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diff --git a/78687-0.txt b/78687-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..415c411 --- /dev/null +++ b/78687-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6807 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78687 *** + + + + + _THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS_ + + + + + THE COMING OF + THE AMAZONS + + A SATIRISTIC SPECULATION ON + THE SCIENTIFIC FUTURE + OF CIVILIZATION + + BY + + OWEN JOHNSON + + AUTHOR OF “SACRIFICE,” ETC. + + LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. + NEW YORK · TORONTO + 1931 + + + + + JOHNSON + THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS + + COPYRIGHT · 1931 + BY OWEN JOHNSON + + First edition October 1931 + Reprinted October 1931 + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + _To_ + HARRIE T. LINDEBERG + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is now one week since the termination of the extraordinary adventure +which happened to me in this, the third week in November 1929. Every +detail, even to the least conversation is clear in my memory as I +start to set down my strange revelation. I, John Bogardus, graduate of +Harvard and Oxford, descendant of a virile patroon ancestry, now in my +thirty-second year make this record, that my fellow men, at present +supinely indifferent to the alarming portent of the feminist uprising, +may perceive before it is too late, the hideous catastrophe toward +which in the relentless war of the sexes we are blindly drifting. + +On the fifteenth of November I had sought refuge at my club in the +company of my old friend Dr. Sachaloff, a biologist in the ---- +Foundation, whose propensity to think out loud had proved exceedingly +irritating to the mediocrity of his associates. + +We had lunched and wined in a manner befitting the cellar inherited +from my paternal grandfather, and luncheon over, the conversation had +run along lines of scientific speculation into the future of society +and the possibilities of the prolongation of life. Dr. Sachaloff, +sure of my confidence, had permitted his imagination the unpardonable +scientific liberty of prophecy. He declared that while the complete +conquest of the natural processes of decay must still be regarded as +an impossibility, still, with the elimination of present scourges and +a fuller control of the glandular sources of energy, _theoretically_ +(a word which he pronounced with deliberate emphasis) the span of life +might eventually be prolonged from two to three hundred years. However, +he qualified this audacity by adding that the birth of new diseases +must be reckoned with. I immediately broached an idea which had been +long in my mind. + +“If,” I began eagerly, “organic bodies can be kept long periods free +from decomposition by freezing processes and human beings thrown into a +cataleptic state which so nearly resembles death as to defy the acutest +observer, why couldn’t a man by some induced hypnotic catalepsy be then +subjected to an intense refrigeration and kept alive in cold storage +over a long period of years?” + +“Port like this,” said Dr. Sachaloff raising his glass to the light, +“is a great stimulation to the imagination.” + +“Come now--” I replied with a wheedling smile, “in a mood of pure +speculation?” + +“Do you want to have me deported from the country, John?” + +“But what about the mystery of hibernation,” I persisted. “Is that not +a similar arrestation of life? Curious in the larger forms of animal +life, more and more inexplicable as we descend into the reptiles and +bacterial phenomena.” + +“Strange you should have mentioned hibernation,” he said with an +expression in his eyes that struck me. I taxed him with concealing his +real opinion. + +“What is true to any form of life may be possible to all,” I continued. +“We need not accept all the stories of toads being shut up for +ten--twenty years, but the authentic records are startling enough.” + +“Very.” + +“And is not hibernation a state of induced catalepsy--self hypnotism if +you will?” + +He admitted at last with a glance over his shoulder that, +_theoretically_ (again he dwelt on the word) there was ground for +speculation. Then having sworn me into secrecy, he disclosed to me that +he had long considered the problem, that in fact he had constructed a +machine with which he intended to conduct certain experimental tests +with animals. The hypnotic state of catalepsy, he explained, was really +so essential that unless some human being could be induced to make the +experiment he had doubts of arriving at any conclusions of significance. + +“What a pity you are young, happily married and possessed of an +excellent liver,” he concluded looking at me hungrily. “Think what it +would be to wake up in another century.” + +I rose with a chill in my back, exclaiming: + +“Sachaloff, you _are_ serious!” + +“Theoretically, theoretically,” he mumbled. + +“But does such a machine exist?” I asked doubtfully, knowing his +reputation as a practical joker. + +“Come tomorrow to the laboratory, and see for yourself.” + +“Would it be safe?” I exclaimed laughing. + +“Come armed then,” he replied smiling. “However, John,” he continued +glancing at the table, “your wine was good, too good. Remember that the +conversation was not serious.” + +“Except theoretically.” + +“Quite so. Quite so.” + + * * * * * + +I left the Club about four o’clock and proceeded homeward by way of +Park Avenue. I had hardly gone a block when a familiar voice called me +and I looked up into the charming eyes of Kitty Dalgleesh. + +“Why, John, you were in the clouds,” she exclaimed laughingly. “What +can be worrying you, the happily married man?” + +“Perhaps I was worrying about you,” I said maliciously, for I was +sensitive to the jibes of my friends at my complete and astonishing +domestication. + +“How so?” + +“You are approaching a dreadful spinsterhood.” + +“How nasty. Just because I wouldn’t rush into marriage with you?” + +My eyebrows went up at this impertinence, but Kitty was irresistible +with her dimple and I yielded to temptation. + +“Seriously, why don’t you start marrying?” I said drawing her arm +through mine. + +“Seriously, I have never found anyone I liked better than you.” + +“I tried to convince you of that--you remember.” + +“Well, I’m glad you didn’t marry Ernesta. You’d have been only a lady’s +maid, Ernesta is too publicly brilliant for you. But I didn’t foresee +sister Emelia.” She thought a moment, “You look disconcertingly happy. +It’s quite discouraging.” + +“How you must suffer!” + +“Just because I didn’t want to marry you, then and there, doesn’t mean +I didn’t love you, John.” + +“I perceive my cue.” + +“Oh, no. I’m not starting a flirtation with you,” she said disengaging +her arm. “I might have if you were unhappy. However, one word of +advice,--for your own good.” + +“What now?” + +“Beware! You have married two mothers-in-law, mother and sister. Dear +me, you don’t seem to respond. You _are_ happy, John. I’m running away.” + +The suggestion that Kitty had artfully implanted in my imagination +disturbed me though I tried to shake it off. It was in line with my own +growing forebodings. + +When I entered my home, I found tea spread and a group of women +listening to Mrs. Agatha Billings laying down the daily law with +occasional sallies from Ernesta. My mother-in-law is a woman of +terrific dignity; calmly impressive as the classic portraits of Martha +Washington whom she resembles. Ernesta is a young Amazon, who leads +parades of protest on horseback, who writes Latin poetry, has taken +her bar examination and spends five thousand a year on her clothes. + +Mrs. Billings was sitting like a statue of Memnon, planted in her +opinions, and remaining thus rigidly entrenched gestured only with +her fingers. Ernesta, on the contrary, strode up and down, using her +hands like an Italian, throwing off her arguments like the brilliant +cadenza of a coloratura soprano. Emelia, my wife, listened modestly +but rapturously. There were present the militant Mrs. Zanzigger, head +of an impressive concentration of women’s clubs and two stern faced +delegates, with heavy wrinkled boots, from affiliated societies across +the sea. + +I excused myself wearily and slipped into a further library where +I could hear but not be seen. On the table, placed there for my +education, were the works of Bertrand Russell, Elinor Keyes, Havelocke +Ellis, and the whole gamut of the psycho-analysts. I took up a volume, +concentrated, yawned and put it down. + +The voice of my mother-in-law coldly irritant rose from the other room. + +“The history of society wherever we study it profoundly is simply the +record of the warfare of the sexes. No wonder then that marriage must +remain the battle ground.” + +“But,” objected Mrs. Zanzigger, who was militant but not advanced, “in +modern marriage, with equal division of economic responsibility and a +common standard of moral judgment, isn’t an intellectual companionship +possible?” + +“After sixty, perhaps,” interrupted Ernesta. “But where sex is +involved it is inevitable that each through the instinct of jealousy +and possession will always seek to limit the liberty of the other. +You can never change the essential quality of marriage. What we must +look forward to is the shifting of authorities. Man-made marriage