll go cheaper. It is poorer cotton, I -know, but that will not effect the result. - -“That isn’t all. Brazil and the Argentine Republic are growing cotton, -and they are doing well at it. Europe will take the raw stuff from them -and keep up her present predominance in that market while she turns -their cotton bolls into satinettes and ginghams for the almond-eyes -of Asia. The canal, breaking down a barrier of separation between the -two oceans, turns loose into the Pacific the whole frenzied, greedy -and capable cohorts of European manufacture. It will make a common -highway for Europe, and our unbuilt clippers and tramp steamers will -stay unbuilt, or unused, to rot on their ways in the shipyards. The -west coast will be sidetracked, and our trunk railroads will cut down -their schedules and their dividends at the same time. Roosevelt put -this canal through, and your southern votes helped to elect him against -his protest, but brought to it by an overwhelming public sentiment that -applauded his power to chain or sterilize trusts; and he promised last -March to your southern rooters, at his inauguration, to see that before -his present new term was over, before 1913, the canal would be opened, -and perhaps he’ll make good. - -“You southerners elected Roosevelt, and you have killed the Democratic -party. The new powers of growth of that party were most likely to -develop among you, but you shoved aside the proffered offer of -political supremacy, because you too had surrendered to the idols -of Mammon, and were willing to sell your birth-right for a mess of -pottage. Well! You’ve got the canal and you’ve got Roosevelt, and -let me tell you Mr. Snowden,” and the restrained, almost nonchalant -demeanor of Mr. Tompkins became suddenly charged with electric -earnestness, “you’ll get Hell, too.” - -This admonitory expletive, uttered with a force that seemed to impart -to it a physical objectivity, caused the increasing circle of auditors -to retreat sensibly, and, without more consideration, giving a glance -of mute scorn at the flushed face of the southerner, the speaker -pressed his way through the little crowd, which, after a moment’s -suspension of judgment, seemed reluctant to let him escape, and -disappeared. - -His opponent was distinctly chagrined. The wrinkled lines about his -peculiarly pleasant eyes, indicated his strained attention, and were -not altogether unrelated to a sudden muscular movement in his clenched -hands. His hopes, however, for some sort of forensic gratification -might have been sensibly raised as he discovered himself the sole -occupant of the small vacant spot on the side walk, walled in by -a human investiture, the first line of which was made up of two -pickaninnies, three newsboys, one rueful cur and some impromptu mothers -who had taken the family babies out for air and recreation, but, -overcome by the indigenous love of debate, had forgotten their mission, -and held their charges in various attitudes of somnolence or furtive -rebellion against the hedge of men behind them. - -It was evidently expected that the southern gentleman would relieve his -feelings, and it was also evident from a few ejaculations hap-hazardly -emitted from the concourse, that the majority of those present was in -his favor. - -Mr. Snowden looked around him reflectively, and a sense of personal -dignity forced its way against the almost over-powering impulse to -appeal to popular approval, and convinced him that the place and the -audience were inopportune for any further discussion. He could not, -however, escape the demonstrated force of popular expectancy, and, with -a consenting smile, a shrug of his shoulders, and with his hat raised -above his head, swinging gently, he called out “Three cheers for Teddy -and the Canal.” - -In an instant the group seized the invitation, and under the cover, -if it may be so violently symbolized, of the cloud of vocality, his -enthusiasm evoked, Mr. Snowden, like the fortuitous and directive -deities of the epics, vanished. - -There remained an unsatisfied group to which more accessions were -quickly made, the whole movement evidently animated by some emotion -then predominant in the national capital. This group broke up into -little knots of talkers, and as the day was closing, no urgency of -business engagements and no immediate insistency of domestic duties -interfered with the easily elicited Washingtonian tendency to settle, -on the public curb, the vexed questions of state, if not to enlighten -Providence on the more abstruse functions of His authority. - -Alexander Leacraft willingly surrendered himself to the study of this -representative public _Althing_, and felt his exasperating torpor so -much overcome by a new curiosity as to make him not averse to stepping -out into the hall of the hotel, descending the steps into the street, -and engaging himself in the capacity of a rotational listener at the -various groups, sometimes not exceeding two men, who had become vocally -animated, and felt themselves called upon to supply the deficiency of -objurgation, so disagreeably emphasized by the sudden departure of the -northern and southern disputants. - -The illuminative results of his ambulatory inspection, and his own -expostulations or inquiry, may be thus succinctly summarized. - -Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, elected in his own behalf in 1905, as president -of the United States, after having served out the unexpired term of -William McKinley, who was assassinated in November, 1901, and with -whom he had been elected as vice president, had been again re-elected -in the fall of 1908, against his emphatic rejection, at first, of -a joint nomination of the Republican and Democratic parties. The -campaign, if campaign it could be called, had been one of the most -extraordinary ever recorded, and in its features of popular clamor, -the grotesque conflict of the personal repugnance of an unwilling -candidate nominated against his will, and in defiance of his own -repeated inhibitions to nominate him at all, because of his solemn -promise that he would defer to the unwritten law of the country, and -not serve a third term, was altogether unprecedented, and to some -observers ominous. He was reminded that his first term, although -practically four years, was still only an accident, that there was no -subversion of the unwritten law, in his serving again, as his actual -election as president had occurred but once, that his popularity among -the people was of such an intense, almost self-devouring ardor, that it -was an act of suicidal negation, of unpatriotic desertion to shun or -reject the people’s obvious need, that a war, yet unfinished, had been -begun by him against corporate interests, that its logical continuance -devolved upon him, that the unique occasion of a unanimous nomination -to the presidency carried with it a sublime primacy of interest, that -cancelled all previous conditions, promises or wishes on his part, -and laid an imperious command upon its subject that deprived him of -volition, and absolutely dissolved into nothingness any apparent -contradiction of his words and acts. Finally, it was insisted that the -Panama Canal was nearing completion, that its remarkable advance was -due to Mr. Roosevelt that this fact had been prepotent in shaping the -councils of southern Democrats in proposing the, otherwise unwarranted, -endorsement of a Republican nomination, that a strong minority -sentiment had crystallized around an angry group of capitalists who -were only too anxious to get rid of Roosevelt altogether, and that in -the case of his refusal, these men would so manipulate the newspapers, -and inflame public apprehension, against some possible outbreak of -social radicalism, financial heresy, and anarchistic violence, that -a reaction begun would become unmanageable, and some tool of the -reactionaries, and the railroads, would be swept into office, and with -him a servile Congress, and Roosevelt’s work, so aggressively and -successfully prosecuted, would be all sacrificed. Nor was this all. The -return to a divided nomination, with an unmistakable intention on the -part of the conservatists to repeal all disadvantageous legislation to -the monopolies, corporations and trusts, would at once precipitate a -conflict of classes. - -A radical man, possibly a demagogue, would be placed in opposition to -the choice of the plutocracy. His election was also not improbable. -The powers of socialism, enormously strengthened by the adhesion of an -educated class, might be triumphant, and the succeeding steps in social -revolution would bring chaos. - -This dilemma was so pertinaciously displayed, so forcibly accentuated, -that Roosevelt had yielded at the last moment, not insensibly affected -(as what spirited man would not be) by the magnificent assemblies (mass -meetings) throughout the country, tumultuously vociferating the call of -the people. - -The southern people, with characteristic warmth, and through the -suddenly consummated attachment of Senator Tillman to Roosevelt, and -under the coercion of Senator Bailey’s logic and power of argumentative -persuasion, had swelled the tide of popular approval. Roosevelt -became an idol--his election was almost unanimous, a handful only of -contestants having gathered in a kind of moral protest around Governor -Hughes as a rival candidate. Governor Hughes’ nomination was achieved -through a combination of opposite political interests, as anomalous as -that which chose Roosevelt, and having precisely the same quality of -coherence. - -It represented dissatisfied Republicans, an alienable remnant of -Democrats, and had drawn into it a few sporadic political elements that -barely sufficed to give it numerical significance. W. J. Bryan, who -would have been otherwise a candidate himself, had endorsed Roosevelt, -furnishing thereby an example of political abnegation which had -enormously increased his popularity, and assured him the nomination -of Nationalists, as the new fusionists were called, in 1913. This was -also deemed a wise forethought, as a provision against the possible -success of the rampant Hearstites. Hearst would have been the socialist -candidate in the last campaign, had not the principal himself, on -hearing of Roosevelt’s nomination, sapiently withdrawn, fearing defeat, -which would have too seriously discredited him in the next national -struggle. - -The Prohibitionists had, by an act of virtual self-repudiation, thrown -their not inconsiderable vote to Roosevelt. The Socialists were the -only important opponents of his election, and their surprising record -made the prophetic warnings, which had convinced Roosevelt of the -necessity of his candidacy, appear like a veritable intervention of -Providence, at least this was the language commonly used with reference -to it. - -Roosevelt had displayed remarkable self-control and consistent gravity, -and had even, in a very extraordinary address at his inauguration, -deprecated the unanimity of his election. He deplored the precarious -dilemma of a country which found itself forced to do violence to its -traditions in order to escape an imagined danger. - -Almost synchronous with his re-election, the announcement had been made -that the Panama Canal, upon which the President in his former term, had -exerted the utmost pressure of his inexhaustible enthusiasm, energy -and exhortation, was advancing very rapidly, engineering difficulties -unexpectedly had vanished, a system of extreme precision in the -control of the work, itself largely the device of the President, had -facilitated the entire operation, and a promise of still more rapid -progress was made. - -This promise had produced a storm of southern enthusiasm. The south, -completely restored in its financial autonomy, had been growing richer -and richer, and their public men had not hesitated to paint, in the -brightest colors, the further expansion of their prosperity with the -opening of this avenue of commerce between the oceans, assuring its -people the markets of Asia, and their rapid promotion to the political, -social and financial primacy in the United States. - -Northern capitalists had not been incredulous to these predictions, and -in a group of railroad magnates, whose interests seemed now seriously -threatened, a sullen resentment was maintained against Roosevelt, -in which the unmistakable notes of designs almost criminal had been -detected. Mr. Tompkins, whose altercation with the southerner had led -Leacraft into this voyage of interpellation and discovery, was a paid -agent, in the employ of this cabal. - -Alexander Leacraft was an Englishman, inheriting an English temperament -without English prejudices; he was fortunately free from the worst -faults of that insular hesitancy which imparts the curious impression -of timidity, and had advanced far enough in cosmopolitan observation to -get rid of the queerness of provincial ignorance. He was indeed a sane -and attractive man, and provided by nature with a forcible physique, -a good face, and a really fascinating proclivity to make the best of -things, admire his companions, and bend unremittingly to the pressure -of his environment. - -He had not escaped the dangers incident to youth, and his heart had -become attached to a lady of Baltimore--one of the undeviatingly arch -and winning American girls--to whom he had been introduced by her -brother, a commercial correspondent. - -The nature of his affairs--he was the secretary of an English company -which operated some copper mines in Arizona and Canada--had made him a -frequent visitor to the shores of the New World, and he had not been -unwilling to express his hope that the United States would become his -final home. These sentiments were quite honest, though it might have -elicited the cynical observation that the capture of his affections by -Miss Garrett had done more to weaken his loyalty to the crown than -any dispassionate admiration of a Republican form of government. But -the imputation would have been malicious. Leacraft did feel an earnest -admiration for the American people, and yielded a genial acquiescence -to the claims of popular suffrage. His connexion with America had been -fortunate, and he had come in contact with men and women whose natures -by endowment, and whose manners and habits, conversation and tastes, by -inheritance and cultivation, were elevating and engaging--men and women -whose nobility of sympathy with all things human was reflected in an -art of living not only always decorous and refined, but guided, too, by -the principles of urbanity and justice. - -The Garretts of Baltimore were a widely connected, and in numbers an -imposing social element, and none of the various daughters of light -and loveliness who bore that name more merited consideration in the -eyes of manly youth than the capricious, captivating and elusive Sally. -Her graces of manner were not less delightful than her conversation -was spirited and roguish, and her assumption of a demure simplicity -had often driven Alexander Leacraft to the limits of his English -matter-of-fact credulity in explaining to her the relations of the King -to Parliament, or the municipal acreage of the old City of London. -All of which information this very well read and much travelled -young woman, as might be expected, was possessed of, but just for the -purposes of her feminine and cruel fancy, not too well disposed towards -her patient suitor, disingenuously concealed. Sally really enjoyed -the painstaking gravity with which the young Englishman explained the -eternal principles of English rule, and the never-to-be-forgotten -superiorities of London. - -Mr. Leacraft had met Sally under circumstances the most provocative of -admiration. In her own home; where the sincerity of hospitality and the -urgency of an American’s deference to the best instincts of courtesy, -did not altogether mitigate her coquetry and mirthful affectations, -and even, by the faintest gloss of repression, made them the more -delicious. The Englishman was bewitched, and his infatuation declared -itself so plainly that Sally--whose heart was quite untouched by his -distress--tried the resources of her ingenuity to avoid meeting him -alone. - -Leacraft, on the morrow of the day, whose close had so deeply inducted -him into a study of American politics, expected to make a deferred -visit to the Garretts at Baltimore, and he had quite firmly resolved -that he would reveal his desperate extremity to Sally, and plead his -best to show her how empty life would be to him without her, and that -it would be shockingly obdurate in her to decline to regard him as the -goal of her marital ambitions. - -He felt some fear of her revolting gayety, and his fears were not -assuaged by the remembrance of any particular occasion when her conduct -towards him permitted him to indulge in hopes. Still the thing must -be done. His unrest must be quieted. To know the worst was better -than this feverish anxiety of doubt. And besides, with a prudence not -altogether British, he thought he could endure repulse better now than -later, and in the event of that evil alternative, he could cast about -him for alleviating resources which might be more easily found now, -than if he waited longer, and if he continued to expose himself to the -perilous encounter of her eyes, and the tantalizing caresses of her wit. - -When Leacraft returned to the hotel, he found a letter waiting for him, -which he saw at once was from his friend, Ned Garrett. He tore it open -and discovered, to his considerable discomfiture, that it postponed the -event of his momentous proposal. - -It read: - -Dear Leacraft: - -Aunt Sophia is very sick at Litchfield, Conn. Mother and Sally have -gone on. Can you put off your visit until May, say the 28th? You will -find it dull here without Sally and Mother. I shall go with them as -far as New York. We all intend, if Aunt Sophy concludes to remain in -this bright world a little longer, and the Dr. endorses her good -intentions, to visit Gettysburg on Memorial Day (Decoration old style). -The President will deliver a memorial oration. Come with us and see the -great battlefield, which is a wonderful monument to the nation’s dead, -a beautiful picture itself, and probably you will see and hear things -worth remembering besides. Write to the house, and I will get your -letter when I return in two weeks. But do come. - - Yours sincerely, - Edward T. Garrett. - -Leacraft put down the letter slowly. He was disappointed. A summons to -the west, to the mines in Arizona, had reached him just the day before, -and he must get out there before a week was over. He had thought to -have finished this affair first, and to find in the tiresome trip -distraction, if Sally was unfavorable to his appeal, or unexpected -interest if he succeeded in winning her assent. Still he could readily -accept the invitation. He would be back in May, and, perhaps after all -the occasion might be more favorable. Sally softened into a little -sympathetic humor by her visit to her sick aunt, and he strengthened -by the encouraging reflexion of having successfully dissipated the -little cloud of misunderstanding, or worse, at the mines, might produce -conditions psychologically adequate to bring about his victory. - -He stepped to the window. The view from it was always pleasing, at -this moment in the descending shades of the closing day and with the -vanishing lights hurrying westward beyond the Potomac, it possessed -an ineffable loveliness. The great white spectre of the Washington -monument, immaterialized and faintly roseate against the softly flaming -skies, and brooding genius-like above the trees of the Reservation was -always there, and that night it assumed the strangely deceptive but -fascinating vagary of an exhalation, as if built up from the emanations -of the earth, and the vapors of the air, remaining immobile in the -still ether as a portent or a promise. The man’s face grew clouded as -the fairy obelisk faded, and with the enveloping darkness became again -discernible as a dull and stony pile. - -That evening Leacraft felt particularly restless and detached. He -felt the need of entertainment, and of entertainment of a sort that -would fix his faculty of thought, awaken speculation, and immerse him -in reasonings and the intricacies of argument. The few theatrical -bills presented no attractions more weighty than a clever comedian -in a musical farce, a sensational melodrama (“much better,” said -Leacraft), and vaudeville. Music was shunned; there was nothing quite -serious offered, and then music has so many painful influences on the -apprehensive mind, and is turned to such cruel uses in the economy of -nature, for making uneasy lovers more agitated. No! he didn’t wish -music. Baffled for an instant, he concluded to walk. Muscular exercise, -mere translation on one’s legs, is a marvellous remedy for the -diabolical blues, and then it can never be told what the Unseen holds -for you, if you only go out to meet It in the streets, and amongst -other people, hunting, perhaps, like yourself, diversion from their own -inscrutable megrims. It--the Unseen--may quite divertingly mix you up -in a comedy or a tragedy, or consolingly give you a glimpse of other -human miseries immeasurably greater than your own. - -So walk it was. He had hardly covered two blocks towards the White -House, when he met Dr. M--, the most amiable and accomplished editor -of the National Museum, and one of those multi-facetted gentlemen -who respond to every scientific thrill around them, and hold in the -myriad piled up cells of their cerebral cortex the knowledge, selected, -labelled and accessible, of the world. Leacraft knew the Doctor; had -indeed consulted him upon a chemical reaction, in the elimination of -cadmium from zinc. The Doctor, with genial fervor, grasped his hand, -persuasively put his own disengaged hand on Leacraft’s back, and -dexterously turned him around with the observation: “You are going the -wrong way. Binn reads a paper to-night before the Geographical Society, -over at the Museum, on a live subject. It’s about earthquakes and -the Panama Canal. The matter has a good deal of present interest. The -President may be there. It’s worth your while. Come along.” - -Leacraft jumped with pleasure, if an Englishman may be said ever -to respond so animatedly to a welcome alternative. This met his -requirements exactly. He would, in these surroundings and under the -stimulation of an intellectual effort, in listening to a lecture -which he hoped might possess literary merit as well, quite forget his -immediate solicitudes. - -“It is curious,” resumed Dr. M--, as they directed their steps -towards the umbrageous solitudes of the Reservation, “how inevitably -many practical questions demand an answer at the hand of geology or -physiography, which are however never consulted, and disaster follows. -In the spring of 1906 a destructive outbreak of Vesuvius occurred, -and much of the ensuing loss of life might have been prevented by -reliance upon scientific warnings. Indeed, the loss of life on this -last occasion of the volcano’s activity was greatly reduced through -the premonitions of its approach by delicate instruments. For that -matter, from the beginning, the vulcanologist, at least as soon as -such a being was a more or less completed phenomenon in our scientific -life, would have pointed out the considerable risk of living on the -flanks of that querulous protuberance. But it can hardly be expected, -I suppose, that large populations can effect a change in habitation as -long as the dangers that threaten them occur at long intervals, and the -human fatality of unreasoning trust in luck remains unchanged. Take -for instance the case of the village of Torre del Greco, four and a -half miles from the foot of Vesuvius. It has been overwhelmed seventeen -times, but the inhabitants, the survivors, return after each extinction -to renew their futile invocations for another chance.” - -“I suppose,” queried Leacraft, “that we are to be informed to-night -whether the Canal from the scientific point of view is a safe -investment?” - -“Perhaps,” doubtfully returned the doctor. “You see, it’s this way. In -the spring of the year that saw the outpouring of lava that invaded -the villages of southern Italy, San Francisco suffered from a serious -earthquake that ruptured the public structures of the city, dislocated -miles of railroad tracks, ruined the beautiful Stanford University, -shook out the fronts of buildings, and precipitated a fire that all -but wiped out the Queen City of the Pacific coast. It has been feared -that some such seismic terror might demolish the superb structures of -the canal, and we are to learn to-night whether these earth movements -threaten the new waterway at the isthmus.” - -“I have reason to believe,” rejoined Leacraft, “that this canal has -been itself a source of political disturbance, and that it is likely -to effect convulsions in your body politic as dangerous in a social way -as those which brought about the financial and physical upset at San -Francisco.” - -“Don’t worry on that score,” replied his companion. “I can tell you -that the political texture of this country is not to be worn to a -frazzle by any collision of interests. Such things adjust themselves, -and the way out only means a new entrance to brighter prospects and -bigger undertakings. Yes, I guess someone will be hurt, but individuals -don’t count if the whole people are benefited.” - -“Still,” remonstrated Leacraft, “the people is made up of individuals, -and it’s simply a fact that you can’t disturb the equilibrium of one -part of society without jostling the rest.” - -“In a way, yes,” slowly answered the doctor. “But it is quite clear to -my mind that the enormous advantages of the canal will hide from sight -the losses that may be inflicted on the railroads, in the dislocation -of rates, and even that will be temporary, as the new business raises -our population, and their passenger traffic touches higher and higher -averages.” - -“The canal has been an expensive enterprise,” suggested Leacraft. -“It would be a great misfortune if it brought any kind of material -reverses.” - -“Rubbish,” retorted the doctor; “this prating is the madness or the -envy of croakers and cranks. Do you think that a connexion between the -oceans that will shorten the route from one to the other by nearly -6,000 miles, and bring our eastern seaboard, with all its tremendous -agencies of production within reach of a continent that is slowly -becoming itself occidentalized, and demanding every day the equipment -of the west, is a mercantile delusion? We are all gainers. It is a -scheme of mutualization on a world-wide scale, but America distributes -the profits and holds the surplus.” - -The two friends by this time had reached the entrance of the Museum, -and passing through its symbolic portals, turned to the left, and found -themselves in a dull room, portentously charged with an exhaustive -exhibit of the commerce of all nations. Here, on tables and shelves, -was displayed a wonderful assortment of primitive and modern ships, -primeval dugouts, Philippine catamarans, Mediterranean pirogues, -sloops, schooners, brigs, brigantines, barques, barkentines, luggers, -lighters, caravals, Dutch monstrosities, models of those extraordinary -ships which Motley has described as “built up like a tower, both -at stem and stern, and presenting in their broad, bulbous prows -their width of beam in proportion to their length, their depression -amidships, and in other sins against symmetry, as much opposition to -progress over the waves as could well be imagined,” the Latin trireme -and the Greek trireme, the ironclads of France used in 1855, the -monitors of the Civil War, the recent wonders in battleships, torpedo -boats, and destroyers, with naphtha launches, submarine wonders, the -old time American cutters, and models of the stately packets that -once made the trip from New York to Portsmouth in fourteen days, -with a various and diversified exhibit of yachts and pleasure boats, -all burnished, japanned and varnished, and now dimly lustrous in the -futile illumination of the room. Above them on the walls was a prolix -illustration of the hydrography of the world; charts of currents, -pelagic streams, areas of calms, submarine basins, maps of rainfalls, -prevalent winds, storm regions, precipitation, barometric maxima and -minima, and then still higher up on the walls, that dispensed knowledge -over each square inch of their dusty and dusky surfaces, Leacraft -descried the tabulations of tonnage of the merchant marine of the -nations of the earth, with fabulous figures of imports and exports, and -the staple products of this prolific and motherly old earth, caressed -into fructification by the tireless arms of her scrambling broods of -children. - -Leacraft was soon deserted by the doctor, who found occasion to wander -among the slowly arriving scientific gentry and politely inquire after -the health of the particular scientific offspring, whose tottering -footsteps each one was engaged in nurturing into a more reliant -attitude before the world. Leacraft found the dim room, with its -preoccupied occupants vacantly settling into the seats around him, and -its motley array of picturesque models strangely congenial. It soothed, -by the abrupt strangeness of its contents, the subdued intellectual -placidity of the audience, and by its mere physical retirement from -the outer bustle of the streets, and the iterative commonplaces of -the hotel corridor. The exact process of subduction would have been -hard keenly to analyze, but Leacraft seemed to forget his personal -disquietude, and develop into a congenital oneness with these earnest -men and women around him, eager to know, and not too patient towards -sophistry or pretension. He hardly cared to know who was who. It made -no matter. They all seemed freed from the petty vanities of living, and -now engrossed in the triumphant tasks of thought; and he felt himself -elevated into a kind of mental abstraction which eagerly carried on its -functions in an atmosphere of ideas. - -And yet how was it, that just above the little desk which was to -receive the honorable burden of the lecturer’s manuscript, he suddenly -distinctly saw the fair face, with its light blue eyes, its delicate -blush of color, and the slightly mocking pout of the lips of Sally, -the beloved. Leacraft almost rose upright in his astonishment at the -impossible hallucination. He was leaning forward, half incredulous -of the report of his own senses, and half subjected by a delicious -whim that the apparition was an augury of success, when a commotion -spreading on all sides of him roused his attention, and the vision -fled. He would have willingly had it stay. People were rising in his -vicinity, and soon the assembly was on its feet. Some one had entered -who was the cause of this unusual excitement. “The President” came -to his ears, murmured by a dozen persons near him, and he had hardly -sprung to his own feet when, with many salutations, a strongly formed, -rather bulky man, with a manner of almost nervous scrutiny passed -by him moving down the aisle to the front. It was indeed President -Roosevelt, and Leacraft, now startled into the most active interest, -slipped forward a seat or two, to gain a position which might afford -him a better view of this remarkable person. The audience remained -standing until the President, escorted by a tall red-whiskered -gentleman, whom Doctor M--, who had just turned up in search of his -friend, whispered was Dr. George O. Smith, the distinguished Director -of the Survey, had reached a seat reserved for him at the front of the -hall. - -Leacraft now observed more closely the character of the convocation, -and realized its composite and representative elements. Dr. M--, -always himself immersed in the study of the lives, achievements and -distinctions of the prominent men of the country, was an enthusiastic -verbal _cicerone_ through the maze of faces which seemed suddenly to -have condensed into a really crowded audience. Here was Dr. D--, the -Alaskan explorer in the early days of the nineteenth century, the -world recognized authority on the tertiary fossils of the east and -west coasts, and a man of erudition and delightful literary skill. -Beyond him sat Dr. M--, a quiet-faced man, curator of the National -Museum, author of text books, and gifted with a singularly shrewd -thoughtfulness. At his side sat the sphinx-featured F--, of Chicago, -a gentle-minded scholar, to whom the Heavens had entrusted the -secrets of their meteoritic denizens, and who, by a more fortunate -circumstance, held a pen of consummate grace. Again at his side was the -Jupiter-browed Ward, an erratic over the face of the globe, possessed -with a transcendant enthusiasm for the same celestial visitors that -F-- described, and chasing them with the zeal of a lynx in their most -inaccessible quarries; a man of immense conviviality, and controlling -the smouldering fires of a temper that defied reason or resistance. -At the front of the rows of chairs, and not far from the cynosure -of all eyes--the President--were two notable students of the past -life of the globe, Professors O-- and S--, men whose studies in that -amazing storehouse of extinct life which the West held sealed in its -clays and marls, limestones and sandstones, had continued on higher -and more certain levels the work of Marsh and Leidy and Cope, and who -had transcribed before the whole world, in monuments of scientific -precision, the most startling confessions of the fossil dead. To one -side, on the same row, sat Prof. B--, known in two continents, for -chemical learning, especially on that side of chemistry which mingles -insensibly with the laws of matter. And whispering in his ear, with -sundry emphatic nods, sat, next to him, Dr. R--, of Washington, learned -in the ways of men’s digestion, and the enigmas of food and the arts of -food-makers. In the row behind, the expressive head of Young, aureoled -with years and honors, was seen, and at his side the face of Newcomb, -who had set the seal of his genius and industry across the patterned -stars. Here was A-- H--, the geologist, reticent and receptive, there -C--, weighted with new responsibilities in furnishing time to the -rapacious biologist, and in discovering new ways of making this old -world. Behind them sat M--, wise beyond belief in bric-a-brac and -brachiopods, vindictively assertive, and self-sacrificingly tender and -kind. There was McG-- and I--, W--, A--, V--, and B-- W--, bringing -to the speaker the homage of archæology, of petrology, of zoology, -and morphology. In a group of motionless and eager attention were -A--, the sage metereologist, beloved in two continents; B--, abstruse -and difficult, meditative, as a man might be who kept his hand on -the pulses of matter, and B--, skillful in weighing the atoms of the -air, or probing the volcanoes of the moon. In one line, mingling in -conversation that reached Leacraft’s ears as a strange jargon of -conflicting sciences, were G--, H-- and H--k. And beyond them, mute, -as if by mutual repulsion, sat F--, the agile scrutinizer of Nature’s -crystals; P--, holding in his labyrinthine memory the names of half a -universe of shells, and B--n, to whom each plant of the wayside bowed -in recognition of a master’s knowledge of itself. Against the wall, in -a triad of sympathy, was A--, the surgeon; S--, the neurologist, and -R--. And alone, in an isolation that belied his intense geniality, was -K--. - -And through all the scientific congeries, which were far more extended -than Leacraft could recognize, or even Dr. M-- recall, was a more -garrulous grouping of politicians, statesmen, diplomats, ministers, the -well dressed circles of the rich, and the dillettantes, drawn to this -unusual assemblage by the presence of the President. - -The quiet and dull room, faded, and with contents tiresomely drilled -into the exact alignments of a museum hall, took on an almost brilliant -appearance. The fancy amused itself with the thought that it too felt, -in its stagnated life, the unique occasion, and shook itself into a -momentary wakefulness, to note and record its distinguished guests, -that its streaked walls tried to hide their unseemly rents, and the -multiplied models and charts struggled to look recent and familiar and -appreciative, amid such intellectual tumult. - -But now the audience was forgotten at that theatrical moment when -the chairman and the lecturer advanced over the platform to assume -the directive guidance of the evening. They did advance with that -curious _gaucherie_ which somehow always disables the scientific man -in his official and public utterances, and seems, by some trick of -compensation, the more unredeemable as the unfortunate victim of its -cynical attachment is the more distinguished and renowned. - -Dr. S-- stepped gingerly forward, a tall, effective man with hair -hardly sanguine in color, and quite conventional in arrangement, with -a cerebral development, that somehow disappointingly dwarfed the lower -contours of his face, domed and broad as it was, with much scholarly -promise. He was followed by the speaker of the evening, Mr. Binn, -who seemed half inclined to screen himself from observation behind -the utterly inadequate profile of the famous Director. The two men -momentarily catching the full assault of the numerous eyes, each pair -among them being the visible battery of a questioning and critical mind -behind it, underwent an obvious confusion of intention and movement, -and became somewhat mixed up with the table and chairs, and with each -other. The Director extricated himself, came forward to the edge of the -platform, and in a voice of half propitiatory jocularity, introduced -the subject, and the speaker. He alluded to the favorable conjunction -of the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of -Science and that of the National Academy of Science, which brought -so many eminent thinkers and observers together, and administered an -especial emphasis to the question to be considered this evening. He -mentioned, with a deferential bow in the direction of the President, -that they had all been deeply honored by the presence of the Chief -Executive of the Nation, to whom perhaps, more than to anyone else -in the brilliant audience, the grave question of the structural and -geological stability of the Isthmus of Darien, was one of overshadowing -interest, and he congratulated everyone that the subject was in -the hand “of one whose geological fame was beyond dispute, and his -carefulness of statement unimpeached,” and the Director sat down, -pulling off to one side of the stage, lest his own refulgence might dim -the legitimate monopoly of that article by Dr. Binn. Leacraft observed -that as the lecturer unrolled his manuscript on the reading desk, the -President leaned outward, adjusted his eyeglasses, and scrutinized the -geologist, who, from a rather embarrassed fumbling with his sheets, -seemed conscious of the inquisition. A moment later, as if satisfied -with his inspection, the President leaned back, bulky and immobile, and -became an absorbed listener. - -Mr. Binn, well known for his lithological studies, and the possession -of a good style, in the scientific sense, was a short man, evincing, -under control, however, the peptic influences of years, with a face -of decided legibility, in which sense and penetration seemed equally -indicated. - -He had provided himself with charts, which had been distended in an -irregular line above his head, and to these he occasionally referred. -His reading of the important pages before him was clear and audible, -but totally neglectful, of the informing appliances in elocution, of -melody of voice, accent and deliberation. The lecture was brilliant and -distinguished, and quite comparable in its qualities to the serious -people who had gathered in great intellectual force to receive its -instructions. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE LECTURE. - - - Note.--If the reader is too much interested in getting to - the upshot of this tale, let him skip the Lecture. But it - is a mistake. This Lecture was delivered by Mr. Binn on the - Ninth of April, 1909, and is well worth while. - -“Mr. President, Dr. Smith and Ladies and Gentlemen,” began the speaker; -“The area of the Panama Isthmus and the West Indies has been an area -of successional changes very considerable in their amount, very -persistent in their frequency. It embraces a tropical area contiguous -on its Pacific side to a meridional section of the earth which is very -unstable, and which almost monopolizes the contemporaneous volcanic -energy of the earth. It adjoins, or is limited itself on the east, in -the Atlantic, by the Antillean islets, the emergent crests of submerged -volcanic vents. It could be presumptively held, on these grounds, that -the Isthmus itself partook of these characters of inequilibrated -crustal motions. It might be affirmed, with a fair amount of precision, -that its future history would continue this impression. - -“The West Indies, as defined by Hill, embracing the islands that with -Cuba form a long convexity terminating in Trinidad, on the coast of S. -America, represent to-day a disintegrated continent. They are supposed -to have embodied a former geographical unity. It had terrestrial -magnitude, and lay Atlantis-like between South America and North -America, at a time when the present narrow neck of land upon which our -eyes are now, as a nation, fixed with anxious preoccupation, was itself -swept over by the confluent waters of the two oceans, and when at that -point which now forms an attenuated avenue of intercourse between North -and South America, the tides of a broad water way alternated in their -allegiance to the East or West coasts of the separated continents; and -possibly a precarious and fluctuating contribution from the warm Gulf -Stream found its way into the Pacific. - -“The discussion of this question opens up for our consideration the -examination of the geological structure of these oscillating terranes, -as to what these are made up of, and it is evident that we must reach -some general conclusion as to the succession of the strata composing -them, and their relative positions to each other, as whether they are, -in the language of stratigraphy, conformable or unconformable. The -inference and argument are simple. If we find that the rocks composing -these sections are crystalline, ancient, and deeply bedded formations, -presumably coexistent, so to speak, with the original or very early -formative beds of the world, and referable to its beginnings, we are -permitted, by all the analogies of induction and deduction, to assume -that these rocks have at least a relative stability. On the other hand -if our examination reveals the fact that they are recent deposits, more -or less unconsolidated, easily disturbed in their positions, easily -readjusted in their molecular or physical structure, then by the most -unexceptional and matter-of-fact observation, we shall regard them as -questionably permanent, indeed as unmistakably non-resistant to the -subterranean forces of terrestrial mutation. - -“Again it is clear that a pile of bricks, or of any other superimposed -building blocks is the more secure, in its equilibrium, if the -component parts overlie each other, along the broadest surfaces, and -come in contact, or _fit_, as we say, in parallel position. If these -bricks succeed each other in lines of brick that are flat, and then -in lines that are vertical, or placed on their thinnest and narrowest -edges, and these two contrasted positions alternate, or are irregularly -disposed with reference to each other in the same wall, such a -construction implies, involves, elements of weakness, and under the -shock of any incident force would succumb in ruin more quickly, and -more irretrievably than the former. If further, the latter building -style had suffered ruptures and dislocations and the gaps or openings -and broken surfaces of contact between its parts had been invaded -or replaced by an irregular or incongruous assortment of ‘filling,’ -differing from the original bricks in substance, texture and hardness, -then we have a third pattern of composition that again is weaker than -either of its predecessors. But further. If this least massive and -most vulnerable type of structure has been subjected to repeated and -considerable strains of elevation and depression, and strains recurrent -at short intervals, then, without inspection, we know that its interior -coherence has been much shattered, and that it has undergone a -progressive dilapidation. - -“But I am constrained to go one step farther in this hypothetical -picture of structural defectiveness. To return to our wall of brick. It -can be made up of bricks laid upon each other in consecutive tiers; it -can be made up of tilted tiers of bricks, bricks laid on each other, -but inclined to a horizontal plane, and finally it is conceivable that -the bricks may be so arranged as to be inverted in their relations -to the horizontal plane. The diagrams make clear these contrasted -positions. - -“Now of all these types of structures the last obviously best meets -the requirements of a type which will prove the least susceptible -to dislocation. I think that can be apprehended almost without -explanation. A moment’s reflexion will make it conspicuous. - -“The bricks tilted up in inclined tiers or beds, upon disturbance, if -the cohesion between them is seriously impaired, tend to fall away -from each other, and gravity increases the effects of the initial -displacement. If the bricks lie flat they do not fall apart, upon the -cessation of any push or upheaval, but remain disordered, falling back -into some _quasi_-position of rest. If the bricks are inverted and form -in section a series of lines converging to the base of the wall, their -disarrangement is largely rectified by their own gravity, bringing them -back into their first positions. - -“In Geology strata overlying each other, in succession, as the bricks -do when on their flat faces are called _conformable_, if they succeed, -one over the other, with the edges or summits of the lower, abutting -against the horizontal surfaces of the next, as do the bricks when they -are placed in flat and vertical positions, in alternating strips, that -is _unconformability_. - -“If the strata are usually horizontal like the evenly piled series of -bricks, they are called _undisturbed_; if inclined against each other, -they are _inclined_, and they may make _monoclinals_, having one -slope, or _anti-clinals_ when they lean up against each other like the -opposite sides of a peaked roof; _or synclinal_ when inclined towards -each other in an inverted position like the same roof overturned, with -its ridge pole on the ground, and its inclined sides lifted into the -air, or like the bricks in the last pattern of structure described. - -“When we carry these similes into nature, we have all kinds of rocks, -and we have them in mountains, in planes, and all the familiar -configuration of the earth’s surface. - -“Now we find that those portions of the earth immediately beneath -our feet, extending for a mile or so into the surface of the earth, -are variously made up of layers, strata, beds, formations, lying on -one another, and _conformable_ or _unconformable_, _undisturbed_ or -thrown into anticlinal or synclinal folds; that the material in its -general mineral character, is limestone, marls, or sands and sandstone, -slates, clays, metamorphic rocks like gneiss and quartzite, etc., and -associated with them are granites which may have been melted lava-like -rock before it cooled and crystallized, while there is plentiful -evidence of abundant outflows of igneous, melted or viscid rocks; -evidences of lines of eruption, of foci, or craters of eruption. Thus, -as in the brick structure, where unrelated and later material has been -introduced in fissures, gaps, openings, holes, etc., of the walls, -we have some of the architecture of the earth, an original bedded -structure invaded by very contrasted substances, and which give to that -architecture, as in the brick wall of our homely illustration, lack of -homogeneity, and lack of strength. - -“In the West Indies and on the Isthmus of Panama we have the states of -instability which we have signalized, viz., secondary deposits of a -somewhat loose and unconsolidated material, and wanting in the deeply -bedded crystalline rocks which in New England, in the Adirondacks, and -the Piedmont or higher regions abutting on the coastal plain in the -northern United States, furnish a solid, and probably fundamentally -deep seated pediment of resistance to shock. Again in the West Indies -and in the Isthmus, we have the beds _unconformable_ over each -other, which you will recall in our symbol of the brick wall, was a -feature of weakness; also these unconformable beds are inclined in -_anti-clinals_, a further aspect of structural insolvency; and further -these beds have been widely, pervasively, in places, infiltrated and -ruptured by subsequent introductions of volcanic substance, ashes, -lavas and intrusive magmas. Thus the geological aggregates present the -previously illustrated condition of fragility, and the absence of the -so-called tectonic elements of rigidity. But still one step more in our -disheartening study of this equatorial problem. - -“I, a few moments past, called your attention to the fact that ‘if this -least massive and most vulnerable type of structure has been subjected -to repeated and considerable strains of elevation and depression, and -strains recurrent at short intervals, then, without inspection, we know -that its interior has been much shattered, and that it has undergone a -progressive dilapidation.’ - -“Precisely such catastrophes are discovered in the history of the -geological region now before us. The islands of the West Indies -have been subjected to great changes of elevation. They have risen -and fallen during the last geological age--the Tertiary--perhaps -four times. In their rise they have gathered to themselves marginal -extensions of land, now hidden beneath the ocean at comparatively -slight depths, while they have at the same time doubtless become -blended and unified into a great Antillean continent. This continent -was dominated by volcanic protuberances whose growth upward, over -accumulations of ashes, has been again symptomatic of undermining -operations threatening later subsidence and submergence. - -“In our day we have been called on to deplore the ravages caused by the -eruptions of Mt. Pelee and La Soufriere, on the Islands of Martinique -and St. Vincent, and it is natural to insist that regions which have -a precarious autonomy, in which such volcanoes can exist, must be -regarded with diffidence, as permanent geographical areas. - -“It was pointed out by Prof. Robert T. Hill that the current, and -formerly undisputed, conception that the Rocky Mountains of North -America and the Andes of South America were not only analogous -physiographically, but univalent in fact; that the continuous elevation -of Central America brought them into an oblique alignment; and that -their mutual prolongations met in the Isthmus of Panama, was erroneous. -It involved a complete misconception. It was a geographical fallacy, -and leads to misleading conclusions as to the permanency of this -intermedian region, itself pre-eminently individualized and liberated -from the circumstances and implications of either the Rocky Mountain -Continent or the Andean Continent. This area has a different geological -ancestry. To-day it invokes an especial treatment, and possibly expects -a future, contrasted with that of the two great Continents whose -longitudinal extension it contravenes by its east and west lines, by -the prerogatives of a separate origin. - -“The Rocky Mountains terminate in the plateau of Mexico, ‘a little -south,’ says Hill, ‘of the capital of that republic; and that the -mountains have no orographic continuity, or other features in common -with those of the Central American region.’ - -“And the same authority, describing the terminus of the Andes, -says, ‘The northern end of the Andean System lies entirely east of -the Central American region, and is separated from it by the Rio -Atrato--the most western of the great Rivers of Columbia. In fact, the -deeply eroded drainage valley of this stream nearly severs the Pacific -coast from the republic of Columbia, and the isthmian region, from the -South American continent.’ - -“The Central American volcanoes belong to the type that is repeated -along the Caribbean shores of Colombia and Venezuela, and those in the -Isthmus of Panama, and those of the great Antilles. The genesis of this -American Mediterranean land-aggregate was in an independent geological -impulse, and the land aggregate itself impinged by intersection upon -the dominant land surfaces of North and South America. To bring -together North and South America as a simultaneous geological phenomena -is wrong, to make them other than an accidental geographical continuity -questionable. It is this intermediate zone--the Antillean continent -with lateral elongations, grasping within its continental solidarity -the parallel zones of Central America and the Isthmus, that gives them -terrestrial unity. Extend the axis of the Rocky Mountains, and it -passes almost two thousand miles west of the coast of South America; -extend the axis of the Andes and it bisects the western extremity of -Cuba, and passes along the seaboard of the United States. - -“There is no exact geological identity here, although there is the -strictest geographical homology. Each is the backbone of a continent, -each upheaved and variously modified, igneously invaded sediments, -derived from some pre-existent continent. They may be brought into a -just comparison, but they are not strictly parts of one phenomenon. -They are, however, more closely related to each other, than the -Antillean areas are to either. This Antillean area, I shall here call -the Columbian Continent, as the great discoverer landed at its two east -and west extremities--the land-fall on San Salvador in the Bermudas, -and on the coast of Honduras in Central America, as well as at Cuba, -and at the mouths of the Orinoco--and his bones rested for a long -time in the soil of San Domingo. It--this Columbean Continent--is a -significant intercalation. It unites North and South America, but it -unites them subject to the phases of its own generation. - -“Let us understand this. There is a system of growth, a law, if I may -so term it, of geomorphic sameness in the development of large, or -for that matter, small geological territories. The familiar story of -the growth of our North American continent has been often told. It is -a commonplace of text books. The wide, triangular Archæan nucleus to -the north, the oldest rocks--outlines and outliers down the east, -and the same in the west--drew the framing limits of the continent at -the first, to be filled in, up and out, by the momentous additions -through the ages of advancing time. In Europe less well or simply -defined boundaries, the growth together rather of divided islands, -prevailed, and the picture of development was quite varied, from the -picture in this western world. Again in Africa, with edges of uplift -and centres of depression another geological tale with its incidents -and accessories infinitely modified, comes into view. And in this -prevalence of structural style, we, geologically speaking, find a -prevalence of certain geological phases or conditions. - -“What were these in the growth and disappearance of this Columbian -continent? What they have been, we can, with rational probability, -assume they will be. - -“The Columbian continent, I have called a dismembered, a fractionized -continent. If from Cuba through Haiti, Porto Rico, and the lesser -Antilles one land surface obtained, and the now submerged and -radiating gorges, found only as submarine canyons, were above the -ocean, becoming, as Prof. Spencer has laboriously proven, sub-aerial -river valleys, we should have one presumable phase of this continent, -the phase of its maximum cohesion and extension. And such a phase is -measurably or, for purposes of argumentative inference, sensibly -established. It is said with careful premeditation by Hill that ‘the -numerous islets of its eastern border, the Bahamas and Windward chain, -which extend from Florida to the mouth of the Orinoco, are merely the -summits of steep submarine ridges, which divide the depths of the -Atlantic from those of the Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean sea; were -their waters a few feet lower, these ridges would completely landlock -the seas from the ocean.’ - -“When thus constituted, it afforded a display of physical features of -astonishing contrasts, and its mere scenic resources were doubtless of -unparalleled splendor, and, as to-day, it was involved in the luxuriant -productivity of the tropics. Its mountains measuring now as high as -eleven thousand feet above the sea level, were then thrust upward -into stupendous peaks, by the addition of the sloping miles which are -now below the ocean. We can imagine the extreme wonderfulness of this -continent, uniting in an unbroken but marvellously varied expression -of physical and vegetable contrast, the plains, valleys, and mountains -of Cuba, the towering and draped peaks of Jamaica, the confusion of -the gloomy vales and ranges of Hayti and San Domingo, the levels and -coastal ranges of Porto Rico, and the manifold picturesque charms -of the Lesser Antilles, lifting high into the ceaseless currents -of the trade winds the smoking summits of a chain of disturbed -volcanoes. All, in the boundless abundance of its natural endowment -of loveliness, and productivity, formed an unique and extravagantly -ornamented landscape, an area whose highest elevations contemplated -the remote waters of the shrunk Atlantic, from pinnacles raised ten -to twenty thousand feet above its azure waves. Nor is this all. This -hypothetical--the Columbian--continent, may have had connexions with -Central America through projecting and peninsulated capes, reaching -through Jamaica to Yucatan or Honduras, and wide intervals of dividing -gulfs of water, in all probability sundered it from North or South -America, and it remained, as I here emphatically insist, it remains -to-day, a geographical and geological phenomenon, unrelated to the -great continents, to which through their preponderating value, the mind -almost unpremeditatingly assigns it. - -“But at the period of this greatest elevation, when this tropical -region assumed individual independence, and embodied a geognostic -importance comparable to the vast continents it lay between--at this -time--the Isthmus of Panama did not exist, and through a wide water-way -the Atlantic mingled its tides with those of the Pacific. - -“We are thus led to believe that as between the West Indian terranes -and the neck of land now embraced in the Isthmus of Panama, we have a -relation of _Isostacy_.’” - -The speaker, armed with this formidable verbal equipment of attack upon -his audience, had walked to the front of the platform, and, harboring -some unusual confidence in his powers, had deserted his manuscript. -_Isostacy_, he had realized, possessed probably unqualified novelty, -and by way of assurance, lest its terrors might empty the hall, he -assumed a colloquial relation to his dazed hearers, and offered an -explanation of this unexpected mystery. “Isostacy,” he resumed, “is -simply this: Equilibrium. It is the maintenance of average level--as -if one part of the earth’s surface was pushed up, above a mean level, -then the requirements of Isostacy would depress another part, below -it. We can also call it the adjustment of a changing load, as if -through depression, from the dumping upon the floor of the ocean of a -great amount of sediment, derived from the land surface of the earth, -neighboring areas of the land of the oceanic floors were raised. Two -contiguous regions _might_--and,” the lecturer turned directly toward -the President, who in his own earnestness of attention had elbowed -himself round into a direct line with Mr. Binn, “in the case of the -West Indian continent and the Isthmus of Panama, _have_ maintained -between them, an up and down reciprocity of movement, as, when one was -up, the other was down, and vice versa.” - -Mr. Binn looked introspectively at the walls and ceilings of the room, -as if engaged in a mental rehearsal and review of his staggering -statement, and returned to his desk and manuscript, satisfied that -he had thrown the assembly into an uneasy apprehension of danger. He -again began his reading: “It is true, if I understand Mr. Spencer -correctly, that the Atlantic ocean was cut off by the elevation of the -Columbian Continent from even the interior basins of the Caribbean Sea -and the Gulf of Mexico, at least in early pliocene times; that these -depressions were then broad plains receiving in part the drainage of -the Antillean highlands; this again emptying into the Pacific ocean. -But this is not a proven theory, and it involves an extravagant -readjustment of the physical features of a region that to my mind more -expressively can be considered immemorially permanent, in their general -aspects, at least. I reiterate the reciprocity of movement between -the Antillean Continent and the Isthmus of Panama. The cause I have -suggested may be untenable--but there seems strong geological proof of -some such alternating relation between the west and east sides of this -inter-related region, the Great Antilles on one side, the Isthmus of -Central America on the other. - -“Our survey of the question produces one impression, and that very -forcibly, viz.: that this narrow ridge of separation is ephemeral, -that it is perishable, that under the tests or against the shocks of -earth strains, it will succumb, and”--the lecturer raised his voice, -half turned deferentially to the chairman, Dr. Smith, who accepted the -attention with an assenting nod--“again the waters of the two oceans -will unite, and the impetuous violence of the rushing oceanic river, -the Gulf Stream, that now races and boils through the Caribbean Sea, -will fling its torrential waves across this divide into the Pacific.” - -The audience that with manifest absorption had thus far followed the -speaker, was disturbed. A movement of chairs, a half audible protest of -whispered incredulity, and a sensible emanation around him, of mental -repugnance to such a catastrophe, made Leacraft momentarily turn his -eyes from Mr. Binn to the frowning countenances at his side. - -“But,” the speaker raised his voice with reassuring quickness, as if -to stay the emotional resistance he had aroused, “we have no reason to -believe that in our lifetime, or the lifetimes of many generations yet -to come, so strange a reversal of present conditions should occur. And -again, that in this matter, we may be calmly judicial, we have reason -at least for a moderate fear. Whatever state of unstable equilibrium, -of unadjusted balance is implied, or actually is resident in this -section of our earth, a section that has undergone the extremes of -hypsometrical displacement, we may conceive that like the explosive -cap, or the compressed spring, or the bent bow, it will win instant -relief upon the impact of any force, deep-seated enough, and powerful -enough, to liberate its tectonic strain. - -“I am thus brought to consider that world-wide source of terrestrial -deformation--earthquakes; but I should forget the indulgence of your -patience up to this point, if I should now undertake any partial review -of these astonishing and alarming occurrences. I am deeply impressed, -however, with an aspect of the subject that demands attention, that -throws into sharp relief the prophecies of disaster, with which, -willingly or unwillingly, we have all become familiar.” - -The lecturer here rolled forward to the front of the platform, a -blackboard on which in colored chalks the earth, looking somewhat -like a shortened egg, with its north and south poles situated on the -long, flattened sides, was depicted; while a black line or axis drawn -through it terminated in the Sahara Desert on one side, and near the -Society Islands on the other. Two ominous circles in vermillion were -described on it, concentric respectively with the ends of the black -line, one sweeping along the western coast of North and South America, -and crossing the Isthmus of Panama, the other encircling the coasts -of Africa and gathering in their fatal course the Azores, Canaries, -and the Cape Verde Islands. And on both these terrifying curves, in -black letters, was printed the hypnotic intimation “Belt of Weakness -or Earthquake Ring.” The effect on the audience was sufficiently -impressive. The staring rude drawing around which a cyclone of blue -scratches, purporting to be clouds, was expressively raging, intensely -steeped the observers in a spell of wonder and trepidation. Even -Leacraft, by the contagion of a common obsession, craned his neck, and -fixed his eyes with a stupid absorption upon the crazy and paradoxical -diagram. - -The speaker continued, noticing with undisguised satisfaction the -ocular concentration produced by his obnoxious figure, with its -anomalous portents: “It is well known that we have in the boundaries, -or shore lines of the Pacific, a surprisingly larger number of -earthquakes recorded, than anywhere else in the world, and this seems -in some way coincident with the prevalence of active volcanoes in the -same region. Prof. Haughton has enumerated for the world 407 volcanoes, -225 of which are active. Of these latter, 172 are on the margin of -the Pacific. Prof. Milne, who lived a long time in Japan, for the -express purpose of studying the earthquake problem of those islands, -has observed the surprising frequency of their earthquakes, and it -is a volcanic zone they occupy. We have in contradistinction to this -area about the Pacific a reversed circle which envelopes the western -coast of Africa, and by this chart,” here the lecturer pushed back -the blackboard, and, standing alongside of it, began, with a pointer -of elucidation, a direct allocution to that subject of confusion, “we -are made immediately cognizant of the opposite and yet symmetrical -disposition of these zones. This should have from its simplicity and a -quasi-permanency, in its phenomena--its earthquake phenomena--a general -explanation. The explanation is not reassuring; it is not proven, but -it is accepted by many, and has, for me, a very reasonable probability. -Let us at least not recoil from its consideration.” - -Under the encouragement of this exhortation, the audience seemed to -slide forward in their seats a few inches, with the impetus of a -renewed hope. - -“This chart,” said the speaker, “presents to you the structural -conception of Professors Jeans and Sollas, of the form of the earth. -It is the shape more or less familiar to you, commonly known as a -pear-shaped earth, the tip carrying the Sahara Desert on its bulging -top, and its broader and inferior extremity holding the disturbed -Pacific basin. - -“Now it makes a very practical difference what the shape of the -earth is, because the shape affects the stability, has an important -influence upon the fluctuating strains under its surface. Observe that -the chart has developed, upon two circles of instability, these lines -of weakness,” and the lecturer swept his pointer over the contrasted -belts, one around Africa, and the other inflicting the west coast of -North America with its ominous intersection. The pointer paused on -the latter circle, stopping near the position of San Francisco. “You -recall,” the speaker continued, “the terrifying affliction of this -great city in 1906, and the pall of discouragement and gloom which -it cast over the region in which the city naturally held the sway of -mercantile supremacy. Now it was shown by Prof. H. H. Turner, the -English astronomer, that San Francisco lies on one of the two great -earthquake rings, which surround the end of the pear, as in this chart, -like wrinkles produced by the crowding down of the protuberances under -the force of gravitation. And, according to this view, such rings, -marking lines of weakness and yielding in the rocks would not exist, -if the earth was, in its shape, what we most usually assume to be its -figure, an oblate spheroid, with the present north and south poles at -the ends of its axis of rotation, to which axis of rotation the rest of -the earth was symmetrically disposed. - -“The existence of these earthquake and volcanic rings was known before -the pear theory had been defined, but then of course their relation -with any peculiar form of the earth was not understood. The ring -surrounding the Pacific, or butt end of the pear includes a large part -of the shores of the Pacific Ocean, running from Alaska down to the -western coast of South America, then across to the East Indies, and -back, around the other side, through Japan. The other ring is somewhat -smaller in diameter, including the earthquake regions of West Africa -and the Atlantic Islands. Now the point of interest is this, as Garrett -P. Serviss has significantly said, ‘If the pear hypothesis is accepted, -and the two great earthquake rings are found to be definitely connected -with the strains to which the planet is subjected in its effort to -attain a state of equilibrium, under the forces of its own gravitation -and rotation, which tend to compel it into spheroidal shape, then we -have a perfectly rational explanation of the existence of certain -places where earthquakes are sure to occur more or less frequently, and -of other places, like eastern America, where they are very rare and -never of maximum violence.’ - -“Every one present this evening,” and the lecturer gave an embracing -wave of his hand, “knows of the singular aberrancy in the rotational -motion of the earth, which has been often geographically described -as the ‘wobbling of the poles.’ Astronomers have proven a real -tipping of the poles alternately to one side, and then to the other, -a swaying of the poles like the recurrent oscillations of a top as -it ‘goes to sleep.’ But this swaying in the earth’s case is periodic -and unchanging. It is sometimes rather abrupt, and at other times -the tipping is regulated and progressive; but it is established, and -has had a generally accepted explanation, in the attraction of the -swelling equatorial prominence of the earth by the sun and moon, while -suggestions have also been made that it was due to internal shiftings -of mass, or to changes of exterior weightings, through the alternate -and variable formation and melting of polar snows. - -“But it has in the light of the present theory of the pear-shaped earth -a new and rather startling explanation. - -“We are, however, this evening, not so much concerned with the broader -cosmic aspects of this state of affairs, as with the immediate -consequences to the permanence of our land surfaces. - -“The mechanics of this condition and its possible effectiveness in -developing contrary placed zones of rupture can be easily conceived. -This awkwardly conditioned sphere, revolving upon a shorter -diameter--revolving also with astonishing velocity--and bearing at -either extremity of its longer axis unequal masses, is obviously in a -state of peripheral strain, that is, it is in strain at such distances -from either of the disproportioned ends, the one in the south seas, -the other in the desert of Sahara, as would represent the more or less -sharply sloping surface from its average rotundity, towards these -oblique extremities. - -“Gentlemen,” the speaker seemed excitedly rushing into danger, but -with a fixed expression, aimed somewhere at the blank and uninfluential -physiognomies at the back of the hall; like that of an engineer who -can neither restrain nor reverse the speed which may either carry him -safely over a tottering support or plunge his train to the bottom of -the gulch; “Gentlemen, the Isthmus of Panama is in this zone; _the -Canal is there_!” this last reminder uttered with no very reasonable -deliberation, “and it is to my mind an absolutely established -certainty, that the secular instability of that region, shown by -geological investigation, will again become apparent; and”--he raised -his voice with a kind of exhalation of defiance, as if he spurned -equivocation and invited denial--“and, it will become apparent with -increased violence. - -“This conclusion is unwelcome; it may seem destructive to those -natural hopes which the approaching completion of this wonderful -enterprise--the Panama Canal--have so freely and inevitably fostered. -Science in the last resource to her councils must be austerely -judicial. She cannot take cognizance of man’s projects or respect his -hopes. The Panama Canal as part of the Isthmus of Panama participates -in all the vicissitudes of the latter, and we know that those -vicissitudes mean dislocation and subsidence. When such frightful -results will happen, _it is impossible to say_; that they must happen, -_we can positively assert_.” - -The lecture was over. The lecturer retreated, and again repeated his -deferential nod to the chairman, Dr. Smith, as if importuning his -assistance in corroboration of his mournful vaticination. The audience -still remained immobile, coagulated into a sort of mental prostration -by this dismal prophecy, and yet again as if contemplating, like a -cat’s stagnation, preparatory to its murderous spring, some outward and -physical resentment. And the spring came. - -In the middle of the hall arose a tall and alert figure, perhaps -noticeably bent, as if from the effort of attention, or perchance from -forensic habits; for the man, as Dr. M-- quickly informed Leacraft, was -Senator Tillman, of South Carolina. The face of this sudden expostulant -was handsome in the extreme, and the features, strongly marked, were -blended together in an expression of youthfulness that seemed to win a -strange charm from their association with the white hair, and the just -beginning wrinkles of advancing years. - -Senator Tillman lost no time. His interruption was decisively -intentional. It was part of an impulsive impassioned nature. Shaking -his index finger, which, from long practice, pointed undeviatingly -at the object of his remarks, the Senator, in a voice harsh and -penetrating, began: “My dear sir, we are indebted to you for -information. But we stop there. We are not required to credit you with -prediction. This scientific discussion will not alter our confidence -nor stop the work on the Canal. It can’t. I’m not inclined to think -that this nation will be stultified by the oracles of geology; it is a -matter of simple determination that science makes mistakes--and I would -advise no one in this room within the hearing of your voice, and no one -outside of it, to whose eyes your reported views will appear, to allow -them a scintilla of serious import. - -“In 1906, Mark Smith, a voteless delegate to Congress from Arizona, -told this story: ‘Once,’ commented Smith, ‘a couple of my friends were -riding through a desolate bit of country in Arizona near the Mexican -border. Presently they came upon a man who was hanging by the neck from -the limb of a tree. A couple of buzzards were roosting above him, but -they made no attack upon him. My friends drove away the buzzards and -discovered on the breast of the dead man a placard bearing these words: -“_This was a very bad man in some respects and a damn sight worse in -others._“ - -“‘My friends accounted for the moderation of the buzzards on the theory -that they had read the placard.’ - -“That was all Smith had to say, but it was assumed that he agreed with -the opinion of the other men about the subject of their discussion. -Well, I beg to say of science that it is very bad in some respects, -and a damn sight worse in others, and its present conclusion in regard -to the Isthmus of Panama is one of the latter.” - -The audience, long before this denoument to the Senator’s retort was -reached, had arisen; the President had arisen also, and stood with -his back to the stage, facing the Senator, steadily growing more -unrestrained and angry. Leacraft and Dr. M-- were half standing, -their hands supporting them on the backs of the chairs of the men -in front of them. The scene was interesting, and the first movement -toward repression of the Senator succumbed to curiosity, and in all -directions, the intelligent faces about them were variously disturbed -by symptoms of vexation or amusement. It was uncommonly entertaining. -Mr. Binn and Dr. Smith, with becoming smiles of moderation, were drawn -to the front of the platform, and no one, after the Senator had swung -into the torrential flow of his remonstrance, thought of anything else -but to catch, almost breathlessly, his words. When he concluded, a wave -of laughter, genuine, but a little nervous, went through the assembly. -Then the President stepped to the aisle, turned a moment to shake the -hand of the lecturer, and offer him his congratulations, and bowed to -Dr. Smith. In an instant the aisle way was clear. The President moved -on between the applauding people, and as he came opposite Senator -Tillman, who had himself pressed toward the egress, as if to intercept -him he stopped. There was a quick, instinctive restraint. Everyone -waited for his word. “Senator Tillman,” the President spoke with sharp -emphasis, “I thank you for restoring our spirits. I remember Mark -Smith. I remember he took my advice in accepting the Statehood Bill. -You may have misapplied his story, but you have at least furnished us -with a novel reason for encouragement.” - -Again the applause broke out, and the President disappeared, the -audience decorously dispersed and followed him, and Leacraft and Dr. -M-- soon found themselves on Pennsylvania avenue, walking rapidly and -silently. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -BALTIMORE, MAY 29, 1909. - - -Leacraft finished his task in the west. The disputes were smoothed -out, the differences adjudicated, and a problem or so which had mixed -up the overseer and the Mining Superintendent at the mines in an acute -wrangle, disposed of. He was back to Washington on his way to Baltimore -and Sally Garrett. The invitation from Ned Garrett to visit Baltimore -and go with Sally and himself to Gettysburg on the twentieth of May, -had been accepted, and every movement he had made, each step he had -taken, since that memorable ninth of April when he first learned of the -complexion of political affairs in the United States, and had heard Mr. -Binn’s remarkable lecture, had been thoughtfully adjusted to getting -back in time for the pleasure and the opportunity of seeing Sally. - -His own earnest desire to possess her for himself, to compel her -wayward and tantalizing spirit to acknowledge his mastery had -increased, and like most young men in similar relations to the unknown -quantity of susceptibility in a popular young woman’s heart his anxiety -grew with every lessening minute between the present and the moment -of confession. But at any rate Leacraft felt no indecision. Come what -might he had no misgivings about his own feelings, and lingered, with -no trepidation, over the thought of asking Miss Garrett to marry him. -Defeat was preferable to the hardship of doubt. He would be less -miserable after rejection, if rejection it was, than he was now; -tormented with an immeasurable uncertainty. And his English heaviness, -that semi-sepulchral seriousness which by some amusing compensation -in the gifts of Nature is mingled with the very substantial merits of -these people, induced a rather grim sadness in his mind, and he reached -the door of 72 Monument Square, Baltimore, with no actual palpitation, -but with a strained sense of the importance of his own fate which made -him grave. - -Leacraft had many personal merits. He had an excellent mind, a -reasonably fearless heart, a sense of justice, itself the best gift of -God to man, and a face, which if not distinguished by remarkable beauty -became, under the excitement of feeling, and in the more propitious -circumstances of good health, attractive, from a manly comeliness, not -handsome perhaps, but certainly not commonplace. And he had physique. -He was tall and strong, and his strength acknowledged obedience to an -intelligence which made it formidable. - -The door of the quiet house before which he stood, opened and -there--Leacraft almost stumbled into unconsciousness--_as if expecting -him_, as if flying on the wings of--if not Love, something else -uncommonly pleasant--as if impatient to cross the laggard moments which -separated them--was Sally Garrett. - -It would be difficult to reproduce in words this difficult and puzzling -young lady; difficult to impart by any means less effective than -painting or have proven ineffective, unless somehow helped out by -personal acquaintanceship--the impression which gave both to her active -admirers, and to those who, for reasons best known to themselves, -had tried to forget her charms. Sally was decidedly pretty, she -readily, under the phases of excitement and gayety moved upward into -the realms of beauty. She was fair, not large, delicately modelled, -with perniciously accomplished eyes that looked out from beneath the -pencilled eye-brows, and under their long lashes, with all kinds of -provocative invitations, that were no sooner accepted than their -desperate little giver revoked them with derision and anger. - -Her lips, of course met the most scrupulous requirements of the -critic, and her teeth were as fatally perfect. In coloring she -furnished an example of protean adaptibility. The emblems of fury were -seen in her flushed cheeks, and the tokens of contrition in the same -when they grew pale with grief. This was the secret of her compelling -art. She bowed to all emotions, and as they controlled her they set -upon her face the evidence of their presence, refined by the resistance -of a nature which abhorred wrong feelings, improved by the welcome of a -spirit which was magnanimous and sympathetic. No wonder that Leacraft -loved her. No wonder that a bewildered lot of other young men were in a -similar predicament. - -I presume at this point I owe some deference to feminine importunity. -How was Sally dressed? Well; Sally had good taste, perhaps a trifle -insubordinate by nature, but a rigorous subjection to good social -usage had made it fairly unimpeachable. At that particular moment -in the afternoon of May 27th, 1909, after his extrication from -the subterranean embraces of the Baltimore and Ohio tunnel, and -an uninspired walk along Charles street, Sally to Leacraft’s eyes -presented the acme of sartorial perfection. She wore a white lisseree -gown in which were inwoven threads of gray which gave it “atmosphere,” -a kind of filmyness quite indescribable, but very inviting--above -that, a waist of almost the same color, without the gray threads, -and fitting tightly at the wrists with faintly voluminous sleeves--a -stock of daffodill yellow encircled by an aqua-marine necklace, and in -her clustering golden brown cascades of hair, rushed up into a chaste -confinement between pearl-starred combs--she had thrust an amethyst -aigrette. It was a willful thought, a vagary of sheer carelessness. -But it looked well, and--Leacraft might have danced a jig (if he knew -how) of pure ecstacy; and if his impurturbable nature would have -permitted so gross a jest--it was one Leacraft had himself given her -only last Christmas. You can see or infer ladies that your attractive -sister, given, as I have tried to do, her natural adaptibility for -embellishment, must have looked more than pleasing, that to a young -man approaching her with idolatry in his heart and prayers on his lips -she must have looked very nearly like the embodyment of the feminine -ideal, like that inscrutable loveliness which first wins from a man his -careless notice, and the next moment has him chained to its feet in -servitude. - -Well; such were the circumstances, and Leacraft hastily removing his -hat looked with all his eyes at the fair vision, and found himself -embarrassed in speaking his formal salutation: - -“How do you do, Miss Garrett?” “Why, Mr. Leacraft,” replied the arch -tormenter; “I thought it was Ned. He has just gone to get our tickets -for to-morrow. And you, Mr. Leacraft, go with us? You will see our -great battle field and hear our President. I’m sure you will find both -wonderful. But come in, Mr. Leacraft.” - -The vision with intoxicating grace swung back the door and preceded the -tongue-tied suitor to the parlor. Mr. Leacraft left his hat and valise -in the hall, and followed. Another instant, they were both seated in -the deep room from whose walls the portraits of ancient and meagre, -or stately and peptic Garretts, looked down upon them, and in looking -were amused or distressed, according to their nature, at the display of -modern elegance, helped out by a tasteful condescension to antiquities -and heirlooms. - -The next moment was successfully engaged in greeting Mrs. Garrett, -the mother of the vision, a dignified and well preserved lady, who -honored all her children’s friends with motherly hospitality, but -resented mentally all masculine strategy, whose ulterior aims were -the destruction of her daughter’s peace of mind. Her devotion to her -daughter was itself part of a devotion which made every thing which -bore the Garrett name sacred in her eyes, and which reflected a family -pride, unmitigating in its self-exaction, unrelenting in its engrossing -enmity to all that offended it. - -“Ned will be glad to find you here Mr. Leacraft. It was only last -night that Ned said he wondered if you had got rid of the business -engagements that took you out west, and expressed himself willing -to believe that if you had, you would not forget his invitation for -Decoration Day at Gettysburg.” It was the voice of Mrs. Garrett, -a little somnolent in quality, with a subdued melodiousness, and -monotonously even in tone. - -“Indeed, Mrs. Garrett, few things could have less readily escaped my -mind. It has been an alleviation to think of it when I got bored with -quarrelsome miners. Whatever good luck I have had in settling the -mine troubles came from my own eagerness to get back to Baltimore,” -and Leacraft turned with, actually, a very grave face towards the -meditative Sally. - -“Oh, Mr. Leacraft,” said that unconscionable woman, “we have Ned’s old -classmate, Brig Barry, to go with us to Gettysburg. He is in the army, -a lieutenant, who has fought Indians on the reservations, has lots -of medals for bravery and is just the best thing in the way of a man -you ever saw. I half think your English prejudices will be a little -discouraged when you see him, or else you will love him as well as we -do,” and this merciless compound of mischief and bewitching beauty -looked out of her blue gray eyes with an absurd intimation of solitude -which half made Leacraft forget manners. - -“Yes,” acquiesced Mrs. Garrett, “Mr. Barry is a great favorite. I -almost fear that Mr. Leacraft will find him unreasonably popular.” - -“I am sure,” replied that rapidly aspiring sycophant, “that I ought to -feel no inclination to impugn Miss Garrett’s good taste.” - -This was so evident an affectation to shield a too obvious chagrin -that the wicked object of the inuendo simply laughed outright and was -vicious enough to reply that “she had never felt it necessary for her -own comfort to have her own personal opinions endorsed by any one,” a -cruel barb that lacerated the tender Englishman feelings immensely. - -The next instant the front door opened with a rough shake, and a -commotion of hurrying feet announced the arrival of Ned Garrett. Ned -Garrett was a typical American of the best breed, and with the most -unmistakable marks of that American suavity, sweetness and splendid -confidence, not a whit tainted with assumption or vanity, which makes -the American man the best type of man the world over. He, too, was tall -and fair, with fascinating aplomb, and a frank surrender to the claim -of friendship, without a too credulous endorsement of all social paper -not readily negotiable. As he saw Leacraft he ran to him with a glad -welcome of surprise and pleasure. “Good, Burney; I am right glad to see -you. I knew you would not forget us, and you will have great reason -to be satisfied with yourself for coming. The affair at Gettysburg -to-morrow will be splendid. The President will give us something -characteristic, the day will be the Nation’s, and the reunion of the -veterans of both sides--you know this country once tried to strangle -itself with its own hands--will be honored by a tremendous turn-out -of people. I know,”--with a laugh,--“that you Englishmen hate crowds, -unless they are turned to good account in celebrating the Lord Mayor’s -day, or the jubilee of a king, or something swell and uninteresting, -but it won’t hurt you to see the meaning of a great land’s reverence -for its fallen dead,” and the big fellow full of enthusiasm, his -handsome countenance dilated with pride, shook Leacraft’s hand, who was -quite as delighted to greet his friend, whom he appreciated on his own -account, without considering his influential relations to the desirable -Sally. - -Sally and her mother were now standing and, with, from the former a -smile of approval and from the latter a gesture of satisfaction the two -ladies departed, a servant appeared, and the young men ascended the -stairs to prepare for dinner. - -A variety of intentions had been coursing through Leacraft’s mind, -and while ostensibly he was engaged in the commonplaces of address -an interior agitation of plans and designs, all indubitably pointed -towards the denouement of his visit, were tingling through his cerebral -cortex with various success. He felt a sudden pressure of prudence -assert itself, as if by some sort of psychological premonition he was -made aware of the danger of temerity. - -Left by Ned Garrett to assume the conventional apparel for dinner, -and lingering with a delighted inspection of the details of his -bedroom which he thought just reflected, to the nice point of a modest -assertion of feminine adroitness, a really exquisite taste, he ran -over the possible and best programme for the short campaign he felt it -necessary to devise for the capture of the gentle and ethereal enemy. -As he gazed, with increasing uneasiness, and poorly repressed envy -at Henry’s piquant and picturesque colored sketches of “A Virginia -Wedding,” and “The Departure of the Bride,” which offered themselves so -suggestively between the white curtains on the saffron tinted paper, -he came to this conclusion. He would that evening, if the occasion -presented itself for a really favorable interview, let Sally know how -much he thought of her, and how hopelessly unhappy he must become, if -she could furnish him with no encouragement. That would do just now; -but when they got to Gettysburg he might expect to find a convenient -moment to be more explicit, indeed to urge her to the critical -extremity of telling him what he might hope for. - -This progressive method he fancied promised the best results, and, his -thoughts still recalling with infatuation the uncalled for insertion -of his aigrette in her hair on the very day when he was expected, he -imagined if there was not absolute surrender on Sally’s part now, there -might be compromising negotiations for surrender later. - -With complacency, he looked at himself in the glass, walked to the -hallway and descended. He had reached the broad stairway which entered -the centre of the first floor of this sumptuous home, descending on the -two sides in a series of separate steps, and then uniting into a wide -terrace of steps, expanding upon the hall at the bottom, and guarded by -a balustrade, which ended in two newel posts of surprising proportions, -each carrying an enormous Rokewood vase, from which sprang a mingled -white and red exuberance of sweet alyssum and geranium. As Leacraft -stood at the top of the terrace of steps, he commanded a full view of -the lower hall. And right beneath him, at the foot of the terrace, -under the Rokewood vases, he saw Sally Garrett--the girl whom a moment -ago he had with some unction and self-flattery ventured to think was -not averse to his attentions--pinning on the lapel of the evening -suit of a most offensively good looking young man, a _boutonniere_ of -geranium and alyssum, filched (the theft was evident) from the great -vase above their heads, and to accomplish which, it seemed to the -maddened observation of Leacraft, that the young man must have lifted -the young lady. This was a conjunction of agencies too terrible to -dwell on with equanimity, and in pure fright Leacraft stopped a moment, -and became an involuntary spy upon proceedings evidently not intended -for an inspection so inimical as his. - -It was Sally’s voice: “Well, Brig, I must confess that as an accomplice -in crime you are shockingly cool. It was quite unnecessary for you to -expect more than the flowers; and yet”--Leacraft seemed to hit the -balustrade with his foot. The interruption was perhaps involuntary. In -Leacraft’s condition, human nature could not stand a more excruciating -strain. Sally looked up. So did the young man. “Oh, Mr. Leacraft, this -is fortunate. I want you and Mr. Barry to be excellent friends. Mr. -Barry is wonderfully strong, and you are so wise. With his agility, -and your advice, I will have two escorts to-morrow that will save me -from any exertion of mind or body. Mr. Barry will help me over the -hard places, and you will explain things. Pardon,” with a coquettish -glance at her companion and a demure courtesy to Leacraft; “you must go -through the usual introductions. My cousin, Mr. Barry, Mr. Leacraft. -Remember, I rely upon both of you, and you must be as amicable as -doves,” and with that equivocal enforcement of neutrality, this -impossible beauty vanished. - -Ned Garrett appeared, and saved the situation, or at least diminished -an insufferable embarrassment. The three men were the next instant -summoned to dinner. They were met at the door of the dining-room by -Mr. Garrett, a tall gentleman, still giving evidence of an athletic -youth. Mr. Garrett was a man somewhat tormented with impatience, but -genial withal, and possessing a singular power of rapid utterance, -conjoined also with the power of business-like demonstration. He shook -hands with Leacraft cordially, and addressed a salutation of flattering -familiarity to Mr. Barry. - -Leacraft had suffered a very staggering blow, as he recalled the affair -of the stairway, and he fell back, with only a half-satisfied security, -upon Sally’s intimation that this unwelcome intruder--the Brig Barry of -her previous encomiums--was a cousin. And the plague of it all was that -he (Leacraft) was overpoweringly conscious of this same Brig Barry’s -indisputable charms. Mr. Brig was a type of physical perfection. He -carried on straight, but not too broad, shoulders, a finely shaped -head, such which, at their best, are only seen in America; a head which -announced to the world its intelligent emotions through the medium -of an expressive face, wherein brown eyes, dark, straight eyebrows, -a strong, large mouth, an aquiline nose, and blue veined temples, -overhung by short, curled hair, combining their mutually enhancing -details in making their young owner the target of feminine admiration. -Cousins are by no means denied the privileges of marital union, and -as there are all kinds of cousins, and the privilege is less and less -questionable according to the numerical distance between them, it -became a matter of preliminary importance for Leacraft to find out what -kind of a cousin Brig Barry was to Sally Garrett. - -In pondering sadly over this uncertainty his well formed plans, so -agreeably outlined during his toilet, fell into disorder, and, as it -were, evaporated. His agony of heart was not relieved when he observed -the cruel object of his misgivings. Sally was placed at his side at -the dinner table; opposite them sat Mr. Barry and Ned Garrett, and the -ends of the table commodiously accommodated Mr. and Mrs. Garrett. Sally -was radiant; she was well dressed, and--Leacraft’s eyes first sought -its place--the aigrette was gone, and he noticed, acutely conscious of -all telltale signals of interference by others with his own designs, -a solitaire diamond ring on her right hand. His discomfiture was -complete. It was a sad discovery, and Sally, gleaming with a light of -happiness it was not his good luck to dispense, relentlessly added -to his distress by showering the loathed Brig Barry with glances of -commendation and approval. - -But when could this engagement--he shuddered at the word--have been -made? Leacraft, solicitous from the moment he entered the Baltimore -house in the afternoon, had scanned that same hand with a jealous -scrutiny, about two hours before, and it was guiltless of rings--quite -free--he could have sworn to that. Was it possible that he had -witnessed the closing rites of their pre-conjugal union from the top of -the stairway? It was most likely. For a moment the unhappy man felt a -swinging sensation, a kind of revolting nausea that put an actual pain -in his heart, and a sudden impulse almost straightened him upon his -legs, and would have sent him flying from the house, seized him, which -only an indomitable Spartan furor of resistance, in his English soul, -could have conquered. - -The next instant he, too, was smiling, even observing with pleasant -alacrity that when Brig Barry raised his wine glass to his lips, his -eyes fell invitingly upon Sally, and that flattered fairy responded by -sipping from her own, not, indeed, that such telegraphy of signals was -obvious or unmannerly; no! it required the jealous eyes of an irritable -rival to have seen it at all. It certainly was a cruel ordeal. It -certainly taxed Leacraft’s self-possession. It was so fathomless -and unexpected. Not a word from Ned about it, and Sally had always -before appeared austerely impartial. Perhaps it was a sudden fancy, an -illusion, hopeless on her part, because she could never marry her own -cousin. The Englishman rummaged painfully in his stock of conservative -teachings to prove conclusively that so abhorrent a social impropriety -could never be permitted. But there was the ring! Well, a ring; what -of it? A common gift; nothing more. It was madness for him to jump at -conclusions so recklessly. Two cousins admiring each other--yes, loving -each other, in a beautiful, domestic family way--and separated for a -long time, were naturally rejoicing in reunion. Stupid to attribute -so much as he had done, under so slight provocation, to their mutual -affection, the affection, doubtless, of a brother and sister; keener -indeed, as why not? - -Ruminating thus propitiously, and only half conscious that he was -going through the formalities of a course dinner, and was but poorly -assisting the conversation, which consciously he thought had not yet -developed into any consecutive line of talk, he suddenly seemed to come -back to his senses, as these words proceeded with celerous distinctness -from the lips of the older Garrett: - -“A despatch was received in the office this afternoon, about an hour -ago, from Colon, which startled us a good deal. Three earthquake shocks -have been felt in Colon, and an enormous tidal wave swept over Limon -Bay, in the direction of Mindi. There was loss of life at Colon. The -coast towards the _embouchure_ of the Chagres river has sunk sensibly, -and a rumor prevailed at Colon, at the time the despatch was sent, -that the walls of the great Culebra Cut had collapsed. This is bad -news, if it is true, bad news for the President, bad news for the -country. So enormous a disaster will be known at once, if it to be -known at all. The fact that no press accounts have been given out makes -me hope that our despatch is a mistake, a canard, perhaps.” - -“Oh! the poor President!” exclaimed the sympathetic Sally; “he will -need his courage now. It can’t be so horrible. They surely can’t mean, -papa, that the canal is destroyed. That would be too shameful.” - -“The operations of Nature,” said Ned Garrett, “are not generally -susceptible to shame. Nature is about the most shameless thing on the -face of the earth,” and they all smiled at the thought. - -“Yes,” said Mr. Barry--and Leacraft watched him with eager eyes, and -listened with critical ears--“Nature has a happy way of discriminating -between shame and compassion. She tries to make up for her cruelties by -some new blessing, but she never tells anybody that her cruelties ever -made her blush. If this news is a portent of worse; if the canal should -be destroyed, if the isthmus is invaded by the oceans, a canal without -locks will be given to us free of charge.” - -“And we have spent one hundred and thirty million dollars already. As a -financial proposition, it is hard to see why we have not paid as much -for one as for the other,” dryly commented Mr. Garrett. Leacraft felt -it incumbent upon him to say something, and his fatal over-valuation -of seriousness allured his tongue into a statement statistical and -scientific, something which might impress Sally--but which only -afflicted that young degenerate person with an immoderate preference -for the way her cousin, Brig Barry, might have said the same thing. - -“I am rather curiously reminded,” began Leacraft, “of a lecture which -I heard in Washington last April, in which the lecturer, Mr. Binn, -ventured to offer a very alarming prediction as to the instability -of the Central American zone, and especially the portions of it -embraced in the isthmus. He was rebuked at the time in open meeting by -a Senator, but if your information turns out to be correct, perhaps -he is about to receive a stunning corroboration. It would be of some -psychological interest to know whether Mr. Binn in that case preferred -his own reputation to his country’s welfare.” - -“I heard of Binn’s talk,” remarked Brig Barry. “I was near the Mexican -line, and we had had a brush with some greasers which were kicking at -Uncle Sam’s tariff. A Washington paper turned up in camp, and there was -Binn’s Jeremiad. I think the paper had it ‘Science Butting In,’” and, -to Leacraft’s surprise, Sally laughed. - -But a moment later she turned to Leacraft with unaffected interest, and -said, “But, Mr. Leacraft, do you think Mr. Binn knew?” and her voice -was plaintive and concerned. - -“It is reserved for astronomy,” said Mr. Garrett, “to have prospective -knowledge, to know the future exactly, with a calendar in one hand, -and a watch in the other. I think it is not an imputation on the -credibility of science to say that in other departments its knowledge -of the future is speculative.” - -“Mr. Binn,” began Leacraft, “was not at all didactic, as regards -time, but he was emphatic in the general scope of his predictions. -He regarded the Isthmus and the Central American area as belonging -in their geological habits to the West Indies, and he had a very -poor opinion of the fidelity of the latter to implied obligations. -He regarded it as capricious and wayward, unsubstantial in its -composition, and a bit fickle in its attachments.” It was almost -impossible not to think that the speaker was not putting a little -bit of something more than science in his words. He continued: “His -views also involved a curious reference to a rather topsy turvy theory -that the earth was pear-shaped, and that the belt of earthquakes and -crustal disorders along the borders of the Pacific resulted from this -hypothetically crooked figure of the earth.” - -Brig Barry was listening with intense attention, and a whimsical -glimmer of a smile turned the ends of his lips, while his eyes very -gravely, with a slight contraction of their eyelids, watched Leacraft, -with half inquisitorial perplexity. - -“I think,” he broke in, “that the West Indies will manage to take care -of themselves. At least, present indications go to prove, that instead -of disappearing, they are on their way to bigger things. Commander -Beecham, who has just come from the Isle of Pines, told me yesterday, -that the island was rising, that in a short time it might become part -of Cuba. The question might then be asked, as we own the Isle of Pines, -whether we had not annexed Cuba.” - -“I have heard of the Isle of Pines,” said Mrs. Garrett, “but hardly -understand what it is. Perhaps a little enlightenment on the subject -would not be unwelcome to the rest of you.” - -“Do, Brig,” pleaded Sally, “in the role of instructor you may be as -successful in geography as in other subjects,” and Leacraft flushed and -sat back hard, to resist the harsh blow of this subtle reminder of his -worst suspicions. - -Mr. Barry looked around, as if to secure the suffrages of the -company, and found every eye fixed upon him in expectation. It was -his turn to impress Sally. He last looked at her, and as he did, he -laughingly began: “I shall have no compunctions in being a trifle -the schoolmaster. The Isle of Pines, Mrs. Garrett, lies in a deep -bight or bay near the south coast of the western part of Cuba. There -are some six hundred and thirty thousand acres in it, and it is but -ninety-nine square miles less in extent than our little State of Rhode -Island. This island bears a sort of filial relation to Cuba. It is part -of the general chain of the insular mainlands of the Antilles. It is -not a coral key or a mangrove swamp. It forms a plateau from fifty to -one hundred feet above sea level, broken by ridges of hills or cliffs -that start out over its surface like the bones on the back of a thin -cow.” Sally’s deferential attention to Mr. Barry’s learning was here -interrupted by a very audible titter. - -“I beg to remonstrate against any levity in my class, and I think, Miss -Garrett, you owe me an apology for attempting to disturb my recital.” -This mock rebuke completed Sally’s disorder. Her eyes, wet with tears -of merriment, looked at Brig Barry, who had assumed himself the amusing -expression of offended dignity, and she murmured, “Excuse me, sir,” -with such a delicious mockery of piteous appeal that her father laughed -aloud, but Leacraft maintained his stern reserve, with eyes uplifted -from the face of his rival. - -“Small as this island is, it offers room for two mountain ridges at -its northern end, which reach the respectable elevation of fifteen -hundred feet, and are composed of limestones. There are other