is a +failure. The salvation of society is in the future of woman.” + +“The salvation of _civilization_, of all economic and political reform +is in the true development of woman,” corrected my mother-in-law in her +coldly treble voice. + +“Yes, Mamma,” said Ernesta. “I was coming to that.” + +“Mrs. Billings is right, quite right,” broke in a guttural Scandinavian +voice. “Society has gone as far as it can go under the man era. All men +understand is the instinct they were born with, to wrestle and claw and +fight down one another.” + +I yawned again and peeped into the pages of “Marriage and Morals.” I +knew the arguments by heart.... + +“But how can we do without them?” said Mrs. Zanzigger faintly. + +“What becomes of men is unimportant,” said Ernesta parading the floor. +“They will return to their clubs probably. The woman’s movement has +only just begun. Suffrage is the first step. What are we going to do +with marriage, with the home, with the children? Is woman to remain an +adjunct or free herself as a completed individuality? We must destroy +all traditional inhibitions; the fear complexes that are holding her +back. We must make her look on herself not as man’s equal but as man’s +superior.” + +“If the children are to be kept in the home,” said the guttural voice, +“what then?” + +“Then the man must look after them,” said Ernesta to the accompaniment +of a ripple of laughter. “The age of physical force is over. The age of +intellect is coming. Only physical force has kept woman as the mistress +of man and the nurse of his children. When machinery has neutralized +muscle, a woman will be able to run the machinery as well as man.” + +“Our program should be political action, to enlarge our economic +progress,” said Mrs. Billings. “We should always have in view, as +Ernesta has correctly expressed my views, that ahead of us is the dawn +of a higher civilization, freed from old superstitions and based on +logic and scientific readjustments. Only women have the imagination and +courage to bring that about.” + +After this I heard only confusedly, my head must have begun to nod, for +sounds and forms became confused and my book slid to the floor. + +All at once--a brilliant light seemed to play about me. I started up +and found myself on a stretcher in the laboratory of my friend Dr. +Sachaloff, with two white clad nurses bending over me. My friend came +over. + +“Well, John, if you still wish to back out, this is your last chance. +Everything is ready. You’ve stood the preliminary tests astonishingly +well. Heart action, liver, blood and respiration, perfect. Do you feel +any discomfort?” + +“Not the slightest.” + +“I’ve had you in a cataleptic state for just eight hours at a +temperature as low as forty degrees. The thing is practically possible +without a doubt. Is it all aboard for the twenty-first century?” + +I found myself replying as though perfectly conscious of an ulterior +decision. + +“I wouldn’t change places with you for the world. On with the great +adventure!” + +“Bon voyage, you lucky dog!” said Sachaloff grasping my hand. “Now +look me fixedly in the eyes, so.” + +I saw the steely eyes, through the bushy dark whiskers, felt a sudden +pain from the pressure of the fingers on my brow and again all outlines +became watery and evasive. + + + + +_THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS_ + + + + +THE COMING OF THE AMAZONS + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +My first sensation on awakening was of being submerged and fighting my +way back to the surface. Then a murmur of women’s voices. + +“He’s breathing naturally now, but keep the pulmonator ready in case of +a relapse.” + +My mouth was forced open and some liquid of a salty taste ran like fire +down my throat. + +“What temperature?” + +“Raise him to ten above zero, but slowly and hold it there for ten +minutes. Then continue to heat the body gradually until we reach forty. +How is the heart action?” + +“Strong.” + +“Respiration?” + +“Excellent.” + +“Give him the saline every half hour.” + +After that I must have lapsed into unconsciousness again, for the +next impressions were fitful and interrupted like the lifting and +settling of a fog at sea. Gradually under the effects of some powerful +restorative I became feebly awake, but every sensation of the body +was diminished. I heard sounds as though from a great distance. From +time to time I was aware of the same salty, fiery liquid passing down +my throat. My eyes perceived the glimmerings of a colored light and +my body felt in its numbness a touch of warmth, as though a myriad of +small flies were delicately passing over the dried surfaces of my skin. +This feeling of returning sensation became more acute. I opened my +eyes, but the effort was like a straining of the back muscles to raise +an unaccustomed weight. I tried to raise my hand but found no reaction. +Again I went through the mental processes of ordering my limbs to move +only to find that not the slightest physical response occurred. My mind +was awake, my body asleep. Some heavy substance enclosed my eyes and +let in a diluted minimum of feeble purple light. + +My first thought was that I was coming out of ether but my brain +was clearing so rapidly that I rejected this explanation. I tried +to remember and discovered that my memories were clear. I recalled +distinctly the last words of my friend, Dr. Sachaloff, the boring +sensation of his eyes above me and the pleasant sensation of fading +consciousness. Was I awake or in the grip of an artificial dream +induced by an opiate? Were the voices I heard about me simply the +figments of my imagination? + +At this moment I felt a sensation of warmth at the back of my neck +which gradually extended over my back and down my arms like the +tingling heat of a myriad electric needles. + +“Are you conscious now?” said a voice. + +By great effort I succeeded in producing a sound in my throat. + +“I hear you. Everything is going well. Relax completely. I am going +to put you to sleep again while we complete the defrigeration of your +body. By tomorrow all will be normal.” + +“What beautiful teeth and all his own,” I heard another voice say as I +passed blissfully into unconsciousness. + + * * * * * + +When I awoke for the second time, I found myself strapped to a +stretcher, enveloped in warm soft coverings. My head alone was free to +move but a bandage over my eyes shut out all opportunity to see what +was transpiring about me. At the motion of my head a soft hand was +placed on my shoulder and a voice said: + +“How do you feel?” + +“All right.” + +“Are you warm enough?” + +“Yes.” + +“Any buzzing in your head or ears?” + +“No.” + +“Can you move your fingers?” + +“Perfectly.” + +“Your feet?” + +“The same.” + +“Without pain?” + +“Absolutely.” + +“Are you hungry?” + +“Not particularly.” + +“Thirsty?” + +“No.” + +“Is there anything you want?” + +“I want to see.” + +“Very well, but be careful to obey implicitly my directions. Otherwise +you may be blinded by too sudden an exposure to the light.” + +A heavy glass frame replaced the bandages. + +“I am giving you a fortifying solution to strengthen your eyesight. +Open your eyes and keep them open. Does that hurt?” + +“No, very pleasant.” + +“Now I am letting in the light gradually. If you feel any strain tell +me at once.” + +I became aware of the same misty violet light that I remembered on +first awakening. This dissolved into a greyish blue, to be succeeded +by a green changing to orange. This process of gradual modification +lasted about two hours, without having produced any disagreeable +effect. My eyes were again washed out and a pair of greyish glasses +replaced the weight on my forehead. I sat up and looked about me. + +The first thing I perceived was a great stretch of blue sky without +horizon. At the same time I was aware of a pleasant floating motion. +My first thought was that I was on the deck of a ship, riding on a +lazy sea. But a second glance showed neither masts nor funnels to +mar the blue unity above me. I soon recognized that I was in an open +air hospital, with rows of white cots and moving white-clad nurses. +Probably, I was on top of a modern skyscraper, two or three thousand +feet from the ground. A score of women in loose Grecian robes were +standing around, gazing at me with the utmost curiosity. Two things +struck me at once. They were all of a uniform stature, at least seven +feet in height, slender, broad-shouldered, and all had the blue eyes +and pale yellow hair of the true Scandinavian blonde. Furthermore +as far as I could judge, they appeared all to be of an age between +twenty-five and thirty. One who evidently was of superior rank +approached and put me through the following interrogatory: + +“Have you any sensation of dizziness?” + +“Not the slightest.” + +“You can move your arms freely?” + +“Perfectly.” + +“Do you feel able to answer a few questions?” + +“Gladly. Only tell me where I am.” + +“You are in the Aerodrome Hospital above New York.” + +“Above? How far above?” + +“About three miles.” + +“How long have I been here?” + +“A month. We have purposely extended the defrigeration process in your +case to eliminate all danger of sudden shock.” + +“What month is this, then?” + +“Athena, the thirteenth month of the year.” + +“And the date?” + +“2181.” + +Strange to say I felt no giddiness. From