ridges -in the island, lower and less steep. The whole island is surrounded by -swamps, except towards the south, where it is rocky. Commander Beecham -says that in the last month strange uplifts have been noticed, almost -unaccompanied by any serious seismic--this last word, Miss Garrett, may -affect you unpleasantly; it means earthquake,--disturbance and shoals -and reefs are now bristling out of the sea, like the teeth on a comb. -And another singular circumstance can be mentioned. The island abounds -in warm springs, curative--for your benefit, Miss Garrett, I may say -that the word means healing--for rheumatism and throat affections, -and these springs are sinking; the water seems to recede within the -recesses of the earth, while in other cases the subterranean channels -have either crushed together, or have become filled up; the springs -are simply not there; they have vanished; the Commander has made -observations on the coast lines, and it seemed to him that they were -all rising. The Cuban coast is rising, too. He came through Havana, -and the shipways in the harbor have become so shallow that there was -a gloomy prospect that the city would be cut off from the sea. I only -heard all this strange news an hour ago, and I fear the excitement -caused by meeting Miss Garrett is to be held responsible for my -forgetting to mention it before.” - -The allusion was noticed by only Leacraft; the next voice was that of -Mr. Garrett, whose face had darkened with apprehension. “Extraordinary! -It may be that our despatch is correct. It may be that there is a sort -of see-saw here, that as the West Indies rise, the Central American -coast sinks. But why not a whisper of such occurrences in the papers?” - -“The see-saw fancy,” said Leacraft, now thoroughly aroused, and -forgetting his immediate disappointment in the face of a formidable -physical phenomenon, “was Mr. Binn’s. He gave me the feeling that he -thought that, like an inflated surface, where the higher elevation of -one part meant the lowering of another part, so the access of height -in the West Indies meant the loss of height in the isthmus. And the -provocation to any change would be earthquakes.” - -“As to the papers not publishing anything,” explained Barry, “there are -no newspaper correspondents in the Isle of Pines, and I recall now that -Beecham told me that the authorities at Havana were so frightened over -the reports of the harbor masters, that that they had prohibited their -circulation. The thing may prove grave enough.” - -“Let us hope,” said Ned Garrett, “that such rumors do not get abroad -before to-morrow. They are only half-proven assertions, based upon some -accidental and momentary circumstance. In a few days the Isle of Pines -may be the same as it was, with the salt springs thrown in, and the -harbor of Havana back again to its old position without so much as a -jolt. The sea serpent is now advancing towards our shores at the summer -resorts, why not a few nightmares from the tropics? A truce to ghosts. -Let us drink to the President and the Canal.” The glasses were raised, -their lips, before they touched the sparkling lymphs, offering, as if -in silent prayer, to the consecration of the beaded wine, unuttered -hopes for the country’s great head, and its great enterprise, had but -felt the amber current flowing from the engraved chalices, musical with -the tinkling of bits of ice, when,--a sharp cry of voices, a babel of -tumultuous and precipitated outcries smote upon their ears, entering -the open windows like an execrable assault. It was the shouting, -thrilling with an unusual impetus of omen, of the newsboys, as if -they had forgotten their mercantile relations to the news, which, -whether of joy or grief, they commonly announce in the shrill yells of -indifference and gloating expectation. Now their multitudinous voices -mingled in a monstrous hoarseness, as if constrained by a personal and -immediate sorrow and horror. Even ejaculations from men in the streets -buying the papers from the hawkers, entered the room, and brought -pallor to the cheeks of the mute company. Ned Garrett pushed back his -chair and sprang to the door, followed by Brig Barry, and the rest -stayed, immobile, like a stricken throng, waiting the next minute for -an impending immolation. - -Scarcely thirty seconds had elapsed when the two men came back with -the papers of the street, one having the _Baltimore Times_, the other -holding in his hands the _Southern Herald_. The faces of both men were -pale, and on the cheeks of Ned Garrett shone a trace of tears. Barry -was the first to enter the room, and as Mr. Garrett, now standing at -the head of the table, his body half turned towards the door, his face -suffused with unchecked emotion--as Mr. Garrett said, “Well, what is -it?” he faltered, and dropping the paper to his side, he faced the -convulsed merchant, and was silent. It was Ned Garrett who cried out, -“The Isthmus is crumbling to pieces and the Canal is doomed.” - -The order of events as we hear any sudden stroke of affliction, as we -suddenly confront the inevitable bereavement, as we feel the sharp -thrust of calamity penetrate our hearts, varies with temperaments -and sex; but for the most part it reflects the order of events under -physical attack, the stunned senses, and the reaction. It is in the -reaction that the difference among men most visibly appears. Slowly -Mrs. Garrett arose and left the room, and Sally, after a pause, during -which she had stolen to the side of Brig Barry, and lifted the paper -from his side, where it had fallen in his unnerved hands, followed her. - -The four men were left behind, and of them only Leacraft was seated. -It was Leacraft who first spoke: “This is awful, but the Nation is -far greater than any misfortune that can befall it.” The other three -turned to him with one accord, as if saved from their own wretchedness, -and moved in his direction as if to embrace him. It was the right -word. It brought relief, and to one at least as he turned his back to -the speaker it brought tears. Mr. Garrett the elder looked intensely -at Leacraft, his eyes almost glittering with the sudden joy of -consolation, and said, “Thank you, Mr. Leacraft, for that true word. It -is the one we need. You are an Englishman, and your confidence in us is -part of your own Anglo-Saxon strength, and part of your best knowledge -that we are nourished by the same blood. Let us sit down, and you, -Brig,” (Ned Garret’s back was still turned to them) “read the papers to -us. The first reports may be much exaggerated.” - -Some servants had by this time collected in the room at the side of the -butler’s pantry and waited there irresolute. Mrs. Garrett and Sally -also softly returned, and took their places at the table; with them, -as with Ned Garrett, the thought of the President’s misery unnerved -them. Barry had spread the paper before him. The dark head lines swept -across the sheet in ominous relief. They read: - - THE NATION’S LOSS. - - EARTHQUAKES AND LAND SUBSIDENCE ENGULF - THE ISTHMUS AND THE CANAL. - - THE AWFUL CATACLYSM OF NATURE. - - THE PRESIDENT DEEPLY AFFECTED. - - THE MOST TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE IN MODERN TIMES. - -News from Aspinwall of the most appalling character has been received -in Washington, and though an initial effort to conceal or suppress the -despatches was made, wiser councils prevailed and the country will -know the worst. America must now vindicate her courage and maintain -the reputation she justly holds among the nations of the world for -self-reliance and self-control. - -A long telegram received at the executive mansion in Washington -to-day was given to the country by the orders of the President, -after unavailing remonstrances from the members of the cabinet, who -wanted the news withheld until confirmatory despatches were received. -It is believed that these _were_ received, and that the President -ordered the distribution of the news. In a word it announces the -destruction of the Canal, and the submergence of the Canal zone, -through a series of progressive changes in the earth’s surface at that -section, accompanied by severe earthquake phenomena. The confluent -waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will mingle over the buried -structures of the Canal, and one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, -representing the labor of three years, and nearly fifty thousand -men, with an enormous accumulation of material, will have been spent -in vain. The Nation’s credit remains unimpeached and unimpeachable, -but the moral effects of this stupendous calamity can scarcely be -over-estimated. - - -THE STORY IN DETAIL. - -A series of quickly succeeding earthquakes shook the City of Panama -on the evening of May 27th. They were slight in character, though -distinguished by peculiar rotatory effects, turning natural objects -half way round, and producing curious effects upon pedestrians who -became dizzy under their influence. These seemed to have passed inland -and to have accumulated in one severe shock at Miraflores, just as -a number of waves in water, chasing each other, may combine to form -a resultant wave higher than its components, and generally, if the -confluence takes place in the right phase, of a height which is the sum -of the heights of the smaller elements. - -At any rate, a most violent disturbance occurred at the latter place, -throwing down houses, and opening hillsides, which was followed by an -alarming sinking of the ground. The railroad track disappeared, part of -the canal walls were swallowed up, an immense influx of water from La -Boca poured in, and the former site of the village became a lake-like -expanse. No further shocks were felt, although doubtless considerable -dislocation farther west had taken place, and the locks on the Canal -beyond the Culebra Cut, in the direction of Gamboa, San Pablo, and -Tavernilla were perhaps impaired. As if the hidden energies of the -earth had become reinforced, and the subterranean fires had renewed -their devastating fury, on the morning of the 28th a sharp upheaval of -the ground at Tavernilla, in the old delta plane of the Chagres river, -took place, almost immediately succeeded by as rapid a collapse and -depression. This alarming operation of the ground was repeated, upon -a titanic scale in the submerged delta plane between Pena Blanca and -Gatun. It was reported that at first small monticules of rock, mud, and -sand, appeared in the vicinity of Agua Clara, but these proved to be -ephemeral elevations, subsiding foot by foot, until with one monstrous -convulsion the whole ridge of hills between Limon Bay, to the west -on the Canal line, and Barrage at the old French dam, slipped bodily -into the sea, with unutterable sounds, the rocks as it were exploding -with immeasurable violence. The discharge of the mountain mass into -the oceanic depths caused terrific tidal waves to rush outward, and -north and south, in colossal walls of water. One of these swept upon -the panic-stricken inhabitants of Colon, its solid phalanx suddenly -approaching from the sea, and in conjunction with earthquakes that -had emptied the houses of the horrified occupants, bringing them all -to the verge of madness, from sheer fear. The skies, as if engaged in -some hideous conspiracy of destruction, with the moving earth, suddenly -darkened. Deluges of water poured from the ebony and swollen clouds, -lightning in incessant lines of quivering brilliancy shot from their -lurid depths, and thunders intensified by a thousand reverberations, -shook the recesses of the trembling hills. - -It was not surprising that the spectators of these monstrous -happenings, with their earth vanishing beneath their feet, the -overcharged skies emptying the arsenals of their electric fires upon -them, and the irresistible floods of the ocean, rising like avengers -to overwhelm them, should have cast reason to the winds, and dumb with -amazement, and insane almost with horror, should have sunk upon their -knees, and waited for the engulfment, which was to them part of this -preternatural ending of the world. - -Few were strong enough to resist the frightful strain, and the woods -and hills near Colon were filled with men and women in all states of -frenzy. Some with cowering limbs and bowed heads awaited the summons of -death or the call of Judgment, while others, lost alike to reason and -moderation, nakedly execrated Heaven, or, stark mad, plunged weapons of -defence into the bodies of prostrate women. - -A few engineers at Colon had hastily constructed a camp on the higher -hills towards the north, in which they were imitated by engineers at -other points. These had communicated with the equipment at Colon, and -it was from the latter city, which had at last accounts suffered little -else than shocks of varying violence, but not destructive, that the -first news had been sent. - - -LATER ADVICES. - -From Allia Juela at an old dam station to the north of Gamboa, in the -hills, and on the water tributaries of the Chagres, news has been -just received that the pertubations continue, and that the areas -about Aspinwall (Colon) are becoming progressively invaded by the -sudden sinking movements, and the worst fears are entertained for the -permanence of all sections of the Canal. A telegram received from -Graytown, Nicaragua, announces the awakening of the volcanoes of Costa -Rica, especially Poas and Irazu; steam and smoke are arising from other -previously dormant peaks, and ashes have fallen in large amounts in the -streets of Greytown. In an interview with Mr. F. C. Nicholas, the well -known industrial prospector of Central America, that authority says -the zone of possible disturbance may extend quite far, north and south -of the Canal strip, though in his opinion the more disastrous results -may be expected in the mountainous and volcanic chains along the old -proposed route of the Nicaragua inter-oceanic canal. He has himself -felt the tremors of the earth there and here ten or more years ago his -ear caught, so slight however that it might have been only fancy, the -faint rumbling of the mountains as if in travail, which at the time was -interpreted by the guides as a premonition of storm. Mr. Nicholas added -at the close of his interview that “when I left Colon after my visit to -Nicaragua common report had it that in Nicaragua there was a valley of -fire surrounded with blazing volcanoes, and that I had seen it--a good -example of Spanish-American exaggeration. It may indeed now happen, -that this fanciful picture might, in even a more extravagant and -dreadful way, be realized, and the long pent up forces of the earth, -slumbering through ages, become reawakened, with the most disastrous -consequences to the whole Central American domain, through a contagious -outbreak of volcanic forces and terrestrial subsidences.” - -Barry paused, and his eye travelled down the page of the paper. He -stopped and exclaimed: “They’ve got wind of the things Beecham told -me about. Listen. ‘The Isle of Pines is rising, and in the opinion of -local authorities, the shoals at low water between it and Cuba will -afford an almost unbroken transit to the greater island. The Windward -Passage between Cuba and Hayti has been invaded by new reefs, and the -Monas Passage between San Domingo and Porto Rico is also reported -by sailing vessels recently arriving at Havana, to present unusual -and uncharted features, as if the floor of the ocean was also there -undergoing elevation. - -“‘These marvellous modifications of the earth’s surface seemed -connected with renewed activity in the volcanic islands of the Lesser -Antilles. Mt. Pelee is again reported to be in eruption on the island -of Martinique, while La Soufriere, on St. Vincent, is in active -eruption, and Dominica, Santa Lucia and the Barbados have been visited -by unprecedented tides, which have been regarded as evidence of the -subsidence of the foundations of the islands themselves. - -“‘We stand aghast before these incomprehensible phenomena; our minds -recoil before the awful powers of the natural world; we stumble in -darkness at the meaning of this inscrutable visitation; truly, we may -recall the words of the psalmists: _Then the channels of the waters -were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy -rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils._’” - -Barry ceased reading. He had read all the paper contained. He turned -mechanically to the sheet Ned Garrett had laid on the table, and -glanced over it, remarking--“it is the same”--and then there was -complete silence. It was Leacraft again who helped to restore their -composure; “I think,” he said, “that in any event the water connexion -between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans is assured. Suppose the -canal structure, as it was supposed to be finally at its completion, -is all swept away or rendered impossible, an obviously easier access -from one ocean to the other is created. If a complete change in the -relations of land to water surfaces is now in progress, if Mr. Binn’s -disagreeable predictions are now about to be realized, a good many -remarkable and not altogether regrettable conditions may supervene. -The water-way may become a veritable strait, providing easy, unbroken -and capacious connexions between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific -ocean--the islands of the West Indies may slowly converge into one -land surface, and a new continent invite populations and industries, -which the wild, slothful or decadent peoples of Central America, with -their hot, fever laden and deleterious climates, could not encourage or -support. We may be entering upon a new chapter in the history of the -world, and in the history of nations. Who can tell upon what strange -threshold we are standing? Let us wait and see. Man is subordinate -to and the victim of circumstances. Circumstance also gives him his -opportunities. What wonders may not the hand of God work in this -marvellous reconstruction of land and water? And if two hundred -millions of dollars, as representing the final cost of the Canal, -seems to have been swallowed up, what of it? A nation whose annual -appropriations--as I only read yesterday--are on the scale of six -hundred millions a year, should regard with comparative complacence a -loss of one-third of that amount, when it arises from a permanent and -desirable change in physical, perhaps human, conditions.” - -As Leacraft was speaking, the little group of his auditors remained -motionless, with--it did not escape Leacraft’s jealous notice--Sally -and Brig at its centre, in a sort of mutually consoling contact, and -the servants a little behind, in a scrutinizing attitude, anxious -through a sense of sympathy with the evident distress of the household. - -Mr. Garrett spoke, and Leacraft rose to his feet. “We have indeed -suffered a harsh blow, but it has its after thoughts of alleviating -hope, and you have shown us that our alarm is more emotional than -substantial. The country has been fed upon the proud anticipations of -the accomplishment of this Canal. It has become a political question. -It has colored the utterances of our public men. It has been the -dream of the President, as the crowning work of a pre-eminent list -of services to the nation. His energy has pushed it to the verge of -completion, and in its prosecution the Nation and the President have -become united in positive endorsement. It may all be right yet. Let us -hope and pray so.” - -Flushed with real feeling, Mr. Garrett shook the hand of Leacraft, and -in a sort of review, the rest imitated his example, and left the room, -leaving Ned and Leacraft behind. - -It was then that Leacraft turned to Ned Garrett and said: “I thought I -saw an engagement ring on the hand of your sister.” The statement was -a question. Ned Garrett looked at his friend with singular intensity -of interest and sympathy. He realized the anguish of the man who, -loving his sister beyond all earthly price, forgot a country’s peril in -the eagerness of his hope that perhaps his heart-breaking fears were -unjustified. The two men were standing. Ned Garrett took Leacraft’s -hand and placed his other hand upon his shoulder, and his earnest face -uttered its inviolable commiseration: “Yes, Burney; Sally is engaged to -Mr. Barry.” They turned and left the room. - -That night it was not the convulsions of nature breaking down the -barriers of two words, and bringing into action new forces and new -vicissitudes among the peoples of the earth, that marred the sleep of -the restless Englishman. No; it was the face of Sally Garrett smiling -into the bending face of Brig Barry, and touching his lips. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -GETTYSBURG, MAY 30TH, 1909. - - -The Garrett party reached Gettysburg at mid-day, May 30th, 1909, having -passed through, in the train from Baltimore, the delightfully rural -scenes of western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Recent rains had -swelled the brooks and expanded the ponds. The wide undulations of -hills and vales were radiant in verdure, responding with the alacrity -of new vegetation to the encouragement of the skies, that now in a -broad arch of fleckless blue, seemed to bend over them in pride and -emulation. A thousand pictures of loveliness, of homely domestic -bliss, of agricultural plenty, of bucolic thrift and retirement, met -their eyes, and Leacraft himself found a solace to his grieved soul -in resting his eyes upon spots of soft and uninjured beauty, wherein -nature and the gentle craft of pastoral life combined their artless -charms to make the landscape serene and inviting to the eye. - -It was almost with regret that they left the train at Gettysburg. -The noise or motion of the cars, and the uninterrupted succession of -pleasant views from their windows had prevented conversation, in which -none of them, from preoccupation, or from anxiety, from, in one person -at least, sadness, or from, in this case to be exact, two persons, -extreme happiness, cared to enter. And when Gettysburg was itself -finally encountered, they found it in the last spasms of inordinate -repletion. The most exorbitant greed of guide and hackman, guide-book -man, publican and popcorn or peanut vendor, was abashed before a -popular consumption that threatened to drive them into a confession -of impotency. Everything that had cubic capacity, whether it moved or -stood still, whether it was a vehicle or a house, was aching under -the intolerable pressure of its human contents. Everywhere clouds of -flags decorated the air. The houses were beribboned and beflagged, -and innumerable lines crossing the streets in a web of suspensory -confusion, carried pennants and pictures to the last limits of their -carrying capacity, and to the bewilderment unutterable and admiration -unrepressed of the crowds beneath them. These crowds had become almost -stagnant because of the crowds in front of them, and these in turn -by reason of other crowds in front of them, until the successional -torpor seemed to reach out of sight, and presumably ended in some -greater peripheral crowd, which, having attained its appointed place by -choice or selection, refused to budge. To make their way, was almost -impossible to the visitors, whether they besought the services of a -driver, or tried the painful expedient of threading the human mass on -foot. In this extremity they simply remained where they were at first -arriving, hoping either the slow motion of the democratic assemblage -would afford them some sort of escape, or at some critical moment -the vast throng would resolve itself into dispersion, and under the -influence of direction or force, get itself better adjusted to the -requirements of its individuals. - -Now, it was understood by all the published programmes of that day’s -exercises that the address of the President was to be delivered at -that historic spot known as the High Water Mark, which marks the -uprushing tide, the foaming crest and insurmountable limit of the -Rebellion, which thereafter receded in wavering surges to the south. -In the great reservation, devoted as a monument to the battle which -saved the Union, this spot is central, and the acres stretched about it -would accommodate an army. It was quite inexplicable why this annoying -interference and congestion prevailed. It turned out to be a military -precaution. The President was to be installed safely at the speaker’s -stand, escorted by veterans of the north and south, before the people -should be permitted to assemble around him, and a cordon of military -enclosed the little village, keeping confined within it the straining -and impatient visitors. - -The village of Gettysburg, which was used in the great battle as -a hospital, and which entirely escaped injury in the three days’ -conflict, was more than a mile away from the place chosen for the -ceremonies of the day. When the dam was removed it was seen there would -be a dangerous stampede for position. Music, too, swept exhilaratingly -over the throngs from the distant scene of the festivities, and its -martial notes awakened to desperation the disappointed and vexed -multitude. The large numbers twisted and irksomely tied up within the -narrow streets, and turbulently mixed up on the little square of the -village, groaned aloud. - -Voices suddenly rose high in altercation and abuse. A farmer whose -rickety wagon, laden with his sons and daughters, had got packed -between a curb and a particularly dense fragment of the crowd, made up -of vituperative young men, and was in almost certain danger of being -upset, was engaged in a lusty expostulation not unassisted by the quick -and sharp lashes of his whip, over the heads of the dodging group. The -latter, not averse to some retaliatory measures that might serve the -purpose of freeing their general resentment at their imprisonment, -attacked the irate proprietor of the wagon and pushed his shivering -vehicle over, spilling its screaming and swearing occupants upon the -heads of the bystanders, who were utterly unable to escape, and added -their din to the commotion. - -This diversion, attended with laughter, shouts and cries of pain, -had nearly subsided, when a new and more alarming disorder arose in -the neighborhood of the Garrett party, who had betaken themselves -to the porch of one of the souvenir shops. A wandering and aimless -dog, suffering from kicks and repulses, had turned on some of its -persecutors, and, yelping and snapping with inflamed and frightened -eyes, had suddenly been diagnosed, by an inconsiderate observer, -as “_mad_.” This information, as usually, proclaimed in a loud, -denunciatory tone, raised in a second an indescribable hubbub. Room to -run from the bewildered canine was not to be found, and the only thing -to do for those in the vicinity, was to squeeze more violently against -their companions, leaving a slender and irregular space in which the -dog gyrated, biting at friend and foe alike. The undulous area of -movement thus formed swayed to and fro, with the distracted struggles -of the dog, and soon swung violently towards the Garretts, who became -rudely jolted and pressed by frantic men and women, in whose legs -apprehension of the dog’s teeth seemed to have produced extraordinary -motions, for they shuffled and kicked and scrambled in a way very -undignified and ridiculous. The upshot of it was to drive a frenzied -pack of people towards the souvenir shop, in the hope of entering the -shop, and evading the wretched canine somewhere beneath their skirts -and trousers--an absurd design, as the shop itself was solid with -condensed humanity. - -Brig Barry saw the danger, and quickly hustling Sally and Mrs. Garrett -between the men of his party, told all to stand firmly, after knitting -their arms within each other, forming an elastic and impenetrable wall. -As it was, the colliding tides around them sent them on an unexpected -orbit of translation, and a few minutes later they found themselves -pushed towards the trolley tracks, not far from the dishevelled and -malign looking local hotel, but in a less exposed and stormy quarter. - -And now a marvellous change took place. The barriers were down; the -rolled up soldiers opened the avenues of approach; the President, -members of his Cabinet, the Commissioners of the Reservation, and the -veterans of the North and the South, were in place, and the delayed -populace, released from its confinement, with instantaneous expansion, -hurried over the roads and fields to the station of the High Water -Mark on Cemetery Ridge. It was a picturesque spectacle. When the -condensation was removed, it became apparent in how much splendor the -girls and women of the country and the near and distant towns had -been arrayed. They came from Harrisburg, from Emittsburg, along the -fatal road that Longstreet’s rangers followed, from Taneytown, from -Hagerstown, where Lee’s army had its rendezvous before the battle -of Seminary Ridge; from Chambersburg, which Ewell had dragooned; -from Wrightsville, where Early was balked by the burning of the -Susquehanna Bridge, on the 29th of June; from Newville, from Hanover, -from Fairfield, the belles and beaux had gathered, and with them no -indifferent number of their fathers and mothers. They wore their best -ginghams, and calicoes, and silks; the ancient trouseaus, refitted and -remade, still imparted the aspect of richness to their wearers, who, -ensconced beside their furrowed and tanned husbands, also refurbished, -so to speak, with store clothes and a rainbow neck-tie, felt the -novelty of life return, and something of the freshness of the glad -morning of existence. The girls were most happy and the boys voluble -and attentive. The caravan of vehicles would have tasked the vocabulary -of Tattersalls, though it was not altogether so remarkable for the -variety of its contents as the indefinite suggestion of varied ages in -its parts. And here and there some time-worn carryall creaking under -the infliction of an unusual load, and drawn by some Rosinante, whose -feeble gait and frequent halts betokened a sad contemporaneity with the -vehicle itself, offered a pathetic note in the hurrying splendor of the -congregated regalia of the barn and stable and garage. - -The Garretts, once extricated from their embarrassed position, armed -with passports, one in the hands of Brig Barry, and a special card in -the possession of Mr. Garrett, as guest of the Chamber of Commerce of -Baltimore, had little difficulty in securing the essential indulgences -for a delightful day. In a three-seated coach wagon, with a splendid -team of horses, they bowled along as far as the beginning of Hancock -avenue, which leads from the National Cemetery to the Round Tops. Here -they alighted and surveyed the wondrous scene. It was resplendent. A -sun burning with the soft brilliancy of June bathed the grand distances -towards the Blue Hills in light, while the Blue Hills themselves -receded with artistic forbearance behind an atmosphere that veiled -them in an evanescent purple and yet seemed to magnify their height. -The slopes of Cemetery Ridge were covered by people, and the lower -levels where the Codori farm buildings stood; the Peach Orchard, where -Sickles and Longstreet met for the mastery; the grain field beyond, -over whose long stretches Pickett’s charge was made, were filled with -moving groups. The distant woods, the nearer groves, the grassy -fields, Little and Big Round Top, all were transfigured in the golden -blaze, and the innumerable monuments that gave the park-like Ridge a -sort of scenic artifice, seemed to become accordant, in the vastness -of the panorama, with its natural and simple features. The farm lands, -the white houses, dotting fields, or emerging with human interest -from lines of shadowing trees, the peace of the distant perspective, -accorded a welcome contrast to the foreground of the picture, immersed -in the waves of a popular assembly. - -Automobiles flying like clouds rushed along the far away roads, -bicycles in undulating and streaming lines, grew large with rapid -approach; the gathering spots of people merged together and became -irregular squares, the squares united and became tracts, and the -tracts, by an incessant accretion, coincided along their edges until -Cemetery Ridge, the slopes towards Little Round Top and the field below -the “angle,” where Cushing and Armistead died, were unbrokenly covered -with the vast congregation, pulsating ceaselessly by an interior -agitation everywhere. - -The heterogeneous assortment of conveyances were halted near the -National Cemetery, and the people made their way to the enclosure, -where the President was to address them, along the triumphal -monument-enfiladed boulevard of Hancock avenue. - -The Garrett party had noticed the earnestness and apparent -preoccupation of the people. The news of the previous night had spread -its sinister announcements through the papers of the country, carried -to every village on the myriad fingered currents of the telegraph. It -had left its impress in the serious, sombre and sometimes dully frowned -faces of the men. “I feel sorry for the President,” said Sally. “The -Canal seemed almost himself, and the people thought of it and him -together. What will he do?” - -“The President,” answered Ned Garrett, “will not flinch. Ever since he -went down to the Isthmus in 1906, and made the dirt fly, he has watched -the Canal with his whole heart in it. He knew what it meant for the -country, for the world, and now”--the speaker hesitated--“he will know -what to say and do. How I believe in that man!” - -“But I can’t see,” continued Brig Barry, “that the idea of the Canal is -lost. Let us suppose there is a shifting and readjustment down there. -The two oceans are left behind, not much different, and if the isthmus -breaks down, splits up, and goes to thunder, there’s water enough to -cover the remains, and we have the Canal anyway.” - -“But it isn’t our Canal any more,” ejaculated Sally. “It seems,” said -Mr. Garrett, “as if our grief had been premature. There is enough to -worry over in this frightful catastrophe, and its limits no one to-day -can correctly estimate, but as Brig says, the Canal idea is saved, -or at least it seems reasonable to believe that it may be. If Nature -makes a bigger canal, if she changes the face of the earth enough, as -Leacraft told us last night, to unite the oceans and make a strait, the -commercial union of the western and eastern continents is secured on a -larger scale. Perhaps our national pride must suffer some, but the fact -remains, though, it would have saved our exchequer a handsome outlay, -if nature, consulting our financial happiness, had done her work a -little earlier.” - -“If we’d only waited,” sighed Mrs. Garrett, ruefully. - -They had reached the edges of the throngs who stood in the sun, -engrossing every coigne of vantage, and an orderly, examining their -tickets, conducted them through a narrow lane of envious gazers to -a stand of seats to the south of the President’s rostrum. From this -position their eyes fell directly upon the amazing outpouring of the -people, an ocean of individuals, hopelessly cancelled from any chance -to hear the President’s voice, yet extending outward in a solemn -silence, and but furtively invaded by those busy concomitants of such -public gatherings--button men and popcorn merchants. For the most part -such annoyances were inordinately thrust aside, but scurrying over the -most distant outposts of the mammoth audience, their eager shapes -were seen, and inconstantly, borne inward by the breeze, the shrill -invitation of their voices was heard. - -Leacraft fixed his eyes upon the President, and he was near enough to -him to note his expression. President Roosevelt sat squarely facing -the people--now crushing in with an irresistible impulse from the -distributed masses before him. He seemed serious, at moments almost -solemnly so, at others he turned to his companions with alacrity, and -his face even smiled at some allusion or whispered comment. Again his -eyes wandered dreamily--Leacraft thought sadly--to his notes, and then -he moved restlessly and leaned forward, and even half rose, eagerly -scanning the expectant faces. A jumping up of half a dozen men at the -rear of the platform, a signal of a waved handkerchief, followed, and -the band, stationed somewhere behind the distinguished occupants of the -platform, began the Star Spangled Banner. Everyone not already standing -rose, heads even uncovered, and the spirited strains seized by the -concourse, were flung back in a torrent of vocality, that sounded like -the far and near thunder of the ocean’s surges. It was overwhelming. -As if before the spirit of the Nation, the living and the dead; -those whose discarnate beings might seem rushing in upon them from -the viewless depths of space, summoned again to the fields of their -endeavor by the marshall air, hats were doffed in all directions, -until scarcely a covered head among the men remained, and many eyes -streamed with irrepressible tears. The note of a requiem, the prouder -challenge of defiance, the lofty questioning of Hope, the loving -clasp of fraternal patriotism, the aspirations of a race, solving -“in the foremost files of time” the problem of the world’s political -creed, seemed blended together, in the avalanche of sound. And it was -maintained to the end, even the verses of the national anthem were well -remembered, and that trying and unattainable high note, like the scream -of the eagle, which closes the lips of most singers in dubious apathy, -was now sustained. The President sang lustily, and then he stopped, his -head bowed; he might have been in prayer. It was noticed by all and it -almost seemed as if the music quailed and sank before the mystery of a -man’s outpoured petition to his God. - -It was over. The music ceased, the frail voice of the chairman sounded -its quavering invitation to prayer, and a clergyman arose and droned an -invocation. The President was introduced and stood forward. He was well -in view. One hand grasped the railing before him, the other clutched -some separated papers, he looked well and the man’s vitality, his -zealous unmitigated self exaction were realized. As he was seen, the -tumult rose to a tremendous climax, cheers rolled forward and backward -like the fluctuating billows of a sea; they receded to the outer -margins far toward the Hagerstown road, where they vanished in murmurs, -they crashed inward in volleying thunders, and the President stood -erect, nerved to a steel-like rigidity; the air was swept with flags, -the intoxication of the emotion increased, women palled before it, and -men grew pale with the delirium of sudden enthusiasm. It seemed as if -music alone could lead them back into the resignation of attention. It -was a stupendous tribute. The man to whom it was given, had no reason -for misgiving, no retributive judgments for his actions, to dread. -Slowly, very slowly the cheering and cries died away, and then ensued a -silence as remarkable and as impressive. The two contrasted states of -the multitude might have been interpreted as a generous invitation to -the man to speak, and as a judicial reservation of mind as to its own -verdict when he had spoken. It almost seemed so, and the quick heart of -the President might again have felt the palpitation of a doubt, whether -he stood approved, or a critical people withdrew into the refuge of -an impartial scrutiny. Leacraft felt all this, and he could not help -also feeling a curious interest in the purely psychological enigma it -presented. - -The President was speaking; his voice reached Leacraft thin and sharp: - -“My friends,” he began, “To-day we celebrate again the brave deaths -of brave men, and the sacrifices they made for the maintenance of our -common country. And we are gathered together on the battlefield which -more than any other battlefield in that historic war, represented the -culminating energies of both sides, the last vital contention for -the mastery. These men left behind them the inestimable example of -fortitude. And after the battle of Gettysburg it was more difficult -for the southern man to continue the fight, in the face of disaster, -with a depleted country behind him, and a foe flushed with victory, -and drawing upon almost illimitable resources, than for his northern -brother, for whom at last the tide of war seemed to have turned. We -to-day need the lesson of this fortitude of the man in gray. - -“My friends, a disaster has overtaken us,”--the crowd before the -President seemed to compress itself in a further effort to get closer -to him, “and it is our duty to remain firm and unfalteringly confident. -I can scarcely doubt that you all have heard that nature has destroyed -the Nation’s work. The face of the earth at the Isthmus of Panama is -altered. Our work, our expenditures, the lives of thousands of hard -working men have been sacrificed, and we stand aghast before a natural -revolution unequaled in our day, unparalled perhaps in all the annals -of history; something which in its wide devastating power, crushes our -pride, and for a moment makes us cease to think, to plan, to build. I -come to you this morning with strange tidings--tidings so unspeakably -great in their influence upon our knowledge, that I almost hesitate to -pronounce them, lest I might find myself the victim of some horrible -and wicked hoax. The Isthmus of Panama, from Quibo Island in Montijo -Bay, on the west, to the confines of the valley of the Atrato River -at the edge of the Columbia, on the east, is deviously, here with a -regular movement of depression, in another place with violent shock, -sinking beneath the waters of the opposite encroaching oceans that -swings backward and forward on either side in awful tidal deluges. - -“The latest news confirms all the previous reports. Slowly, surely, -even with hastening steps, the narrow neck of Panama, with its -shallow shores, its long exposure of swamp and mud flats, with its -crumbling hills, covered with tropical life will be engulfed, and the -two continents of North and South America will return to a pristine -condition of geographical autonomy. It is hard to believe. I cannot -recount to you the wonderful pictures, terror-inspiring, and yet -majestic with the majesty of Nature’s awful deeds, which have been sent -to us. The loss of life has been considerable, but not proportionate -to the stupendous agencies involved. After the first earthquake -upheavals, the quickly succeeding disappearance of the solid ground -furnished an adequate warning, and the populations along the canal-way -at the villages and camps, and at Aspinwall and Panama, retreated to -the hills, and with them the animal life, in a singular copartnership -of fear. It is now regarded as certain, that we are about to see the -last vestiges of the canal itself, the work of these last four years -disappearing in the folding in and submergence of the rock strata.” - -The President then told the story of the catastrophe as it had been -narrated in the despatches received at the White House. He painted in -graphic words the shaking down of the hills, the dislodged blankets -slipping from the hill sides like a shawl from a shuddering woman, -carrying with them the crashing trees, the jungle growth, the entwined -tendrilous creepers and vines, while above the trees, swaying toward -each other and then outward as if following the crests and troughs -of hidden waves, above these tottering trees, the birds in screaming -volleys rose and fell. The bared rocks showed rents, and tremendous -explosions sent their shattered fragments into the air, while long -weird groans issued from the ground as if the buried foundations of the -hills were undergoing the tortures of mutilation. In other places it -had been quite different. The ground slowly seemed to melt away, and -with a sort of shuddering succession of chills the land disappears. -How long, how much further this swallowing up of the land will go no -one can tell. But it has seemed to those who have some knowledge of -the region that it may embrace the S shaped Isthmus only, and that the -tapering ends of the bulwarks of elevation in the Rocky Mountain chain -on the north, and the Andes on the south will resist this degradation, -that Costa Rica on the north and Columbia on the south will rudely -define the north and south edges of the new avenue or gateway of unions -between the oceans, that the new canal in this way, reconstructed -by the titanic convulsions of nature, will become a wide and useful -passage for commerce. - -The President indulged the evident curiosity of his popular audience -in a scientific discourse. His own interest was evident. He discussed -earthquakes; he plunged into an essay on volcanoes; he spread -luminously before the people the theories of the pear-shaped earth, -the slipping of faults, the loading of the earth’s crust, the original -formation of the deep creases in the earth’s surface, which now held -its gathered waters. The President made a model expositor. He was clear -and interesting. His style, his illustrative similes were attractive -and deliberately helpful. It was almost amusing to note the contrasted -effect of this improvised academic demonstration upon the people and -upon the political sages of the platform. The former were attentive and -absorbed. Their faces lit up with the quiet pleasure of intelligent -appreciation, frequently at some pungent expression that pictured to -them in stirring forcible photographic phrase the stifling struggle of -land and water, the fierce unrest far down there in the tropics, which -was unsettling the foundations of the earth, and slowly establishing a -new order of things, pregnant with revolution in the day and fate of -nations, carrying in its geological material insensate womb of meaning -the dissolution of states, the upset and consternation of rulers, -a menace to civilization, the ruthless unwavering threat to human -accidents and institutions. - -To all this the political magnates listened with bored indifference. -They expected a party appeal, some appetizing bid for popular suffrage, -a shot at the South, a resounding puff for the Republican candidates, -a public acknowledgement of their personal industry in securing the -re-election of himself, new projects of expenditure, and a programme -of national expansion. They turned and twisted, and some deliberately -slept or engaged in low conversations with an expressive irony of -shrugs and smiles. - -The President paused, his hands came together, and he leaned far -forward, and a moment’s hesitancy marked the termination of his -scientific periods. He continued, with sudden earnestness and vigour, -with almost self-surrender to the impetus of his thought: “My friends, -these are the facts, and no lamentations can change them. We must -learn from the courage and devotion of the men who left this field -defeated, to face this new predicament, not with resignation, simply, -but with the constructive determination to seize this new turn in -events and force it into our service, to make it only a more complete -realization of our first designs. This is the triumph of Opportunity. -Thus shall we wrest from the confusion of chance its empire of the -fitting moment, and drive its scattered impulses into the straight, the -narrow path of our strictest needs. The canal as a commercial necessity -cannot be eclipsed or abandoned. The original project is replaced. -Replaced by something greater, more permanent, more cosmopolitan. It -becomes no longer a provincial fact, a national asset simply. It is a -feature of the earth. - -“What exactly has happened, how complete is the transformation no one -exactly knows, but if the assistance of engineering is still to be -invoked it can only be in a way of a help to nature. The facts remain. - -“And now my friends a stranger possibility confronts us, nay it lifts -up a sinister and awful, an ominous portent for the leading nations of -the world. It seems likely that this physical alteration may mean a -change in the climate of the older portion of the earth.” - -Again the President launched into a scientific lecture and he was -fortunate, as at first, as alertly careful, as broadly popular, as -adroitly technical, without obscurity. It was well received. And its -conclusion was altogether wonderful. Leacraft had good reason to listen -with all his ears. - -The President described the contrasted temperatures of similar -latitudes in Europe and America, how England on the latitude of -Labrador was warmer than New York which found its Adirondack -mountains--chilled in the depth of winter to almost forty degrees -below zero--on the same degree as southern France; itself the type -and synonym of warmth. He made it clear how the thermal flood of warm -waters upon the shores of Europe--heating the drifting airs above it -till, laden with moisture, they too added their gifts of rain and -warmth to Great Britain, and the shores of Scandinavia; how this Gulf -Stream, a wayward impressionable wandering river pushing past Florida -with a cubic capacity of seven hundred thousand cubic feet of water in -half a second of time, and, held in its fluctuating course by the laws -of gravity, how this marvellous oceanic flood, controlled the material -conditions of England’s greatness; grasped, as it were, in the filmy -fingers of its webbed and spreading tides, its wealth, its maritime -supremacy, its intellectual distinction, its domestic thrift, and sunny -sweetness. And then the President ended, and Leacraft bent forward, -gripped the railing before him with sudden fierceness, a knell -strangely appalling sounded in his ears, a portent widely distracting -and unreasonable drove the color from his cheeks. - -The President ended with these words: “The Gulf Stream whipped into -violent activity by the south east trade winds beats impetuously upon -the islands of the West Indies, washes the beaches of Central America, -and whirls its spinning tides within the Gulf of Mexico, and then, -repulsed by the continuous shore lines of North America, returns to -Europe bearing its mantle of verdure to be thrown over the hills, the -capes, the valleys the western edges and islands of the Old World. -But now the barrier is gone. The Gulf Stream before the strong and -rapacious winds is no longer turned aside by impossible walls of land -but triumphantly sweeps into the Pacific, and with it vanishes the -glory of England. For ourselves it means singular disaster though it -may bring compensating changes. If England disappears as a world power -we are robbed of a friend, we have lost a market. What words shall -measure the moral meaning of the first, what revenues express the -yearly increasing value of the latter. We stand on the threshold of a -New Era.” - -The termination of this remarkable address was its most momentous -and unexpected announcement. As the President sat down, there was -no applause, just a ripple of clapping hands as a half-hearted -recognition of an invariable habit. The speech had been utterly -robbed of political significance, despoiled of rhetorical or personal -emphasis, it failed entirely as the usual thing in public oratory, -and it left behind it an oppressive sense of impending changes. -The President seemed depressed by his own vaticinations, and those -around him, chilled into anxious forebodings, sat stiffly silent and -unresponsive. The moment was saved from intolerable embarrassment by -the band. - -The leader stepped forward, waved his baton and the solemn strains -of America--the transplanted hymn of England--rose plaintively, -like a prayer; to Leacraft it sounded like encouragement, like -sympathy. Someone began to sing--hats came off, the guests rose, and -the multitude sang. If the Star Spangled Banner had been exultant -and triumphant, thronged with the memories of achievement and -victory--America throbbed with supplication, and underneath the -supplication, the fervor of allegiance, sacrifice and love. The -peculiar awkwardness of an unusual, an unique predicament, was removed. -The speakers following the President made no allusion to the Canal, -and all the marvellous happenings far away in Central America. They -led the people’s thought back again to the soil they stood upon, to -the memories of a glorious past, to the hopes of the future, the -realization of the present tasks, the reiteration of the nation’s -wealth and happiness, its strength under misfortune, its illimitable -resources. They were successful. The pall of misgivings which the -President had invoked was lifted. The band broke out again with -reassuring liveliness, and good humour and holiday satisfaction revived. - -Then came a procession through the Reservation to Big Round Top and -back again on the lower ground past the Devil’s Den, and over the -Emmetsburg road to Gettysburg, and in the clamorous excitement, -the parade of uniforms, the brilliant atmosphere, congratulations -and convivial indulgence, all the President’s words became clouded -and unreal. And if the Isthmus was covered by water, if the Gulf -Stream was deflected, if it meant blight for England, what of it? -The United States would only become greater--its magnification would -be unquestioned, boundless; the stars in their courses worked for -them, and the mutations of the earth’s surface only brought to them -unrivalled aptitudes for new chances, for new power. - -This was said a good many times by a good many kinds of men, and the -intangible something it suggested, by repetition, assumed the force -of demonstration. There was a distinguishable forgetfulness of the -disasters that had come, and a listless thought of those that were -threatened. A few observant and reflecting minds brooded over the -strange catastrophe, and yielded an attention to their implications. -This attitude sprang from knowledge, and in the case of Leacraft from -a personal interest in the singular sequence of events which the -President portrayed, and which even the placidity of an Englishman’s -confidence in his destiny failed to contemplate as injurious fiction. -It was a thing to be reflected upon, at least, and added its sombre -influence to deepen the gloom of Leacraft’s disappointment. But it -also gradually developed for him a remedial efficacy, not simply as -a spurious employment for his thoughts, but through a substantial -relevancy to his emotional needs. - -Leacraft’s mental inclinations carried him towards speculative -forecasts. He had cultivated his predilections along all sorts of -scientific horoscopes, and had enjoyed the indulgence of his fancy -in studying nations and inventions, with a view to composing a plan -or description of their future condition, phase and expression. He -had arrived at some curious results, but they represented solely -the changed surface of society, in its industrial, civic or social -states, or else, in their more immaterial flights, pictured the -enduring alterations of religious or philosophic systems. In all -these speculations he had quite neglected the physical constants of -the world, its climate and topography. His thought engaged itself -with the mechanical structure of civilization, as affected by new -discoveries, allied with an increasing utilitarianism, in which the -individual vanishes before the imperious supervention of the State, the -incorporated multitude, the abstract Wisdom of the most knowing minds, -influenced by a solicitous paternalism for the Whole. - -But now he found himself confronted by a new exigency, the geological -interferences of Nature, and it piqued his curiosity, it assailed his -fancy with indubitable fascination. By reason of his intellectual -proneness to these questions, which quite deeply occupied his mind, he -felt at this moment that the tremendous and supreme chance of his own -mighty nation, succumbing to the accidents of a tidal caprice might -offer him an alternative refuge of interest which would help to dull -the pain of his misfortune. So convulsing a spectacle as the pitiless -war of nature upon the embedded bulwarks of a great commercial nation’s -prosperity, terrified him as a possible historical fact. Above all, it -terrified him as a British subject. It became so overwhelming in the -magnitude of its effects that he shudderingly admitted to himself that -his love for Sally suffered a relieving diminution, as though in such -events the End of the World seemed precipitated, and all human ties -became obliterated, were dissolved. - -The day closed in resplendent beauty. The sun curtained in a haze, -shed a diffused glory through the upper sky, and sank at last in a -grating of narrow bars of cloud, that lay across the west like reefs -of gold, slowly transmuted into a purple nimbus upon the faintly -turquoised ether. The great crowds dispersed, the troops escorted the -President away, and music from near and far seemed to mingle dreamily -with the mute harmonies of the sunset. - -The Garretts, with Mr. Leacraft and Brig Barry, returned that night by -train to Baltimore. The night proved a sleepless and excited one for -Leacraft. He felt ill at ease. There was much reason for uneasiness -and heartache, and the hours passed in a dull series of mournful -reflections upon his own trouble, and the immodest threat of nature at -the prestige of his people. - -The next morning he entered the library and found Miss Garrett bending -over the morning paper. She looked up as he appeared in the doorway, -and there was for both a moment’s hesitation, before the morning’s -greeting passed their lips. It was Sally who first spoke, and her voice -was eager with alarm. - -“Mr. Leacraft, the President’s lecture--surely, it was nothing else--is -all here. And there is more news from the Isthmus. The land is sinking, -all sinking, and”--she turned to the paper--“almost all the canal has -now disappeared beneath the assault of the waves, and a stormy waste of -waters sweeps across the Isthmus of Panama. Isn’t it simply fearful? -And nothing can be done.” - -“Miss Garrett,” answered Leacraft slowly, his eyes sadly resting upon -her face, grown more beautiful, he thought, by the dwelling of a tender -fearfulness in her eyes, “it is a fearful thing; an occurrence such as -this is a pretty sharp shock to our sense of security. I can’t forget -the President’s words. As an Englishman I really contemplate coming -events with a positive terror. But there is something else, Miss Sally, -I beg to speak about, another sorrow for me, though I must not permit -my selfish regret to cloud your happiness.” - -Sally Garrett came quite close to Leacraft. She had a true estimate -of his strong and dignified nature; she yielded the just homage -of affectionate regard, but her heart had never been moved by the -Englishman’s impressive seriousness. Leacraft was about to speak -again when voices were heard approaching, and among them the vigorous -intonations of Brig Barry. Leacraft stopped, and a shadow of suffering -crossed his pale face. Sally understood too clearly. She put out her -hand and seized his, and pressed it kindly, and Leacraft understood her -sympathy. - -Brig and Ned Garrett came into the room, and soon the discussion of the -strange events taking place at the Isthmus occupied the group, to which -in a few minutes Mr. and Mrs. Garrett were added. - -Leacraft shortened his visit under the pretext of an engagement in New -York, and it was years after that he again saw Miss Sally Garrett--then -become Mrs. Brig Barry--after the stupendous facts on the following -pages had made the Kingdom of Great Britain part of the Frozen North. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE EVICTION OF SCOTLAND. - - -Alexander Leacraft was standing at a window in the upper story of the -Caledonia Railroad station in Edinburgh, November 28th, 1909, and -was gazing with fixed and tormented eyes upon an unusual scene. The -sky beyond Carlton Hill was leaden grey with the blear dullness of a -snow-laden atmosphere, and a singular and menacing bar of half-eclipsed -red light, like a cooling bar of incandescent iron, shone with -irregular palpitations through the descending sheets of snow. It was -a strange and appalling picture. Already a week’s precipitation had -filled up the deep moat of the Princes’ street gardens, choked up the -tracks of the North British Railroad, mounded the ragged edges and -wandering parapets of the Citadel, until its outlines were effaced in -a colossal accumulation, like a titanic snowball, and a long incline -of spotless snow sloped to St. Cuthbert’s Church, itself half buried -in the powdery blanket. The blurred lineaments of Calton Hill, so -familiar and so beloved by Scotchmen, were uncertainly descried, the -Nelson monument, the unfinished peristyle, the mediaeval ranges of the -penitentiary, the cheese box summit of the observatory (already the -large group of buildings on the Pentland Hills had disappeared from -sight), and the classic sombreness of the college fascade. Had Leacraft -been near at hand, he would have seen that the monument to Scott--the -tribute to one fame by the aspiring genius of another, dead before fame -had quite enrolled him in her categories--was deeply buried, and that -the inclined head of the Wizard was quickly vanishing under the piled -up pillows of billowy snow. - -Alexander held a field-glass in his hand; the window at which he stood -was open, and the snow blowing in upon it had raised a mound about -his feet. The observer was, however, oblivious to this invasion; he -leaned far out, and turned his inspection from point to point with -rapid movements and obvious anxiety. A curious thing was happening -immediately below him, and astonished him. In the leafless branches -of the churchyard trees had gathered a vast concourse of crows, and -the black-feathered congress was being momentarily augmented by new -arrivals streaming in from all quarters, too evidently dislodged from -more natural and habitual resorts. Their discordant cries seemed a -melancholy symbol of doom. An awful silence otherwise possessed the -Athens of the North. It was practically a deserted city, and its -desertion was only part of a widespread calamity which now had begun -the shocking chapter of national eviction. - -The usual hum and bustle of the streets had gone; the tramcars no -longer trundled through its streets, and a half-hearted effort to make -a path along the centre of Princes street accommodated a few distracted -pedestrians and official retainers, yet unwilling to join the army of -migration which had slowly moved away from a city, that the pitiless -rigor of a new dispensation in climate had doomed to a wintry burial. - -Alexander Leacraft himself awaited reluctantly the departure of a train -of emergency which was expected to carry away the last remnants of -Edinburgh’s population. He had come to the unfortunate city freighted -with misgivings, when the news reached London--itself experiencing -peculiar vicissitudes--of the terrifying severity and earliness of the -winter in Scotland. He recalled his forebodings, which the President’s -speech had awakened, though the later reports of the complete reversal -of the Gulf Stream into the Pacific, and the accomplished destruction -of the Central American Neck of land had already stirred the scientific -minds of England to the utterance of half-hearted warnings. - -The matter had now suddenly loomed up into a frightful reality, and the -devastating storms sweeping out of the black heart of the north, had -brought Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland into a common fate of -extinction. The sheltering power of the Gulf Stream was removed from -Great Britain, and the frost of the Arctic world, so long repulsed, -but now no longer compressed within the Arctic circle, expanded with -instantaneous certainty, spreading the shroud of its killing cold over -the same latitudes in Europe that for ages had slept beneath its spell -in America. - -The population in part of the north of Scotland had escaped by means -of ships to other countries or to southern England. Many villages, -isolated houses, and remote districts had suffered cruel hardships, -and the entombed bodies of thousands of families waited for a recovery -which perhaps only in ages “yet unborn” could come to them. The white -burden of snow mantled the valleys and hillsides of Scotland, the -higher hills of the Trossachs, and the Grampians, the defiant crest -of Goat Fells in Arran, and the twin peaks of the Island of the Holy -Mount. Enormous drifts had risen in white waves almost to the summit -of Bruce’s monument at Sterling, and the old Abbey of Cambuskenneth -had disappeared. Ice of great thickness prevailed in the Clyde, and -the movement of the tides had forced it up in threatening hummocks -upon the drab stone cottages and villas of Greenock and Gourock. From -Aberdeen to Leith the cities had been slowly deserted, after desperate -efforts to free them from their entombment. The trains going south -to England were loaded with the rich contents of mansions and summer -castles; agonizing scenes had been witnessed at a thousand points where -the heart-broken people sadly turned their backs upon all they had, -and all they loved and knew. Heroic rescues were as numerous as the -occasions demanding courage and inflexible daring had been frequent. -Throughout Great Britain the trembling soul of the nation shrunk upon -itself with a nameless dread, as it suddenly found its existence -confronted with the inexorable processes of nature, when the appalling -and relentless squadrons of the Ice King, with vengeful speed, issued -in all the fierce panoply of wind and hideous life-killing cold, from -the last tenements of their abode, to slay a prosperous and proud -people. - -Europe felt a sickening doubt as to the permanence of its life and -works, and the autumn brought the shrewd and eager fingers of the cold -into the streets and houses of Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Antwerp, -Amsterdam, Ostend, Havre and even Paris. Attention to the vaticinations -of science was mingled with the prophetic denunciations of religious -frenzy. Pallor marked the features of the rulers of the people, and -speechless stupor had seized the common people, who looked to the -skies in pitiful confidence that their misery and desolation would -touch the heart of that inscrutable Providence, who, reigning beyond -the stars, held the reins of the winds and the bit of the frost in his -multitudinous omniscience. - -But in England, and especially in Scotland, at the opening of the -dreadful winter, the precipitation of snow had attained monstrous -proportions. For four weeks the vault of the skies had been thick with -falling clouds of snow. - -Leacraft left the window and descended the solitary halls, no longer -swept by groups of tourists, to the street. A broken crease in the -snow banks offered him a precarious access to Princes’ street. It -appeared almost obliterated in places, at others it seemed a narrow -slit between threatening walls of snow, that almost toppled over it, -while blinding storms of fine particles, hissing over the undulous -surface above, at times poured into the compressed chasm, filling it up -many feet in a second of time. Abandoned cars, stalled one behind each -other, for a block, both on Princes’ street and under the Castle, in -the Lothian road, had become the refuge of the workers, and some were -made into improvised hospitals and camps. A few relics, half-starved, -and fainting with fatigue and exposure, were being treated with rough -consideration in these accidental retreats, which, buried under snow, -resembled caves, the feeble light of oil lamps and candles yielding a -flickering illumination through the dull chill gloom within them. - -Leacraft made his way with difficulty to Princes’ street, and groped -along the aisle that cut the street in two. Here he discovered a -phalanx of men with sledges and mallets, who, by dint of passing to -and fro, without clearing away the snow, were compressing it into a -sort of solidity that gave a firm footing. With the continuous fall of -snow, and the abrupt windfalls of snow drifting into the cut this path -was rapidly rising, and was also most irregular in its outlines. At -some points it rose high enough to permit anyone walking on it to see -above the adjoining banks of snow. One of these elevations was directly -opposite Hanover street, along which formerly ran the cars to the -Botanic gardens. Leacraft had reached this spot and stood an instant -upon the commanding back of pounded snow, looking with amazement upon -the silent waste around him, the sunken gardens to the south marked -by a wide superficial depression, with their terraces on either side -outlined in shoulders of white. To the north, up the low hill that -culminated in George street, he saw the houses on either side buried -as high as their second stories in the snow, from which their attic -stories emerged like titanic gravestones. The statue of George IV. had -become the centre of a rotating whirl of snow that kept the nether -limbs of that potentate from the encroaching crystals, but had carved -out an inverted cone in the packs around him, whose curling edges hung -over like cornices about the strangely excavated bowl. It was at this -point that Leacraft’s ears caught a distant sound of mingled cries--a -piteous union of a woman’s voice, quickly succeeded by the more robust -shout of a man. The sounds seemed to rise and fall. They were at times -almost lost in the rising roar of the wind, or reduced to ghost-like -semblances of sound, and again they came with the clearest impact on -his ears, the shrill scream, the longer resonant “Hallo,” or “Help.” It -was impossible for him to determine whether the cries were answering -each other, or whether they indicated a mutual and consentaneous peril. - -He was not alone in their detection. A number of figures--those of the -men engaged in keeping the paths open--all sheeted like ghosts with a -pellicle of icy snow, had slowly gathered about him, drawn together -by this weird summons. A distinct horror possessed them. There was -somewhere in the immobile and voiceless streets before them at least -two perishing lives. Could they be found? Could they be extricated from -their rising tomb of snow? At times the voices grew fainter, as if -their subjects were surrendering their vitality to cold and exhaustion, -and then again they sounded in the approaching darkness--there were -now no lights at night in the doomed city--more appealingly clear as -if by a despairing struggle of strength they hoped to prolong their -fruitless invocation. No one spoke. Leacraft broke the silence. - -“We must save them,” he said. - -“It’s nae canny wark to do,” muttered one of the shapes nearest to him. - -“But it’s a grewsome matter to let them dee that wa,” urged a second. - -“Weel, weel, they’re nae the farst. The country side is as fu’ o -corpses as a crow’s gizzard o’ oats,” admonished a third. - -Leacraft had been listening. He felt sure that the sounds proceeded -from somewhere on George street, a little to the eastward of its -intersection with Hanover. He suspected that the fugitives had taken -refuge in St. Andrew’s Church. He turned to look at the muffled forms -about him. “If two of you will help me, with snow-shoes we can reach -them.” - -There was at first no response, only a protesting shrug, and a -disposition to avoid any direct refusal by moving away. Leacraft -spoke again. “The snow packs easily; we can get there on snow-shoes -in a short time. There can be no danger. These unfortunate people are -imprisoned in the church, I think; there’s a woman there; the man needs -help to get her out; he probably could break his way over here, but he -can’t drag her with him, and he won’t leave her. It’s murder to turn -our backs on them.” - -Leacraft was alone, save for the presence of the second speaker. The -rest had disappeared, and the thud of their mallets and the rattle of -the sledges acquainted him with their distant operations. - -“Meester, I’ll gie ye a haud. There’s snaw-shoes down the track in a -tram; I’ll hae them here in a jiffy.” He vanished down the long cut. - -Leacraft called after him: “Bring two bottles of whiskey. You can use -my name for them at the hotel.” - -While he waited for the man’s return, Leacraft outlined a possible -avenue of approach to the imprisoned couple, if couple it was. He could -indistinctly see--the day was waning--that on the west side of Hanover -street, by reason of the north-westerly direction of the storm, the -housetops had formed a partial protection to the street below, and -that the heavy ridged hill of snow occupied the centre of the street, -lurching over against the west. Up the short slope this partial shelter -continued, but in George street, beyond, the storm drove scurrying -blasts of wind that whirled the snow upward in fantastic pirouetting -volleys, and, doubtless, with wicked intent, had piled the drifts up -in insurmountable entrenchments against the doors of the buildings on -that street. The prospect of progress there was discouraging. Still -there would be ways; the renewed calls nerved him to desperation. - -The volunteer returned with the snow-shoes, a pair for both of them, -and an extra pair for the imprisoned man, and the bulging bulk of three -bottles of whiskey. He explained the latter excess: “They gied me the -thraw, and I had no heart to haud the ither back. Let well eneugh -alone, I say.” - -“Now, my brave friend, we must know each other’s name, though we shall -not be separated, as we must be tied together. But men working in peril -become close companions,” said Leacraft to the man. - -“Weel, sir, it mak’s sma’ difference what name we go by, but, an’ you -like it, just ca’ me Jim.” - -Leacraft opened one of the bottles of whiskey, and handed it to his -companion, who eagerly accepted the invitation, and took so hearty a -draught that Leacraft felt some misgivings over his usefulness. The man -explained: “Ut’s no dram habit I have, sir, but the cauld ha’ gone to -mee bains, an’ the wee drap pits fire in my sperit. It’s bonny stuff. -It’s nae mickle harm to keep the fires burning in a blast like this. -Tak’ my advice and do the same yoursel’, sir.” - -Leacraft was indeed not unwilling to follow this example, and thus -reinforced, the two men plunged into the snow banks that with -irregular surfaces of hills and valleys spread before them. They -floundered desperately forward, finding that the snow-shoes were -indispensable, and the precaution of being tied together most helpful. -The calling voices, with intermittent pauses, were still heard, and -both Leacraft and his companion exerted themselves to return the calls -with reassurance. It was evident that they had, at least at times, -been heard, for the distant shouts became timed to their own, and this -indication of recognition served to strengthen and increase their -efforts. The work was difficult, and with recurrent accesses of the -storm’s fury, the snowy wreaths, detached from the cornices of the -houses, or whirled from off the edges of the tumultuous drifts, blinded -and overwhelmed them. Fortunately, the wind came in gusts, and it was -this circumstance that permitted Leacraft first to hear the voices. -Between the wintry assaults of the wind, in the pauses of its fury, -they stumbled on, forcing their way under the shelter of the western -houses, and, at the corner of George street, struck boldly out towards -the monument, where Leacraft had discerned the inverted cone of snow. -The cause of this formation was now apparent, and rendered their -further progress more precarious. The wind surged down George street, -and by a slight deflection in its course from the axis of the street -itself, was thrown into a vertical motion at the corners of Hanover -street, and became a cyclone, whose towering and fiercely moving walls -were materialized to the eye in the successive shells of snow raised -in oscillating spires above the tops of the houses, where it again -was seized by the direct wind and sent in dusky masses skywards. The -picture of George street at this point was appalling enough. The snow -lay deeply piled in the street, forming a high central ridge, and -crossing this obliquely were traverse drifts which had a slow motion -down the street towards the Melvill memorial; these even at times -coalesced, assuming the aspect of a big comber at sea, and advancing -with similar menace. When these snow billows flowed into the depression -about the statue, they filled it, and then the revolving winds, like a -gigantic and invisible augur, excavated it again, tossing the snow out -in spurts resembling the geyser-like bursts in front of a snow-plough. -At such moments it would have been almost impossible to have crossed -the spot, with the buffeting wind shaking with flagitious fury the -folds of snow about the traveller and entombing him also in their -rising sheets. - -Leacraft and Jim had just reached the eastern edge of the hollow -described above, when one of the travelling billows of snow poured -into the pit on its western margin, and the impetuous blasts began to -dislodge the inrushing tide with incredible velocity. The shocks of -snow overwhelmed the rescuers, and for a moment it seemed as if the -contest between them and the fury of nature was too unequal a struggle. -The support of the snow-shoes held them fairly well above the snow, -but this onslaught knocked them down, and once down, the industrious -drifts hastily began their entombment. To speak was impossible, and -all Leacraft could do was to jerk the rope which connected them, as -a summons for Jim to reach him. His purpose was obvious. Together, -one or the other might make such a purchase of his companion as to -extricate himself, and then assist his friend to rise. Jim understood -the suggestion of the pull, and groped his way forward, and touched -Leacraft, whom he found prostrate. His body offered a flooring for -him to rise upon, and in this way he regained the surface, his head -emerging into the blustering air. He quickly established himself and -hauled Leacraft upward, who expected the movement, and had drawn his -knees upward to help him regain his feet. The two men were now again -upright and in action, but terribly exhausted and half immersed in the -snow. The wave had passed and reformed partially after its disruption, -while its north and south wings, which had escaped the passage of the -pit, like white breakers, moved on before it. - -A simultaneous motion with both, which had something almost comic -in it, and would not have, under different circumstances, escaped -receiving its tribute of merriment, brought from the pockets of each -the whisky bottles, that quickly contributed some of their contents -to the renewal of their ebbing strength. As they carefully replaced -the helpful vials, they heard again, but now more clearly, the renewed -shouts of the imprisoned captives, and Jim, putting his hands to his -mouth, screamed with all the force he could put into the effort, -“Coming.” It carried, and something articulate returned, which to -Leacraft sounded like “Come quick!” - -Their strength renewed, the two men began again their brave combat -with the elements, and forced their way across the snow fields towards -the houses on the north side of George street, which furnished a -slight shield against the ferocity of the storm. A helpful lull in the -blast enabled them to make their way more quickly. The walls of St. -Andrew’s Church were near at hand, and all doubts as to the position -of the voices were removed. The calls came very clearly to their ears. -Creeping along the edges of the houses, they succeeded in reaching the -church, and found that, on the back of the drifts, they were then at -the level of its upper windows. The men peered into the darkness beyond -the panes of glass and knocked vociferously. Voices and steps answered -them. The next moment a man’s figure could be discerned advancing, and -then the window opened. Leacraft entered first, followed by Jim, and -both turned to the yet silent figure beside them. His silence lasted -scarcely an instant. “God!” he exclaimed. “You have come none too soon! -We should have died here! There is a young girl downstairs, a friend -of mine. We started for the train, and just in front of the church she -fainted. I drew her in here, as the door was open. A chill followed; I -could not carry her away in this storm, and we were caught. It was our -last chance. I can’t explain now the reason for our remaining so long -behind the rest of the people who have left Edinburgh. We are here. -Can you get us out? I can shift for myself, but Ethel--you see it is -impossible. What--what--” - -Leacraft interrupted. “Explanations are not needed. We must all get out -of this at once. We must take her between us, and fight our way back.” - -Already he had begun to move towards the flight of stairs near to them, -to descend to the man’s companion, when the man seized him by the -arm, passed him, calling to them to follow. They descended rapidly, -and saw on the ground floor of the church, lying in a pew, with a -flickering gas jet burning feebly above it, the figure of the woman -the man had mentioned. She had propped herself on her hand and elbow, -and gazed at the three faces looking down on her, with a frightened, -still expression, in which relief and confidence, however, were not -altogether absent. Jim had already brought out the whisky bottle, and, -with unpractised directness, offered it to the girl. “Here, my leddy; -tak’ a sip of this, and let it be a good one. An’, gentlemen,” turning -to Leacraft and the stranger, “it’s awa’ with a’ o’ us, or the deil -will mak’ our shrouds.” - -Leacraft turned to the man. “Have you snow-shoes?” he asked. “Yes,” -answered the stranger. “Then,” continued Leacraft, “we will start. Out -of the window upstairs. Jim, you go ahead, and I and the gentleman will -carry the lady. Madame,” to the lady, “this is a forlorn trip, but it -will soon be over, and I feel we can trust you to help us.” - -“Oh, yes,” came the rapid reply. The girl started to rise, and her -companion helped her quickly to her feet. The party was ready, and -without further words the four ascended the steps, made their way to -the window, and after one glance at the raging weather outside, another -reassurance for all from the indispensable bottles, the plunge was made. - -The two fugitives, if such was a proper designation for them, were well -clothed, and the risk of exposure was avoided. It now was a question of -physical endurance only, and partly, too, of some possible leniency in -the weather. Already their previous steps were thickly buried in the -flowing tides of snow, and Leacraft and Jim noted with apprehension -that the wind seemed fiercer, and the way back towards Hanover street -blacker and more obscure, with volleys of snow dust thrown upward in -increasing clouds. For a moment the party hesitated, and Leacraft and -Jim both seemed over-awed and perplexed. Almost at the same moment they -cast their eyes towards the corner of George and St. David streets, and -saw to their wonder and delight that the front of the Commercial Bank -building was relatively clear of snow, and the intimation furnished by -its appearance was that the way was more open on St. David street and -that in that direction egress and safety lay. - -“This way,” was the laconic order from Leacraft, and they turned -eastward. Leacraft and the stranger, who had given his name as Thomsen, -supported the woman between them, and she was directed to throw her -arms around their necks, and the sense of support to this frail girl, -whose face, terrified and pale from weakness, yet had revealed to -Leacraft a winning prettiness, made both men alert and strenuous. An -obstacle of some seriousness stood before them; two heaped up mounds -occupied the centre of the street. It was between these mimic hills -that they made the fortunate discovery of the comparative freedom of -the opposite corner, as it was in a measure the interposition of these -very barriers that kept it so. But the passage--the cleft--between -these mounds, that somehow seemed rigid points, underwent startling -alterations. It was filled up with avalanches of snow, which at almost -regular intervals were driven out by the massive wind pressure, and -the dislodged bodies of snow were seen to spread out toward the south -on the opposite side of the mounds from the observers’ position, in -geyser-like spouts. It was necessary to thread this pass, but it would -be inevitable danger if they were caught in one of the recurrent -avalanches. Sinister as the chance seemed, it must be taken. And -towards this triangular cut they slowly moved. Jim was in front of the -little group, which, sheeted with snow, with bent heads and in silence, -resembled Arctic explorers, as they are pictured bringing in some dying -or exhausted companion. - -The wind was somewhat behind them, though in the collision of the -reflected waves from the houses on the south side, the vexed air shot -about them in a hundred contradictory directions, and held them in a -tempest of draughts. And now they were at the northern slope of the -mounds; the cut was open; it had been cleared a minute before. Through -it they saw more plainly that the bank steps and the corner of St. -David street presented more favorable conditions; a dash and they -would effect their escape. Leacraft had not failed to notice that the -intervals between the inexplicable down-rushes of snow into the gap, -were about three minutes, and that something more than that time -elapsed before their expulsion. He whispered to Thomsen, whose fatigue -was becoming too evident, “Keep up, sir. Once through this hole, and we -are safe.” - -During all this time since their entrance through the window of the -church, Leacraft and Jim had remained tied together, and the strong, -steady haul of the workman upon the rope now greatly assisted Leacraft, -who was quite sensible that he must largely depend on his strength -at this critical moment for their preservation. It was certainly no -exaggeration to say that as they entered that rather inconspicuous -gateway, between two snow drifts in George street, Edinburgh, in -November 1909, they stood on that metropolitan thoroughfare, in the -Jaws of Death. The simile may sound and look shockingly untrue. It is -the exact truth. The white inclines rose on each side of them, and -the width of the wintry embrasure was about twenty feet; in less than -a minute even with their lagging steps they would have crossed it. -Suddenly Leacraft felt himself pulled sideways; only the rope stretched -tightly between himself and Jim saved him from falling, if falling -it could be called, where they were so immersed in snow. Thomsen had -dropped in his tracks and with a low cry of fear the woman’s arm -slipped from his neck and she clung convulsively to Leacraft. It was -critical. In a little more than two minutes they would probably be -buried--which at this stage of exhaustion meant death. Leacraft tugged -savagely at the rope, and the surprised Jim, almost thrown on his back, -returned. A glance told him everything. Leacraft, without speaking, -nodded to the motionless figure, beginning by reason of the icy chill -smiting his face from the snow, to stir, and seizing the girl, passed -on. Jim managed to jerk Thomsen to his feet, and half holding, half -pushing him, hastened, lest Leacraft should feel his weight on the -rope, and be hampered in his own struggles. It was slow work, the -snow-shoes, so essential for their safety, could only be painfully -shoved forwards beneath the snow. It was like wading in deep water but -it was a likeness enormously enlarged in difficulty and strain. - -They had not pushed through the miniature defile when symptomatic -showers of snow drifted in upon them in blinding columns. The avalanche -was coming. The terror stricken Alpine climber, who, behind some serac -on the lofty glacier, has his ears assaulted with the roar of the -descending avalanche, in no literal sense has greater reason for fear -than did those men in the streets of Edinburgh at that moment. - -Leacraft shouted, “On! On! On! One second and we are lost!” This -despairing cry was not ill calculated to spur their efforts. The very -agony of fright it summoned in the two men behind him gave them the -strength of desperation. For one instant the spent muscles became -steel. They floundered forward, and fell together almost in one heap -beyond the portal of the two mounds as the swirling snow in torrents -obliterated their outlines in new envelopes. Their fall toppled -Leacraft over on his side. The confused objects, looking like some -assortment of discarded bundles lay quiet, the darting cold had brought -with it the treacherous drowsiness into their eyes, and had already -begun to lock the keyholes of their senses. It was Jim who had roused -himself to action. He struck Leacraft across the face with his gloved -hand, and did the same to Thomsen, whom he again lifted to his feet. -The smart of the stinging blow startled Leacraft on his legs; his nose -bled, and he could feel the woman still stiffly clinging to him. It was -Jim who now uttered the warning, “Get out o’ this. I hae the lugger -all right. Get down to the bank.” Leacraft looked quickly. The bank -steps were beneath them, and the vagaries of the storm alternately -covered and cleared them of snow. Half rolling, he pitched down the -slope, following Jim, who had his arm around Thomsen’s waist, and who, -supporting himself on Jim’s shoulder, was manfully helping his rescuer. - -In a few minutes, with staggering steps and frequent falls, the four -gained the protection of the bank. This refuge acted favorably. Their -spirits revived, and the whisky flasks assisted. Their attitude toward -the storm became a little defiant. “We can do it now. It’s only a step -around to Princes street. Ethel, how do you feel?” It was the young -Scotchman who spoke, and the young woman even smiled as she answered -“O! Ned, we shall be saved! How can we thank this gentleman?” “Excuse -me” blurted out Leacraft, “we won’t waste time just now in an exchange -of civilities. The opportunity for that formality will come when we are -all out of this.” - -He stepped almost impatiently to the edge of the building and found -that a narrow crevice intervened between the drifts and the walls of -the houses, and a further inspection revealed the utterly unexpected -good luck, that this peculiar chimney way extended along the west side -of St. David street to Princes street. Their safety seemed secured. -In a few minutes after this welcome discovery, with careful steps, -Leacraft insisting upon the Scotchman and himself lifting the young -woman together, with Jim leading, the party slowly crept out and along -the buildings on St. David street, and in a short time had reached -Princes street, where more arms, vigorous legs, and robust bodies -helped them through the shooting drifts into the open rift, that the -men and sledges were still precariously maintaining. - -Leacraft hurried Thomsen and his charge to the hotel; he turned to Jim, -and grasped his hand fervently, “You’ve been a true man, Jim. I shan’t -forget this. Every one leaves Edinburgh to-night by the train. I want -you in my compartment. This young woman and her friends will be with -me. I’ll find you at the hotel before the train leaves. Watch for me.” -As he spoke, and before the expostulation on Jim’s lips was uttered, a -long hoarse whistle like a wail came to their ears. It was the warning -of the trainmen fearful to delay longer their departure from the doomed -city--and with it, hurrying steps, shouts and injunctions along the -cut, indicated its recognition. - -“Come with me,” cried Leacraft, and together the men ran forwards, -towards the Lothian road, finding themselves as they advanced in a -jostling crowd, animated by but one hope, escape from the buried -capital. - -The condition indicated in the foregoing narrative, may now be more -explicitly reviewed. The dislocations and subsidences in the Caribbean -and Central American areas had developed along constructional lines, -and had swept away the lesser Antilles and the Isthmus. - -These formerly elevated points were simply projections upon two -orogenic blocks of the earth’s crust, one extending from South America -to Porto Rico, the other the narrower coastal shelf forming the -isthmus. More plainly, these remarkable strips, curved in outline, -and with a varying length of four hundred to five hundred miles, -maintained a precarious stability with references to the adjoining -edges against which they abutted, and when a shock, violent enough to -rupture or release those edges, supervened they fell _out_ and _down_ -like a brick or stone from an arch. When the more eastern of these -blocks, that on which the lesser Antilles stood, dropped, the oceanic -heated currents of the equatorial belt of the Atlantic rushed into the -Caribbean basin as usual, but with a perceptible acceleration. The -currents did not meet the frictional resistance of an archipelago of -small islands. Their progress westward continued, through the almost -simultaneously created outlet into the Pacific, by the submergence -of the isthmus. Upon the first report of President Roosevelt’s -apprehensions that this catastrophe would involve a disastrous -diversion of the Gulf Stream, European geographers had contemptuously -treated it as impossible, and stigmatized it as “an amusing futility -of envy.” They dwelt upon this fact, that the Gulf Stream did not -invade the bent arm of water forming the eastern water boundary of -the Isthmus of Panama, but shot across this somewhat withdrawn angle, -passing with undiminished volume in a straight path beyond Honduras, -into the capacious pocket of the Gulf of Mexico. “Let it be conceded,” -began an authoritative refutation in the _London Times_, “that the -structural impediment to the mixture of the waters of the Atlantic -and Pacific existing in the Isthmus of Panama is removed. Does -mixture follow? By no means, that is in no way subversive of present -hydrographic conditions. There will be a marginal intermixture, of -course, where there is actual contact, but it is presumptuous and -opposed to experience to say that two enormous bodies of water will -promiscuously exchange their contents through an opening, relatively -to their volume and extent, what a pinhole would be to the juxtaposed -masses of two great reservoirs. Further, this _disinclination_, as a -physical impossibility, of the waters of the two contiguous bodies of -practically equal density to diffuse into each other, is increased -by the strength and velocity of the Gulf Stream itself, which rushes -past the isthmus deflection, and instead of being turned aside into -that narrow aperture, would exert a suctorial influence upon the tides -of the Pacific, actually (though this is in no way insisted upon) -reinforcing its own volume and momentum by their contributions. - -“There can be no valid reasons for anxiety in regard to the future of -the kingdom so far--and that is very far indeed--as its prosperity and -happiness depend upon a continuance of the supply of warm waters from -the west.” - -The writer of this article in the _London Times_ had not realized, or -had not heard of, the elevation of Cuba and the emergence of the broken -range of keys between Cape Gracias de Dios and Jamaica, nor had he -considered the “suctorial influence” of the Mexican current in the -Pacific, southward on the west coast of Mexico and Central America upon -the Atlantic areas, nor had he suspected the quantitative effect of a -higher barometric pressure in the Atlantic over the pressure resident -above the surface of the Pacific, a difference practically amounting to -a push upon the surface distensions of the Atlantic in the direction -of the Pacific, the very moment a _sensible_ union between them took -place. And it was a _sensible_ union. His comparison of it to a pinhole -was utterly misleading. Above a certain minimum, no matter what the -size of the major bodies of water were, relatively, connection between -them meant, under the circumstances, mixture, and a hole four hundred -miles wide was much above that minimum. At the very moment when he -penned this astute demonstration, the Gulf Stream had begun to throw -its seething waters across the sunken isthmus. And the effects followed -with startling rapidity. The author of the consoling reflections -quoted, perhaps had hardly had time to have forgotten the obsequious -reception his words received, when his admiring listeners were brought -face to face with the worst consequences he had considered absurdly -impossible. - -The summer in Great Britain had been noticeably colder, and with the -passage of the autumnal equinox, the winds increased in strength, -and brought with them a terrifying cold. All records were broken, and -the sinking thermometers withdrawing their silver threads into the -diminutive bulbs, became suddenly the chief subjects of conversation. -The corridor of the Houses of Parliament, the state room of Windsor, -the clubs of Pall Mall and the parlors of the West End, no less than -the alcoves of London Bridge, the shops in White Friars, or the -auction stalls of the Ghetto, buzzed with the endless comparison of -observations made on these hitherto unnoticed instruments of precision, -and their slightest variations took precedence in the daily prints, -over the aphorisms of the prime minister or the nullities of the king. -An enormously increased sale of thermometers accompanied the sinister -records of the deepening cold; importations of them from the United -States spread an unprecedented wonder throughout the world as to the -meaning of this change in climate, and the range of temperature, as the -season advanced, was as much an object of solicitude as the growing -expenditures of London, and more talked about than the fancied rupture -between Spain and France. Meteorological journals were besieged with -subscribers; Abbe, Loomis, Ferrel were as much in demand at the book -stores as Glaisher or Thomson; Flammarion was as popular as Tyndal, -and the lectures delivered at the British Museum had such suffocating -success that the Red Cross Societies of London conceived the idea -of public instructions for a tuppenny, to replenish their forgotten -treasuries. The pedestrian and the chance acquaintance of the tramway -would interview each other on the prevalent topic of alarm, and quote -Wells, and Boussingault, and Daniel, and Quetelet, Forbes, Helmersen, -Kamtz and Kupffer with more unction and accuracy than he did the -current prices of wool or barley. - -The fright began in the north, in Scotland. News first arrived from -the Hebrides, of desolating cold and overwhelming snow storms; then -the story was picked up by the Shetlands and Aberdeen, and then the -really tragic fate of Iceland was recounted. The cable between Scotland -and Iceland, completed in 1906, brought the tale. And a freezing -tale it was. Iceland had become a snow heap; its interior valleys -were filled up, from Heckla to Skaldbreid; from Skaldbreid to Esja -one portentous blanket of snow had levelled all inequalities of the -surface. The terror stricken inhabitants deserted their farms and -fought their way to Reykjavik, leaving all they possessed of sheep, -cattle and horses to be destroyed by the pitiless tooth of the Ice -King. Reykjavik had been deserted; its people fleeing to ships and -steamers as the remorseless winds piled up the white shrouds of its -Arctic burial. The cable summoned assistance for those yet fighting for -life on the water’s edge, where the sea air helped them to maintain a -margin of cleared ground. Over ten feet had accumulated, and ceaseless -blizzards, unchecked, and even increasing in fury, with a tireless and -killing cold, had renewed the ice age within that boreal republic. The -panic spread. From confidence and scorn the people of Scotland and -England and Ireland plunged into the clamor of despair and maniacal -forebodings. Religious fraternities of “Frigidists” were organized, -whose exegesis made the prophecy of the End of the World a menace -of destruction by ice. Geikie’s _Ice Age_, and Croll’s _Climate and -Time_ were read by earl and bellboy, and in the midst of the general -consternation, the publishers of these books, in cheap form, doubled -their business capacity and their fortunes. - -Then came the sudden visitation of Edinburgh, with the scenes just -recounted. The transference of these immense swarms of people, the -evicted tenants of the north (poor creatures who had never owned -the land they lived on except by the sufferance of some landlord -duke or “gentleman,”) southward, was a task of difficulty. Sir -John C--, was provost marshal of the city at the time (his father -before him had held the same office), and had devised a scheme of -goodly proportions and efficacy. He appointed wardens, who, with -assistants selected by themselves, visited the families in the several -bailiwicks in Edinburgh, and prepared them for the departure, and -who also apportioned to the different wards of the town the streaming -populations from all the neighboring villages, towns and the country -sides. The railroads were seized by the government, and systematic -transportation, begun and carried on night and day. They were taken -to the larger seaports of England, and of course to London. Already -secret misgivings that chilled the marrow of their bones, and made the -blood circling in their hearts freeze with horror, were entertained -by public men, that perchance this was not all, nor indeed the worst. -Was the power of the Kingdom of Great Britain to be made the jest of -the snowflake and the ice-cicle? The thought made reason totter, but -new gleams of anticipation seemed suddenly to place upon that very -thought the consecration of joy. They should be driven from their -hearthstone to bring the English culture in other English lands, and -emancipated men--men of the new type, like H. G. Wells--said that that -culture, torn from the swaddling bands of a conventional tradition, -the silly materialism of forms and dresses, of titles and classes, of -imperialistic gew-gaws, and the impediments of habit, would expand -into a modern civilization, which, carrying forward all the strains -of strength, and imaginative and ideal aims, it had before, might -incorporate in them the new procreative life of a liberal social state. -Well! there was some consolation in that, but a consolation robbed of -much positive consistency when all around them they saw the loss of -trade, the paralysis of hope, the desertion of homes, and the rising -threats of that inexorable and deaf deity--Nature. - -Leacraft had watched and waited. Every new development, each changing -report, the wearily studied logs of the ships and steamers, the -daily averages of temperature and rainfall, the swelling disorder in -the climate of the United States, and confirmed rumors of the hot -current--which might be the Gulf Stream--pouring, pouring northward, -and hugging the shores of California and Washington and Oregon, and -even repelling the cold from Alaska, supplying a stove to its shores, -which, it was promptly surmised, would make of it a northern paradise, -all, in a cumulative way, pointed to one result--the evacuation of -England. His speculative mind hurried on to the picturing of the -changed aspects of the national life, and he felt that for once -Science, embodied in the laws of Nature, was about to put to flight the -mentality of men, and pour the vials of its confusion over the proud, -the boasting defiance of their thin optimism. And yet--what might not -Opportunity perform? Perhaps the old receptacles of civilization needed -emptying; their garnered seeds to be more quickly cast upon the winds -of chance to germinate and flower again in the waste places of the -world. And Leacraft hurried to and fro--a small inherited competency -had dissolved his business bonds--a lonely, sad man, excited by the -thoughts of the world’s trembling position on a new threshold of -events, and thus forgetting the gnawing pains of his own disappointment. - -During September he had been at the far north of Scotland, and -retreated day by day with the invading cold, fleeing with its fleeing -people, southward. On the memorable evening whose events have been -rehearsed, he had found Edinburgh practically voided, and left to its -entombment. The work of getting the people away, of convincing the -incredulous, of providing for the needy, of deporting the treasures -of this great depository, had been hastily and imperfectly done. In -spite of Sir John C--’s useful plans, it could not be different. -Disorder, recriminations, riot and clashes were inevitable at a moment -of such sudden penetrating terror. Blocks after blocks of private -homes remained with little or nothing of their rich contents removed. -This condition was understood, and predatory bands of desperate men -broke into them, encamped in them and defied expulsion. They laughed -at warnings, and after filling their improvised camps with coal and -stores, prepared with exultation to enjoy this novel debauch. Furniture -and household effects had been dumped or deserted in the streets, and -almost any extemporaneous digging in the drifts would uncover books, -clothing and utensils. A grotesque hogarthian aspect had been produced -by the retreat of the cats to the houses, and their mingled swarms at -windows and on sills, whither they were strangely followed by hordes of -mice and rats, expelled from the country and filtering into the city -in scampering lines before the weather had reached the height of its -tempestuous inclemency. - -The documentary archives of the city had been locked up in great safes -and left for more propitious days--in summer? This example had been -imitated in thousands of the better class houses, as the professional, -the _official_ opinion, still hesitated to contemplate the monstrous -alternative of a permanent sepulture of their beautiful home. - -One thing had been accomplished, and it was well done. The people, -those who would leave, had been gotten away. When on the tenth of -September the first storm of snow began, and the mercury sunk to -a few degrees below zero Fah., the suffering became intense. Soon -the railroads were blocked. Enlightened opinion had received its -instructions. The return of Scotland to the bondage of snow and ice was -published, and the publications carried conviction to a great many. -The loss of the Gulf Stream was at length acknowledged. The impetus -of the discovery made the worst prophecies credible. The intensity of -this acquiescence was astounding. It became a matter of faith that the -population should vacate their own city, and they obeyed instructions -unanimously with a touching self-surrender to fate. Great numbers -left Leith by boats and steamers summoned from London. The railroads -responded with promptitude, though, by reason of a sudden access of -energy in the government, nothing less would have been tolerated, -longer than was necessary to confiscate their property and franchises. -The phenomenal desertion of the city by three hundred thousand souls -seemed as fore-ordained, as obligatory in the regime of events, as the -setting of the sun, or the return of the seasons. - -But no activity of all the available means of transportation would -have sufficed to take a population of more than three hundred thousand -men and women in less than two months away from the city, unless it -had been supplemented by other means. And a strange and most effective -movement accomplished completely what more recondite or artificial -methods would have failed to secure. The “Frigidists,” the group of -fanatical preachers and their followers, who found in the present -calamity an opportunity for a religious propaganda, or, through the -fermentation and clouded expectations of their own zeal, believed it to -be the expression of a supernatural agency, had begun a street crusade -(always in Edinburgh popular and familiar) to accomplish the removal -of the people. These singular fanatics served a most benevolent end, -and their strange hallucinations wisely aided the anxious efforts of -the authorities. They arrayed themselves in white, and went bareheaded -through the streets of the city, exhorting all who would listen to -accept their interpretations of the approaching judgment. They wove -their texts of prophecy with denunciations of sin, and with the -crowding evidences of some astounding climatic change, repeated with -accelerated eagerness in paper, pulpit and forum, they acquired a -tyrannous control over the emotions of the populace. - -Then they quickly, and with excellent discernment, organized the -people into small regiments, distributed to them white cockades and -white rosettes and marched them out of the city, southward, over -the frozen and snow-lined roads. This evacuation began scarcely -soon enough for the best results. But it gave relief. These moving -companies, accompanied with vans and horse carts, and vehicles of every -description, gathering numbers along their way, grew in picturesque -confusion, as flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were united to them, -or the miners from the coal pits, and the artisans from the factories -joined in the vast, singing army. - -Like the inexorable morality of the French mobs in the French -Revolution, who scornfully resisted the temptations of their -own hunger in a fierce zeal to protect private property, so an -overmastering enthusiasm permeated those rough Scottish nomads, and -they marched through the country rigorously just and honest. There -was suffering and death among them, and nothing could have been -more sublimely pathetic than the improvised services of burial that -were held from time to time along the roads they crossed. Those who -heard its vibrant and powerful melody will remember the eclipsing -magnificence of the hymn, sung to the air of _Adestes Fideles_, which -began with the words: - - “Firm, faithful and tried, - With endless glory crowned.” - -The success of these “Frigidists” was phenomenal, but it also clearly -arose from the awful portents of change which made the stoutest men -quail, and not inaptly tested the scepticism of the boldest scoffers. -The revolution in Nature had not only affected Scotland; its dire -effects were felt in the whole of the Scandinavian area, and the -more southern parts of Europe, which had owed some measure of their -favorable winters to the direct or intermediate influence of the Gulf -Stream, were now made to feel their sudden penury in its removal. - -A frightful stagnation invaded the European markets; a panic of doubt -spread confusion everywhere, and those who controlled the sources of -money, very soon checked its use in the avenues of trade, while of -necessity speculation and the desire for speculation simultaneously -vanished. - -It was the last train intending to leave Edinburgh that, on November -28th, waited for the Provost Marshal, and the little army of workers, -and which Leacraft also expected to take. The tracks southward had -been patrolled by trains of cars or locomotives for every five miles, -and these had kept the way cleared, while they reinforced each other -at critical junctures. When this last connection between the muffled -city and the south should be broken, then practically Scotland -returned, over the sweep of sixty thousand years, to a geological phase -_resembling_ that which Geikie, Scotland’s own great historian of -nature, had described in these words: “All northern Europe and northern -America disappeared beneath a thick crust of ice and snow, and the -glaciers of such regions as Switzerland assumed gigantic proportions. -This great sheet of land-ice levelled up the valleys of Britain, and -stretched across our mountains and hills, down to the low latitudes -of England, being only one connected or confluent series of mighty -glaciers, the ice crept ever downwards, and onwards from the mountains, -following the direction of the principal valleys, and pushing far out -to sea, where it terminated at last in deep water, many miles away from -what now forms the coast-line of our country. This sea of ice was of -such extent that the glaciers of Scandinavia coalesced with those of -Scotland, upon what is now the floor of the shallow North Sea, while -a mighty stream of ice flowing outwards from the western seaboard -obliterated the Hebrides, and sent its icebergs adrift in the deep -waters of the Atlantic.