my first awakening, I had +been prepared to find Dr. Sachaloff’s experiment successful, though I +confess the extent of my journey through time was unexpected. + +“Now if it does not tire you too much--” + +“Not at all. I feel astonishingly well.” + +“What year then were you committed to the Frigidrome?” + +“1929.” + +There was an outburst of exclamations at this. I felt myself the +cynosure of all eyes. + +“You are certain of the date?” + +“Absolutely. November 15th, 1929.” + +“But the Frigidrome was not in general use until the year 2075.” + +“Nevertheless I repeat the date was November 15, 1929, tenth year of +prohibition, and two weeks after the collapse of the stock market in +the reign of Mr. Hoover.” + +I heard a murmur in which I distinctly caught the words, “prohibition,” +“stock market,” “Hoover,” pronounced in various degrees of +incomprehension. + +“You speak of things that are strange to us. For the moment we’ll +postpone our inquiry until you have had time to thoroughly recover. But +first, what is your name?” + +“My family name? Bogardus. John Bogardus.” + +“Family name? What is that?” + +“Why the name of the father and mother--the name of the children. +Family name--name of the family.” I looked around at their puzzled +expressions and a light dawned on me. “What--doesn’t the family exist? +Has marriage been abolished?” + +My interlocutor made a sign to her companions who withdrew, and +approaching me said gently: + +“Bogardus, if what you say is true, you will find many startling +changes. You must prepare yourself, but your arrival here is so +revolutionary that in the interests of science we must guard against +any shock that might affect your brain.” + +In my impatience, I started to make a feverish protest but a hand laid +on my lips stopped me short. + +“Never fear. I shall take the best of care of you. Tomorrow, we’ll talk +over many things. Now as the weather bureau is turning on the rain +tonight, we must hurry down.” She stopped and looking at me with a +fascinated intentness said, “Bogardus, you have the most beautiful hair +and teeth I’ve ever seen. And I love your eyes and smile. We don’t have +males like you now-a-days.” + +She put her arms under me and lifted me lightly up, holding me a moment +suspended. Her blue eyes were close over mine, she was smiling with +a smile that was tantalizing, magnetic, and ardently possessive. She +reminded me, yes, all at once she reminded me of Ernesta. + +“I’ve seen you before,” I said drowsily. “What is your name?” + +“Acquilla.” + +I could not meet the flame in her glance, my eyelids closed and with a +sigh, my head relaxed against her protecting breast. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +My unconsciousness induced by weakness was only temporary. When I came +to myself presently, I found myself in what I took at first to be a +light diving suit, but which I divined was to protect me from the cold +of the journey down. The helmet was open and I availed myself of the +opportunity to explore more minutely. The deck, which I judged must +be the top of a gigantic dirigible, extended almost a mile in every +direction, rising and falling gently with the air currents. A number of +electric heating plants in the shape of semaphores distilled a pleasant +atmosphere of about 60 degrees. Near where we were standing a score +of aeroplanes were parked, but of a shape that resembled nothing I +remembered. At first sight they appeared to be large toadstools about +twenty feet over the wing surface, and with light basket attachments +on wheels. While I watched, these cars were constantly rising or +descending, but with a lightness that was extraordinary in its +precision. In fact, at that moment a machine arrived out of the blue, +hung a moment over our heads and settled down among the others with +hardly a foot to spare on either side. + +“Try walking about a little,” said Acquilla who was standing at my +side, her helmet in her hand. + +I did so and found to my surprise that I experienced little +inconvenience. + +“I don’t understand.” + +“What, Bogardus?” + +“After two hundred and fifty years--it’s amazing!” + +“But you have been electrically massaged for weeks.” + +She put on her helmet, signified to me to close mine and led me to +a tiny aeroplane, the body of which reminded me of our own taxis. +I sank back in the cushioned seat and examined it carefully with a +little trepidation. In front of us an automaton in shape like a giant +insect had its multiple antennae fixed on the levers. Acquilla turned +a switch. Immediately a low purring sound began above us as we rose +easily in the air, poised a moment and shot off into space. + +“Of course we could put on electronized belts and walk,” said Acquilla +relaxing in the seat beside me. “But if you’ve never done it before it +might be distressing.” + +“What, you have overcome the force of gravity?” I said astonished. “You +can walk on air?” + +“Oh, long ago. Michaelson’s discovery of the disassociation of protons +is over a hundred years old now.” + +So many revolutionary ideas had crowded in upon my imagination, that +for the moment I postponed the flood of questions on the tip of my +tongue. Besides, I was too keen for first impressions to wish to have +my attention diverted. I looked up and saw that the floating island +which we had just left was a raft at most only twenty feet in thickness +and consequently, unless supported by some extraordinary new chemical +gas, owed its stability to a new principle. I next examined with care +the aeromat in which we were riding. The first thing that struck me was +that except for the purring sound I had first heard, it was virtually +noiseless. Nor could I discern any signs of a gasoline tank. To my +question, Acquilla pointed to a small box, about a foot square placed +before us which she called the electronoid and which she assured me +contained enough energy to fly twenty thousand miles if necessary. + +“Besides which,” she added, “we carry an auxiliary battery from which +we can get any amount of energy from the wireless power stations at +Niagara or Fundy. But that is only in case of emergency,--if we should +run short out at sea.” + +“But you are not directing the car so far as I can see.” + +“No indeed, I have given the directions to the machinot. There is +nothing to worry about.” + +“And you will land where you wish like this?” + +“Certainly.” + +“But the danger of collision?” + +Acquilla looked at me in surprise. + +“Why that’s the abc’s of mechanics.” She drew my attention to the +telescopic lenses which were set in either side of the machinot’s head +and which evidently signalled the approach of an impending aeroplane. +“The magnetic field immediately operates and the aeromat veers to the +right until the passing is completed and then returns to its course. In +a highway the machine slows up as it approaches congestion. A collision +is quite impossible, for both machines come to a standstill if forced +too close to each other. It’s warm enough now to take off your helmet. +Besides, the car is automatically heated.” + +We were now about two miles above the earth. The aeromat checked its +forward progress and began to descend perpendicularly with an easy +fluttering of its circular wings. I craned forward eagerly, my brain +thrilling at the thought of the immensity of the great city I was now +to witness after two hundred and fifty years. By now New York must have +a population of thirty or forty millions, skyscrapers reaching a mile +into the air, hanging gardens in the skies, with superimposed layers of +activity. + +“I should like to fly around Manhattan--as low as possible. Could this +be done?” + +“Nothing easier.” + +I craned out of the window eagerly and immediately recognized the +familiar configuration of the landscape, Long Island and the thin +tongue of Manhattan. We descended rapidly and my perplexity increased. +Instead of the towering skyline of lower Broadway, I seemed to +distinguish the spreading green of wooded lawns. + +“But New York?” + +“There is New York.” + +“But the buildings, the skyscrapers, the millions.” + +“Skyscrapers? What a funny name.” + +I looked at Acquilla in blank stupor. + +“Then New York is gone too?” + +She reflected a moment. + +“You are talking of things that happened a long while ago. I keep +forgetting that you lived in the age of materialism. New York, of +course, was completely destroyed for the first time in 1984 and +resettled only a hundred years ago.” + +“Wait.” I grasped her arm excitedly and gazed out. We were now perhaps +two hundred feet above what was old Staten Island.