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE TERROR OF IT. - - -Leacraft and Jim reached the hotel at the Caledonian station, in a -crowd of breathless men, all anxious to escape to more reassuring -neighborhoods. Thomsen and the young lady so opportunely rescued had -availed themselves of the restorative resources of the hotel, and had -largely recovered from the exposure and scare of their experience. -Leacraft met Sir John C-- standing at the entrance of the hotel, his -face clouded with grief and anxiety. Strained to the last limit of -endurance by his unwearied exertion to secure the safety of the people, -and almost prostrated by the desolating sorrow of deserting the great -city, the distinguished publisher expressed in his looks his intense -misery of mind. Leacraft expressed a few words of condolence, which -were hardly noticed, and then hurried to the former writing room of -the hotel, where he found a fire burning, and a hastily prepared -luncheon, around which a dense crowd of men were collected, filling the -room almost to suffocation, greedily devouring the welcome repast, and -muttering doubts of their eventually escaping at all if they remained -any longer. - -“Sir John hates to get away,” commented one. “He just can’t make up -his mind to go. His heart is broke. But what’s the use? We can’t stay -here and be buried alive. The trainmen say it’s a hard job now to get -through, and all the way to Glenarken is full of big drifts. I say we -must shake this, and it’s nobody’s right to run our heads into danger -for the whim of a little love for the old town. Sure, we are all hard -enough up, and it’s we that has not got a roof to our heads, nor a bite -to our stomachs that has the worst to fear. It’s a cruel sufferin’ to -think of it at all; but so it is, and it’s no use fashing.” - -“Weel, weel,” said another, “it’s an awfu’ plight, and naebody can say -what’s next. We maun better be dead than to pit our heads in a pother -of snaw and wait for next simmer to melt us out.” - -“Simmer, man, is it!” exclaimed a rough cart-man with a huge ham -sandwich in each hand, and his jaws working on the remnants of their -predecessor. “Simmer! It’s all up with the simmers frae now to the end -o’ the warld. It’s bonny Scotland good-bye, and mind you, man, you’ll -never see gorze again on the Queen’s Drive, I’m thinking, and you’ll -never tak’ your bonnet aff on Arthur’s seat, nor pluck the daisy on -Holy Rood mead. You’ll never canter to the Pentlands, nor hear the sang -of praise go up frae the Roslin chapel, and you’ll nae hear the bell -toll frae Grey Friars kirk, nor mark time wi’ the Hielanders in St. -Giles’, and you’ll never bide the chance when you can see old Hay’s -shop in High street, nor watch the middlings stare their een out at -John Knox’s hame. It’s ower by naw,” and the good fellow turned away -in a choking effort to repress his own tears, and swallow the generous -morsels he had bitten from his overloaded hands. - -Leacraft pressed by these disturbed groups, and found, after he -had inducted Jim to the hospitalities of the various tables, his -own strength and composure deserting him. He sank into a chair and -covered his face with his hands. It seemed as if he had lived through -some dreadful nightmare, and the weird and sickening sense of yet -more miseries, rising thick and fast, covering with gloom a nation’s -happiness, stunned him. - -A soft voice awoke him. He looked up hastily and saw the lady whose -arms, half an hour before, had clung unresistingly around his neck. -She was unquestionably very pretty, and the returning flush upon her -cheeks gave the alabaster clearness of her brow a singular effrontery -of beauty. Elsewhere, or under different circumstances, it would have -produced in Leacraft a momentary suspicion of artifice. As it was, it -held his attention long enough for him to notice that the hair covering -her head luxuriantly was a raven black, and was gathered beneath the -hood of a soft brown sealskin fur, which clothed her form, while two -wonderful opal bracelets, relieved with ruby jewels, in alternating -links, most incongruously graced her wrists, the gloves on her fingers -were evidently distended by rings, and a superb necklace of diamonds -and peridots encircled closely her neck, seen through the half-opened -cape. Leacraft rose mechanically to his feet, still conscious of -effort, and looked wonderingly at the young face, and at that of her -companion, Mr. Thomsen, the Scotchman. - -“My cousin and I”--the voice was exquisitely gentle and -expressive--“can never repay you. It is a slight thing to say to you -how much we thank you, but it is not impossible that we can both yet -show you our gratitude in some manner that will mean more than words, -mean as much for you as your sacrifice meant for us. Is not that so, -Ned?” - -She turned to Mr. Thomsen, who advanced and accosted Leacraft with -courteous alacrity. “I am sure, sir, you appreciate our sense of -devotion to yourself. You extricated my cousin and myself from a -certain and dangerous imprisonment. It might have been something more -dreadful. And perhaps,” with a reluctant gaze at the young woman, and -a smile of understanding for Leacraft, “you may wish to understand -better how the perilous predicament you found us in occurred. It was -very simple. This lady, Miss Ethel Tobit,” Leacraft bowed, “was left -with myself, her cousin, at the home of her father and mother, on Pitt -street, to complete the packing of a quantity of valuables which were -at the last moment to be placed in a safe and left there for recovery -later; it does now seem as if that word was a poor mask for Never. We -had brought food for the house, and felt no fears of escaping before -the streets became impassable. Then this last storm broke, and this -afternoon, late in the day, we started out--but we had waited too long. -My cousin sank under the exertion; I was disabled by a fall, in which -my side was seriously bruised. We took refuge in St. Andrew’s Church, -whose doors stood providently unclosed, though to swing them out I -had to dig with my hands a crevice for their movement, in the rising -snow banks forcing them constantly back. Our vigil began. The city in -all directions around us was deserted. We could hear the workers on -Princes street occasionally, in the lulls of the hurricane, and the -whistle from the station sent thrills of anguish through us, as we felt -we should soon be alone in an empty city. It was as impossible for -us in our crippled state to return to the house in Pitt street as to -reach Princes street. We then began calling, and it was you, sir, who -responded. I think hunger and thirst would have made it impossible, -even in the day, for us to have left our retreat, and only the--” - -“Don’t, Ned,” cried the quivering girl; “don’t don’t! It’s too awful -to think of. We need all our best spirits as it is--but to think--Oh! -it’s too horrible!” And she hid her face against her cousin’s breast, -and broke into sobs. Leacraft felt the embarrassment, and was ill at -ease, though somehow at that mournful moment the sight of a beautiful -woman seemed a compensation, and in this case, as she lifted her -tearful face to Leacraft, piteously struggling to smile, it awoke in -him a kind of ardor to be always near her. He looked almost tenderly -at her and said: “I think I have every reason to thank my good fortune -and this remarkable weather for a very pleasant adventure. Well, No!” -he continued, as he caught the reproachful and grieving glance of Miss -Tobit, “that is too cynical. Heaven knows we are all broken-hearted -enough to-night to relinquish any false gayety, or even the appearance -of it, but certainly, Miss Tobit, I hope this chance acquaintance will -establish a friendship between us. It will be the only compensation for -this night of agony, and perhaps for all the other nights of agony that -still await us. You will not refuse it?” - -Miss Tobit turned instinctively to her friend, and Leacraft, betrayed -into an earnestness perhaps somewhat out of place, had a fleeting -glance of an evanescent smile, and then the words, even more sweetly -spoken than at first, came to his ears: - -“It would be all your own fault if we fail to be friends. I am sure I -can keep my side of the contract.” - -Mr. Thomsen watched this brief exchange of promises not altogether with -approval, if the faintly forming frown on his face meant anything, -and the evident inclination to take Miss Tobit away from Leacraft’s -proximity. But he was entirely courteous, and with a half-whispered -comment that, “It would not do now to tire their benefactor any more,” -he moved off and drew the lady with him. And then the summons came from -the other end of the room that all was in readiness, that Sir John was -on the train, and that the attempt to reach the south was to be made. -There was much confusion and some indecent precipitation to gain the -door, and in the rush Leacraft lost sight of his newly made friends, -but found, to his great satisfaction, Jim at his side, for Jim had -turned out to be that sort of a fellow that meets predicaments with -coolness, and quietly, without words, instills confidence. - -Leacraft was a little nettled over his seriousness with Miss Tobit, -because it revealed again to himself that prosaic stiffness of language -which he consciously recognized as having formed an element of failure -with Miss Garrett, whose plastic wit found in it a source of amusement. -He walked towards the door, wondering bitterly why women placed so much -value on a turn of speech, or the accent of a compliment, when his -musing discontent was interrupted by a hand laid on his arm. He turned -around and saw a member of the Common Council of the city, associated -with Sir John C-- in the last days of the city’s government. The -stranger accosted him. “Mr. Leacraft, the Provost Marshal wishes you to -share his compartment. He has a great desire to speak with you on the -affairs of the city, and the dreadful things which seem to be before -us. This way, sir,” and he motioned to a large parlor coach in the -centre of the train. - -Leacraft retained him. Placing his hand on Jim’s shoulder, he said, -“This man goes with me.” The councilman for a moment looked puzzled, -but almost instantly rejoined, “Certainly, sir; your personal -attendants are welcome.” - -Leacraft laughed and exclaimed, “No, sir, this is no personal attendant -of mine. This is only a brave man, whom I am proud to call my friend,” -and as he turned to Jim the latter gave him a glance of the sincerest -gratitude and pride. - -The councilman waived the privilege of questions and nodding -vigorously his assent, led Leacraft and Jim to the car of Sir John. - -It was a car of an American type, and comfortably provided with couches -and seats, tables and easy chairs. A number of men were already in -it, and some refreshments, with the circulation of bottles of Scotch -whiskey, showed Leacraft the unappeasible claims of man’s appetite, -even in the ruins of his own fortune. - -Sir John occupied a chair at a round table in a further corner of the -compartment, and as Leacraft made his way towards him, the eyes of the -city’s chief gazed at him in return with inexpressible weariness and -sadness. Leacraft motioned Jim to a seat, and took the proffered hand -of Sir John, who let his arm fall heavily on the table, and still kept -his eyes fixed on Leacraft, motionless and silent. It was Leacraft who -first spoke: - -“I think, Sir John, that it was a few years ago that I secured your -intervention for a poor fellow who was condemned offhand, and you were -willing to help me turn the law back in its course, that it might have -an opportunity to find out what it was made for--murder or justice.” - -“Yes, I do recall it, and, Mr. Leacraft, do you know,” replied Sir -John, “that that day seems unmercifully far away. It seems as if you -and I lived then in another world, and as if we perhaps had died, and -were living in quite a different one now, and one very much worse, -however bad the old one was. I am too dazed with all this. I feel as -if I must wake up and find it all a horrible nightmare. But there can -be no excuse for self-deception with me. I have studied this question. -I am one of the most convinced that Scotland is doomed. Yes,” and the -speaker straightened himself with a movement of exhaustion, “that -England is doomed, too, that we are about to see primal conditions -returning which are normal physiographic states, but which will destroy -our civilization. Listen,” and as Leacraft sank into a chair near -him, he leaned again upon the table and spoke with a sort of eager -impatience at his own logic, as if he invited and expected and hoped -for contradiction. “Listen. The isothermals as they existed before -this calamity were a travesty on the map; they were an outrage upon -meteorological symmetry. See here,” and Sir John drew out a portfolio -which he opened on the table before him; he opened it and displayed a -Mercator projection of the world. - -He was about to continue when a shout, which had mingled with it -a throb of grief, like a loud wail, entered their ears--Leacraft -noticed at the moment that the train was moving; it had been moving -for some time. He looked out of the compartment window. “We are -leaving Edinburgh,” his voice sank to a sympathetic whisper, as Sir -C-- suddenly turned to gaze, too, along with all the rest, upon the -shrouded city. - -The snow was falling from a leaden sky, and the mantled city, with its -higher buildings, here a spire, there a monument, like an irregular -mound hiding a burial, was indistinctly, very partially, seen. The men -and one woman--the Scotch girl saved that afternoon from the tomb of -snow--were standing in the coaches, leaning out of the open windows, to -fathom the dull, mottling obscurity of the air, to catch--to be forever -remembered--some recognized feature of the great, beautiful habitation -now left in the on-coming night time, to be buried in the whirling -wreaths. Hidden between its hills, imperishable but unseen, and waiting -for its resurrection again into the joy of life and usefulness--a -dead city, save for those brigands who, like wolves or ghouls, dared -death to fatten on abandoned riches, amid its solemn, terrifying -loneliness! Strange vicissitude! and as Leacraft descried, in a blurred -exaggeration of its natural size, the dome of St. George’s Church, -opposite the Albert Memorial, a voice somewhere among the tearful and -dumb gazers repeated this verse from Burns’ invocation to the honored -and historic site: - - With awe-struck thought and pitying tears, - I view that noble, stately dome - Where Scotia’s kings of other years, - Fam’d heroes, had their royal home. - Alas! how changed the times to come! - Their royal name low in the dust! - Their hapless race wild-wandering roam, - Tho’ rigid law cries out,’twas just! - -Though the train made a toilsome way and interrupted progress, with -steam sweepers ahead of it, the city soon faded away. The eye could -not long pierce that forest of descending veils of snow, the sepulchre -would soon be accomplished, and the spectators shuddered at the thought -of those voluntarily immured and hapless wretches, who had seized this -chance for a few hours’ reckless pleasure, and then--their own death, -murdered by each other’s hand in the furious combat for survival, or -choked with the many fingers of the frost at their necks. And Leacraft -remained at the window still looking, while Sir John patiently waited, -staring at his map, or raising his eyes expectantly to Leacraft, to -resume his attention. - -A bitter thought passed through Leacraft’s mind. Edinburgh had been -faithless. Dressed in beauty, rich in reputation, nurtured in elegance -and culture, she had been wickedly selfish. Her streets were filled -with embruted men and women, with the vassals of drink and depravity; -her picturesque quarters hid misery and vulgar need, unsanitary and -simply mean corners of wretchedness, filled with creatures to whom life -was an uneasy mixture of sleep and drunkenness. She had done nothing -for these. Her life was part of the life of the whole kingdom, and the -word of that life was selfishness, the stupid adhesion to conventional -usage which kept the land from the people, which loaded taxes and -rents upon a slaving many, for the perpetuation of an indulgent and -luxurious life to the few. The upper surfaces of society, brilliant -and dazzlingly sleek with pride, and puffed up with the vanity of -knowledge, cushioned upon a contemptuous forgetfulness of duty, of -sympathy, conceitedly viewing their reflections in Burke’s Peerage, or -Chalmer’s Landed Gentry, begrudging every concession to modern sense -of justice, denying the equality of men, fostering the silly homage of -their inferiors, and rankly gathering around the idiocy of a futile -monarchy. It was a class life, a class gospel, a class cultus, the -arrogance of a classification of the humans of society, which made the -joy of the world the prerogative of those who by birth or fortune found -themselves foreordained to possess it, and who now--God willing--would -fight every inch of their vantage ground to keep that advantage, -believing that a fine suavity of demeanor, a generous support of -fashion, a supercilious deference to education as an aristocratic -embellishment, a pretentious clemency of judgement and an unfailing -church attendance, would save them before any supernatural tribunal--if -indeed such a tribunal existed--of particular blame. Those among them -yet endowed with the pulses of human feeling, gentle in spirit and -blessed with the better sentimentalities of religion, visited the -poor, and dropped lunch baskets at their doors, and assumed the fine -benison of stooping angels--a shallow thoughtlessness which did nothing -for the regeneration of permanent social outrages. The unemployed -might clamor, the poor might continue to multiply, and the young and -ambitious might sail away on white wings to the new life of America, -but the lord and landlord must still remain, because in the sight of -the Lord God Almighty the lord and the landlord are part and parcel -of the eternal order of things, an appanage of His eternal throne -and a reflection of the rule of Heaven. And beneath all this was the -sickly obsequiousness and snuffling adoration of ordinary men, which of -course the lord and ladies despised, but which after all was helpful in -keeping up the distinguished humbug. - -This on its best side, but there was a worse side. There was moral -depravity; there was ruthless wickedness; there was a set so smart -that they defied decency and rectitude, and travelled on the currents -of their passions to all the maelstroms of moral rottenness. The King -himself had violated the measures of sobriety and faithfulness. And -this imposing and historical structure, must now totter to its fall -before the drifting snowflake. Truly the simple shall confound the -wise. Leacraft turned from his melancholy thoughts to the friendly face -of Sir John, who, catching his eye, resumed his conversation. - -“This map will make it quite plain that the position of our nation -as a commercial, as a political fabric, is a geographical absurdity, -a necessary paradox. Look!” and Sir John pinned down the map on the -table, and drew Leacraft down towards its attentive examination. “Here! -is an occular demonstration of our false position, a charted proof that -we are in a wrong place, a spot of possible change, that will reverse -all previous experiences if the right conditions supervene. The change -has come, and Scotland returns to its appointed allegiance. It belongs -to the Kings of the Ice. See,” and he leaned over the map in a kind of -ecstacy of despair, speaking rapidly as his fingers traced the lines -he indicated. “See! consider these enormities. Land’s End and the -Scilly Islands, where palms grow, are on the degree of 50 degree north -latitude, which is the same as Notre Dame Bay in New Foundland, the -same as Manitoba, the same as the most northern Kurile Islands. Do you -know what the temperature of these places are? I will tell you. The -average winter temperature of northern New Foundland is 10 degrees, -that of Manitoba 9 degrees, and that of the Kurile Islands, 12 degrees. - -“The average temperature of Land’s End is 40 degrees. Well, that -may not strike you as a contrast so sharp as to warrant my dire -prediction, but you must learn to see in average temperatures much -more than is simply indicated in the mere differences in degrees. -Averages are utterly misleading, so far as they mean habitable -conditions. A temperature of 0 for six months, and a temperature of 80 -degrees, for the remaining six months furnishes the harmless average -of 40 degrees, but a land suffering from the affliction of a climate -such as that, would be useless for the larger purposes of a civilized -community. Averages produce an impression of uniformity, whereas they -conceal the most obstreperous changes--and a small difference, such as -you observe between the temperature of the Scilly islands, and these -inclement and impossible districts of Canada or Kamtchatka, means that -though all are on the same latitude, they are as diversely adapted -for modern life as the tropics and the north pole. Why are the Scilly -islands adapted for tulips and spring peas, when Manitoba yet sleeps in -snow? - -“From the point of view of a primary instruction in temperature, -hottest at the equator, coldest at the pole, and graded all the -way between; it is a preposterous caprice. It is a caprice. And a -civilization flourishing under the auspices of a caprice, will come -to grief. Climate is a symbol of vagaries, contradictions and sudden -affinities. It is the atmospheric expression for the feminine and the -poetic in men. As a matter of fact contingencies of interfering land -surfaces, of changing barometric pressure, of oceanic tides, of air -currents, of solar radiation, combine into a labyrinth of possibilities -to make places that ought to be cold, hot, and vice versa. - -“But they are evanescent possibilities, and the founders of empires -who rely on them will some day be brought back with stunning, abject -terror, as we now are, to the realization of first principles, that -latitudes are invincible barriers to the diffusion of the race, and -that the nations neglecting their plain meaning court disaster. Well; -you know the explanation of all these whims of nature. The old story; -the Gulf Stream with its millions of units of heat forced northward -by wind pressure, and accelerated eastward by the equatorial velocity -it starts out with, our insular position bathed in oceanic waters, -holding immense deposits of the sun’s heat; the open seas north of -us; the great furnace stores of heat in Africa, like a nearby factory -heating our thin coasts. That is common knowledge--but these accidents -of position, these migratory tides are holding in check invincible -tendencies. Like a child’s push against an evenly balanced boulder -they keep off the descent of disaster, but like another child’s push -in the opposite direction, a sudden alteration of coast lines reduces -our boasted exemption to a shadow, and London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, -Glasgow, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburgh--the great cities of the -world--pay at last the penalty of an infringement of nature’s Common -Law. - -“Heat is life, and cold is death, and no blank optimism may hope for -national achievement in the frosts of winter. Our civilization, the -civilization of northern Europe, has overstepped the limits of climatic -permission, as this globe is made. We are the victims of a deception. -Primary conditions of temperature are returning, a meteorological hoax -is exploded, and 50 degrees north latitude will mean in Europe what -it has always meant elsewhere. But look at Edinburgh, look at these -isothermals on the map, attributing to her the temperature of far -southern latitudes. Too obvious an absurdity to last. True enough. Yes, -but fugitive; an episode only. So flat a contradiction of the economy -of this round earth should never have misled us. And we have had -warnings--” - -Mr. C-- stopped; his agitation fairly choked him. Leacraft sympathized -with the gentleman’s distress. His bitterness of heart had created a -mental hallucination, an unbalanced affectation of epigram. Leacraft -interposed: “Well, Sir John, the empire of Great Britain has no -reason to regret its existence, even if it is based on a climatic -fallacy. There have been some things done in it which no change in -temperature will obliterate, unless the Ice Age is returning and we -all decline into extinction north and south, and the Earth is again -without form and void. You speak of caprices. How can you tell this -is not a caprice, too, a monstrous subterfuge of Nature to teach us -a lesson, letting us come back again when we are better, when we can -feel and keep grateful to Her for letting us live at all. You err in -deduction Sir John. A round Earth exposed to the sun’s heat with a -zenith movement from 23,28 north latitude to 23,28 south latitude, must -exhibit water currents flowing north, and bringing with them equatorial -temperatures. Such a fact is as normal as that the same earth must be -colder at the poles than at the equator. You are involved in a sophism, -because you assume a principle which is imaginary, so far as its -invariable truth is concerned. - -“And what warnings have we ever had?” - -“Warnings!” said Sir John, after a moment’s silence during which he -regarded Leacraft with a guarded hopefulness, “Warnings! Many.” And he -took out a note book from which he read. “The winters of 1544, 1608, -1709, were terrific--the thermometer at Paris in 1709, sank to nine -degrees below zero Fah. In 1788–1789, the river Seine froze over in -November. Then there was 1794–5, 1798–9, when the rivers of Europe -were frozen over. In 1795, the mercury in Paris registered ten degrees -below zero, although at the same time in London the temperature was -nearly seven degrees above zero. And then we have 1812–3 when Napoleon -failed, defeated by the cold rather than the Russians. In 1819–20, in -1829–30, in 1840–41, in 1853–4, 1870–71, during the Franco-German war, -with the cold greater at the south than in the north of France, and -when--this is worth noting--the Gulf Stream was driven backward by a -north wind, and banked up, as it were, at Spain and Portugal; in all -these years there were intensely cold winters, which if continued, and -reinforced by storms, and increased by the disappearance of some of the -helpful agencies that now keeps up our supply of caloric, would mean, -could only mean our extinction. - -“Now as for degrees of cold--I quote from Flammarion--‘the greatest -cold yet experienced has been twenty-four degrees below zero in France, -five degrees below in England, twelve below in Belgium and Holland, -sixty-seven degrees in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, forty-six in Russia, -thirty-two in Germany, ten degrees below in Spain and Portugal.’ These -are Fahrenheit records. These severities tell us our danger.” - -“It seems to me,” rejoined Leacraft, “that they tell us nothing of the -sort. It is a mild madness to misconstrue them so completely. These -extremes of temperatures are far lower than any we have observed, and -yet we have been expelled from Scotland. It is the snow. These endless -heaping torrents from the skies that have driven us out, and they--I -do believe it--will continue; but it has no parallel. Nothing warned us -of this--and as to our climatic safety, it was as fixed as the change -of day to night when, without warning, without precedent, a bridge -of mountains tumbles into a hole in the sea, another bridge rises as -a dam, and either occurrence seemed about as likely as that the moon -would fall into the sun. I think indeed the advantage of a guess might -have lain with the latter supposition.” - -“Well. The snow; you say it will continue,” said Sir John with a sudden -reflex action of revolt. “Why will it continue?” - -“I estimate the probability for that in this way,” answered Leacraft. -“The atmosphere is a system of balances never at rest, unless in -equilibrium, and never in equilibrium except at rare intervals, and -then in limited and favored spots. This state of inequilibrium causes -constant motion, currents, storms, winds and precipitation, whether -of rain or snow, depending on temperature and position. Now the motor -power of the movement in all this atmospheric mass is difference of -temperature, the hot air rising and flowing to the poles, and the cold -air of the poles descending and flowing to the equator. That is the -A. B. C. of meteorological physics. But the revolution of the earth -causes the cold polar winds to blow from the northeast and the warm -equatorial winds to blow from the southwest, that is with reference -to our position in the northern hemisphere. Now if we are undergoing -a progressive refrigeration, the contrast in temperatures between our -latitude and the temperature of the equator increases, and because -of that, the velocity of the wind blowing from the latter increases -too, and the moisture that these winds would have dropped over the -equatorial zones is carried further north, and our annual precipitation -is thereby increased--our snow falls become more continuous and -thicker. Think what the removal of the Gulf Stream means. Croll has -clearly shown that the heat bearing capacity of the Gulf Stream is -enormous. It seems incredible. I recall some of his statements. He -says that the Gulf Stream conveys as much heat as is received from the -sun by over one million and a half square miles at the equator, and -the amount thus conveyed is equal to all the heat which falls upon the -globe within thirty-two miles on each side of the equator; further -that the quantity of heat conveyed by the Gulf Stream in one year is -equal to the heat which falls, on an average, on three millions and a -half square miles of the arctic regions, and that there is actually -therefore nearly one-half as much heat transferred from tropical -regions by the Gulf Stream as is received from the sun by the entire -Arctic regions, the quantity conveyed from the tropics by the stream to -that received from the sun by the Arctic regions being nearly as two -to five. And it is this fact of the tremendous drain that the Gulf -Stream makes on the equatorial regions, those immense manufactories of -heat, that its removal--meaning the sudden abstraction of this heat -or much of it from our latitude--produces a more forceful interchange -in the airs of the north and the south. It produces winds of a higher -velocity, and because of this, the wind coming to us from the Equator -does not so quickly free itself of its contained moisture. Croll has -shown in his splendid work of theory and proof, that the winds warmed -by the Gulf stream are the true causes for our unusual and exceptional -heat above corresponding positions on the western side of the Atlantic -basin. The Gulf Stream gone, these warming winds will bring us heat no -longer. But they will bring us moisture, and in larger quantities, and -then the process of refrigeration over our chilled coasts will turn -that into snow. The snows will be deeper, and they will last longer. In -this way, Croll, defending himself against the criticism of Findlay, -shows that the winds--the anti-trades blowing from the south to replace -the atmospheric emptiness--I suppose we might say vacuum--left by the -descent of the cold winds from the poles, parted with the most of -their moisture in the equatorial belt. Now by reason of their greater -velocity they will not do that; they will reach us much less despoiled -of their watery burdens. - -“Our highlands and our coast position make us natural condensers. -To-day we have a rainfall in the year of about thirty inches. That may -now be doubled. The southwest winds are our most general winds. Out of -a thousand as a maximum, during the year, two hundred and twenty-five -are from the southwest. These are wet winds. And in the same total -there are one hundred and eleven south winds which also carry moisture, -making a possible percentage of one third of all the winds that blow -over us as rain winds, or now by reason of our altered state as snow -makers. But this relative frequency will now be increased. There will -be a longer continuation of the west winds, because as I have suggested -they will be stronger. They are to-day most intense in the winter -months. Our south and southwest winds gather moisture from a wide -expanse of sea, the same expanse from which they formerly gathered heat -from the Gulf Stream was widely diffused over the north Atlantic, both -north and south, for as Croll shows, by reason of a high barometric -pressure somewhere off the west of Maderia and a low pressure north of -Iceland, the tendency of the air south of the English Isles at that -point is to flow north. But these winds are no longer heat carriers. -They bring moisture only. They bear to us through the air the winding -sheets of our burial.” - -The two men looked at each other, and it was a look of anguish. The -sudden cruel dreadfulness, the hideous mutation which might send the -English people out of their land on the strange quest for a new home -crushed them into an emotional inanition. They did not seem to exist. -Their lips lost their color, and only the paralysis of stupor saved -them from breaking down into sobs. - -It was a few moments later that Leacraft spoke. He asked, “And the -people of Glasgow. How did they get away?” - -Sir John Clarke scarcely raised his head and his words scarcely formed -an articulate whisper; “They went by steamers.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -IN LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1910. - - -In the smoking room of the Bothwell Club, on Cheapside, back of St. -Paul’s, London, on February 12th, in the year of grace, 1910, two men -sat in attitudes of earnest attention. A third man older than either -with his back to a blazing fire, whose simulated effect of comfort -arose from the curling tendrills of gas flames that swept over another -simulation of heaped up logs, was speaking with desperate emphasis. He -seldom looked at his arrested auditors, nor indeed moved, except when -he raised his head, and his eyes, strained with a hopeless longing, -sought the gay frescoes of the ceiling, or when, in pauses of his -declamations, he walked to a window and raising the curtain looked out -upon the city, up to the dome of St. Paul’s, which rose like an Irkutsk -igloo above a plain of snow. - -The man was Alexander Leacraft, the auditors were Mr. Archibald Edward -Thomsen and Jim Skaith, both familiar to the reader as rescued and -rescuing, in that awful day of November 28th, when the last little band -of citizens, led by the provost-marshal, had slipped away in the storm -from Edinburgh. Strange things had happened since then: much stranger -were in store. The train in which Sir John C-- and his companions -escaped, had made its way with painful slowness, and before the -English line was reached had stopped repeatedly until it was necessary -to desert it. And then the weary crowd of refugees had staggered on -their way to a distant station, along a country side emptied of its -inhabitants, with the low houses of the country people evident only as -mounds of snow. And, with many struggles, with mutual assistance, with -prayers and suffering, the men pushed on in the closest companionship, -brought by the terrors and dangers of the journey into the usual -unhesitating intimacy of peril. They took each other’s places in the -work of excavation, helped all to flounder and press through the -drifts, divided their company into the weak and strong, and so allotted -tasks that the co-operation of all helped their common progress. Camps -were made in which shelters were clumsily provided, with tents brought -from Edinburgh, and which only the industry of the watchers saved also -from burial in the tossing drifts. - -The frugal meals snatched by chance or at the favorable moments where -inequalities of the ground permitted a more regular distribution and -preparation of food served well enough. Now and then they espied a -deserted house, and into this they crowded, enjoying the heat of fires -made of the wood-work, the floors and windows of the house itself, -while they dried their clothing, changed their shoes, and, gaining -a respite and new strength, salleyed out again into the desolate -landscape with its blue gray skies flaming with crimson, when the day -set, and the snow cleared, and a sharpened icy edge of cold vibrated -like an unseen but intensely realized cord stretched nippingly through -the air. The leaders expected to reach a place called Tway stone, where -a train was in waiting, which would carry them south of this immediate -zone of the greatest snow falls. Grewsome sights were encountered, and -the blanched faces of men turned away from the uncovered sepulchre of -a horse and rider, now a child and mother, and sometimes in the wet -morasses still unfrozen, beneath the towering ridges, the forlorn, -immured body of a young woman with blanketed face and streaming hair. - -Leacraft and Thomsen, with Jim, worked unremittingly with the young -Scotch woman. They patched up a rude litter and they carried her on -this, trudging toilsomely along, and watching her needs. Their care was -affectionate and touching, and soon other strong men offered their -help, for gradually the sensation gained place--so quickly does the -human fancy cling to the vaporous skirts of superstition--that the -girl’s safety meant the rescue of all, that her security carried with -it the common weal. She became a fetich, and they rejoiced in caring -for her, as if contribution to her welfare conveyed its unseen benefits -to all who engaged in the kind ministry. Nor did she fail, with the -living hopefulness of youth, and with her fresh winning loveliness, to -establish a return. Her smile, the lingering gratitude she showed to -all, her own usefulness and ready help at the stop and waiting places -when her eager intelligence watched and directed the provisioning and -cooking, rewarded the toilers. She was quick and resourceful, cheerful -in exhortation and advice, and certainly--to Leacraft--always lovely. -Thomsen had forgotten his first resentment at Leacraft’s apparent -admiration for his cousin. The two men had become very intimate. Both -felt themselves on the edge of new events, which were in part to be -shaped by the blind forces of the earth, and in larger part as they -affected England, by the sagacity and steadfastness of men. They talked -much over these things together. Both were sombre and frightened. The -invincible powers of nature, the unconquerable ferocity of nature which -is deaf to reason, blind to suffering, made them shrink and quail. -To meet its urgency with make shifts was impossible, to resist it -madness; the line of retreat was the only line of escape. They felt -this; the thought became oppressively dominant. They began at first to -hint at it, they ended, quite quickly too, in predicting it with mutual -confessions of dismay. - -Both loved Miss Tobit, yet, as far as appearances went, only the -guardian spirit of her dreams could have told the direction of her -inclinations. Perhaps both seemed to her too dear, too much involved -in the one peril with herself, to stand apart from each other in any -guise or place of preference. Thomsen was the younger man, and he -had the advantage of a handsome face, a fine form and a particularly -deferential tenderness. Cupid and his mother are not slow to give such -gifts their heartiest commendation. But Thomsen was generous to his -somewhat reticent, and, probably not greatly feared rival, the prowess -of beauty is generally undaunted and oftentimes magnanimous. - -When the worst hardships of their journey were over, and in the less -afflicted regions of England, where at the time the snow falls were not -as deep, or the winds as tempestuous, Leacraft had many chances to talk -with Miss Tobit, and he found her extremely affable, well informed and -sympathetic, certainly not endowed with the mischievous drollery and -the roguish merriment of Miss Garrett, and therefore not so piquant, -tantalizing, and desirable, but very kindly and soothing. - -The provost-marshal and most of the party went to Liverpool, whither, -before, many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh had fled, but Leacraft -and Thomsen kept on to London. They found conditions in London full -of fright and trepidation, and the business interests floundering and -collapsed. Leacraft took up his headquarters at the Bothwell Club, and -Thomsen and his cousin found a home at a maiden aunt’s, in Claverhouse -place. - -But much as Leacraft would have craved an indulgence of sympathy and -response, the audience of sense and appreciation, and the agreeable -picture before his eyes of acquiescent if not admiring beauty, the -fatal progress of events in the world of England kept him away from -Miss Tobit more than he wished. These events were far from reassuring; -they were directly and successively catastrophic. Their logic seemed -inexorable; and Europe became rigid with attention as it watched with -most varying feelings of commiseration the tightening grasp of frost -and snow, wind and tempest, upon the destiny of England. Not that an -actual submergence beneath snowdrifts was threatened, a hyperboreal -sepulchre under which every Englishman lay, like the Excelsior youth, -“lifeless but beautiful.” - -No such shocking and shattering misery as had befallen Scotland had -as yet engulfed England, especially its southern counties, but the -darkening days brought more clearly to the observation of the most -recalcitrant and obtuse, the most reluctant and temporizing, the fact -that England’s climate was approaching that of Labrador, that the -restraints of trade would soon become enormous, that its products -would be unmitigatedly diminished and restricted, and that it could -no longer raise wheat; that its railroads, for half the year, would -endure a dangerous embargo; that its population would perish; that -its industries would undergo the most serious curtailment; that -foreign ports would absorb its commerce, steal its prestige, insinuate -themselves, by its crippled resources, into the markets of the earth -in its place; that the ramifications of disaster would penetrate its -social, intellectual and political life, and cloud its mental horizon -with the gaunt and stupid spectres of Torpor and Helplessness. This -monstrous dilemma submerged all minor passions, and plunged England -into the noisiest outbreak of argument, suggestion and panic-stricken -questionings. - -Leacraft buried himself in the questions that now with the more forward -and statesmanly thinkers were coming to the front with relentless -insistence. Amongst these, conspicuously outstrode and outshone -the rest, H. G. Wells, the brilliant author and prophet of the New -Republicanism, whose book had five years before roused an intense and -frightened protest from the servitors of antiquity, and the selfish -lackies of a superannuated and mythical class system. Mr. Wells, with -his trained skill in scientific deduction and the exercised powers of -imagination, with a reckless and defiant desire to unravel the future, -with the slenderest regard for the prejudices of religion or old-fogey -political conservatism, was now half-deluded himself with the sudden -dream of starting the English nation on new grounds. Released from -the impedimenta of ceremonies and ruins, names and titles, furnished -with a _tabula rasa_ where the new ideals of which he set himself up -as a sort of avatar and preacher might most keenly set and develop -themselves, he believed--as in a measure Leacraft did himself--that the -English cultus would put on those insignia of the coming eras which -meant intellectual emancipation, and a social and civil regime where -the greatest happiness and the widest material prosperity would unite, -in which, too, would not be wanting a radical rearrangement of the -relations of the sexes, hinted at in the same author’s later books, -but which again, naturally, by many who followed Mr. Wells a certain -way, was indignantly repudiated. A more dignified and august group of -men--among whom the names of Churchill, Chamberlain, Rosebery, Balfour, -Prof. Stubbs, and Bryce led--had assembled themselves in a council of -deeply concerned and profoundly patriotic advisers. These men secured -a very noble elevation above the wild and unclassified miscellany -of men and women who, with cries, denunciations, nostrums, whims, -hallucinations, guesses and queries, deluged the pages of the _Times_, -stood at the corners of the streets, where such standing was possible -in the hard weather, and preached their fantastic mental wares. A still -more obvious and ear-assailing group were the religious zealots, who -thrive at moments of peril, filling the brains of their listeners with -adjurations, exhortations, prayers, pictures and prophecies, for one -moment doleful with wailing execrations of past wickedness, and the -next piteously shrieking eloquent appeals for repentance and confession. - -The singular and amazing thing in all this was the convinced assent -given to the prediction of Science. Whereas at first the geologists -and the meteorologists belittled and ridiculed the warnings of the -President, they now enlarged, extended and enforced them with a greater -authority, and more illuminated reasoning. Hardly believing that the -people of England would realize this approaching disaster, what it -meant, what steps should be contemplated to escape its worst effects, -how permanent and deep-seated were its causes, the British Association -for the Advancement of Science had resolved itself into a body of -educators. Lectures were given where practicable, leaflets circulated, -letters published in the leading dailies, and a comprehensive -educational crusade started--and with one object--to instill a deeper -dread of the future, a distrust of the possibility of the longer -occupancy of the British Islands, and yet a firm reliance that under -changed auspices of place, the same civilization, with unchanged -features, would still continue to rule the world. - -Parliament was constantly in session, and to it the worshipful English -householder and pew-renter looked with unwavering faith, waiting for -its sublime wisdom and intrinsic patience, to devise ways and means, -and some safe policy of safety. Even the King became earnest, perhaps -a little anxious, as among the most popular doctrinaire plebiscites -was the reiterated need of an abolition of the discarded system of the -royal household. - -From the midst of all this confusion, organized and disorganized -movements, the collapse of trade, the desertion of workers, the -sudden emergence of a thousand voices claiming, clamoring, debating, -the physical wreck of business, the inflamed transcendentalism that -saw ahead of the present moment, re-adjudication, rehabilitation, -renovation of all social wrongs; and with the cruel winter breathing -its desolating rigors, the snow rising in the streets, the poor dying -from starvation or exposure, the steamers crowded to their taffrails, -daily exporting the timid and selfish rich, or the pinched poor, -escaping with a bare competency, to establish themselves under less -penurious skies--from all this there suddenly grew into stalwart and -national proportions, _the resolve to leave England_. - -It grew with a certain flaming ardor of noble hopes and resolves. -It grew also with an agony of doubt. The whole implication of the -idea was grievously wounding to pride, and it strained at the very -heart-string of the English nature. To go away from England was to -become _un-Englished_, to lose the rich heritage of pastoral beauty, -the treasured wealth of historic associations, the spot and home of -literary triumphs, the soil, the air, which by some impalpable union of -efficacies made the English blood and temperament, and which could not -be taken away to make the same fine product elsewhere. The pathos of -it! A nation wandering homeless with its Lares and Penates in its arms, -its face darkened with humiliation; its shoulders, that erstwhile bore -the burdens of states, bowed with the shame of enforced desertion; its -voice, that summoned the freemen of the earth to convocation, silent -with fear, or perhaps broken by the irrepressible echo wrung from its -own anguish, at turning its back on the cradle and the home of its -greatness. - -_And yet it grew_--this same resolve--and eloquence, and poetry, and -prayers, and science, and statescraft united to make it strong and -beautiful, to blend in it the supernatural benisons of religion, the -purified affections of the heart, and the resolute affirmations of -conviction. - -“My friends,”--it was Leacraft speaking from the fireside of the -Bothwell Club, in Cheapside, on the night of February 12th, 1910--“I -think the speech to-day of the members from Scotland in Parliament was -decisive. It leaves no alternative. We cannot hopelessly, in the face -of this modern world’s competition, fight out a narrowing chance for -existence under the conditions facing us. And it is an unmistakable -alternative. Our climate has changed, and the change is irrevocable, -and it is subversive, too. We must go away, taking all that we have -with us. The English nation has reached a sublime crisis. We transplant -our virtues; we will relinquish our failings; we have a world of our -own to choose from, and we are given an opportunity unparalleled in -history.” - -“It’s a great chance to begin all over again,” expostulated Jim. - -“Not at all,” resumed Leacraft, his voice rising with that peculiar -English intonation of tenuity, which often animates their sluggist -accents, if it does not soon soar into nasal squeaks;--“Not at all. -We leave England with not a thing forgotten or lost. The machinery of -our greatness is in our history, and in ourselves; the products of -industry and art, so far as they are necessary fixtures, stay. What -of it--a cathedral, a palace here and there? They often stand for -things it would be best for us to forget, and under which perhaps only -revolution and violence will make us forget, if we remain as we are. -What stirs my imagination, what grows visibly before me”--both Thomsen -and Jim watched intently the fervid Englishman, released into a sort -of mystic clairvoyance--“is a new land which is a physical unit, which -has known no political subdivision, which holds within it no inherited -rages, and taunting bitternesses, as these islands do to-day. Let it be -Australia, let it be South Africa--though there, I admit, is the memory -of a bungle--but we enter it a single people, blended into homogeneity -by adversity, and we set about the tremendously interesting task of -re-creating England, at least in all things pertaining to her that are -great and lovable.” - -“I fail to see,” said Thomsen, “that the probabilities are that way. On -the contrary, freed from the geographical confinement of neighboring -islands governed from London, in a new land, Irish, Scotch, English -will segregate again, and then scatter, just as might mixed races of -birds, who, while they are in the same cage mingle, but when they fly -out, fall back into their natural groups, by the most certain of all -animal tendencies, that ‘like seeks like.’” - -“Well, and what of it?” retorted Leacraft. “These elements are -together in a new country. It is one. There is no history behind it of -subjugation and ill treatment; there can be no reversion to bickerings -and recriminations where even the monuments and milestones familiarly -associated with injustice have disappeared. Besides, we leave behind -the obnoxious, shameless law of entail--at least we shall be free of -that disgrace--and at last--but,” he added, his voice again sinking to -a pained whisper, “with what a wrench!” - -“Well, Mr. Leacraft,” spoke up Jim Skaith again, “it’s mair than moving -that has to be done. There’s the new land to be bought and settled. -There’s getting there, and biding there. There’s schools to be built, -and hames and shops, and, it seems to me, with pardon for being so -forward, that if it took so many years to make a great city, it’s no -fule’s wark to sail ower the seas and pit it up again”; then, after a -pause, “An’ it’s never the auld hame.” - -“No,” resumed Leacraft, “that is true. It’s not the old home, and a big -city--the greatest--cannot be boxed up in straw and packing cloth and -get set up by order in another place, with the precision of a movable -bungalow. But we need not trifle. We all know that it’s no child’s -work. We expect something very different from London. We can meet the -emergencies of place and room. Our population can be distributed. -Remember, we are on trial, and the new, strange chapter opening before -us will bring again into view the inalienable fortitude and power of -the English mind. It’s a test. The conditions are irreversible, and -mind and character will win--must win--or slowly, surely, the stars of -our ascendancy pale and disappear. Nature for a moment has thrown us -in a great peril, but was it nature or ourselves that won us footholds -throughout the world? Open coasts await us, hundreds of thousands -will welcome us. The influences of a common language, ancestry and -institutions have chained together the links of our supremacy around -the world, and made of it an inseparable girdle. Shall we falter now, -when nature again challenges our mind to quell her hostility, opposing -her impediments of sense to our invisible treasuries of thought, -invention and self-confidence? It is a new step--our best step,--in -the march of human liberty. We need to be divorced from the material -constants, amid which the long fought battle for free thought and -action has been waged. We are yet entangled in the meshes of tradition, -the stumbling blocks of convention--and now they are shattered. We rise -to splendid hopes. Or shall we say it is retribution, it is punishment -for many sins. Let it be so. A chastened pride will not hurt us, nor -will it hurt our chances.” - -“Yes, Leacraft,” interrupted Thomsen, “I feel better to hear you talk -this way, but I must look at some very disagreeable facts, too. They -are not easily eliminated by words or fancies, and even seem to -evince a provoking facility to become more numerous, the more they -are considered. Take the mechanical problem of transportation. We are -some forty millions of people. The extravagant powers of assimilation -of the United States barely digests the one million of emigrants that -come to their shores each year; what conceivable powers of absorption -will dispose of our forty millions without an attack of industrial -_gastritis_ that will induce the worst political convulsions. And the -carrying skill and capacity of our whole merchant marine cannot in -less than ten years take away this monstrous human cargo, together -with all the colossal accumulation of paraphernalia, stocks, chattels, -goods, treasures, books and belongings, that have gathered in this -rich island, until they seem like a sort of pactolian alluvium that -is indigenous and irremovable. Think of the women, the children! What -method of domiciliation will you devise to accommodate these armies? -And with this removal comes the crash of all domestic values, railroad -stock, gas stock, mill stock, warehouses, land values, everything -goes with the removal of the human vitality that gives them worth. It -staggers the imagination to think how the disorganization radiates and -increases in all directions. In 1905–6 this Great Britain consumed -in one industry alone nearly four millions of bales of cotton, spun -them out into merchantable goods on her fifty million spindles. Do you -measure the almost unfathomable depths of distress the stoppage of this -one industry means? Is it not better to fight it out here, to defeat -Nature, if I may be allowed to copy your own enthusiasm, to put on our -own heads the regalia of the Ice King, and _rule him_, wrest from him -his own sceptre, and excel his power with the power of this new century -of invention?” - -“Impossible.” Leacraft’s retort was quick and impetuous. “Impossible. -No expedients of man overcome the deliberate intentions of Nature. We -utilize her forces, but we may not deflect her purposes. It is the -voice of that very science which has made us such powerful masters -of her utilities that now tells us: _We must go._ To quote the words -of Prof. Darwin, spoken at the Cape Town meeting of the British -Association for the Advancement of Science, ‘Stability is further -a property of relationship to surrounding conditions; it denotes -adaptation to environment’; there can be no adaptation to this new -environment, which will retain our former greatness. Nature opposes -us, indeed, in forcing us away, but we thwart her niggardliness by -subterfuge and endurance and courage. We can make her plastic enough -for our purposes if we do not overstep the limits of her last negation. -The practical question, the panic, the loss! Ah! Well, if all should -be as it has been, if the inequalities still remained, the very moral -significance and regeneration which I hope for could not come. It means -the levelling process by which the New Brotherhood is visibly and -violently enforced. And as to place and means, thousands upon thousands -will establish themselves in America, blessing every community they -enter, and being blessed in turn with opportunity. Australia and -South Africa, and Canada, with millions upon millions of square miles -of unused land, will furnish us with new homes. Revivification, -regeneration, rehabilitation will be rapid. We shall not see its -final outcome, but we shall know the virile impulse of self help at -its inception. If social differences, if social pageantry, vanish, -the constraining push of Christian tolerance and fellowship succeeds. -Differences may emerge later, but they will be differences of endowment -and industrious energy; no other. And as to the transportation problem, -it can be solved. We should not all go at once. It may be a slow -movement; perhaps the slower the better. But see how we become unified. -Like refugees or shipwrecked outcasts, we shall help each other, and -every man’s hand will help his neighbor, but also we shall organize on -the basis of each man’s aptitude; the farmer to his ploughshare, the -mechanic to his workshop, the preacher to his pulpit, the artist to his -easel, the banker to his counting room; at last, an ideal assortment -of talents.” - -Thomsen hid a slight yawn, and made a smile of incredulity serve -the ends of a salutation of encouragement. “There’s no denying the -contagion of your confidence, Leacraft, but really I think that we -are all mournfully in the dark as to what we best can do; and in the -meanwhile it’s a matter of positive terror what we are going to live -on. I brought all the available cash I could for Ethel and myself, but -already famine has unfurled its banners, and you know how cramped and -shrunk our living has become in London. The Thames alone saves us from -starvation. It’s no longer a question of having a bank balance, but the -more definite and fundamental one of finding something to buy. - -“By the by, Balfour closes the debate at ten to-night. You have -admission to the gallery of the Commons. Let us go down. It promises to -be a fine effort. I only hope it’s not going to be a funeral oration.” - -Leacraft pulled out his watch and found the time a half-hour after -nine. Yes, he would go; in fact he had already engaged a boatman at -Blackfriars’ Bridge, to be in waiting for him at almost that very -moment. Jim stepped to the window and looked out. The night was pure -and clear. Huge hummocks of snow encumbered the streets below, and the -moon blazed in the keen sky like some target of disaster. - -“Weel, Mr. Leacraft, you won’t want me along, and somehow I’d rather -sit here and think over your own words, little as I believe it will all -come oot so gude-like.” - -“No, Jim, keep the fire on, and watch out for us, and you might -remember to brew us a stiff snack after your own heart; it won’t -come amiss.” Jim assented with alacrity, and Leacraft and Mr. -Thomsen, muffled up to their ears, and almost hermetically enclosed -in fur ulsters, left the room, descended the stairs, and appeared at -the doorway on the street. A tolerable path led through a part of -Cheapside, but it was not their intention to follow that thoroughfare; -they turned towards the church and clambered along a devious footway, -that imitated the sinuous and irregular wanderings of a mountain -trail. It led them to Ludgate Hill, where they encountered a few other -travellers like themselves making their way to the bridge for the same -purpose. Bridge street was just passable, and soon the ice-laden waters -of the river were seen, blazoned like some spectacle of enchantment -in the deluge of argent light. They found the boatman in the basement -of the Hotel Royal, which was dead, to the last stories of its -ornamented facade, silent and dark. It was a part of the indications -that London already had lost its visitors. The barge men stole out of -their retreat, and Leacraft and Thomsen followed them, the shadows of -the party printed in ink on the winnowed snow. Two men accompanied -the boat; one rowed and the other stood at the prow, pushing off -the cakes of ice, and correcting the passage of the boat through -the lanes of water, flowing like limpid threads of molten silver -between the crunching and veering floes. Leacraft and Thomsen watched -with fascinated eyes the broad terrace of the Victoria Embankment, -illuminated with the moon’s effulgence, whose unchecked glory met a -feeble rivalry in a few sickly gas mantels, and a solitary electric -lamp. The noble houses of legislation--and to the eyes of Leacraft -they never seemed more imbued with a supremely delicate and elevating -beauty--rose from the water’s edge, like some creation of an inspired -dreamer, woven of splintered rays of light, with pencilled lines of -ebony filched from the darkest night. It embodied a loveliness past -even the powers of thought to measure or describe. The houses flamed -with light, and the strong light on the clock tower, announced the -sitting of Parliament, sent back to the moon a terrestrial radiance, -that resembled the pulsations of a fallen star. As they passed the -Westminster Bridge, their eyes caught the distant lights of Lambeth -Palace. Both knew that to-night the King dined with the Archbishop. - -Slowly their boat drew near the landing, and the two men who guided it -motioned to its occupants to get ready to disembark, as the landing -was deprived of its usual outfit, owing to the clogging cakes of ice -which clung to the wall. The heavy nose of the boat was pushed into the -wall, and Leacraft and Thomsen scrambled up the steps, and gained the -walk which led to the Victoria Arch, and the entrance of the Parliament -House. Here a jam was encountered, and the news was soon learned that -Balfour had begun his speech an hour before the announced time, and was -now engaged in the closing appeal on the motion before the house. - -And what was this motion? To explain it, it is necessary to rehearse -some of the preceding events, which had finally eventuated in this -most marvellous situation; a debate in the House of Parliament as to -whether the English people should evacuate England. This momentous -and world-moving spectacle was now actually contemplated by the -fixed attention of every nation on the earth. Its awful solemnity, -the convulsing pathos of it, the immense commercial dislocation it -involved, its social agony, the calamitous doubts it summoned as to -the stability of Europe itself, and the fiercer sudden question of -the meaning of human existence on this planet, it aroused, made the -debate of the English Parliament then pending the most extraordinary -discussion ever known in human annals. - -The occasion for it had practically been forced or precipitated by the -coercive power of scientific opinion. And the curious thing about this -same scientific opinion was that it first resisted the overwhelming -proof of the subsidence of the isthmus and the elevation of the -Caribbean wall of transgression, and then fervently accepted it, with -not one scintilla more of demonstration, and in accepting it proposed -for itself the unwelcome task of convincing the English people that -they should evacuate their country. - -It would be hard to conceive of anything to the English mind less -conceivable than such a desertion. Its mere mention raised the most -violent denunciation and poured a torrent of abuse upon the unfortunate -advisors. The thought of it sapped the very foundations of the English -sense of existence. It seemed the vertigo of madness. It deranged the -most obvious assertions of common sense. It was an impeachment of the -English reality. To think of it was a betrayal of trust, a breach of -faith, a succinct defiance of the Almighty, a blasphemous rejection -of the lessons of history, a timorous surrender to the threats of the -weather. - -But later, when the Scottish population began to throw its inundating -tides of people into England, and the Englishman read at his breakfast -table of the floes of ice in the Clyde, and the buried Grampians, the -insurmountable drifts about Stirling, and the incipient neve masses on -Scuir-na-Gillean, in Skye, the reluctant embarkation of the merchants -of Aberdeen, the closing of its great University, the shrinkage of -business in Glasgow; when they realized that in truth the Atlantic -and Pacific oceans had become united by a broad gateway through which -the Gulf Stream, which erstwhile transported the heat of the equator -to Europe, now emptied its torrid waters, bathing the western coasts -of North America as far north as Alaska, and bringing to that Arctic -country almost the same blessing of fructifying warmth with which it -had before endowed England; when still further they began to hear, and -to realize, by private letters, the affectionate summons and offers -of the colonies, the overwhelming loyalty of the brothers across the -sea, their frenzied eagerness to place their lands almost gratuitously -in the hands of the mother people, and assume towards them the role -of honored beneficiaries, then a strange, unwonted wondering began, -as to whether it might not be best to look into the matter. And then -intelligence aroused, with continued inspection, the impression grew, -that indeed the prospects were alarming. The English mind, once -startled in a certain direction, soon takes on an impetus proportionate -to the inertia of its first movements, and therefore by a natural -law of psychology and mechanics gains in accelerated velocity with -each succeeding moment. So it was now. The industry of the scientific -propaganda, its inventive persistency, was followed by the conversion -of the large financial and commercial interests, and then a panic -seized the great masses of the nation. Parliament took it up, the -papers bulged and teemed with information, discussion, advice, and -reports. A determining influence with the large trading classes was -the decline, in some instances the positive disappearance of business, -while to others not chained in insular possessions, a new world of -adventure and chance seemed not altogether undesirable. - -The pressure of popular approval hastened, in the Parliament, the -formulation of a plan for the slow and careful removal of the -population. The Law of Exodus, as it was termed, was a thoroughly -English legislative work. And that meant a wise, adequate and -deliberate evacuation. It involved a re-tabulation, so to speak, of -the wealth and occupations of the individuals of the country, and -so adjusted their departure, their association, their duties, their -facilities and trades, that the least competition would arise in the -new quarters, and then they were also so distributed in the colonies, -that they met the requirements of these, as it was ascertained, from -the authorities, the latter demanded. Thousands upon thousands had -already sailed away, forming for themselves combinations as their -acquaintances and connexions permitted, and still other thousands, with -property invested abroad made a home in the land in which their support -lay. A singular consequence of the situation was the speculative -gale it produced in America, where large amounts of unemployed or -released capital took flight. It settled tumultuously in Wall Street, -voraciously attacking every variety of security, and driving stock -values out of sight in a tremendous boom that disconcerted the tried -veterans of the famous mart. - -All the time the Londoner was himself gaining some convincing insight -into the dread nature of the climatic change about him. The snows -covered the greater part of the streets of London, the parks became -desolate tracts, deserted, uncleared, unused, swept over by the -freezing winds, and chased from end to end with buffeted wreaths of -snow, whose ghostly swirling columns ran over the wintry exposures like -a race of Titanic spirits, crossing each other in cyclonic confusion, -or meeting in shivering collisions, dissolving in cloud-bursts of -microscopic and penetrating needles of ice. The Thames was almost -closed, the shipping stayed idle at the wharfs, almost unmitigated -suffering spread among the poor, for miles the streets were only -traversed by foot-paths worn by their occupants, and the strangest -sights occurred in the smaller reservations like Lincoln Inn Fields, -St. Paul’s Churchyard, the Temple Gardens, the Artillery Grounds, -Finsbury Circus and other confined spaces. By a freak of circumstances, -and the curious and entirely unexpected vagary of the winds, the snow -piled up and up in these quarters, because of a peculiar inrush of -wind from the converging streets around, and this sweeping effect -continued until the mound of snow, circumvallating the buildings, -reached to their windows or overtopped them, while in enclosures -not pre-empted by buildings, as Highbury Fields, and the various -cemeteries, the hills of snow formed colossal billows, which seemed -like a phalanx of rigid waves tortured into fantastic pinnacles by -the storms of wind. Such spectacles turned back the life-blood of the -bravest, and converted the most recalcitrant objectors to the new view -of the necessity of leaving the immemorial splendors of England’s -Capital. - -It was a demoralizing and distressing picture of change, to visit -the great docks on the Thames; the London docks, the Commercial and -the West India docks, and in the place of the varied throngs, the -miscellaneous rabble of laborers in which the forms, faces and even -the dresses of the people of the world made a composite aggregate, -which was a suggested reflex of the myriad-handed toil and industry of -London, a significant hint of the immense wealth and opulent indulgence -of the great metropolis--in place of all this, the harsh winds whistled -over deserted yards, shrieked through the rigging of idle ships, or -blew tempestuous volleys of rime and sleet across the river between -Wapping and Rotherhithe. Before this awful change, English fortitude -and confidence quailed, or wrapping itself in the reserve of bitterness -and distrust, turned silently away, for an instant, at least, driven to -confess that the time-honored legend of English destiny had become a -perverted and silly shibboleth. - -February 12th, which has in meteorology, along with the twelfths of -November, May and August, been isolated as the period of the ice -saints, viz.: four periods characterized in an unaccountable manner by -a fall in temperature--this 12th of February, 1910, had been determined -by the Parliament for the closing of the great debate on the Motion of -Evacuation. It was this night that Leacraft and Thomsen found so clear -and cold, a keen and perilous intensity of cold probably never before -experienced in the English islands, unless one, in his inenviable task -of comparison could have found an equivalent in the Ice Age itself. - -When Leacraft and his companion attained the Victoria Tower, already -the debate, on the motion which in an enlarged way had been before -the English nation for more than a month, had reached its final -stage. Balfour had been chosen to close, in a long peroration, the -tremendous forensic display which had been limited to the walls of the -Houses of Parliament. But it was only an episodic and distinguished -incident in an argument which had convulsed every household in England, -which had sent its clamorous assertions and appeals to the whole -English-speaking people throughout the world, and which would, by all -rational expectations, remain to the end of historic time the most -startling venture in language, the most dramatic performance in oratory -ever known. - -The two men hurried in, past the flaming chandeliers of the beautiful -archway. Upon Leacraft showing his particular cards of admission, -an attendant escorted them through the Royal Gallery, the House of -Peers, the Peers’ Lobby, all of which were deserted. They chased in -most indecorous fashion through the marvellous rooms, only intent upon -catching the last words of the great speech whose purport and end -was to empty those glorious apartments of their human interest, and -bring expatriation upon all the memories they harbored. They passed -through the Central Hall, the Commons’ Lobby, the Division Lobby, and -were expeditiously inserted in the Reporters’ Gallery, where, backed -up against the topmost wall, they surveyed the thronged mass beneath -them. Every inch of space, every point of observation was packed, and -the scene, on which a softened flood of light fell, with an enhancing -effect of wonder, was eloquent in picturesque power and interest. Lords -and ladies--to-night no interfering screen concealed the women--earls, -dukes, baronets, the clergy, even bishops in their robes, merchants, -men of science, bankers, and the whole House of Peers, standing at -the bar of the House of Commons, were arrayed in a vast and irrelevant -assemblage, pierced by one thought, the anguish of a supreme decision. -And Balfour! - -Upon an erect and stalwart figure, moved by an instinct of regnancy at -this sublime instant to stand free of his compeers in the broad way, -between the benches of the Government and those of the Opposition, -and facing the speaker--all the eyes of that assemblage were riveted. -The classic sentences of Macaulay in describing the trial of Warren -Hastings--hackneyed as they are by innumerable repetitions--might well -apply to this unwonted and intense spectacle; “the long galleries were -crowded by an audience such as has rarely excited the fears or the -emulations of an orator. There were gathered together from all parts -of a great, free, enlightened and prosperous empire, grace and female -loveliness and learning, the representatives of every science and -every art.” And the comparison can be illuminatively emphasized. At -the trial of the illustrious Pro-consul, curiosity in a man, sympathy -with a race, admiration for the local splendor of a gorgeous scene, -summoned to the hall of William Rufus the resplendent galaxy. But the -motives were objective. In the present case, thought Leacraft, how -pathetic, how tragic their subjective force. It was as if the children -of a home, about to disappear in some horrible engulfment, calmly -prepared to leave its threshold, but it was that sorrow multiplied by -all the individuals of a nation, and magnified by the moral surrender -of the associations of two thousand years. A nervous tension, that was -expressed in the almost petrified stare of some faces, the startling -pallor of others, the half-open lips, the strained attitudes, the -involuntary shudders, the curious grieved looks of inattention, -overmastered the assembly. Its contagious thrill seized Leacraft, -and brought his mental receptivity up to a quickened pitch of almost -deranged alertness, while every sense seemed preternaturally awake. - -He heard a woman sob somewhere in front of him, and far down the left -gallery, in the glare and glitter, he saw a noble head, white-haired, -but still wearing the flush of manhood’s prime upon his cheeks, leaning -on a hand, and turned towards him, with unchecked tears coursing -silently from its upraised eyes; he saw a little girl clasping the neck -of her mother and father, as she sat half on the laps of each, and -heard the soft lisp of her kisses on their brows; he saw the almost -saturnine face of a dowager stonily gazing at the speaker, and, most -strangely, he detected on her finger a topaz ring cut in _relievo_ -with the head of Queen Victoria; and yet, while his senses reported -these trifles with startling keenness, they were also all enlisted in -catching every gesture, every movement, every accent of the man whose -plastic power of eloquence was there engaged in pleading for English -abdication. - -How the words rang in his ears, how persuasively the voice sank and -rose, and with what a soaring melody some of the cadences seemed -to linger in the scented air. “Let us,” it said, “bow before the -revelation of our own destiny. The ordination of Nature is the express -reflection--nay, it is the objective expression of Divine will. Accept -it with submission, with the subserviency of faith, and act on that -condition with the abundance of that native resolution that from the -time of Alfred has made our path upward, outward, onward. - -“I do not, sir, under-estimate the tremendous ordeal; I cannot be -blind to the colossal undertaking. It resumes in one herculean -exertion, all the efforts of our race through two thousand years. It -is without precedent, or else it shall only be reverently compared -to the exodus of the Children of God from Egypt. And in that light, -sir, without subterfuge or apology, without extenuation of rhetoric, -without ribaldry or vanity, I do regard it. We are solemnized by some -vast scheme in the order of things to carry with us the genius of our -civilization to another home, where its power and beauty shall both -benefit others, and become themselves more powerful and more beautiful. -We have lived through a stadium of progress and achievement. We -certainly advance to the opening of another. Let the gathered -multitudes of our race, here at its ancestral hearth, gird up their -loins and accept the august command to go forth. - -“From the Witan of the Angles and the Saxons, through a feudal -hierarchy to Magna Charta, through the provisions of Oxford, the Model -Parliament of Edward I., by the rise in political privileges by the -Towns, by Merchant gild and Craft gild, by the Good Parliament of 1376, -by the relentless rebukes of Richard in the Merciless Parliament, -by reason of popular censure and the eloquence of common men as -with John Ball and the revolts of 1380, in the insurrection of Wat -Tyler--followed as it was by shameless, mad ventures--through Wickliff, -by the glories of the Tudors, the overthrow of the Stuarts, by Pym, -Hampden, Cromwell, by William of Orange, by parliamentary reform and -legislative extension--from the first glimmerings of civic life, to the -light of the modern day, this nation has grown in strength, in reason, -in the deliberate purpose of holding even the scales of Justice. - -“But, sir, with new positions, new prospects, new opportunities in -illimitable areas of expansion, we enter upon undreamed of material -enlargements. A greater London will, in the coming centuries appear, in -which through the phase of exaltation we shall assume, will be seen the -Miracle of Time, in which all we have learned, the highest technical -skill, our loftiest constructive, creative mind will be realized. - -“The social power, the redemptive agencies, the final product of -his thought, aspirations, skill, will be incorporated in this City -of Man for men--the City of the Future--and it will be ours--all -ours--_London rediviva, London redux, London sempieterna, et ne plus -ultra_. A greater England shall be gathered within its walls. It will -hold our sanctified patriotism, our emancipated reason, our ennobled, -disciplined applied science, the embodyment of our imagination, and to -its doors the world will gather, too, in fealty, in trust, in homage. - -“‘O et praesidium et dulce decus meum.’” - -The voice ceased, the speaker dropped dumbly into his seat, and for -an instant, held his hands over features convulsed with feeling. The -surprising thing then was--the awful silence, the deadness of that -living, throbbing, almost frantic audience, who looking out upon a -blackness of uncertainty felt the happy past, radiant with ease and -fame, ceremonial and cultured luxury, slipping out of their possession -forever, and uttered no sound. - -The Speaker of the House rose; there was a shifting of heads, the -rustle of turning bodies, a simultaneous orientation, but no other -sound, and Leacraft scanned the multitude more. Again the portentous -silence; the Speaker with quite unusual ardor alluded to the imposing -power and beauty of the speech, and put the motion. - -And then another thing more astonishing happened, that House of Commons -leaped to its feet and shouted in one long, vibrant roar, “Aye! Aye! -Aye!” The eager agony of the assemblage then split and tore the proud -repression that had almost strangled it. Cry upon cry started from -various points, and the clamor grew, the agitation took on the aspect -of disorder and panic, and then it resolved itself into thundering -cheers for the King, and then, with electrifying unanimity the -multitude sang the national anthem. - -It was over. The House of Commons had ordered the evacuation of -England; the House of Peers would follow their lead, and while that -evacuation would take place slowly, covering a long space of time, and -permit the recreant forces of nature to reform--if they would--the -face of the world as it had been, while it had consideration for all -the conflicting interests involved, and was so skillfully framed as to -cause the least shock of derangement to the immense business agencies, -still it was a surrender of the proudest people on the face of the -earth to the blind powers of nature, and it meant for Englishmen a new -heaven and a new earth. - -Leacraft and Thomsen returned that night to their lodgings at the -Bothwell Club, through Pall Mall, where but a few of the clubs were -still in action and as they moved painfully along over the debris and -dirt, the disturbed and shapeless heaps of snow, the abandoned articles -of furniture, in front of some houses, and saw the darkened fronts of -others, with broken windows, and broached and falling doors, noted the -signs of interior commotion in the treasury, the admiralty, the foreign -and Indian offices, the war office and the horse guards, they felt that -Parliament had already been forestalled, and that the evacuation of -London and with it all England had already begun. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -THE EVACUATION. - - -Events were moving rapidly. Ever since the Parliament, by a legislative -decree, had authorized the desertion of England, and the eventful day -approached when the King and his household, the Parliament itself, and -the Church and the Titled Estate should, in a formal and expressive -manner, leave England’s shores, the mass of the population had been -diligently hunting about for refuge and occupation. Steamers and ships -had scattered in all directions the fleeing multitudes. Relatives -abroad, friends and even acquaintances offered homes and employment, -no utility now was too small to be considered, nor any designation too -insignificant to merit attention. This scampering was largely among -those who felt the pinch already of idleness and the diminishing chance -of work, among operatives and workmen, clerks and the bread winners of -the middle class. The nobleman and the pauper did not stir. - -The English nation had decreed through its legislature, that the -evacuation of the country should be conducted with pageantry, that the -solemn parting should be enrolled in all time honored ceremony and -stately pomp with which kings had been crowned, and for which, with -all its heart and mind, the English nature cries out with unappeasible -hunger. So the moment for the King’s departure, which meant the -official desertion of the Old Home, might be justly compared to the -flight of the queen bee in the bee colony when her faithful followers -swarm after and upon her, and with resolute constancy create a new city -about her inviolable person. - -The King was to leave England in June, 1910, and when he left with -sumptuous and melancholy observance, with splendor of color and -depth and power of music, with uniform and ritual, with prayer and -chorus and prophecy, with august and intolerable grandeur, with the -art of tradition and the ornaments of invention, he was to pass down -to Tilbury and sail away beyond Gravesend to the new realm of his -possession on the shores of Australia. It was a pretty hard thing to -believe; it was a harder thing to do. - -But it was to be done with all the gorgeous effectiveness which -accumulated traditions of centuries and the practice of every day and -the mere resources in artifices and equipment of a magnificent realm -could display. The day came with splendid beauty, the sun shone over -an England which somewhat returned to the flowery loveliness of its -olden sweet estate. The city had been cleared, though the snowfalls had -reached the most unexpected depth, and the severity of the winter had -been appalling. The meteorologists discovered the fact that the western -and northwestern zones of extreme precipitation, those of eighty inches -had moved inward, and had even exceeded this maximum, and the condition -of the country was really extraordinary and desperate. The immense -accumulations of snow in the outlying districts had risen to such -heights that the low, long houses of the peasantry were covered and the -aspect of the country was that of a Labrador landscape transplanted to -southern latitudes, where trees, stone walls and villages assumed the -place of the more familiar tundra, plains and stone floored plains. -Suffering had been very general, and the importunity of nature had done -more to convince the people that the necessity of removal was an actual -threat, not to be avoided or placated, than the speeches, the tracts of -the scientific societies, or the deliberations of statesmen and editors. - -But in London, on this twentieth of June, though the air bore the -strange traces of the changed climate, in its tingling sharpness, yet -this exhilaration only served the purpose of adding swiftness to the -movement of the hosts of people in the streets, and a new and wonderful -tremor of excitement to their eagerness in awaiting the development of -the day’s great preparations. - -In the morning the King was to be enthroned in Westminster Abbey, and -to receive the homage of the Peers, and, as usual at a coronation, -the day itself was inaugurated with the firing of a royal salute at -sunrise. A measure of the august and overpowering rites and observances -that mark the assumption of a King’s rule was now to be gone through -with, as a symbol and memento, before the King transferred his throne -to another land; and this ceremonial was emblematic of the unbroken -allegiance of the English nation to his removed majesty. - -The King was to ascend the theatre of the Abbey, and be lifted into His -Throne by the Archbishops and Bishops, and other Peers of the kingdom, -and being enthronized, or placed therein, all the great officers, those -that bear the swords and sceptres, and the rest of the nobles, should -stand round about the steps of the throne, and the Archbishop standing -before the King should say the exhortation, beginning with the words, -“Stand firm, and hold fast from henceforth the Seat of State of Royal -and Imperial Dignity, which is this day delivered unto you in the Name -and by the Authority of Almighty God, and by the hands of Us, the -Bishops and Servants of God, though unworthy, etc, etc.” - -And then the homage being offered and accepted, the King attended and -accompanied, the four swords--being the sword of Mercy, the sword of -Justice to the Spirituality, the sword of Justice to the Temporality, -and the sword of State--were to be carried before him. He should then -descend from his throne crowned, and, carrying his Sceptre and Rod in -his hands, should go into the area eastward of the theatre, and pass -on through the door on the south side of the altar into King Edward’s -Chapel, the organ and other instruments all the while playing. - -The King should then, standing before the altar, deliver the Sceptre -with the Dove to the Archbishop, who would lay it upon the altar there. -The King would then be disrobed of his imperial mantle, and be arrayed -in his royal robe of purple velvet, by the Lord Great Chamberlain. - -The Archbishop should then place the orb in his majesty’s left hand. -Then his majesty should proceed through the choir to the west door of -the Abbey, in the same manner as he came, wearing his crown and bearing -in his right hand the Sceptre, with the Cross, and in his left the orb; -all Peers wearing their coronets, and the Archbishops and Bishops their -caps. - -The interior arrangements in the Abbey were familiar. From the west -door where the procession should enter to the screen which divides -choir from nave, two rows of galleries were to be erected on each side -of the centre aisle--the one gallery level with the vaultings, the -other with the summit of the western door. These galleries should have -their fronts fluted with crimson cloth richly draped at the top, and -decorated with broad golden fringe at the bottom. - -On the floor of the centre aisle a slightly raised platform or carpeted -way, should be laid down, along which the King and Queen, in procession -should pass to the choir. This was to be matted over and covered with -crimson cloth. On the pavement of the aisle bordering this carpeted way -should stand the soldiery as a fence against interference. - -The theatre where the principal parts of the ceremony were to be -enacted lies immediately under the central tower of the Abbey, and was -a square formed by the intersection of the choir and the transcepts, -extending nearly the whole breadth of the choir. On this square a -platform was to be erected ascended by five steps. The summit of this -platform and also the highest step leading to it, was to be covered -with the richest cloth of gold. From that step down to the flooring of -the theatre, all was covered with carpet of rich red or purple color -bordered with gold. In the centre of the theatre the sumptuously -draped chair was to be placed for the sovereign, in which he receives -the homage of the Peers. - -This interior pomp and splendor escaped the observation of Leacraft, -though he was not unfamiliar with the details of the solemn pageant, -but now it hardly interested him. His mind by a natural emancipation -from the thrall of such spectacles, dwelt rather on the attitude of the -people in this extreme peril and solicitude. He felt inquisitive to -learn their feelings, their hopes, their cohesiveness in the changed -estate. Were they likely to resolve into a chaos of preferences with -only the cry of _sauve qui peut_ in their mouths, or would they follow -the new destinies, and preserve the nation. At length the populace were -coming into their own. It was pretty evident that a King and Queen -and Regalia, and Peers, and Peeresses, and a much surpliced Clergy, -would not make a nation, without the workers, the rent payers, the men -of action, the bread winners, the clerks, artisans, and merchants, -the householder and his family, and that the sacred classes would be -suddenly subjected to a _reductio ad absurdum_, if they formed the -only inhabitants of the new regime and their titles lost their _raison -d’etre_ with the disappearance of the untitled mass. - -After the rendering of the Homage at the Abbey, the Procession was to -take place, and the King arriving at Tilbury, with the royal family, -a selection of the Peers, the highest Episcopal prelates, and certain -representative men from the Commons, including the Ministry, would be -received on the Dreadnought, and with a glorious escort of the largest -battleships, carrying the royal equipage, the furniture of Windsor -Castle, and of St. James palace, and of the Buckingham mansion, the -archives of the Parliament, at least a portion, steam away from England -to Australia, to Melbourne. This Nucleus of Government holding the -inseparable insignia, and the actual essence of the English nation -would there, with pomp and solemn allegations, with rolling music and -pious prayers, with thunders of the guns by the Navy, and the salute of -the Army, be as it were reinstalled. - -But the route of the procession was not to be straight out of London. -It comprised a broader purpose. It was proposed to circumvallate -London, to impregnate it with the sentiment of the King’s leaving. -It should be traversed and penetrated in all directions, gathering -thus the public allegiance, and absorbing its loyalty, shedding the -effulgence of the royal splendor upon the populace, and enchaining -them anew to the principle and fact of English Sovreignty. It was a -stupendous project. It involved stations and relays. Camps of the -military were to be established at St. James Park, at Victoria Park, at -Regent’s Park, at the West End near Paddington, at Wormwood Scrubs, -and in the southern districts around Clapham Common and towards Putney. - -The King was to stop at resting places, and in the largest local -churches, a reduced form of the Homage was to be instituted involving -the _enthronization_, with the displays of the Regalia, and the -jubilation, and the reverence of the people expressed, as always in the -shouts-- - - God save King Edward! - Long live King Edward! - May the King live forever! - -The bells of the churches were to ring, the houses were to hang out -their banners, flags were to cover the streets, bands stationed on -prominent balconies, at points covering the entire long journey through -and around the city, were to play national airs, that so there might -be generated an overwhelming enthusiasm, a tumult of devotion, and -thus constrain the Englishman afresh in the religion of the nation’s -immortality. - -It was finely conceived, this elevation of the King. It was gorgeously -executed. The imagination of the people was tremendously impressed, and -the Ark of the Covenant of the eternal supremacy of the English crown -seemed thus visibly incorporated, and presented to them. The procession -was glittering, and it was majestic. It ponderously emphasized the -English idea. There were really two processions, the first from -Westminster to Buckingham Palace, the second through London. In the -first--the King issued from Westminster, his crown borne before him, -but holding in his right hand the Sceptre with the Cross, and in his -left the Orb. Then began the most wonderful State ride through London. -The superb chariot of the King surrounded by heralds, kings at arms, -pursuivants, with judges, councillors, lords, and dignitaries, was -followed by the open carriages of the nobility. - -The King was immersed in color. Garter--principal King-at-arms--was -a miracle of dress. He wore a frock or tabard, crimson and gold -emblazoned with the quarters of the United Kingdom. Then there was -the Clarencieux of the South, and Norroy of the North--and the -heralds of Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond, all wonderfully bedight, -and the pursuivants--Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis, and Blue -Mantel--looking like the genii of a Christmas pantomime. And here with -the King were the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Steward, and the Master -of the Horse. And there followed this cavalcade, surrounding the King -like a many colored fringe, the carriages of the nobles wherein all the -signs of degree, order, rank, were sumptuously shown. Here the robes of -the Peers, crimson velvet edged with miniver--the capes furred with the -same--and powdered with bars or rows of ermine, according to degree, -rolled together in a bank of oscillating glory. Beneath the mantles -a court dress, a uniform, or regimentals were descried. The coronets -were even worn, and as the scintillating groups passed, eager admirers -separated the coronet of the baron with its six silver equidistant -balls, from the coronet of a viscount with sixteen, from the coronet -of an earl with eight balls raised on points, and with glistening gold -strawberry leaves between the points, from the coronet of a marquis -with four gold strawberry leaves alternating with four silver balls, -and from the coronet of a duke with the eight gold strawberry leaves. - -Nor did beauty hesitate to add its witchery to the sports of splendor, -and in behalf of that ancient idea of Monarchy, which now was enlisted -against a deep peril of mistrust and repudiation. The Peeresses formed -part of the procession. Their scarlet kirtles over the petticoats of -white satin and lace, their flowing sleeves slashed and furred, their -cushioned trains heaped in confusion in the carriages, and relieved by -shining plaques of silver silk, were still more bewilderingly graced by -jewelry, by oceans of gems resplendently transfigured in the blazing -sun. In this momentous pageant the limits of the spectacular were -invaded, even distended, in which some saw not only a lack of good -taste, but the pressure of a little fear. - -Even the church advanced the bold bid for admiration and wonder. It -sent out its archbishops, bishops, rectors, canons, prebendaries and -deacons, to compose parts of the vast exhibit to be interwoven in the -variegated human carpet that filled the streets. Before the churches -that were passed, choirs gathered and sang melodiously; the strong -religious fibre of the English men and women was sedulously appealed -to, or else it was the elemental flaming forward of their powerful -conviction. At this strange moment there was less of pretence and trick -than sincerity. The heart of the people was steadfastly united with the -old traditions; they clung unbrokenly to the inheritance of English -greatness. There was no reason to doubt their faith. - -The route of the second marvellous procession was from the Abbey -through Bird Cage Walk past Victoria monument to Procession road, to -the Strand, to Fleet street, over Ludgate hill, past St. Paul’s, to -Cheapside, to Bishops street, to Shoreditch, to Hackney street, and so -out to Victoria Park and Homerton. Back again to Highbury Fields, south -by Essex road to Pentonville road, to Euston road, to Marylebone road, -through Regents Park, through Hampstead road to Hampstead, to West -Side, through Edgeware road to Hyde Park, and the Bays water to Holland -park, to Hammersmith road, by Hammersmith bridge road to Castelnau; -thence to Putney, to Battersea, to Clapham, to Camberwell, thence to -Walworth road, by London road, by Waterloo road to Westminster bridge, -to the Houses of Parliament, and on the banks of the river Thames to -the Tower, and on through White Chapel, Mile End road, Bow road, to -Bromley, to Stratford, to Barking, to Tilbury. - -Nothing so prodigious had ever been conceived; and the resources of the -empire, of the military, and the squadrons of the colonists, who should -again, as at the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, present the diversified -elements of English power, would be involved. - -At Tilbury on the Essex bank, opposite Gravesend, where rise the low -bastions of Tilbury Fort, originally constructed by Henry III, King -Edward the VII, would in a fashion diverse, and with a different end in -view, also declare that he “had the heart and stomach of a King, and of -a King of England too,” as had said Queen Elizabeth. But now it should -be said by a King unappalled by the invasion of the powers of the air, -as she was before the power of Spain, but now said with undiminished -confidence and high hope, though said too with obedience to the supreme -mandate of expulsion. - -Before it took place, Leacraft and Thomsen began their long walk from -Ludgate hill, and Leacraft intently watched the street crowds. He -noted also with recording interest the groups in the balconies with -lunch baskets. The expectant air everywhere was not unnoticeably -mingled