--Before me the +island of Manhattan rose distinctly, at least one hundred and fifty +feet above water level. + +“But it’s, it’s Gibraltar,” I gasped. + +“What seems so changed to you, Bogardus?” + +I continued to gaze at the great promontory with its villas and parks, +its terraced descents to the water and but for the fact that from above +I had unmistakably recognized the topography, I should have refused the +evidence of my own eyes. Acquilla repeated the question. + +“Changed? Everything. Not only has a city of ten million inhabitants +disappeared--buildings that rose a thousand feet into the air--but +something has happened to the ground itself. The New York that I knew +was a low flat island. What has happened? A volcanic disturbance?” + +“Oh, I see, that’s what puzzles you, Bogardus,” said Acquilla, smiling. +“Of course the New York you see is built on the ruins of two other +civilizations. The immense buildings you speak of are buried in these +artificial heights. It’s like Rome, you know, that was built and +rebuilt on the ruins of former cities. New York, of course, has been +twice destroyed. Once in 1984, at the period of the European conquest +and again in 2080, when it was voluntarily levelled under the first +years of the Matriarchal era.” She gave a quick glance, noting probably +the rising excitement in my eyes and fearing too great a strain on my +dizzy imagination, said, “Enough for the moment, Bogardus. You will +have to accustom yourself to many things. Close your eyes now and don’t +ask any more questions.” + +Her arm drew my head to her shoulder. Her warm lips closed my eyelids. +Intoxicated, I yielded again to her superior strength. Indeed my head +was in such a state of turbulent anarchy that I began to be afraid for +my reason. + +“There, poor dear. I’ve been terribly thoughtless in tiring you like +this. Relax now and I’ll promise to take better care of you in the +future.” + +When I opened my eyes again we had come to rest in front of a long +Georgian villa of some colored material in the midst of a charming +English park. + +“Home at last. You must have fallen asleep, Bogardus.” + +Acquilla’s arms slipped under me and raising me tenderly from the +car, set me down on the steps where a dozen lengthy dogs of a variety +unfamiliar to me immediately fawned at my side. Acquilla leaned over +and pulled a series of levers. The car immediately moved off lightly to +a hangar in the elms about a half a mile down the lawn. + +“Can you walk? A little weak? Take my arm. An electric bath will set +you up.” She glanced backwards over the green vista and then at the +clear sky, “We’re down just before the rain.” + +“Why there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” I could not help exclaiming. + +“Look.” + +I followed the direction of her hand and perceived some ten miles +distant a score of gigantic pylons, which I calculated must be at least +three to four thousand feet in height, about whose soaring tops light +lavender clouds were piling up, until presently the whole sky was +veiled in a purplish mist through which long electric streamers were +playing. + +“What, you are enabled to generate rain by electricity?” I cried +suddenly enlightened. + +“Oh, we have been able to control the weather for over fifty years,” +Acquilla announced in a matter-of-fact way. “We do all our raining at +night of course. Every day is just like what you have witnessed.” + +“I can understand your bringing on a rain storm. Even in my day we had +developed that principle. But how are you able to prevent storms?” + +“By applying the reverse of the principle, of course. These great +pylons with their enormous dynamos are likewise great condensers. In +the daytime they absorb the moisture in the air and at night they +release it. But it is starting to rain already,” she continued, putting +her arm about my waist. “Let’s go in.” + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The home of Acquilla was on a monumental scale designed in the form of +a Greek cross with wings two stories high, capped with a long slanting +roof, the façade brilliantly colored in rich purple tints, relieved +by black and white marble pilasters. The doors opened at a wave of +her hand and we entered a corridor fully thirty feet in height. A +brilliantly colored machinot, shaped like a beetle rose from its seat, +received our coats and disappeared. We went about forty feet forward +and found ourselves in a great colonnaded circular room, rising some +ninety feet to a tinted glass roof. An elevator concealed in the wall +took us lightly to the next floor which was given over to the sleeping +apartments. My own room was on the scale of an Italian palace of the +middle ages, with transparent walls of glass bricks, so that in the +daytime the effect was similar to living in the open sunlight. Outside +the arrival of the rain had obscured the sky and brought on a sudden +darkness, but as we arrived, the whole house, by some invisible +process was gradually flooded with artificial daylight. Acquilla, +noticing my curiosity, said: + +“The lights are regulated automatically by a simple contrivance that +keeps a fixed glow. The principle of the ancient thermostat.” + +“But there are no lamps. And though, of course, the principle of +indirect lighting,” I continued, glancing up at the cornices, “was +used in my day, it was, of course, simply the reflection from bulbs +concealed behind the walls.” + +The word bulbs puzzled her. I explained at length our system of wiring +which excited her curiosity and astonishment. + +“How strangely archaic, but then of course you ignored the true +relation of electricity, gravity, and heat. Though later, Zugg and +Plumpf must have suspected the truth. Of course today there are not +many secrets in the physical world. Light is generated like heat and +radiated through the house. The floors and walls are porous, that is +the whole secret. But there is too much to tell you to begin tonight. +A half an hour’s bath before dinner is what you need to relax and +stimulate you.” + +We descended and traversing the theatre which was the main axis of +the house, entered a further wing, after passing through a series of +doors which opened at a peculiar wave of her hand and closed behind +us automatically. I stopped with an exclamation of delight. We were in +a thermal bath such as Rome in all its days of aesthetic splendor had +never produced. Instead of marble the walls, the floors, the pool were +made of the same brilliant glass colored in opalescent tones. The water +itself was amethyst shot through with quivering rays of red and violet +streamers. The air was delicately perfumed with a scent resembling +heliotrope, while the sides of the pool were carpeted with thick rugs +of a yielding softness. + +A female attendant, who for a moment I took for an automaton, rose and +bowed at our entrance. Acquilla slipped from the Grecian robe which was +her only garment and advanced to the edge of the pool. I hesitated a +moment with that sense of modesty which is inherent in the male, but +perceiving the complete naturalness of her gesture, I realized quickly +that a false show of prudery would render me ridiculous. I gave my toga +to Mag, who smiled at me entranced, and followed Acquilla. + +I now noticed with interest certain physical changes that the +scientific evolution had made in the female figure. From the flat waist +upward it was the torso of a man, powerfully muscled, broad over the +shoulders and flat breasted, due to the fact, as I learned later, that +for over two centuries no woman had nursed her own child. For the rest, +though she overtopped me by a clear foot, it was the graceful, lithe +figure of the young Mercury one sees in medieval art. But my feeling +of aesthetic admiration was rudely dispelled. Turning to Mag, who was +staring at me with fascinated eyes, Acquilla lifted the lovely golden +curls from her head and stood before me absolutely bald. I could not +repress an exclamation of dismay. + +“That is the price women have to pay for the supremacy of their +intelligence,” said Acquilla. + +“What! Science that has worked such miracles has not been able to +prevent baldness?” + +“Those of the Histrionic caste keep theirs much longer,” Acquilla +replied, “but we of the Philosophers and Scientists lose ours at fifty.” + +“For heaven’s sake, how old are you?” I exclaimed bewildered. + +“Oh, not so old,” Acquilla replied with a touch of asperity. “How old +are you?” + +“Thirty-two.” + +“Really, if it weren’t for your teeth and hair I should have said a +hundred.” + +I glanced at the perfect lustre of her teeth and shuddered. Was +that possible too? But I mastered my fears and replied according to +etiquette: + +“And you look twenty-four.” + +“I am hardly seventy-six at that.” She extended her hand, took mine and +led me into the perfumed pool. + +Before I could digest the import of her last remark, the colored +water closed over us and I immediately rose to the surface with the +resiliency of a rubber ball. Indeed I presently found, such was the +density of the water, that I remained floating on the surface without +the slightest effort. At the same time, due no doubt to the electric +charges, I was conscious of a feeling of extraordinary physical +stimulation, like the caresses of a myriad of miniscule fingertips +running over my body. + +“Relax and don’t talk, dear man,” said Acquilla, “and you will see how +refreshed your mind will be.” + +At the same moment, above us, a panorama of shifting hues passed as the +clouds pass on a clear autumn day, while the air was filled with the +slumberous, subdued notes of a great orchestra; strains that vaguely +pleasantly reminded me of the “Après-midi d’un Faun.” + +“The color organ was known in my day,” I said drowsily. + +“This is an entirely different principle,” said Acquilla. “Each chord +has a color value so that as you listen to music, your eye at the same +time receives an identical impression. It is an aesthetic emotion +extremely restful and stimulating for the brain. But don’t talk. Relax +completely for ten