with a kind of frightened silence. There was not much noise, -no indiscriminate hubbub in the streets, and where groups were -encountered, hurrying to their destination, they were quiet and -restrained. Tension was evident, a high strung expectancy verging with -impalpable approach upon tears, and the agony of penitential promises. -The fundamentally religious optimism of the Englishman was confounded, -and his acceptance of invisible guidance made itself seen in faces -desolated by the grief of tears. - -The preparations were remarkable and elaborate. The windows were filled -with chairs. Platforms were erected, almost luxuriously draped with red -cloth and scarlet velvet, and surging crowds in spots seemed to bely -the significance of the portentous moment. From time to time as the two -observers walked in the middle of the street, they stopped reluctantly -to notice signs of mourning. These took on the form of trailing -streamers of crape, hung upon white cloth and their singularity amid -the almost bombastic surplusage of scarlet dressings, awoke protest and -resentment. At one point there was a particularly conspicuous dismal -challenge to the susceptibilities of the spectators in a balcony loaded -with sombre trappings which gained a startling prominence because of -the patriotic and cheerful decorations on either side of it. Before -this lugubrious appeal a small group of malcontents had gathered, and -were indulging in incendiary criticism. - -“Hits no use turning a sour face to the thing. What’s got to be, is -got to be, and a little heart will keep a sour stomach from making -itself sick. Hi say we’re hall in the same boat, and cheerfulness makes -pleasant company. Such a show as that hought not to be tolerated, Hi -say.” This belligerency came from the thick lips of a red faced man, -who had his coat over his arm, and whose leathern leggings, corduroy -knee breeches, and flaming weskit with a high collar strapped to his -muscular neck by a pea green scarf, betokened a representative of the -“fancy,” or an ostler turned out for a day’s holiday. - -“Indeed I think so,” squealed a thin, short man with a red nose and a -curious habit of wiping his mouth with a yellow handkerchief. “It’s -hard enough for the sufferin’ masses to leave hearth, home, and, I -may say, family, not to be saddened more’n than is natural with these -funereal suggestions.” - -“Well,” shouted a sturdy arrival on the other limit of the circle; -“Let’s tear them down. The quickest way to cure trouble is to git -rid of it. It’s rotten insultin’ to stick those weeds under our -noses.” Under the influence of these defiant words the knot of men -moved towards the objectionable drapery with evidently unfriendly -intentions. But they had not been unobserved from the inside of -the house on whose front these sad reminders hung. A window shot up -and a tall slender woman advanced to the edge of the balcony. She -was dressed deeply in black, her neck was surrounded by some white -crepe stuff, and the sentiment, as Howells has it, of her dress was -a pathetic suggestion of bereavement and misfortune. Her hair, yet -luxuriant, was plentifully sprinkled with gray; her face had the -authorized look of nobility and distinction. She was yet prepossessing, -though the crowding years had brought her past middle life. The -distinctive impression she made upon Leacraft, as he and Thomsen, -somewhat withdrawn, watched the denouement of this street episode, -was that of abiding sorrow, patiently borne, and doubtless united -in her, with Christian resignation and unsullied piety. A beautiful -picture of the English woman, who resolutely lives her earnest life of -prayer and self-sacrifice, holding intensely to her heart some fond -memory, wreathed in amaranth. And Leacraft, as an Englishman, blessed -Providence there were such. The men on the street were a little abashed -by the pale face and lofty mien of the lady who had recognized their -purpose, and placed herself there to thwart it. - -She came forward and instantly spoke; her voice was excessively clear, -but an underlying mellowness imparted an extreme sweetness to its -tones. - -“My friends you wish these mourning signs taken away. They offend -you. But when you know that they express to me the approaching loss -of all my friends, you will not, I think, feel so harshly about them. -The King, in a week, leaves the shores of England--the evacuation of -England begins to-day--and with the King goes the great English nation -and this wonderful city with all its memories, with its beauty, its -historic power, its incessant interest, our common home for all our -lifetimes, will dwindle and dwindle and disappear, lost in arctic snows -and ice, at least so they tell us. - -“But I shall stay. In this house suffering has come to me; it has never -left _me_. I shall not leave _it_. I mourn for those who in going away -die to English pride, to English love, to English devotion, and”--she -leaned out over the sullen men beneath her--“and die to me. These black -films are for them.” - -She stopped. The men, worried and puzzled and surprised, looked a -little sheepishly at each other. - -“Oh, well,” said he of the hostler type, “my leddy, no offense, seein’ -how you feel about it. Hi say--’ave your way.” - -“Yes, yes,” squealed the preacher, “if the empty badges of mournin’ -give ennyone--ennyone--satisfaction, why it’s not in reason to question -their motives in this excroociating moment.” - -“Gad! the lady’s right,” shouted the former belligerent, whose prompt -hint had at first nearly precipitated the riot, “She’s got the right -ring--and I’m damned if anyone teches the rags there I’ll bust his -cock-eyed head aff his shoulders.” - -This vociferous statement produced a hubbub of approval, and won many -distinct admissions of entire acquiescence--and with these reassuring -murmurs the lady retired, after telling her thanks, and the gathering -withdrew down the street. - -Leacraft and Thomsen continued their way westward. Before them -suddenly, after a half-hour’s sauntering, shone an avenue of military -splendor. They were in Charing Cross, having pushed down the Strand, -and they were on the south side of Trafalgar Square, and not far from -the equestrian statue of Charles I. Trafalgar Square was filled with -troops. The effect of color was transporting. The massed regiments of -infantry were broken by parks of artillery, while immediately under -Nelson’s column the Nineteenth Hussars--the “Dumpies of 1759,” the -Fifteenth Hussars--“Elliott’s Light Horse,” the Sixteenth Lancers--“the -Queen’s,” and the Thirteenth Hussars--“the ragged brigade”--were -confusedly stationed, their mingling busbies and dependent bags looking -like a garden patch. - -From point to point issued galloping videttes, carrying their pennants -on lance-heads affixed to the stirrups, which undulated in the air, -as the horses pranced and caracolled. The tramp of troops, the sighing -of bugles, and the resounding surges of music, surrounded them. It was -afternoon. The beginning of the first day’s procession from the Abbey -doubtless was at hand. The stirring air communicated the thrills of an -immense event, and the people, petrified into attention, stood crushed -against each other in rows of forlorn expectancy. The suffocating -excitement was unbearable, the more so because of its immobility. -Leacraft decided to rush through London, and reach Victoria Park, the -Hackney Marshes and Clapton, in order to determine the attitude, the -action, of the poorer classes. Thomsen was unwilling to desert the -fermenting throngs around Trafalgar Square, or miss, for a moment, -the kaleidoscope of changing soldiery, and so Leacraft, leaving him, -entered a hansom and shot off. - -He was not averse to this solitude. His affections for Miss Tobit had -lately warmed into a less indifferent kindliness, and he began to -feel a gnawing anxiety lest the pretty Scotch woman thought less of -him--in the way lovers like--than she did of her cousin, the handsome -and obnoxiously unconcerned Thomsen. Thomsen knew exactly Leacraft’s -feelings, and regarded them with unconcealed forbearance, and--what -was more provoking--with a frank condescension of sympathy. And yet -the men had become good friends; they had talked long and seriously, -with all the elements of critical guidance they could summon, about the -strange reversal or revolution in the nation’s affairs. But at these -moments they were in an impersonal frame of contact, and the personal -exigencies which later crept between them, were all absent. Leacraft’s -intellectual weight easily made itself felt in these discussions, -and Thomsen, with cordial alacrity, assumed the obedient position of -audience and pupil. - -As Leacraft was driven eastward in the swinging vehicle, he flung -himself against its cushions, and again thought of the monstrous and -incredible metamorphosis in the fortunes of his people. The vigorous -life of ten centuries, with all its memories, the heaped up riches of -its achievements, the splendid literary legacy of the past, with its -art, its lineaments of beauty, its dusky shadows, the solicitous charm -of its contrasted periods of history, the deep encrustation, nay, -rather, the unfathomable deposits of character, and accomplishment -which overlaid the Kingdom of England, and, in this city of London, -the beating heart of its vast interests, thickly choked each avenue -and current of its life--to abandon all this at the summons of a -temperatural caprice, at the tempestuous whim of an earthquake, before -the blind violence of frost and snow and ice, was the most unendurable -of humiliations! It bit too deeply at the generalized assumption of -the whole world, that man ruled the earth; it soured the contentment -of his avid vanity, and to the Englishman it assailed the hitherto -impregnable fortress of his heroic conceit. And yet--the old dream -of a greater England arose, as it had arisen a hundred times before, -in all these troubling and disconcerting months--an England leaping -forward, as an exultant youth, bearing in his hands the trophies of new -and brighter conquests, flushed under changed environments, with the -inspiration of new ambitions, and new powers of creation, issuing into -a greater chapter of human growth than had ever before been conceived -or written. - -And yet what an eviction! This glorious old England, with its sweet -homes, its innumerable beauties, its convincing happiness of downs and -glade and gardens, flowering into clouds of blossoms, its lakes, its -gentle streams, its æsthetic softness and dimness, its manifold and -opulent charm of landscape, the hurrying and constant kisses of its -moist skies, in league with all the graces of the seasons--to cast this -aside, and begin again, elsewhere, in regions drear and sterile of all -these things; ah! that was too hard! too hard! and, as he had often -done, Leacraft covered his face with his hands and sobbed. - -Amid these fluctuating thoughts and feelings, the hansom swung with -vehement oscillations along the streets, in the more deserted parts -of London, and brought its occupant in sight of the Bethnal Green -Museum, from which a diversion along Old Ford Road and Approach Road, -flung him into Victoria Park, the huge playground of the poorer eastern -section of the city. He was driven to the eastern part of the immense -reservation, and was gratified to find a public meeting in progress, -the exact thing he most wished to be present at, and to estimate. - -In a broad and treeless area of the park, with the grass showing -hesitatingly after the long winter, but vivid also in spots, in the -strong light of the afternoon, with an atmosphere strangely variant -from the traditional, and, to Leacraft, much loved velvety softness -and mellowed obscuration of former days, were gathered a multitude of -people. They surrounded a speaker, who, on some sort of improvised -platform, with a knot of associated leaders, with a swaying body and -occasionally outstretched hands, was engaged in a harangue which was -received with attention unattended by the slightest demonstration of -assent or disapproval. It looked from a short distance almost like a -devotional assembly, it seemed so reverently silent, and as Leacraft -approached, this impression was partially at least verified, for the -speaker’s hands ceased their agitated appeal, the occasional higher -cries proceeding from his lips died away, and a song or hymn burst -suddenly from the still motionless multitude. It lasted for an instant, -perhaps a single verse, and as Leacraft drew near, another man from -the platform group stood up, and stepped to the front of the small -stand. At that precise moment the cannonading, agreed upon as a signal, -announced the starting of the royal cortege, and the sad beginning -of the imperial evacuation of England. It was heard with far away -reverberations, as it was repeated from other nearer points, and this -vagueness, by a congruity of effect with the dull misery weighing on -Leacraft’s heart, seemed to give to it a deeper poignancy of grievous -import. It produced the impression of an irrevocable doom. As the -sounds were heard by the assembled crowds, the speaker lifted his hand -and raised his face skyward, as if in supplication, the heads were all -uncovered by one spontaneous impulse, and, caught in the same wave of -feeling, Leacraft sought the invocation of his own blessing on the King -and all he stood for. - -The interrupted speaker began his address. The man was a strong type. -His face was somewhat leisurely framed in short whiskers, confined -to his cheeks; his eyes were large, blue and unblinking, with a -resolute look in them that had the merit of extorting, at least, -a respectful recognition; his complexion met all the requirements -of the English reputation for color, but it left no impression of -having attained its superior brilliancy through less innocent means -than exercise and personal care. His broad, high forehead--a little -heightened in its expansive effect through the faltering recession of -the iron grey hair that stood a little stiffly above it--rose above -the admirably firm nose, whose size and contour formed to the reader -of physiognomies another compelling admonition to give its wearer the -rational allegiance of attention. The man’s voice was musical, with -a single intonation that imparted to it much carrying power, and it -yielded to certain tendencies of relaxation in speaking that gave it -almost a feminine sweetness. Leacraft put him down for a labor leader -of a sort, character and design belonging to the best elements of the -current labor thought and organization; a man of that impressive stamp -in modern adjustments of self-assertion, of which John Burns was so -extraordinary an example. - -He had begun his speech as Leacraft, with insistent zeal, pushed his -way deeply toward the centre and margins nearer the stage, of the -attentive throng. - -“My friends, we must think for ourselves. We are not likely to have -our thinking done for us to the best advantage. Now there are some -plain, undeniable facts. They are the kind of facts which cannot be hid -under a bushel basket, nor, for that matter, under a king’s crown. One -of the most intelligible of these facts--and it is fundamental--is -that the number of individual heads apportioned to the same number -of paired legs make up the population, and units of population make -nations, and nothing else can. An aggregate of gentlemen dressed in -wigs, or holding truncheons sticking out of purple and gold-braided -shawls never has, and, from sheer destitution, never could make a -nation. By all the signs around us, and I am willing to accept them -without any question, this country of ours is going to move; is about -to begin housekeeping somewhere else, and I think it is an imperative -necessity for the success of such a change that everyone living now on -this island and calling himself an Englishman, must move also, and move -to the same place (Hear, Hear,). But that moving is conditioned. It is -indispensably necessary that we proclaim that condition, and insist -upon its acceptance. We hold the situation in our own hands. We control -the key to the future, to make or mar, or destroy the continuity of the -English name. Why? Because if to-morrow the English workingman refused -to follow the English flag to Australia, and took his wisdom, his tools -and his savings somewhere else, that flag would lose twenty millions -of subjects, and would wave over a remnant that could not ensure its -protection or its support. (Hear, Hear). But the condition?” - -The speaker paused, sweeping his eyes over the sea of upturned faces, -as if he was hunting through the chaotic assemblage for the disclosure -of some particular visage which, either as an ally or an opponent, -might receive the shock of his omnipotent secret. Whether he discovered -the facial invitation or not, was not revealed in his subsequent -action. He wheeled sideways to the stiffened line of men behind -him--doubtless expectant and impatient numbers in the afternoon’s -programme--and bringing his clenched right hand into the hollowed palm -of his left hand, shouted, and not discordantly: “The condition is the -abolition forever of the Law of Entail that to-day makes us a servile -race.” - -Again he paused, as if so ponderous a statement, so fiercely declared, -would elicit a demonstration--but to Leacraft’s abounding wonder, not -a sound arose from the vast audience. Whether it was appalled, or -thrilled, interested, or pleased, or dumbfounded, it gave no sign. Its -immutable decree for the speaker to go on was its very silence. No -public orator could conveniently, with respect to his own sensitive -needs for public encouragement, stop there. But he had become cautious. -He felt that perchance his auditors yet held mental reservations in -favor of things as they were, as they wished them to continue. - -“I say, with all my heart and soul,” he went on, “stay with the -Flag, stay with the King, stay with our lords and ladies, but on -one condition as freemen, to whose keeping now in this hour of peril -they are wholly given. Into your hands the God of Nations entrusts -their fate, but that fate can only be propitious as you are true to -yourselves, your children, and your children’s children.” - -Then came the long delayed approval. A wave of excited pleasure brushed -across the crowds, and the hand-clapping, begun in many separate -centres, ran together, and with shouts of acquiescence, with cheers, -with central and periphera, agitation, the huge aggregate expressed its -tumultuous adhesion. Leacraft felt that the loyalty of these people was -not impaired, and that the logic of events would still hold them united -in a consentaneous allegiance at least, to the idea of the English -nation, though it was pretty evident that the democratic claims of a -wider opportunity for personal, for family promotion, leavened all -their feelings, and that in the new regime it might be expected, that a -great deal of the present relation of the classes would be swept away, -and that the old time idolatry of degree, the mere flunkeyism of homage -to name and geneological prestige, among the masses, had shrunken into -nothingness. - -The stage was again occupied by a speaker, who was interested in very -practical and urgent questions, the _how_ and _where_ and _when_, the -disposition of the emigrants to the new country, and he revelled in -plans, provisions, details of occupancy, and employment. He showed -conclusively the power and effectiveness of organization, and the -surprising accommodations that can be extracted from the most forlorn -prospects by a shrewd use of forethought and combination. Funds had -been scraped together, settlements, as yet in the dream stage of -realization created, and a practical socialism consummated in the -confederation of a large numbers in one common venture. This aspect -of the emigration was dwelt upon by the speaker with some rigor. It -was a surprise to Leacraft, and lent a strange expression to the still -irreconcilable spectacle of Englishmen looking for a new home. - -Leacraft soon tired of sums, schedules, names, and lists, and wandered -away over the park through the scattered groups, many centred around -one of those popular tribunes, who, by reason of a little more -leisure, perhaps a little more application, and always much more -labial facility, influence their class profoundly. The broad lawns -were filled with these improvised parliaments, in which too banter, -argument, retort, query, admonition bore a part. The perplexing thing -was the average satisfaction shown by the people, a kind of holiday -anticipation, as if they were off for an excursion. To them perhaps -it seemed a new start in life, with the ground less encumbered by -rivals, by restrictions, less shadowed by priority, and favors for a -few, and by the intimidation of a necessary subserviency. They almost -seemed happy in the thought of change. There was bitterness in this, -and yet to Leacraft with his undissembling and emancipated mind it -was understood. It meant _chance_ to these people--this removal; and -to most of them chance never came, never could come as they were. -And then to linger, was starvation, loneliness, disuse, death. The -business of the country had enormously shrunken, its productive power -had been halved, commerce was drifting in stronger and steadier -currents elsewhere, and no where so strongly as to Germany, while the -over mastering pre-eminence of America loomed up in proportions that -paralysed conjecture. - -Pondering on all these things Leacraft, in his absorbed way, stumbled -over a little girl on the edge of one of the shaded walks. He quickly -stooped and picked her up, and confronted the young mother, already -hastening to the rescue of her child. - -“I should have been more careful,” said the embarrassed gentleman. -“Well, indeed we have all good reason to be thinking more than seeing, -these times,” said the smiling mother, “I wonder what we’ll all be like -this time, come twelve month.” - -“Oh, I dare say that we shall be doing much the same thing that we do -here, in a different place--and then we shall be a year older;” the -young woman laughed, and attested a complete willingness to talk more, -as she raised the ruffled child from the grass and moved nearer to -Leacraft. Nor was Leacraft indifferent. He felt nettled, and willful, -with a subconsciousness of disappointment and fear. This human and -healthy mother, with the fresh guerdon of her blushing youth in her -arms, was a helpful companion, and then she carried the solace of some -new story, perhaps a new need, and Leacraft was not averse to being -sympathetic or helpful. - -“Willie, that’s my man, sir,” continued the girl, “is right glad to -get away. Last Candlemas his mother died, and left Willie her savings, -and that, and what we have, will tide us to America, and Willie he -says that he can get a home, and have a little land, and Willie will -be better of his sickness. He’s not here the day, because of his cough -and the fever that he has. Ah! sir, it makes me chill at my heart to -see him, and to think that we are going so far,” and the sweet face -looked piteously at Leacraft, and the tears overran the sad gray eyes. -Leacraft saw it all; a consumptive father, poor, out of work, staking -everything now to reach that bourne, where the hopeless of all nations -saw the welcome light of opportunity. As he thought of this he saw -how great this avulsion was, what a tearing up of the roots of family -and home life, and how ruthlessly they were to be planted in all -sorts of soils, under alien skies, with inauspicious hands to tend -and raise them. He turned to the young mother, and said, “It won’t -seem so far, if a face from the old home greets you there. I shall be -there also, and I will not only be glad to see you, but glad to help -you, if you need it. Take this,” and opening his card case, he wrote -an address in New York city. “If,” he continued, “you do not remain -in New York, this will always find me. Good bye.” He extended his -hand and shook with unaffected warmth the hand of the young English -woman, to whom the future loomed up in misty and insecure, perhaps -menacing shadows. How merciful is sympathy, with what a solacing hand -it soothes the “ruffled brow of care,” and how genially it bids the -springs of life still follow, and, for a moment at least, flow too in -the sunlight of affection. The English woman seized Leacraft’s hand -and pressed it tightly, and her face looked into his with almost an -enamored thankfulness; she raised the baby girl and held it close to -Leacraft, and the restrained Englishman kissed it with quaint shyness. -At the instant, all the shifting helplessness about him moved him -inexpressibly. Again they shook hands and the Englishman betrayed into -emotional excess, walked rapidly away, reassuring her at the last that -he would indeed be soon in America. - -A few feet away a different encounter swept him into a contrasted -realm of emotional excitement. A rude brawling loafer, none too sober, -and reckless in oaths and obscenity, had seized the small flags of two -little boys--union jacks--and throwing them down on the ground, with -an outburst of profanity trampled and defaced them. The Englishman -inflamed and ardent, holding a wounded heart, stood stupified and -insulted. The next instant and he had snatched the flags from their -degradation, and with an instantaneous revulsion struck the culprit of -this outrage squarely in the face. The blow was unmistakably adequate. -The ruffian reeled and fell and failed to regain his feet, before a -shout of applause greeted Leacraft and a concourse of men, who had -hastened to the spot on the outcry of the children surrounded him with -welcome salutation. - -“A fine blow--well hit and straight as a gunshot man! That was the -right medicine for his complaint. I’m thinking that a little water -might wash it down. I say, boys, let’s duck him, souse him in the lake. -A tubbing might clean his sassy mouth, and a man is none too good to be -rolled in the mud himself, who treads on the English flag.” The subject -of this criticism was on his feet again in rather a belligerent mood, -blinking and rolling his fists in a minatory fashion, and sputtering -defiance, and presenting a transient spectacle of inebriety and -coarseness that would have been ludicrous, if the temper of the men -behind the new speaker had not seemed so hostile. Leacraft felt that -they would do some serious mischief to the miserable delinquent, and he -stepped in front of them interposing his body between the foremost of -the ranks, and the, now somewhat intimidated drunkard. - -“I think my friends, that you should spare yourselves the trouble to -punish this miscreant just now. Let him alone. Neither he or his kind -are likely to hurt our flag. He has learned his lesson. To-day my -friends it becomes us to command ourselves, and hold ourselves above -resentment. We are all sad, our hearts are heavy, the old Manse is -to be left and new conquests across the waters made, new homes. Ah! -how large the vision grows.” The men had enclosed Leacraft in a dense -circle. He saw that he had their attention, while the stumbling object -of their first anger effected a shuffling retreat with ignominious -haste. His ruse now was to entirely capture their thoughts. “It is a -vision of a new England, one made so by our devotion, the fixed quality -of our patriotism, an undeviating union among ourselves, and just pride -in our history, our race, our King. It may be a better England; it can -not be a more beautiful England. We are deeply stricken. While we bow -to this necessity, let us make the grandest display of fortitude of -resource, of hope, of courage, of skill, of judgment, ever known. In -our disaster we shall again conquer the world and hold it submissive -at our feet.” - -Leacraft had enough disengagement of thought to half smile to himself -at this grandiloquent pretense, but he knew his audience. It was quite -British, embued with that cloutish conceit which all popular masses in -every successful nation instinctively display. He had appealed to their -conceit, though not only to that, and they responded enthusiastically. -As he finished this mild buncombe, not without some misgivings as -to his own honesty, as he intended at first to repair to the United -States, the men nearest to him grasped his hand, others shouted -approbation, and still others in silence moved away shaking their -heads. Leacraft talked with the men about him. He found that they had -been assigned places in the scheme of emigration; some were going to -Australia, with a systematic dispersion over the region, which most -needed their labor, others to New Zealand into socialistic farming; -others to the cape and Rhodesia and still others to Canada; so that his -exalted sentiment of solidarity lost a little of its impressiveness. -Leacraft lingered a while longer, and as the day ended in a refulgent -sunset with church bells, near and far ringing to the services, that -now for a week would be held at all hours, inaugurating an unbroken -intercession at the throne of grace for the guidance and protection of -the people, he left his cordial acquaintances and went westward. - -He reached Park Lane near the Kensington Gardens, Gloucester House, -and the fountain of Thornycroft, the region of Mayfair, the dazzling -centre, the illustrious apse of English social splendor, where the -inherited privileges of life were not discordantly blended with the -no less inherited gifts of fortune; that spot in all London which -to relinquish, would seem to sound the depths of national disgrace. -The moon swam in the lucent sky, the air was clear, but cold, and -the familiar ravishing softness of the June nights as London knew -them once, was gone; those illumined mists, the dewyness that spread -from the ground to the enveloping air, and threw veil over veil of -shimmering opacity upon arch and tower, sward, tree, bridge and storied -palace, was all gone, too, and the beautiful neighborhood, as Leacraft -wandered through it, from Cumberland Gate--where he saw snow still -resting in sheltered recesses--along Park Lane to Hyde Park Corners, -through Grosvenor Place to Chapel street, to Belgrave Square, was -revealed in an aerial sincerity, that gave its splendor an almost -scintillant loveliness, and drove still deeper into Leacraft’s heart -the sense of a bewildering bereavement. - -The streets were filled with flying equipages, and the mansions were -ablaze, the sidewalks held few pedestrians, and as Leacraft sorrowfully -moved through the stately purlieus, music swept out from open windows -or swinging doors. Often he paused and watched the descending occupants -of the carriages; they were entrancing women and peerless men, their -laughter was silvery and undismayed, unchecked by tears. Could it -be possible that these inner esoteric circles of London high life -and unimaginable wealth indulged in revelry; could not the crash and -fall of empires turn the votaries of gayety to soberer thoughts, or -stifle the intoxicating voice of pleasure? Leacraft wondered, and -the weariness of a great suspense weighed him down; the ingrained -Puritanism of his nature raged against this heartlessness, this -indecent bravado, a mockery of joy, where all should be shadowed with -the sighs of penitence and supplication. - -Leacraft was bitterly offended at this apparent heartlessness; it -startled him beyond the limits of endurance; he looked for some -representative of this foolish life, upon whom to turn with rebuke -and denunciation. Leacraft wandered on in a disconsolate mood, and -the growing indications, with the falling night, that the fashionable -world of London was engaged, in a preconcerted way, to spend the last -hours of its metropolitan sojourn in a spendthrift vortex of excitement -and conviviality moved him to muttered objurgations. He had slipped -past Hyde Park Corners, past the Apsley House, and had glided with -hastening steps, as his passion of revolt, at this unseemly loss of -self-respect, rose to a towering indignation, into Grosvenor Square. -He stood facing the long facade, where in repetitive elegance, with -columned porches and mansard roofs, and wall-like chimneys, the -mansions of the very rich, illumined at all their windows, poured forth -a torrent of light. Aggrieved and stupefied, he shot into Berkley -Square, and still no interruption to the aspect of mad revelry. Could -it be a frenzied spasm of indulgence, before separation forever from -the bliss of the West End, that terrestrial paradise of swelldom and -financial and social glory? He wondered. And thus wondering, he came -to Devonshire House, fronting Piccadilly. The comfortable home, with -its small brick work, peeking chimney pots, the low entablature and -triple doors behind the iron gateway, and the unbroken watch of the -woman-headed sphinxes, on either side of the elevated escutcheon of -the Kingdom, was there, encompassed by its imprisoning walls--and -here, too, the effrontery of lavish gayety assaulted his eyes. The -gates were flung wide open, powdered footmen were ranged before the -doors, arriving and departing carriages threaded Piccadilly with -conscienceless celerity, music uttered its delicious melodies, and in -them was no requiem note, no throb of sorrow, and the guests crowding -into its dazzling halls seemed untouched by thoughts less careless -than the joys of the fleeting moments, whose hurrying steps were -bringing the dawn of disaster to England. Exasperated, Leacraft turned -on his heel in disgust, and was going towards Leicester Square, when a -sharp report somewhere on the side of the Geological Museum, and ahead -of his position, startled him, and the next instant he saw a carriage, -with prancing steeds, plunging down the street, the swaying figure of -the driver denoting his complete loss of control, while on one side of -the equipage, that side towards Leacraft, the pale face of a gentleman -was seen, and beside him the distracted visage of an elderly lady. -As the carriage approached Leacraft, it crossed the street, and the -front wheels collided with the curbing. This administered a slight -detention, and the struggling horses turned again to the opposite side -of the thoroughfare. Quick to see his advantage, Leacraft sprang to the -head of the nearer horse, and exerting all his strength, which was not -inconsiderable, he succeeded in tripping the beast, and as it fell the -traces holding its companion broke, and the freed creature raced away -down the avenue. The driver leaped to the sidewalk and held the now -imprisoned horse, which, starting to its feet, stood trembling beside -him, while Leacraft hastened to the door of the vehicle to liberate its -occupants. - -He had already been forstalled by the gentleman himself, who pushed -the door back as Leacraft reached it and stepped to the walk, -followed instantly by the lady in much commotion and disorder. Their -agitation was short lived, and succumbed to the exercise of their own -self-control. It was the gentleman who first spoke: “I am under the -deepest obligation to you, sir, for your quickness and your courage. -You may readily have saved us from a miserable fate. And”--Leacraft -interrupted: “You were going to some _rendezvous_ of pleasure; this, -sir, in my opinion, on the eve of the nation’s assassination deserved -punishment.” The speech was crude, rude perhaps, and the bitter -taunt smote the stranger like a physical blow. He recoiled from it -as if the sting of a cowhide had crossed his face. His face itself -was a study. He stared at Leacraft, and as the latter met his gaze -unflinchingly the pale face, distinguished in outline, feature, and -expression, flushed to the temples, while the eyes seated under bushy -brows gazed at Leacraft with a peculiar earnestness, not relieved of -the dangerous suggestion of a rising passion. His companion understood -his excitement, she clutched his arm, and seemed to apprehend a -physical outbreak. Then the mouth opened, and spoke, and the voice was -unexpectedly calm, and the utterances measured: “We are under deep -obligation to you sir, but it is difficult for me to restrain myself -before the false statements you have ventured to make. Can you explain -this insult?” - -He moved nearer to Leacraft who did not budge, but inspired with an -increasing vigor of disgust, and eager to summarily remonstrate at the -seeming cruelty of the parade about him, its grotesque wickedness, -said: “I do not wish to take advantage of the accidental relations -which have thus unexpectedly thrown us together. But surely it is -known among men, and known bitterly among Englishmen that the shadows -of an awful twilight are falling about them, and the Nation’s Day is -closing. At such a crisis can it be possible for men and women, calling -themselves English, in whom the memory of English fame and English -glory, is still a present pride, can it be possible that at this moment -they still consort for amusement, for display, for the fugitive follies -of mutual admiration? This aristocracy is the head and forefront of the -nation, and it should now be bowed in penitence, in supplication, in -the agony of self inquiry, and it stupifies me to find them gay, when -the heart of England is breaking with grief.” - -A curious metamorphosis worked in the lineaments of the gentleman he -was addressing. The hard lines relaxed, and a wistful smile, that -drew its occult meaning from the man’s interior sadness, stole softly -over his face. He put out his hand, which Leacraft accepted, and he -returned Leacraft’s pressure. There was an instant’s silence, and then -the stranger spoke, still holding Leacraft’s hand, and retaining his -undeviating inspection of Leacraft’s face, as if he would force upon -himself the recognition of a friend. - -“These are just words, sir,” he began: “but how much you misunderstand -what is going on here. This apparent revelry is an effort to keep from -swooning: it is the forced continuance of a life familiar to us, when -that life is to be crushed into nothingness; it is the defiance of -habit, the revolt against extinction, the mortal protest against the -infamous tyranny of circumstances. It is a delirium of indulgence, to -forget what is coming upon us; a moment’s arbitrary refusal to think -of the future, a dance, in whose whirl we shall remit the impulses of -suicide. It is unreasonable, but its monstrous unreasonableness to -you sir, measures our appalling sense of the disaster we can not stop -to think of, measures the intensity of the recoil from obliteration; -like the dressed and garlanded victim of an Aztec immolation we taste -again the festive sweets upon which perhaps our cloyed appetites are no -longer to feed. We are the sufferers in this eviction; the greatest, -the poor, the artisan, laborer, the vast mediocrity lose something, but -it amounts to little more than the exchange of one station here, for -another of the same sort somewhere else. In a material sense our loss -is incalculable; half our riches disappears but with that loss goes -social prestige, title, and the moral consciousness of elevation, the -breath of our nostrils. I, sir, am ----.” Leacraft did not move; his -astonishment was too sharply focussed upon all the astounding previous -confession. “And,” continued the man, “the ruin of worldly fortune -seems small, after all, compared with the sacrifice of that dignified -and sheltered life, which moved serenely, with every accompaniment of -joy, in these delightful abodes, and under the protecting aegis of an -inexpressible separation from the rest of the world. But”--he seemed -to wish to justify himself, somehow, as he noticed the still petrified -stare of Leacraft--“we have not been neglectful of the matters -of adjustment. Committees have been appointed, plans laid, funds -appropriated, agents despatched, for the selection of our new homes, -and though we take our flight with lopped wings, our plumage may in -time resume its former beauty. Do not misunderstand us because of these -assemblies. We too carry deeper than you the pain of an unutterable -grief.” - -He finished, and Leacraft drawn into a reverie over the singular -confession, which was anything but reassuring, and partook, to his -mind, of the dementia of the foolish victim of a depraved habit, was -silent. He felt the imperious requirements of speech, but he could -say nothing. He felt pity, he was not without sympathy, though -perhaps in that matter, a certain savor of self denying control, and -a practical judgment interfered with his approval of the hyperbole of -the speaker. And, almost dreaming, he stood there while the stranger -and his lady re-entered their carriage, to which the runaway horse had -been reattached, and drove off. Leacraft watched them mechanically and -then turned, walked down Piccadilly, crossed Green Park, and looked at -Buckingham Palace. The huge structure was partially illuminated, and -the square in front of it was filled with soldiers, many of whom were -at rest around the Victoria Memorial. To an officer lounging near by, -Leacraft said, “Can you tell me where the King is to-night?” - -“He sleeps at St. Leonards in Shoreditch,” was the laconic reply. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE SPECTACLE. - - -It was two days later than the events narrated above, that Leacraft -and Thomsen, with Miss Tobit between them, sat in a crowded window on -Hammersmith road watching for the enormous procession that had been -slowly winding through London, with offices and services, halts and -functions, as the King sadly led the departure of the English people -from the Mother of Nations. - -And the vast pageant approached. Down Kensington road its first -glittering sallies were seen, the block of London police, a gorgeous -cavalcade behind them of the peers of the realm, and in the -immeasurable distance the shimmering parts, that looked stationary, -and yet were coming on with ample speed. The blaring trumpets in the -bands drew near, the street was cleared from curb to curb, the dense -assemblage, covering stoop and roof, and leaning from every window -became silent, the reiterated thud of the falling feet was heard, -and in an instant the marching host was passing beneath them. The -police and the peers of the realm passed in silence or with barely -noticeable tokens of recognition. The peers presented a dazzling array, -on superbly caparisoned horses, and in the regalia of their separate -stations, with a bearing of unmistakable dignity, and possessing in -a large measure the impress and gift of English manly beauty, they -uttered the note of _caste_. Behind them came the marshalled Church, -a wonderful picture; choirs of boys, surpliced and gowned, in open -carriages, priests and bishops, in their robes of office, with flying -standards of chapel, church or cathedral, golden lambs, crosses and -crowns, figures and mottes on white silk or ruby silk, in wavering -confusion, while hymns in wavering sopranos rose petulantly, or again -with sustained vitality and strength. It appealed to the people -strangely. They became very still, and faces contorted with sobs, or -heads bowed to hide the unbidden tears for a few moments drew a veil of -gloom over the splendid show. After the Church and the peers, a forest -of equipages brought in view the marvellous display of the robed and -crowned peeresses, and succeeding this shining cloud of matrons, that -gave the touch of tenderness, the atmosphere of feminine companionship, -and endurance, as if the mothers of England responded in this untoward -hour with an embracing sympathy; after them came the King’s Household -and the King, with outriders, equerries, and panoplied footmen, a -miracle of ostentatious and ceremonial color. His equipage was drawn -by ten jet black stallions, with diapers of the King’s colors on their -backs, and a line of ancient guardsmen, with pikes in their hands, -hedging them in, and a footman in sparkling white at the head of each -horse. The King was himself robed in the gowns of his high estate, and -was uncovered, the Crown resting on a cushion in front of him. A cheer -rent the air, unfurled flags and fluttering handkerchiefs, turned a -sea of faces into an ocean of white and red pennants. The King gravely -acknowledged the salute and bowed to right and left. He was alone; -the Queen had been enthroned among the peeresses. After the King came -the Mayor of London, with all the antiquated grandeur of his office, -coach, beef eaters, and all, and the people settled back again to their -luncheons, which had been interrupted by the King. - -Then came the troops. The display was exhaustive. It was conceived upon -a scale of imperial magnificence, and it appealed in the succession of -its gorgeous units to the historic sense, to that divine purpose of -continuity which every Englishman instinctively appropriates to his -race and nation. It represented the chronological development of the -English army. As its sonorous length defiled before Leacraft, he saw -an objective symbol--nay, the corporeal fact--of England’s growing -power; regiment after regiment made a pictorial calendar from 1660 to -1900, and to the informed mind what a vista of martial glory, what -a presentation of advance and retreat over the tractless wastes of -the world, they made! It was a trampling chronicle of woe and fame, -shame and satisfaction; it embodied the progress of ideas, the clash -of political tendencies, the spreading domination of English rule; it -was a panorama of battles, the tide of victory, the ebbing terrors -of defeat; it reflected the pages of political designs, political -subterfuge, political confusion; the music that swelled from its ranks -now sent the long waves of its solemn processional melody through the -thrilled spectators, now in limpid folk-songs, quivered delightfully in -their ears, and now again summoned them to their feet with the stately -and pious invocation of the nation’s hymn. - -The scarlet uniforms of the First Life Guards passed, and Maestricht, -Boyne, the Peninsular, and Waterloo, flashed in view--the regiment -which was raised in Holland by King Charles the Second, and was -composed of eighty gentlemen, whose sobriquet of the “cheeses,” along -with other Life Guards, had been acquired from the contemptuous -refusal of their veterans to serve in them when remodelled, because -they were no longer composed of gentlemen, but of cheesemongers. - -Again, the Second Life Guards revived the stained memory of the -Stuarts, its own exile in the Netherlands, its return with the -restoration; and its sea green facings pleasantly restored for a -moment the face of the injured Queen Caroline. Here were the Royal -Horse Guards, that inherited, or at least might claim the virtues of -the Parliamentary army, which fought with dogmas at the ends of their -pike-staffs, and convictions in their hearts. Now passed the First -Dragoon Guards, that carried on its proud records the Battle of the -Boyne in 1690, Oudenarde in 1708, Malplaquet in 1709, Fontenoy in 1745, -Waterloo in 1815, and Pekin in 1860, though to Leacraft’s sensitive -mind the last was an inscription of disgrace. The beating hoofs of the -“Queen’s Bays,” the Second Dragoon Guards, hurried the reminiscent -admirer back to Lucknow and the Indian Mutiny. The nodding plumes of -the Prince of Wales, with the Rising Sun, and the Red Dragon which -came in view with the Third Dragoon Guards, unfailingly recalled to -the custodians of English military renown, that the regiment captured -the standard and kettle drums of the Bavarian Guards at the Battle of -Ramilies. Trampling on the heels of their horses, the lordly “Blue -Horse” defiled past, and the Fifth Dragoon Guards, which supported -the vital legend, “_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_,” and which captured -four standards at the Battle of Blenheim. Still the endless lines -advanced, wavered, stood still, and again with rattling and shivering -harness, passed. Now it was the Second Dragoons, the Scotch Greys, -raised in Scotland, and older than any other dragoons in the British -army, that started the furious applause, an ovation not unintelligently -bestowed--for it was they who captured the colors of the French at -Ramilies, and their standards at Dettingen. Now it was the “Black -Dragoons,” the Sixth, on its glistening horses--once part of the -Inniskilling forces, and still bearing as its crest the Castle of -Inniskilling; now the Eighth Hussars, whose Protestant fealty had made -their founders defenders of William of Orange at the Battle of the -Boyne, and who, with signal power, captured forty-four stands of colors -and seventy-two guns at the Battle of Leswarree. Now the Fifteenth -Hussars, who bore upon their helmets the dazzling inscription, “Five -Battalions of French defeated and taken by this Regiment, with their -Colors, and nine pieces of cannon, at Emsdorf, 16th of July, 1760.” -Swelling hearts greeted the Grenadier Guards, rich in the legacy of the -fame of the defeated French Imperial Guards. - -Here were the Dublin Fusileers--the “Green Linnets,” the “Die -Hards”--the East Surries--the West Yorks--and Devons, who had been -part of that indiscriminate blunder and glory--the Boer War. - -And now the infantry, in closing ranks, unrolled the endless phalanxes. -Where regiments, as entire units, were absent, companies took their -places, and English cheers saluted the swinging standards. The -Thirty-fifth, which took the Royal Roussillon French Grenadiers at the -Battle of Quebec--the Thirty-fourth, which impregnably covered the -retreat from Fontenoy--the Thirty-ninth, which defended Gibraltar in -1780, and captured the insurgents’ guns and standards at Maharajpore, -in 1843, along with the Fortieth--the Forty-second, with the red heckle -in its bonnets, to commemorate its capture of the French standards of -the “Invincible Legion,” in 1801, as well as for its distinguished -ardor in the Battle of Guildermalsen, in 1795, and the “Little Fighting -Toms” stirred the crowds, and even to those who regarded the pageant -with glances of bitterness, as the hollow mask of a cruel abdication, -even to their glassy stare, this epic review brought a momentary gleam -of gratitude and pride. - -Here was the Forty-sixth, whose colonel, with the English nonchalence -which always wins so enduring a regard with Englishmen, in spite of -a kind of artifice of mere stubbornness in it, preached a sermon -to his men, under a heavy fire, about the Lacedemonians and their -discipline--and which, at least to an American, awoke only hateful -memories--and here the Fiftieth, “The Blind Half Hundred,” who fought -with damaged eyes in Egypt, and who shone resplendent with courage and -gallant sacrifice at Vimiera--Ah! and here was the Fifty-seventh--“the -Die Hards”--which had thirty bullets through the King’s colors, and -only one officer out of twenty-four, and one hundred and sixty-eight -men out of five hundred and eighty-four left standing at Albuera. The -people shouted and stormed, an avalanche of flags suddenly sprang up -over the walled street, and at points showers of flowers and bags of -fruit descended in a tornado of delight. Surely, if Englishmen had such -blood in them, the nation would yet live. - -Here were the men from India, the regiments of the Seventy-third, the -Seventy-fourth, wearing the badge of the “elephant,” the Seventy-sixth, -too, that unfurled its victorious pennants at the Battle of Leswarree, -and the Seventy-seventh and Seventy-eighth, and on, on, straight in -the line, brave squadrons, whose illusive recognition in a numeral, -connoted glorious deeds, defiant strength, the prodigal powers of -the brave. The thundering salutations drowned the rollicking music -of “Clear the Way,” the cry at Barrosso, which with fife and drum -announced the approach of the Eighty-seventh--the Prince of Wales’ own -Irish--and the Eighty-eighth, the Connaught Rangers, whose more loving -sobriquet was “The Devil’s Own Connaught Boys,” from its gallantry -in action, and its irregularities in quarters. Uniform and vanity -with reciprocal enhancement made the Argyleshire Highlanders and the -Gordon Highlanders and the Sutherland Highlanders an envious spectacle -to manly youth, a vision of ingratiating heroes to feminine beauty. -Again India sprang back to memory, perhaps not without, to souls of -Leacraft’s fibre, inflicting some stinging stabs of remorse, when the -One Hundred Foot, the One Hundred and Second Foot, “the Lambs,” the -One Hundred and Third Foot, “the Old Toughs,” the One Hundred and -Fourth Foot, and Seventh, and Eighth, and Ninth marched past, with -ear shattering dim, in resplendent waves of color, and expressing the -English temperament of reserved force, and intelligent determination, -with, to the more analytical observer, a suggestion of brutal power in -their sturdy and inelastic tramp. - -And then came the people of the Earth, from the ends of the world they -came; the wild, the exotic, the uncouth, the suave, and treacherous, -the mystic, the benign, the terrible, in all garbs, in vestures of wool -and silk and cotton, in no small numbers without much vesture. It was -a web of hues, a carpet of figures and dyes, a lithe and sinuous and -portentous living worm, each zone of its immense length, as it swayed -and