minutes.” + +I obeyed and experienced a sensation of being transported into a fairy +world of morphine enchantment. I seemed to be drowsily gazing up at +the rich deep green of velvety woodland recesses, which gradually +became alive with the golden hues of autumn leaves. This dissolved +into the deep crystalline blue of the open sky with lazy white clouds +piling up in harmonious languor. All the shock and strain of the day +on my perplexed brain passed away. I felt calm and unvexed. Then with +the changing rhythms, the fleecy skies took on the brilliant red and +purples of such a sunset as one remembers over the tourmaline waters +of the Bay of Naples. The effect on me was one of a complete mental +invigoration and a new eagerness to explore my incredible adventure. +The voice of Acquilla recalled me. + +“Enough for the first time, Bogardus.” + +She rose from the pool, the water falling from her lovely glistening +sides, like the petals of drifting cherry blossoms. We passed into +a warmer room where my body dried immediately under the contact of +pleasant vapors. Then resuming our robes we passed into another wing. + +“How do you feel?” + +“As though I had found the fountain of youth.” + +“That astonished you,” said Acquilla putting on a wig of silvery blue +which became her immensely. “But of course in your time you bathed in +porcelain boxes! And yet two thousand years before you the Romans had +opened the way to the aesthetic life. Are you hungry?” + +“After two hundred and fifty years?” I exclaimed laughing, “ravenous!” + +“Yes, that is a long while,” replied Acquilla without a trace of a +smile. As a matter of fact my laugh seemed to excite her curiosity, for +she gave me a quick look in which I detected a touch of anxiety. + +The dining room which was of the proportions of a banquet hall, was in +a luminous emerald green with black marble columns and ivory trims. +I was not surprised to find a low table scarcely two feet in height +surrounded by couches resembling Recamier sofas. + +“So we have returned to the classics?” + +“You should never have departed from them.” Acquilla waved me to a +couch and disposed herself on one opposite. “It is quite a masculine +repast I have ordered tonight, in consideration of your long fasting. I +myself eat sparingly.” + +A curious thing happened. The two dogs immediately came and crouched +adoringly at my feet. + +“How odd,” said Acquilla. “I’ve never seen them pay the slightest +attention to any male before.” + +I confess this allusion to her past struck me disagreeably, for already +romance was stirring in my imagination. + +She touched a signal and the centre of the table sunk on some mechanism +under the floor. + +“And now, Bogardus, while we are waiting, you can imagine how curious I +am to hear your first question.” + +“You will never guess what it will be,” I said smiling. “It is in fact +very mundane, but in a sense it was the great question of my time.” + +“Political?” + +“No, social.” + +“Marriage?” + +“More important than that.” + +“The competitive system?” + +“I’ll tell you. How have you solved the servant problem?” + +“Oh.” Acquilla regarded me with a look of disappointment. “But that is +no problem at all. I run this place on a dozen machinots, a gardener +and Mag, my housekeeper.” + +“But even if you have one servant, my dear Acquilla, you have the +servant problem, haven’t you?” + +“Problem? There is no problem,” she replied, thinking over what I had +said. + +“Then you have discovered how to produce perfect servants.” + +“Certainly, we have absolute control over our servants.” + +“How so?” + +“Why, very simple. We put them under hypnotic control, of course.” + +My face expressed such blank amazement that she continued immediately: + +“But how else can you handle servants? I simply hypnotize them and +suggest to them each morning what they shall do during the day. That +eliminates all possibility of error or misunderstanding.” + +“Wonderful! And to think no one ever thought of it in my day. Perfect, +and so simple!” The idea appealed to my sense of humor. I flung myself +back among the cushions and laughed until I cried. All at once I felt +Acquilla’s hand on my shoulder and saw her bending anxiously over me. + +“Bogardus, dear, you are in pain!” + +I sat up wiping my eyes. + +“Pain?! Don’t you see I am laughing?” + +“Laughing? What is that?” + +My jaw dropped. + +“What, you have never heard of laughter?” A sudden revelation came +to me at her blank seriousness. “Good heavens, women have abolished +laughter!” + +“Laughter--laughter? I haven’t the least idea what you’re talking +about.” + +I remembered swiftly that I had never seen Acquilla laugh. It was true. +Acquilla had never laughed. No one laughed now in this era of pure +reason! I shrank back staring at her and a sudden suspicion came to me. +Acquilla was not human, Acquilla too was an automaton. + +“Why do you stare so, Bogardus?” + +“Give me your hand,” I blurted out, shuddering. + +I felt the warm flesh under mine. I examined the clear texture +minutely. The veins were there, red and finely blue. Acquilla _was_ +human. Then softly I passed my fingers caressingly over the molded +forearm. + +“That is strangely pleasant, Bogardus,” she said at once. “But now your +face is contorted again. Is that laughter?” + +“I was afraid you were an automaton.” + +She shook her head gravely. + +“What a strange idea! But here is dinner.” + +She resumed her seat. The centre of the table rose, charged with +curious silver and ivory dishes, which to my whetted appetite appeared +alarmingly inadequate. But the presence of certain promising flagons +reassured me. I sat up hungrily for my first meal after two hundred and +fifty years with this amazing young Amazon of seventy-six, who was bald +as Socrates, strong as Achilles and totally devoid of a sense of humor. + +“My dear Acquilla,” I said beaming. “You will teach me many things but +I shall teach you how to laugh.” + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Acquilla cast a swift glance at the centre of the table, and drawing a +silver platter towards her on which were a dozen colored bottles about +the size of egg cups, said: + +“I shall dine as you dine but in a different manner.” + +“Pills!” I exclaimed in dismay. “Compressed food--I knew it!” + +“You are like all men, I see,” she answered gravely. “Always jumping at +conclusions. What I am eating is exactly what you will partake of, only +it is in the form of extracts and quite as delicious too, I assure you. +As for your fear of compressed tablets, it is groundless. Until the +age of seventy, modern dietetics long ago recognized the value of bulk +in food. It is only when the problem of preserving tissues and health +is one of arrestation rather than development of the vitamins that we +eliminate bulk for chemical values. I can recommend the soup, Bogardus, +it is a _pot-au-feu_ such as I am certain you have never tasted.” + +Saying which she took a little bottle at her side, unscrewed it, and +poured a few drops into a silver cup the size of a liqueur glass. + +“Take off the cover before you, Bogardus, and give me your opinion.” + +At her direction I unscrewed, not without effort, the upper half of +a silver melon and discovered the receptacle filled with a liquid of +peculiarly agreeable odor. I tasted it and looked at her in surprise. + +“Ghosts of Savarin and Vatel! This _is_ a soup!” + +“It has been aging twenty-five years,” said Acquilla proudly. “What, +that surprises you? True, you applied the principle only to wines and +liqueurs; but if the principle, which is after all but the evaporation +of noxious gases holds true in one case why not in another?” + +“But twenty-five years!” I exclaimed. + +“Look at the seal and the date. It comes from the kitchen of the +celebrated André Poullardier of Rouen. But eat sparingly. It is very +rich and there are other surprises for you.” + +Another dish hermetically sealed was opened in a similar manner, +and displayed three tender trout _au bleu_ cooked in white wine and +seasoned with some herbs that recalled sarriette and cress. + +“Acquilla, I am relieved, relieved and delighted,” I said after the +first gustatory satisfaction. “My fears were groundless. Your cook is +worthy of the progress of science.” + +“Cook? I have no cook.” + +“But--” + +“My dear Bogardus,” Acquilla replied with an evident satisfaction at +my increasing amazement. “We have progressed beyond cooks and the +hazards of cooking. There are great central restaurants for every day. +But all you taste tonight is imported from France, and if I say it, it +was prepared by the greatest chefs of the last fifty years. What, you +are astonished? But there is nothing more simple. There is no greater +difficulty today in preserving a dish at exactly the temperature at +which it should be served, than to keep the human body in a process of +refrigeration a hundred years. You see?” + +“I see at once,” I replied, for already I could feel in my mind a +new attitude, the scientific attitude of the 22nd century. “But the +mechanics interest me.” + +“I shall show you through my culinary library--in its day it was quite +famous. The fish is by Grisset of Tours. No one has ever surpassed him +in his specialty. After this I am offering you as a special treat, for +I have only fifty examples of it left, the masterpiece of Raoul Binard +signed by him 2145 as you will see; _ortolans farcis au truffles_, +and braised in endives and Beaujolais. For dessert you will have a +pineapple glacéed in madeira and champagne. The wine is worthy of the +rest, I assure you. The vintages are now exceedingly rare.” + +The wines, as she had prophesied, were fragrant and delicious; a mild +white wine that resembled an excellent Meursault and a red with the +flavor of Romany, only clearer and not so heady. + +“I must confess that never in my life have I dined so miraculously,” I +said, reclining gorgeously. + +“You are looking for tobacco?” said Acquilla, noticing my look. + +“I had hoped?” + +“There it is before you.” She leaned over, took up a thin, delicately +modelled pipe, and filling it with a fine brown powder, offered it to +me, at the same time arranging one for herself. The extract, for such I +judged it to be, was of a flavor superior to anything I had ever known +before, about the strength of a vintage Havana cigar. + +“Content, Bogardus?” + +“Blissfully.” I settled back languidly among the cushions. “And now +tell me. How am I here?” + +Acquilla blew a thin vapor into the air and reclined--a charming figure +among the purple cushions. Seeing her thus, I was again agreeably +reminded of the young Ernesta. To dine on the food of the gods and to +have a goddess looking at you with tender eyes, a goddess smitten as +goddesses were, by the yearning for a mortal; what could a man ask more +of Paradise? + +Divinely content and my imagination mellowed by exquisite vintages +I threw the reins to my fancy. A fig for that wig or any wig in the +world! In the days of the Roi Soleil and his Watteau Duchesses, who +but a peasant ever exposed her own hair! Really Acquilla’s headdress +was the creation of an artist and the blue and silvery threads in the +softened lights gave a harlequin illusion to the scene. + +But all at once I remembered Emelia. I set it down to my credit, absurd +as it may seem. For the Bogarduses have always stood four-square for +the sanctity of the home, the law of the land and the conservative +tradition. But an instant’s reflection revealed to me the absurdity of +my scruples. Emelia was with history, and I in command of the present, +a bachelor again in an age to which no bachelor could object. I turned +toward the lovely creature and smiled languorously as a Pacha in his +seraglio might have smiled, in his omnipotence. + +“You were found about a quarter of a mile from here,” said Acquilla +returning my smile. “In the course of a series of excavations I have +been undertaking to determine the location of your great museum. You +were discovered in a steel vault, that had been strangely preserved +by a network of beams which had collapsed in a manner to surround you +with the protection of an outer shell. It was due to your being in this +pocket that you have survived the destruction that was prevalent about +you.” + +“Have you a map of New York?” I asked. + +Acquilla took up a wireless telephone and gave an order. The table sank +by the same invisible service and presently returned with an atlas. +I opened it eagerly to the plate of Manhattan and stared at it in +perplexity. + +“But the city--the city has disappeared!” + +“Oh, no, on the contrary we find it already over-crowded,” said +Acquilla. She leaned forward and placed her finger on a spot. + +“This is where we are and here close by is where you were found.” + +“Then we must be directly above the junction of Park Avenue and +Seventy-Ninth Street, and the museum--” I stopped again and stared at +the map, “But what is this?” + +“That is Gotham Lake of course. We use it as a fish preserve.” + +“But that is where the Park should be!” + +All at once I divined what had happened. In the general collapse of +the skyscrapers which had raised the level of Manhattan from a hundred +and fifty to two hundred feet, the Park had retained its level and +filled up with the water released from the broken mains. I explained to +Acquilla. + +“Probably the museum, being located on Fifth Avenue, was buried under +the opposite apartment houses. If I was found here, you were within two +hundred yards of your objective.” + +“What a treasure you are going to be to the archeologists, Bogardus,” +exclaimed Acquilla. + +I was gazing at the map eagerly and indeed with a certain sadness. +There were, it is true, indications of public squares and buildings, +but though they were on a majestic scale, it was plain to see that New +York, my New York, had been blotted out. An involuntary feeling of +local pride brought with it a sharp chagrin. + +“Then Chicago has become the metropolis of America,” I said sadly. + +“In your day,” remarked Acquilla reflectively, “under your dreadful +materialistic system, you crowded a million-- + +“A million? Ten millions!” + +“How dreadful, ten million human beings where fifty thousand hardly +find space enough now!” + +“But Chicago?” I persisted clinging to my obsession. + +“Chicago? What about Chicago?” + +“What is the population of Chicago?” + +“Twenty-five to thirty thousand.” + +“San Francisco?” + +“The same.” + +“Good heavens, but then,” I sat up, staring at her. “But then, how many +human beings have survived on this continent?” + +“North America? A million.” + +“And the entire world?” I said faintly. + +“I can tell you that exactly as I happen to be on the International +Control of Population Board. All this, of course, Bogardus, you realize +is the subject of the most careful regulation. For, as you will learn, +it is the foundation of our modern individualization. For the rest +of the world the figure with certain seasonal fluctuations is placed +at two million, six hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand each for +Europe, South America, and Africa. One hundred thousand for Australia, +and a million for Asia.” + +“Good Lord, do you realize what it was in my day?” + +“In the twentieth century about twelve hundred millions, wasn’t it?” + +“A billion, six hundred millions.” + +“How dreadful! Why that was not humanity, but vermin!” + +“But how has all this happened?” + +“That, Bogardus, is a matter of history; the rise of womankind,” said +Acquilla proudly. “But perhaps it would make it simpler for you to +comprehend the changes that have taken place, if I took things in +order.” She looked about reflectively a moment. “If you were put in the +Frigidrome in 1929--” + +“Eleven years after the World War.” + +“The World War? Is that what you called that little struggle? +Because after all it settled nothing, did it? The first true mondial +conflict came in 1984 though there were local conflicts before that; +the Japanese-Russian War of 1955, which brought all Asia, including +Siberia, into the Oriental Empire; the breaking up of the British +Empire and the Unification of Europe under the Germans in 1965.” + +“Then Bolshevism did not over-run the world,” I interrupted. + +“The Russians had only manpower and inaccessibility in their favor, and +to science these two factors are negligible. Of course, Bogardus, you +recognize that the object of all the great male civilizations was to +crush all competition by evolving a superior form of destruction.” + +Feeling myself and my sex attacked, I demurred. + +“Isn’t that a sweeping indictment?” + +“Why? Look at history. What is it? It is simply the record of a +scientifically organized minority overcoming less martially intelligent +masses. You are not convinced? Surely you do not ascribe it to moral +virtues. Take your America. The white race conquered the red because +ten intelligent men with muskets could slaughter a thousand ignorant +savages. Take the conquest of Africa by a handful of Europeans. You do +not claim it was superior courage?” + +“We have always regarded it as such,” I volunteered timidly. + +“Because you looked at civilization only from your egocentric point +of view. The courage was always on the side of the savage, fighting +against incomparable odds. The intelligence was back of the guns. Do +you see my point?” + +“There is something in your theory,” I said. With the traditional +instinct of the male, I have never cared to reason with the opposite +sex, but in this instance my curiosity got the better of me. “Yes, +there is a great deal in what you say.” + +“It is the accepted commonplace of history,” said Acquilla sharply. +“It was the Macedonian Phalanx that established the Empire of +Alexander. The fleets of Athens brought the Periclean Age. Rome? The +Legions. Mohammedanism? The utilization of religious fanaticism as a +military weapon. Sea power made Portugal, then Spain, then the British +Empire. Napoleon’s Empire? A new art of war, crashing through decayed +traditions. Germany? Germany failed in 1914 because it discovered no +new principle, because it did not wait for its scientists.” + +“It almost succeeded--” + +“It would have succeeded if it had developed the submarine and the use +of poison gas before it started its conquests. To conquer the world, +one must find a new principle of destruction.” + +“Then how do you explain the rise of the United States?” + +“What do you know of the United States, Bogardus?” said Acquilla, +preparing to enjoy my astonishment. “You speak of a nation that in 1930 +had existed only a century and a half.” + +“Yet in my day it was admitted to be the greatest country in the world +in