twisted and halted, and then slipped on with ludicrous indecision -and disorder, made up of races, ethnic blotches or flowers from the -round prolific globe. The army had been history, the procession now -became psychological, a review of temperaments, endowments, climates, -proclivities and talents; nay it wore the aspect of a zoological -medley, a vast menagery of animal products, that with growl and -scream, trumpetings or fluttering wings gave to the congeries of -men and women who walked among them, or with them, the sentiment -and resemblance of the parade of the beasts before Adam. As if with -England’s dislodgement, the shaken countries of the earth emptied out -their populations in her wake, disturbed in all their resting places by -her calamity; spilled from their hidden corners into the shining light -of day, and bringing with them the animals of the fields and the birds -of the air. And the air itself was cruelly brilliant. The severity of -outlines, the sharp shadows, the nipping frostiness in the shades, -where the sun was not found, told the weary story that England had lost -her climate, and was swept back in a normal alignment with the cold and -feeble countries of the pole. - -What is this odd group accentuated in the midst of all this confusion -of types by a more bizarre strangeness, the quizzical fatuity and -simpering idiocy of devotion--grinning _shikaris_ from the Tibet with -prayer wheels--from the lofty valleys of Baltistan and Ladakh, from -Kargil and Maulbek Chamba--incredible children from the East with their -rotating brass wheels, with a woman or so, proudly walking among them -carrying a burden of wealth in her turquoise and carnelian encrusted -pberak bound around her head and terminating in a black knotted fringe -behind her neck. - -And straggling on their tracks come the Malays from Pinang and -Dindings, from Malaca and Singapore, the small brown men, enduring, -brighteyed, straight black-haired, in jackets, trousers and -sarongs--the tartan skirt fastened around the waist, and reaching to -the knee--and with a raja sprinkled among them with a yellow umbrella -over him, a dandy nonchalance printing his sleek cheek with dimples. -And India, the nursery of religions, of dreams, of talking and sleeping -and famishing men, followed, and for an instant Leacraft thought of -Kim’s journey “from Umballa through Kalka and the Pinjore gardens near -by up to Simla,” which Kipling told; he thought on “the flush of the -morning laid along the distant snows; the branched cacti; tier upon -tier the stony hillsides; the voices of a thousand water channels; the -chatter of the monkeys, the solemn deodars, climbing one after another, -with down-drooped branches; the vista of the plains rolled far out -beneath them; the incessant twanging of the tonga horns and the wild -rush of the led horses, the halt for prayers, the evening conference by -the halting places, when camels and bullocks chewed solemnly together.” - -He closed his eyes in a revery, and the next opened them upon the very -thing. Here were the bullocks, the monkeys, the camels, and here too -came the hulking elephants. Dravidians from the southern peninsular, in -shawls; the Hill tribes, in coats; the high caste Hindus, in skirts and -turbans; Mussulmen from Cashmere, and a few Indian Princes, with their -suites, in a coruscation of gem stones, made up a train of spectacles -that drew the eager crowds together, almost to the obliteration of -the narrow string of exotics that, a little shabbily, shuffled along -between them, with however the Princes on horseback or swung in state -in palanquins. - -But here came Egypt bearing her witness of the universality of that -power which, with her, at least, had seemed to play the part of a -benevolent trustee and guide. No longer the impetuous crowds crushed -the line of march; behind the blaring band that now approached rode -Lord Kitchener, Sirdar of the Egyptian army who had resumed his ancient -post and from an overwrought sentiment for exoneration, announced his -desire to remain there and thus efface the irreconcileable differences -which had caused Lord Curzon’s retirement from India. It was a -magnanimous action and had deeply ingratiated this popular hero in -the favor of the nation. Lord Kitchener, with his staff, preceded, -in military stateliness, and with smart precision, five regiments or -groups of Egyptian soldiers. These were combined or selected so as to -make a bouquet of colors, but essentially business like also in their -serious regularity, a demeanor fortified to the point of affectation by -the plaudits and unconcealed admiration of the hosts of people on the -streets, and protruding from every point above them. There were Arab -lancers--in light blue uniforms, almost too delicate in tone for daily -travel, the bodies of the camel corps, with the blackest type of men in -the Sudanese infantry regiments, assimilating to the soil of the desert -in the color of their khaki costume, and then other details of the -military organization, gleaming in immaculate white trousers and coats. -It was unmistakably effective, and it imparted moral strength to this -illimitable advertisement of physical power. It recalled the campaigns -of Khartum and Omdurman, and memorialized that time-worn boast of -the English rehabilitation of Egypt; a fact certainly, but not to be -distinguished as a very incredible achievement. - -The spectacle closed with Zulus and Hottentots, the bushmen of -Australia, some dejected New Zealanders, and a picturesque assortment -of Jamaican negroes, who tramped along with amusement in their -staring eyes, and a raggedness of deportment, reflecting the wasteful -and careless way of the tropics. Nor were there wanting Greeks from -Cyprus. And at the last the loyalty of the Colonies was splendidly -emphasized, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Natal, -Bermuda, the Bahamas, contributed a final burst of patriotic zeal, -and seemed to open the wide earth, to their kindred in the English -island, for home-making and re-establishment. Nor was the show of -devotion fortuitous or hollow. It was sincere. It represented a sudden -_rapprochement_, an instantaneous and valid impulse of sympathy and -support. Nothing had ever happened in the history of the English -people, which had had so vital an influence in stimulating unity -among the English themselves, which so peremptorily flung them into -each other’s arms, and in a great peril summoned to the surface the -inextinguishable claims of blood, ancestry, tradition, instincts, -and pride, advancing them to a solidarity never before realised. -Its effects were very apparent. The pictures of Hope, lit up by the -imaginative flamings of Ambition, almost at times, at this dread -moment, gave to the future in the new habitations awaiting them, an -unexpected salubrity and beauty. The English leaders dreamed of new -achievements, a new literature, a greatness vastly exceeding all -historic records. - -Three days after the parade, which Leacraft saw so magniloquently -evolved in the streets of London, at Tilbury, the King left English -soil, to transplant the symbols and the functions of the English -government to Australia, and to begin the new experiment. The hills, -the fields, the shores, were all too contracted to hold the army and -the people, gathered in one sublime throb of loyalty and affection -to witness the inexpressible event. The King wearing the uniform of -a Field Marshall issued from a royal tent and with uncovered head -moved towards the shore where his barge was moored. The moment was -statuesque; the immeasurable multitude with a wave of heart breaking -emotion uncovered; the national hymn played by a string and wind -orchestra of four hundred pieces pierced the air with its magnificent -undulation of melody, and a selected chorus led the engulfing tide -of song. Amid the surges of vocal outpouring the parks of artillery -belched their resounding salutes, the lines of war vessels with their -crews at attention returned the iron throated call, and the King -standing below the sweeping oars, turned for an instant towards the -shore, and then regained his first posture of immovable fixture upon -the pregnable sides of the Dreadnought, whither each stroke of those -fateful oarsmen was swiftly sending him. - -The suspense was insupportable, the poignant crushing terror of it all, -the incredible predicament of a nation bodily leaving its birth place, -stunned the crowds, and in silence with a thousand varying episodes -throughout its interminable acres, the populace stood, dumb as the -unresponsive rock, apparently as apathetic as the herding cows. - -Then at sunfall the Dreadnought, followed by an escort of cruisers -heavily churned the waters, and passed down the Thames, from its -mouth into the Channel, and so on to the open sea, and with it went -the concentrated expression of the Idea of the English empire--the -King. How strangely immobile is Nature! A race which had covered -its literary vestures with the garlands of poetry, wrought from the -imagery in nature’s picture-book, which had spent its brain and -industry in winning for nature new devotees, and new sacrifices of -praises and idolatry, which had enthroned among its chiefest charms -its surrender to the control of nature, in this hour of torturing -doubt, disenthronement and eviction won no sign of recognition. The -day closed brightly. The sun went down in a sky of unchecked splendor, -and the moon-illuminated night bathed the ancient bastions of Tilbury -with an argent sheen. The terrible event found no reflection in the -august calmness and serenity of Nature. “Its withers were unwrung.” -Enveloped in the processes of decay and change, the lapse of a kingdom -was but a paltry contribution to the chronicle of destroyed continents, -and shattered worlds. There was no contact between its mechanism -and the obliteration of a sentiment, or an idea, or moral regime. -Nothing short of a change in atmospheric pressure would bring tears to -its face, or agony in its deportment. And what in any case was this -desertion of a land, the removal of a people? It was subordinated to -fluctuations of an oceanic river, to the up and down shiverings of -the crust of the earth. It was a part of the huge drama part of the -inlaid order of things, as determined at creation, when the ways and -means of shaping the world, and all things in it, were inaugurated. -Why should the disappearance of a condition shock a system of -disappearances and appearances, which is another name for the unceasing -orbit of revolutions in the face of the earth, and which is nature? An -individual counts for nothing in the lapse of twenty-four hours gone -or come. Why in the aeons gone and the aeons yet to come should the -migration of a people, or the emptying of a vestige of the earth’s -surface merit notice? And so the elements did not hasten to weep, or -storm, or furiously proclaim their commiseration, and the whispering -calls of the half revived summer from pond and wood and meadow retained -their old time sweetness. - -Thus it happened, but from the mouth of men and women, and prompted -deeply in their yearning soul, rose clouds of prayers that night, for -the safety of the King, and ever and anon as troops marched over the -roads in the cold summer night the hymn: - - Lord of the Wave and Deep, - Save those at Sea, - Their path upon the Ocean keep, - And let them see - Thy hand each passing day, - Thy Ministry of Peace. - -was played with bewitching plaintiveness. Men and women stopped and -sang it aloud as the regiments went by, and sometimes a company of -troopers added with resounding vigor their sonorous refrain. - -The Prime Minister and Mr. Birrell, and Mr. Asquith, who had been -associated in 1906, in the famous dead lock between the Commons -and the House of Lords over the Educational Bill, prepared on the -departure of the King a statement which really was a programme of -evacuation. It contemplated a progressive transference of the people -from England, a slowly consummated shrinkage of the business facilities -and the moderated outflow of capital to the new centres of English -activity. In this way some check would ensue to the frightful fall in -the land values and rentals, apart from the practical consideration -of the physical impossibility of at once removing forty millions of -people. The government had usurped unusual powers in the creation -of a Committee of Direction, which by a house to house canvass, an -exhaustive survey of all titles, and a comparative estimate of the -hardship imposed by emigration to different families, with immense -labor, had prepared an itemized list of departure of the families -of London. This plan had been copied in the large cities of the -kingdom, and a co-operative scheme framed, which comprised a detailed -prescription of the time of sailing, and the places of settlement -for all persons listed. These lists were commonly referred to as the -“Doomsday Rolls.” The scope of the committee’s power was comprehensive. -It prohibited to individuals and to societies, federations and unions, -independent action, without explicit conference with the committee. It -proved to be a most helpful device, and lessened to the lowest possible -percentage of hardship the suffering of the people. - -Leacraft and his new friends freed themselves from the jurisdiction -of the committee, by announcing their intention to go to America, and -upon ample evidence of their ability to do so, and their independent -financial standing. - -It was fully understood that the evacuation was to be a sustained, -gradual movement, with, however, an irreversible determination to -make it finally complete. It was not believed that England had -become utterly uninhabitable, or that some vestiges of its former -occupation might not be still maintained. A part of the plan of -evacuation involved an affectionate care of its greater monuments of -architecture, if possible, though the fierceness of the winter winds -augured unhappily for the success of this design. A regency of love -at any rate was to be established, and as many links as possible of -connection, sentimental and real, were to be left unbroken. - -And Edinburgh? Thomsen had woefully noted every day the scanty -paragraphs which entered the papers, and which gave brief intimations -of the devastating and continuous storms, which, through the winter, -swept over Scotland. As if, in order that the impending changes -might be most forcibly realized, and the loss of time averted from -too leniently interpreting the enormous seasonal metamorphosis going -on, nature had exhausted her power in developing disaster. Terrific -gales had lashed the rocky coasts, fierce insatiable blizzards had -devouringly raged in the interior, and the pitiless and untired skies -had emptied avalanches of snow upon the southern counties of Scotland. -Edinburgh became a storm centre. With whirling inconstancy the storms -beat upon the doomed city from the East and West; buildings were almost -buried in the banked up and superimposed drifts, crested ranges were -in the streets, and palisades of snow tortured into fantastic shapes, -towered over the outer eminences, fed from the blinding torrents of -flakes driven off from the Pentland hills and the Salisbury Crags. -These summits alone, in the whitened waste, lifted their scraped crowns -to the thickened skies. Edinburgh had become a city of the Frost King, -and his slumbering legions bivouacked on and around it, except when -aroused to riotous commotions by the sudden descent of the whistling -armies of the wind. - -These details were rather incoherently reported, as the spring -advanced, and an occasional survivor from the north made his way -out of the beleaguered capital. When the spring had fairly ripened -into summer, an energetic effort was made to reach Edinburgh, and it -succeeded. Scotland at that time became inundated, and though the -enormous accumulations of snow refused at once to surrender their -blockade, they were so deeply broached and undermined that the North -British line pushed a train forward to the edge of the city, though -unable to reach its depot in the heart of the city, by reason of the -hammered wedge of snow which it encountered under the Castle’s cliffs. - -After cutting their way out, to the Lothian Road, the explorers -began investigations and were horror stricken to find that immense -conflagration had broken out, destroying great sections of the city, -which owed its partial survival to the masses of invading snow. These -fires had started in the houses occupied by the domestic bandits, who -had seized the finest residences, provisioned them from the stores, -and surrendered themselves to an orgy of rapine and indulgence, by -which their own fears were stifled, through the excesses of their -drunken dissipation. Hundreds of these unfortunates had perished in -the flames, their recklessness had invoked. The picture of the noble -and beautiful city was shocking. The fires had made inroads upon the -attractive Princes street, and in the portions west of the Caledonian -station, towards the Donaldson hospital, gaping openings and swept -acres revealed the unchecked fury of the flames. While it was probable -that the city might, with a return of auspicious conditions resume -some of its old beauty it was also too plain that the veto of Nature -had been indelibly written across all such plans. Glaciers had already -begun their formation in the Highlands, and the incipient development -of an Ice Age was forcibly proclaimed on every hand. The logic of -events was unanswerable. The United Kingdom throughout all its parts -must participate again in the benighted life of Labrador and Siberia. - -And Europe throughout its borders felt the poignant exasperation of -the Arctic goad. It trembled with a new apprehension. The touch of -those icy fingers, stretched out in myriad lines of approach, swarming -like wavering steel points in thick onslaught from the crowded skies, -made it suddenly anxious. It corrected its habits, it took council of -piety and played with beseeching care its pretty role of devotee. Its -ridiculous and wicked society, with futile haste filled the churches, -and tried to forget its inherited cruelty, and even turned with an -unexpected solicitude to the consideration of improving, in some sure -way, the state of the untitled majority. Its scientific men rushed into -congresses and explored their text books, and read and reread hopeless -papers on the _why_ and _how_ of it, but being unable to invent another -Gulf Stream, retired into dismal prognostications of a returning Ice -Age. In fact deluded, as scientific men often are, by language, they -embraced the thought of a “returning Ice Cap,” which would successfully -force its way from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. They nervously -began measurements of the Alpine glaciers, took temperatures, wandered -up in the higher regions of the atmosphere in balloons, sounded the -floor of the ocean, established meteorological stations everywhere, -and became so excited and convinced that they were happily on hand at -a critical geological juncture, that they succeeded in supplying a -technical ground for panic. - -The statesmen and economists were more useful. They estimated the -results of any continued lowering of the temperatures, the effects -of climatic alterations on life and production, especially in grain, -and found that the southern countries of Europe were in some danger, -and the northern countries very really threatened with a commercial -overthrow, as England had been. They too turned to the colonies of -their respective countries for refuge. It looked as if the bursting -receptacles of European Culture were about to explode and scatter over -the ends of the world the germinal seeds of its civilization. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -ADDENDUM. - - -“Histories leave oppressive legacies behind them. They may furnish -subjects for art and literature and poetry, but, as in family -inheritance, they burden posterity with considerable rubbish. Society -does not quickly free itself from superstition, nor from its habits of -thinking or of doing things. Even when they become anachronisms we are -loathe to part from them, because, to our own detriment, we are fond of -them. America has started fresh, and runs on the road of opportunity, -while other nations must hobble and limp as best they can, with the -clogs of old usage and prejudice hanging on their feet.” - -It was the voice of our friend Leacraft, and he was standing on a broad -piazza built at the rear of a spacious villa on the topmost slopes -of Staten Island, in the harbor of New York city, looking at the -motionless ocean far beyond the fringe of land immediately before him, -flushed by the setting sun. That luminary with glorious opulence had -painted the sky a seething carmine in the west, and imparted its most -delicate reminders of the morn to the eastern arches of the heavens, -that hung above the sea. The picture was superbly satisfying. There -was enough detail in the landscape, enough isolation of house and wood -and field, of moor and strand, and not too much. The oncoming twilight -softly blended these nearer things, yet left them palpable. But the day -still flung its garlands of illumination over the broad skies; and the -sensitive surfaces of the water with lavish sympathy repeated on its -face the smiles of the blending zenith. And on either side of Leacraft -stood Miss Tobit and Mr. Thomsen, and the month was June, and the year, -narrated. - -Before we satisfy our curiosity more closely as to their relation, or -note those changes which five years, however kindly inclined, must -leave behind them, let us follow this conversation which of itself -1915, five years after all the happenings previously may unroll some -curtains of the past. - -“Well,” it was Thomsen who was now speaking, “then I suppose you are -not willing to quarrel with the material revolution we have been -through, because all that has come between the present and the past, -like the sundering of Damocles’ sword, has saved us from the necessity -of denuding ourselves of the old things, turning us loose in a fresh -field, where we may play high jinks with all we once venerated, and -where we may end by despising ourselves, for the very liberties you -seem anxious for us to indulge in.” - -Leacraft motioned to the chairs, and the three sat down, in the -same order as they stood. The place obviously was Leacraft’s, or he -exercised some sort of control over it. And it was Miss Tobit’s voice -which next took up the thread of talk--it was noticeable that Leacraft -turned eagerly and looked at her, though his earnest face betrayed no -symptoms of possession, in truth, a contemplative sadness for a moment -rested on his features, vanishing even with its dawn. - -“Why give up old things? Why change and change and change? You call -it progress. Is it anything but going around in a circle? You will -come back to the very things you now reject, and some centuries hence -the world will try the old experiments of Feudlism and Chivalry; and -Kings by Divine Right will be as popular as elected Presidents--indeed, -people may care some day as much as ever to say their prayers and go to -church.” - -Both Leacraft and Thomsen laughed, but it was Leacraft who retorted, -and he leaned far back in the Morris chair, his eyes bent upon the -visionary ring of the horizon now webbed with bluescent shades. - -“I think there will be no returns, Mrs. Thomsen”--Ah! then Leacraft had -lost again--“no Merry-go-round; our path, the path of humanity, is on -and on and on, not always straight, not always level, and never final -in its destinations. It was a physical chasm that separated the first -colonies of this land from Europe. They brought with them traditions, -customs, though luckily not of a very silly sort--but the lack of -continuity with the whole antecedent history of England practically -destroyed that history for them, and they began in untrammelled freedom -to think for themselves and determine the essence of manhood, of worth, -of liberty, of faith, of brotherhood, and their thinking throve upon -nothing so much as the contemplation of the as yet, humanly speaking, -unused world about them. - -“And the vicissitudes of living, the peril, the undiminished levy made -by necessity upon their inventiveness, their industry, their courage, -expelled the remaining vestiges of fealty to humbug, the pretense -of class, the arrogance of office. They had wrested a living from -Nature, under circumstances of unabashed familiarity with the cruelty -of the savage, the obduracy of climate, and the grudging responses of -a sterile soil, and they estimated worth by the hardihood of men who -worked. - -“An American essayist has pointed out the emphasis laid by the -northern, the Teutonic races, upon individual liberty. He says -something like this: The Germanic race has been distinguished at -all ages for its political capacity, and the possession of vigorous -institutions of self-government; that there grew up among the nations -of this race a well ordered system of government, based upon the right -of the individual. And why was this? Because they knew of the hardships -of living, and the fibre of liberty-loving natures were formed under -the kneading strains of perpetual conflict. James McKinnon has pointed -out the same thing in his History of Modern Liberty. - -“Arbitrary and selfish rule was most quickly crushed in Central Europe. -No! we shall not return to the old follies, because we shall not be -permitted to return; because struggle with Nature will never cease.” - -“Russia has been a cold country,” answered Thomsen; “and if the gauge -of liberty is coldness, we should expect to have seen the fruits of -popular government ripening, if you will permit the paradox, in its -zero atmospheres; or if wildness and natural enemies--those that -make housekeeping difficult, and a man’s skin a precious abode for -his soul--why have not the negroes of Africa won over the images of -rhetoric which have been wasted upon Greece and Rome--both, by-the-by, -hot countries?” - -“Rome and Greece never knew what Liberty was in the modern sense. Both -were types of class government. Before Christianity, there could be no -ideal of freedom in its holiest meanings. As for Russia, the germs of -liberty are yet buried there, but it is understood; an accident has put -the autocracy in power, and like all beneficiaries of a system, its -members fight for their living; besides, Russia has not left off its -barbarism. But nothing under Heaven will keep her from being free. As -to the negro, he lies too far back, too near to the origins, and, in -any case, the dangers of the jungle are met by craft, rather than by -consecutive exertion and daring.” - -“You regret that our new growth in the Pacific--the Australian -England--has not put on the features of a republic, instead of -preserving the heritage of the kingly and royal class institutions -under which the old England flourished. Do you think that nations can -safely try experiments, like children playing games, or chemists mixing -solutions, which, in the latter case, may at any moment blow their -heads off? I think not.” - -“I think,” Leacraft slowly replied, while Agnes Ethel Tobit--she who -had become inferentially the wife of the handsome Thomsen--arose and, -walking to her husband’s side, leaned over the back of his chair, -thus looking down upon the speaker, who had turned towards Thomsen, -as if her movement was dictated by a desire to hear his friend more -distinctly; “I think that the finest, the most inspiring--yes, the -most delicate and subtle virtues flourish in a republic, such as -this Republic of the United States is. I confess, I am in love with -it; I love its people. They are superbly human, and humanly noble. -The American gentleman, and he lives on no particular and restricted -level--you find him among the firemen, the policemen, the clerks, the -fathers of families--this unique man is always gracious, delightful, -unerringly just. I believe that these traits develop most naturally -under the dispensations of equality, reasonably understood. I think the -most fruitful national life ensues, when a nation stands fundamentally, -in its government, and in its social conceptions, for common sense -standards, and an unqualified acceptance of the principles of personal -freedom. I like these Americans. To me, their ardor, their naturalness, -their hearty friendship, their generous self-forgetfulness, and a -certain deferential amusement at the foibles of less emancipated -cultures, is fascinating. Of course, there are stupid rich Americans, -dressed in most obnoxious livery of affectation and imitation, men and -women who have treacherous tendencies in their feelings and desires, -willing always to kick their own country, and willing to leave it, but -never willing to relinquish the luxuries its prosperity has enabled -them to enjoy. There are also hateful middle-class Americans, who -deteriorate the impressions made by the best aspects of the American -heart and mind; but the substance and the spirit of the American -life, however much disguised, or, from momentary and economic reasons -obscured, is to me the most palatable; it is palpably the best life -now shown on the world; it is the most energizing, the most alert, and -it carries the power of enormous assimilation, because it is built on -the essence of manhood, the respect for the rights of others. I know -what is in your thoughts and on the point of your tongue. You would -ask: How about the Chinaman, the Negro, and the Japanese, perhaps? -That is a long question, and has nothing to do with my contention, for -in a nutshell, respect for others’ rights does not involve respect -for others’ habits, and generous as the Americans are, they are not -so stupid as to wish to imperil, for an unnecessary sentiment, the -hard-gained benefits of their own national experiment. They have -already leavened the whole earth; it’s not to be expected that they -digest all of its rubbish as well. Let the rest of the world do -something for itself, and clean its own social sloughs, by a little -more admixture of freedom and sympathy. - -“All this may seem to you intensely disagreeable, perhaps a little -disloyal, but you wrong me. If I might answer your question without -more evasion. I would peremptorily declare that I hoped that the new -England in Australia would put on the lineaments, nay, incorporate the -very breath and body of this land. I know it has not; possibly it could -not; possibly pernicious and selfish instrumentalities have made it -impossible. Pardon my intractable enthusiasm, but do not mistrust my -heart. It is always England’s. The night is too calm, too beautiful, -to disgrace it with wrangling. Let us tell the story of the last years -to each other. Mine is a short one, and can come last; but yours? Ah! -well I know some of it,” and Leacraft, without constraint or any show -of vacillating envy, smiled up in the face of the pretty woman who -looked down at him, and deeply that woman’s heart honored him for his -magnanimous courage. - -There was a pause for an instant, and then Thomsen began. He rose from -his chair, and walking to the railing of the piazza, sat on it, half -turned to the paling East, half towards Leacraft, and told the story of -the transplanted English nation. - -That story can be told in more exacting phraseology than the colloquial -method permits, and until his narrative becomes more personal, let -us authentically review the events he rehearsed, which form a unique -historic episode. - -With the departure of the King from the shores of England, the actual -evacuation of the island began, and the means and ways of transferring -the people previously thought out, were carefully applied. - -The moment the King and Parliament arrived in Australia, a predicament -arose. The King was recognized as king, functional in Australia and in -England, functional anywhere the English control was established; but -the Parliament of England, as the highest law-giving legislature of -the realm, did it supersede the regional legislation of Australia? Was -the autonomic power of the provinces of Australia obliterated with the -arrival of the supreme legislative body of the British Empire? There -was one broad, obvious proposition. The remedy to all doubt, collision, -and ambiguity was to resume in Australia the exact conditions which -had vanished in England, and now naturally sought a restatement and -erection in the land the King and Parliament had reached. And this was -generally accepted. There was a cordial and almost precipitate display -of adhesion to the new plan. It destroyed the independent existence -of the various sections of Australia, and made the continental island -a unit under the control of the Parliament, just as England had been. -The enthusiasm which greeted this solution was adequate and convincing. -It gave renewed hope to the patriotic and loyal souls who prayed and -worked for the re-production of the England they had left. The King -himself responded to this burst of practical allegiance with a wise -and fervent expression of affection and thankfulness. It was a gem of -deliberate composition, and was well received. Meetings of endorsement -and proclamations of ratification were made everywhere, and in the -tumult of acclamation it escaped notice that a formidable opposition -had become organized for a forcible resistance to the whole scheme. -This was over-awed or suppressed, not without a show of force, in -which Thomsen had been himself engaged, and which brought about some -adventures around the region at Mount Harwick, in New South Wales. - -Thomsen, after the conclusion had been reached that his own and -Miss Tobit’s families should follow the stream of people going to -Australia, rather, than was at first intended, to coincide with -Leacraft’s wishes for them all to visit America, had sought employment -in the Government’s service, among those to whom had been entrusted -the regulation of this colossal emigration. He was therefore well -acquainted with its various phases and results. - -When the King and the Parliament left England, over two millions had -preceded them, being naturally, those who accepted the situation, -and who, besides, were not specifically limited for their support to -investments at home. They went everywhere, many to the continent, many -to India, perhaps half to America, which grew more and more, before -the eyes of the people, as the most natural, most desirable, the -most friendly home. A large number strayed to Africa, and yet others -sought the expanding possibilities of South America. Englishmen had -acquired such extended interests, drew so largely upon the resources -of the entire world for their support, that now in a way they found -natural business refuges all over its varied surface. It was a happy -consequence of the constraining littleness of their own island. - -The financial question was the real difficulty, apart from the harsh -bereavement and hardship of the divorce from all their previous living -and associations. It was solved, at least partially, by the Government -issuing paper money, similar to the greenbacks, which carried the -United States through the Civil War. These were furnished to applicants -upon deposit of sworn, approved and examined statements of their -property of all kinds in England. Twenty-five per cent of the amount -thus appearing was given, or rather loaned, to the applicant, and -with this he was enabled to make a start in the new quarters he had -selected. The plan involved the assumption of an enormous burden by the -Government, and an unqualified confidence in it by the people. - -Of course, England was not in any sense to become a depopulated island. -Its real estate values, though shrunk to slender fractions of their -former worth, would yet have some value, and whereas, in the case of a -manufacturer, the Government made the loan upon his attested resources -in machinery and certified correspondence, the risk was reduced -sensibly within discoverable limits. Loss, agitation, dislocations, in -many cases ruin, resulted, but the transfer of the manufacturing plants -was made most skilfully, and before the factories in England were -closed, the same products were being produced in Australia. The menace -of the emergency had startled Englishmen into a really reasonable -and adequate show of sense, quickness and resource; usually poor -business men, torpid and conservative, shackled with a kind of mild and -traditional laziness, they became, under the stimulation of the danger -of extinction, active and wary, and intensive. - -In the meanwhile the climatic changes continued, and the face of the -United Kingdom more and more altered under the infliction of the long -and tempestuous winters, the cool, shortened summers, and the ice -blockade about its coasts. For it had early become apparent that in -some inexplicable way, the Arctic currents streamed down from the polar -regions with reinforced volume and velocity, bringing with them the -discharged masses of ice projected from their usual course westward, -by the irruption into the Arctic Ocean through Behring Straits of the -united oceanic rivers of the Gulf Stream and the currents from the -Yellow Sea. Throughout the spring, the beleaguered coasts were deeply -fringed with ice-floes and icebergs, whose chilling emanations created -fogs, and wrapt the islands in cheerless cold. Each passing year had -made more clear the surpassing wisdom of the evacuation. But a large -population found that they could support themselves on the island, made -up of the hardy, enduring types, the sailors, fishermen, and the boreal -agriculturists--the farmer who entertains life successfully where the -earth reluctantly yields her products, and the scant nature furnishes -but few of the products of the soil. For now a most extraordinary thing -happened. The refrigeration of Northern Europe had driven down towards -the south the northern denizens. They eagerly seized the deserted land -of the southerners, less accustomed to the niggardly responses of the -field, and met the attacks of the climate with the accustomed patience -and resistance to which they had become innured in their northern home. -In this way the population of Iceland almost bodily left the bleak -and ice-bound coasts of the Arctic island, that no longer offered the -meagre semblance even of subsistence, which previously maintained its -stubbornly hardy occupants. Nothing could have been more fortunate, -as it retarded in some measure the shocking decline in the values of -the land, and gave to all establishments that might otherwise have -been turned into homes for owls and foxes a partial usefulness. Not -indeed that the manufacturing interests would be considerably revived, -but warehouses and buildings connected with manufacturing or shipping -business would be made into storehouses, and the castles and large -manor houses were converted into curious communal colonies, where -those boreal people most joyfully repaired and developed profitable -communities. - -Large numbers of the very poor found in the exodus of the well paid or -employed classes above them, a grand chance to renew their own luck. -They became keepers of the deserted buildings; they fraternized with -the newcomers, and freed from the incubus of a superimposed social -repression, became happy and industrious. - -To all the brands and grades of the surviving or deserted inhabitants -came increasing numbers of Scandinavians; important fractions of the -Scotch settled on the coasts of England, and even immigrants from -Newfoundland and Canada were tempted to seize the strange opportunity -to occupy vast and abandoned cities, which furnished them in many -instances with palatial shelters, but which later became repellant -and unpleasant abodes, from which they too willingly withdrew to the -smaller settlements. - -The tragedy of the big cities was complete. They were melancholy -wastes, their empty streets seemed baleful and dismal. They gave -ghostly thrills of terror, even in the noon-day, to the passers -by--silent graves of past memories--the speechless, vacant, staring -windows in the unlit rooms were like the open but expressionless -eyes of corpses, and the awful fall of silence through the labyrinth -of ways, roads, lanes, places, squares, alleys, descended upon the -wanderer, caught by some malign trick of adventure within their -voiceless, motionless depths, with the benumbing touch of the grave. -He hastened his steps; he ran to escape the deadly stupor, the -inexpressible gloom of loneliness, where every aspect betokened life. -The solitude of nature inspires, draws to the lips an involuntary -prayer, or places in the heart the movements of hope, but this hideous -contradiction of signs and effect weighed like lead upon the spirit, -and forced from the shrinking heart the ejaculations of despair. - -Never on earth was there such a picture of dejected grandeur, as this -emptied metropolis of the world presented; never before had a great -city become its own tomb, through the flight of its inhabitants; never -in any record of disaster, whether by earthquake, pestilence, flood or -vulcanism, was there such obliteration as followed the withdrawal of -the citizens of London from their own capital. - -The thick blanket of the snow was thrown over it in winter, and its -emergent domes, pinnacles, obelisks and needles offered a fantastic -similitude to mortuary monuments, or else beneath the yellow moon its -piercing whiteness, like a titanic face of someone killed, smote the -blue black skies above it with remorse. - -But in Australia the English strength revived and broadened; it -promised to make a gigantic social revolution; it worked strangely -enough in unison with the newly awakened hopes of the King to restore -an accustomed prestige to the Crown. This political phenomenon -attracted the attention of the civilized world. The King in a most -adroit proclamation to the people had peculiarly enlisted their -sympathy by his veiled complaint of the habitual loss of power, and -the encroachments upon the kingly prerogatives of the self-constituted -Cabinet of Ministers. The King’s action was always tacitly prescribed -and anticipated. He was a puppet, dressed in regalia, with no shadow -of power, real and personal. And this he resented, but his language -was the sentences of diplomacy, and lost the individual note entirely -in a concerned and measured argument, restrained by every possible -regard for the present custom, urging a greater confidence in the -King’s wishes, and a larger precinct of action for his judgment. This -momentous promulgation was contemptuously referred to by its critics -as “the Ourselves” letter, but it met a favorable reception and it -enlisted the cordial endorsement of the House of Lords, nor was it -altogether resented by the House of Commons. The achievement of this -success led the King into a further step of interference, in the -appointments and in the personnel of the Cabinet, and he succeeded -further in impressing his wishes upon a number of important bills -passing through the Parliament. In short, by a persistent pressure, -seconded by friends among the people, and a growing following in the -legislature, he had inserted his views, and extorted from the grudging -concessions of the Commons’ recognition of the royal prerogatives. -He had shown himself unusually active in resource, in suggestions, -and in intercourse with the people. His examples had been followed -with enthusiasm by the nobility, who, so to speak, spread themselves -before the observation of the nation, and exerted an unaccustomed -generosity and ubiquitous energy in practically assisting the work of -rehabilitation. At a general election, many candidates were discussed -and elected upon this issue, viz.: the restoration to the King of -kingly power. - -“And so, you see,” Thomsen concluded, “the unexpected happens, as it -always does. We moved to an ultra-democratic _milieu_, a veritable -nest of fads and socialistic temerities and experiments, and lo! the -reaction sets in, and in Australia the King may recover the power, lost -with the Stuarts, and the monarchial principle gets a shove ahead, -which, with prosperity, and in England, no impulse short of the fiat -of the Almighty, could have secured for it. A prophet who would have -foretold that, would have scored a poor success in 1900 as a state -maker.” - -Before he had finished speaking, Leacraft had left his chair, and was -walking to and fro near the speaker--and then he advanced to the edge -of the few steps that led from the piazza to the open swards beneath -them, which were fringed by an emergent crown of trees growing thickly -in some lower crease or hollow of the ground, beyond which again the -eye fell to the foot swells, and the undulations of land far off, in -the flats, just beginning to twinkle with lights. - -Leacraft spoke slowly, his eyes still fixed upon the distance, as if in -revery, but his measured words came clearly to his two friends, carried -by a voice which, always melodious and cultured, now gained a sort of -passionate yearning, and then again was approved as disinterestedly -clean and judicial: “All this is an episode. Nothing more. The future -of the races of the world means the widening scope of the Republican -idea. There can be no other. Education forbids its extinction. Yes, -and Authority endorses it. This sudden foolishness in Australia will -only invoke a perilous reaction. There can be to-day in governmental -systems only varied applications of the one thought; the rule of the -people through an appeal to the people’s choice of rulers. It is -fundamentally common sense in an era of enlightenment, to begin with; -but since the United States have eclipsed all nations, and raised the -standards of individual action beyond all previous estimates, this -conclusion has coercively been accepted, that through the influences -propagated under this popular freedom of control, the finest, the -richest, the sweetest, the most magnanimous types of character are also -engendered and completed. A kind of psychological logic is involved. -A vast psychic power of selection sets in, and irrevocably the most -noble, the most disenthralled natures slowly appear. In comparison -with their best results, the representatives of other cultures appear -dwindling and abortive. And why? Because in the least limited field of -opportunity the unrestrained power of nature to make character must -of necessity evolve consummate and supreme examples. Nothing is more -demonstrable. It must be conceded, I grant, that at first the crop of -temperaments is marked more by rash hardihood, strident vulgarities, -and climbing audacity, but these very qualities, which in the naming -seem so distasteful, mature naturally, in later generations, into -devoted courage, æsthetic spontaneity; juices of the fruit when green -form the basis of its later richness. - -“I know the tiresome and hackneyed nonsense, and the mean-spirited -sneers of the European at the American, for his lack of culture, -his defect in polish, his money-getting haste. And it’s all a lie!” -Leacraft wheeled round as if on a pivot, and even in the pale light the -Thomsens could see that his face flushed, and the stern decision of his -voice betrayed the fires of resentment. “Who is it that these precious -pretenders of Europe look to when they have famine and disaster; who -has taught the lessons of sympathy, of open-hearted helpfulness, and -unswerving generosity, or made them recognize in their own natures the -almost exterminated seeds of kindness? As to culture, let me tell you -in all seriousness that the idle glamour of a scholar’s diction does -not weigh a barleycorn as against the flashing splendor of an honest -and sincere spirit; as to polish, who made the European regard Woman as -something better than the helpless ally of his lust, and the chained -companion to his exultant vanity? Woman has gained a new empire of -dignity in these new lands; she for once triumphs in the unquenched -assertion of her rights. As to money-making greed, where under the -canopy will you find a more meanly mercenary race than these same -Europeans, inert panderers to pleasure for money, fortune hunters, and -silent spectators of atrocities, if the risk of money loss stops their -way to succor. I know the dolts and traitors on the American soil, -the men and women who sell their birthright for the mess of pottage -contained in a gilded name in Europe, or the hollow mockery of a -coat-of-arms. These are the tattooed children of humbug--careless and -ungrateful, indolent and self-seeking, lured by that strange beauty -which Europe, for some inscrutable reason, seems to keep, and of which -even I, an Englishman, feel jealous, for the sake of a country which -may not be so good-looking, but which becomes every day more sublimely -the appointed pattern of the future state. Well! my friends, you must -pardon these ‘wild and whirling words.’ They may strike you as an -unseemly tirade, but if you knew this land as well as I do, you, too, -might trespass beyond the limits of moderation in its defense. But -other matters have for you a less doubtful interest. The great physical -revolution which has left its mark no less in the political world -than in the material, has become consolidated and solidified into a -permanent feature of the earth. The broad engulfment of the land at the -isthmus has established an open way to the Pacific from the Atlantic, -and the initial formation of the barrier northward from the Caribbean -Sea by the erection of a ridge from Cuba to Yucatan, and partially from -Jamaica to Honduras, this latter connexion the singular sequel to the -disturbance which overwhelmed Kingston in 1907, has advanced far enough -to effectually assist the momentous deflection of the Gulf Stream from -the Atlantic. And another transformation has thereby been achieved. -The alien mass of hot water pouring into the Pacific at the isthmus, -when no longer propelled by the easterly winds, resumes its original -impetus of rotary direction, and streams, sweeping northward, along the -coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, bringing in its further -extension warmth to British America and Alaska. By this amelioration -of its climate, Alaska has specially profited. Its numerous mineral -resources have been more exhaustively explored, and the wealth of its -boundless areas promises returns beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. - -“The convulsions which were so dismally foretold, in the social and -political fabric of this country, never occurred. They were quite -lost sight of in the wonderful happenings of the world, and the trite -aphorism that the spirit of discontent is best overcome by an appeal -to the spirit of curiosity, obtained an almost ludicrous illustration -in the subsidence of every murmur of schism and contention, as the -amazement grew over the upset of the temporalities of the world, as -the earth readjusted its members for another, let us hope, long and -uneventful slumber. - -“For myself, perhaps I should deprecate your censure by an apology. -It is true, I did not follow the fortunes of my country, though with -my mind I ardently canvassed and considered them. The very interests -which brought me to this land were English, and my superintendence -and success with them, has in a few ways made the survival of not -a few Englishmen possible at this crisis. Really, my best place of -helpfulness was here. Jim has been with me, and has proved invaluable, -and that poor woman, whom I told you about meeting in Victoria Park, -the night before we saw the great procession of evacuation, was found -by me, and now Jim is her husband. There’s nothing shocking about it. -Her first husband died of consumption. It was a foregone conclusion. -Jim showed himself a big-hearted friend, and the girl learned to think -the world of him. And when she was alone, what could have been better -from any point of view than that she should have married him? - -“And for me, Mrs. Thomsen, there is peace, too.” Leacraft moved to the -doorway of the broad hall that divided the spacious house. He pushed -it open, and as the light from the interior fell upon his face, the -visitors saw the smile of an abiding happiness upon the thoughtful -countenance, and Agnes Ethel Thomsen utter a prayer of thankfulness -that _he_ had found contentment. - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber’s note: - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book. - -Many, but by no means all, simple typographical errors were corrected. -Unpaired quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, -and otherwise left unpaired. - -Page 5: Transcriber removed redundant book title. - -Page 257: “with central and periphera, agitation,” was printed that way. - -Page 282: “ear shattering dim” was printed that way. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVACUATION OF ENGLAND*** - - -******* This file should be named 65588-0.txt or 65588-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/5/8/65588 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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