power and in resources,” I protested loyally. “You can’t deny that.” + +“A country that fatuously developed the great standardized age of +materialistic wealth and forgot to protect itself. A country that +drove all Europe into a defensive alliance; by not only exacting a +yearly tribute, but by its blind policy of tariff discriminations, +aroused the passions and hatreds of Europe’s Socialistic masses. The +United States never fought a great war until 1984 and then it was +completely destroyed.” + +“Destroyed--America!” + +“True, these things were after your day. While Japan and China were +organizing Asia, Germany and France united into one state, crushed +Russia and England, and having founded the United States of Europe +conquered the Americas.” + +“It was then that New York was destroyed?” I said faintly, feeling my +head go round. + +“New York and every city, every village, on the continent, Bogardus, +was razed to the ground. During this period the population of America +and Europe was of course decimated. That was a war.” + +“And after that?” + +“Ten years later, in 1994, came the real World War; the teeming +manpower of Asia against the laboratories of Germano-France. Again +history repeated itself. The great discoveries of Europe’s scientists, +particularly the perfecting of electronic energy and the destructive +Z-rays with which a hundred aeroplanes were able to destroy all forms +of life, wiped out in seven days the menace of Cathay forever.” + +“How frightful!” + +“Bogardus, like all men you are a sentimentalist,” said Acquilla +calmly. “You are for little wars, but you stop at pursuing your ideas +to a logical conclusion. To end war, a world calamity was necessary to +destroy the cause of all war.” + +“I don’t comprehend--” + +“Really? In your day, your men philosophers and economists never +perceived the obstacle to the establishment of a final scientific +civilization.” + +I put my hand to my head and said slowly: + +“I haven’t the slightest idea, unless it can be the conflict of +nationalities.” + +“Much deeper than that.” + +“What then?” + +“Over-population, and its concentration in the cities, that and nothing +else.” + +“The idea is interesting,” I said, meditating. + +“Over-population has been the source of all wars and all poverty since +men began to congregate in social bodies. The rise of the metropolis +has been the doom of the nation. Consider Babylon, Sardanapolis, +Rome, Alexandria, London, and New York. But no man perceived that, +or at least if he did perceive it, had the courage to advocate the +depopulation of the world. That was the first great advance of the +feminine state.” + +“What an extraordinary idea!” + +“All your political failures were due to your obsession of exalting +the mass over the individual. What an insensate appetite you had +for population! What a horrible negation of human life it was! What +a society of vermin your great cities must have been! Democracy, +Socialism, Communism; each was an inevitable step forced upon you by +your distention of the mass. And the science you boasted of! And your +age of efficiency! Did you ever have, as we have, a yearly world survey +as to the adjustment of population to that progress of mechanics which +continually eliminates human labor?” + +“I have no answer,” I replied dumfounded. “It all seems so simple as +you state it. Though,” I added, lighting up, “I do seem to remember +some serious suggestion that science should take a holiday!” + +“The wrong way to approach the problem,” said Acquilla, shaking her +head. “Our civilization is based on a hundred acres to each woman.” + +“Then the world is run by women?” + +“Oh, absolutely, for the last one hundred and fifty years, from 2030 +when the collapse of male civilization became evident to all, and men +were finally disenfranchised.” + +“But--” I stopped, confused by the flood of questions which rose to my +lips. + +Acquilla who had been watching me carefully and had noticed my +heightened color and startled eyes, here interposed. + +“I think, Bogardus, we have talked seriously enough for the first day. +In fact, I’m afraid in my eagerness that I have gone too far ahead.” + +I passed my hand over my forehead and noticed how the veins in my +temples quivered. + +“I feel as though I had been transplanted to a strange planet. +Everything is gone that I knew or could reason by. It leaves me with +the feeling of terrible depression, a terrible loneliness.” + +Acquilla sprang up and held out her hand. + +“Come. We will relax. I have a surprise for you. Dianne, the famous +soprano, and Schiappa are singing in ‘Tristan’ tonight. A familiar +sensation is just the mental relaxation that you need. Though I must +say to your credit, you extraordinary man, that you have stood the +shock remarkably well. In some cases of early Frigidrome treatment, we +have had serious lapses into brain disorders.” + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +I rose and followed Acquilla to the circular theatre which I learned +formed the principal axis of every house. + +“There are a number of interesting things going on,” said Acquilla, +“particularly in Arcturus III, where there is a war on with Stella IV. +Then you will be interested in the historical records of the wars of +1984 and 1994, but not tonight. Nine o’clock. The opera is beginning.” + +She went to a switchboard at one side and made certain adjustments. A +heavy screen immediately shut out the glass dome above us through which +the stars had been shining down. + +“How near do you want to be, Bogardus?” + +“What! Can you regulate that, too?” + +“Easiest thing in the world. It will probably be more interesting to +you to have a front seat. Afterwards, if the orchestra is too loud, we +can move back.” + +She extinguished the lights and took a place at my side. All at once +the theatre, for such I must call it, was flooded with light and before +my astounded eyes I beheld a vast rippling of waters, while the air was +filled with the opening bars. Across the glistening green seas under +the blue dome a ship grew out of the horizon and bore down upon us with +colored sails bellying above the glistening of iron and bronze upon +the decks. The prelude closed and with a sudden shift, I found myself +literally on the deck, so complete was the illusion presented. The +figures appeared not only in their natural size and color, but in three +dimensions so that I could not repress an exclamation of astonishment, +so life like was the corporeal illusion. The orchestra was hidden +and reinforced by new varieties of wind and string instruments that +were exceedingly pleasant to the ear. The stage, needless to say, had +disappeared. Above us was the cloud-swept sky, about us the grey-blue +splash of waves. We were within twenty feet of the principal actors, +who for all purposes of illusion, might have been bodily in the room. + +Though only an amateur in my love of music, I perceived at once certain +agreeable innovations. The stilted dramatic action had been replaced +by a naturalness of movement which nevertheless harmonized with the +melodic rhythm. The music, likewise, due no doubt to our proximity, +was no longer delivered with the need of filling a vast auditorium, +but phrased with a delicacy that revealed a hundred new shades. As +for the performance of the celebrated Dianne, I cannot express my +admiration. Isolde in her hands was no longer a stalking classical +puppet of conventionality, a thinly disguised sophisticate, but a +tempestuous, savage nature, barbaric and impulsive as a wild animal. +She was strangely slender and youthful and eschewing the traditional +flaxen wig, had the blue-black hair and the clear azure eyes of the +dark Scandinavian, eyes which suggested now the mysteries of black +caverns, now the leap of free seas. To my imagination at least, the +impersonation, cleared of all artificiality, transported me back with +an utter absence of criticism into the elemental, even brutal passions +of a barbaric race. + +I had never seen anything more entrancing than the lithe grace of her +feline movements, nor listened with more troubled ecstasy to the thrill +of her warm, full-throated notes. Whether art or nature, she was the +woman of a forgotten age that never knew the sophisticated mincings +of our modern coquettes, but were swept into turbulent, even tragic +passions by elemental emotions. At the first glance of her startled +eyes I fell hopelessly, headlong in love, love at first sight, as +sudden, as poignant as though I had received the blow between my eyes. + +So swift, so overwhelming was the shock that it blotted out all +pale memories of my youth, Ernesta, Kitty, Emelia, even the radiant +Acquilla, so fragrantly close to my side, Acquilla who a moment before +seemed offered up to me in some incredible dream from the Arabian +nights. And yet I did not even know if Dianne still existed or was +nothing but the empty record of a great artist of another century. + +But Schiappa’s performance of ‘Tristan’ aroused my indignation. Due to +the female domination of the new society, an incredible liberty had +been taken with the part. A complete transposition of rôles had been +worked. It was Isolde now who visualized the possessive passion and +Tristan the surrender. If it had not been so monstrously grotesque I +should have burst into laughter. As it was, I was left staring and +dumfounded. + +“Well, Bogardus,” said Acquilla, when the opera had ended and the +theatre emerged from its darkness, “I am anxious to know what your +criticisms will be. For of course you lived when the Wagnerian +tradition was still young.” + +“I am overwhelmed,” I replied, coming out of the revery into which the +exquisite performance of Dianne had plunged me. “But first of all, +thank heavens, that you have found a genius to edit the score.” + +“In what way? But that must have taken place in the last century then,” +Acquilla added, after a minute’s reflection. + +“In the first place, you have cut the heavy anti-climax at the end of +the second act, where King Mark surprises the lovers and given it the +natural dramatic expression it demanded.” + +“But how was it in your day?” + +I described the lengthy and ponderous recital of King Mark’s +grievances, which to my modest imagination had always been an +anti-climax to the glorious mounting ecstasy of the lovers’ song. + +“But even in your day, you edited and rearranged Shakespeare, why not +Wagner, who after all, was not a dramatist?” + +“True, but men are traditionalists,” I replied ironically. “You see, +you women have brought a fresh point of view to the consideration of +all things.” + +“True,” said Acquilla, without smiling, “Dianne will be tremendously +interested.” + +“You know her?” I said with a catch of my breath. + +“Of course! Would you like to meet her?” + +“Now? Then she exists?” I exclaimed, my imagination racing. + +“Of course she exists. Oh, I see. You thought perhaps you were +listening to a record taken fifty or a hundred years ago?” + +“Nothing would surprise me, even to find that she was an automaton,” I +answered, laughing. “You know, for a moment I wasn’t sure about you.” + +“We have evolved automatons that are really extraordinary,” said +Acquilla, looking at me with the mystified expression which she assumed +whenever I gave way to my hilarity. “But they remain machines. No +indeed, Dianne is very much alive. She has only just begun her career.” + +I breathed a grateful sigh. At least then, the divine creature who +had captured my imagination would have her own hair and teeth! But +I checked my eagerness, for I was suddenly aware of a new flame in +Acquilla’s steel-blue eyes, and though the world was topsy-turvy +and women more so than anything else, I suspected that certain +primal characteristics had not changed. So I answered with a show of +casualness. + +“Yes, there are a number of criticisms I could make, but probably they +would not interest a prima donna.” + +“We’ll talk to her now.” Acquilla rose, and opening a partition in the +wall, disappeared. A moment later, she returned. “We’ll get her in a +few moments, as soon as central locates her. Of course, Bogardus, that +was a television record taken two years ago, but surely that doesn’t +astonish you?” + +“The theory, of course, had been established,” I answered with some +pride, “but the complete achievement is astonishing. But then Acquilla, +are there no more theatres?” + +“Why should there be any theatres?” said Acquilla. “A theatre was +simply a limited convention, where only a few hundred persons at a time +could enjoy a performance and for that, think how conventionalized +your theatre and opera had to be! It was only your great poets, like +Shakespeare and the Greeks, who intuitively wrote for the future. To +think that your actors performed on a stage with artificial trees and +skies! Surely you do not regret such performances when you can have +life itself?” + +“Then every home has a theatre like this?” + +“Why, of course! How could anyone live differently? The theatre _is_ +the home! The theatre is the world before us; history, music and the +drama; the past and the actual. Surely, Bogardus, you recognize that +the stage as you saw it, was simply a conventionalized barrier between +the free imagination of the creative artist and his audience.” + +“I agree heartily,” I said enthusiastically, “and I can hardly wait to +see more.” + +“Now you are greatly excited again,” said Acquilla, “and I thought to +relax you. I think Bogardus, I shall have to send you off to sleep.” + +But at this moment, a low chiming rhythm sounded in the room, and +Acquilla rising, disappeared through a partition. + +“We are lucky. Dianne is in Chicago and will dine with us tomorrow +night. Come, she is eager to talk to you.” + +I rose and resolved to conceal my emotion, entered a secret closet in +the wall, about twenty feet square, with some form of opaque glass +forming the sides. Acquilla closed the door behind us and touched +a switch. Instantly the figure of Dianne appeared before me, as +distinctly as though she were sitting in the room. From the intense +curiosity in her eyes, I divined that my presence was equally clear to +her. + +“So you are the man from the twentieth century?” her lovely voice said +as distinctly as though she were at my side. “You cannot imagine what +excitement your arrival has caused. Tell me, what did you think of my +Isolde?” + +“It was worth waiting two centuries to hear,” I began, but feeling the +compliment rather banal, I hastened to say, “Acquilla tells me you are +dining with us tomorrow night. We can discuss it then.” + +“Did you find it changed? It satisfies you? Have I departed too much +from tradition?” she asked rapidly. + +“Changed, yes, but wonderfully so. I am still dazzled.” + +“I don’t want compliments,” she said, smiling with pleasure, more at +the intensity of feeling in my voice than at my halting words. “What +was there to criticize?” + +“In your performance--nothing,” I said emphatically. “The conception of +Tristan, perhaps, was rather--rather--” + +“Too masculine,” she interrupted avidly. “I knew it. I have always said +so!” she continued with a satisfaction that showed me that the feminine +in the artist had not changed so much. + +“On the contrary--I found--what shall I say--I found it rather too +feminine.” + +“Feminine?” she cried, opening her lovely grey-blue eyes. “But I don’t +understand, I thought it lacked rugged strength.” + +“My dear Dianne,” I said, smiling, “I do not know what your new +civilization has done to my fellowmen, but I assure you in my time, +virility, robustness, vigor were qualities we associated with the male +sex.” + +“Oh--” Her glance rested on mine in renewed curiosity. “I see. How +curious! That is a new point of view.” + +“It is a point of view, isn’t it?” + +“But rather hard to make comprehensible to a modern audience,” she said +doubtfully. “You are different, Bogardus, very different. Your voice +is different. You look at me differently, straight in the eyes. Yes, +strangely, disconcertingly different.” + +“You too,” I was about to continue, in the more personal tone her look +seemed to permit, when the presence of Acquilla at my back recalled my +caution. “At any rate,” I added, carefully, “even if we quarrel, our +discussion promises to be interesting.” + +“Well, if I can put off an engagement, I’ll come,” she answered in a +changed voice, which for the moment puzzled me. “Thanks all the same, +Acquilla. Your find ought to prove most instructive, I’m sure.” + +We returned to the theatre. + +“Do you find her beautiful?” said Acquilla, looking at me sharply. + +“Oh, in a stagey sort of way,” I replied on my guard. “Is she +intelligent?” + +“In a limited way, yes, but rather capricious.” + +“As a matter of fact, I had to be polite, but one or two things in her +performance rather shocked me. For instance, Isolde should be played as +a blonde.” + +Deceived by my manner, Acquilla replied: + +“That is part of her capriciousness. She never will consent to appear +as a blonde. There are, of course, strong differences between the +blondes and the brunettes as we breed them, and to tell you a little +secret, the brunettes are extremely jealous of us.” + +“Aha!” I exclaimed, suppressing a smile. + +“Because, after all, they are usually of a lower caste, you know.” + +I suspected that this remark would lead to new revelations in this +strictly scientific society, but already overwhelmed by the mystery of +the new knowledge to be acquired, I did not persist. + +Acquilla took my hand and led me to my room, where I perceived a low +broad couch, soft and covered with silken cushions. + +“What are you staring at now?” + +“But where are the bed-clothes?” I asked, looking around. + +“Bed-clothes? Did you put on clothes to go to bed?” said Acquilla with +a drawing of her eyebrows. + +“By bed-clothes I mean sheets--” + +“But there is the sheet.” + +“I see. But the upper sheet--and the blanket--and the bedspread--and +the comforter?” + +“What, you actually slept beneath all that! How unhygienic! No wonder +you all died young!” + +“But I shall catch my death of cold!” + +“Don’t you realize, my dear, that the human body like any other animal +body craves air and sunshine? Throw off your toga and try the couch. +You will find it deliciously soft. As for catching cold, that is +impossible. We adjust the temperature of the room by this thermostat. +So. Now you have the warm dry glow you require for perfect rest.” + +“And you sleep without anything on,” I said hesitating, “the whole year +round?” + +“Naturally. Night is the great renovator. Not only does the body +require contact with oxygen but we charge the atmosphere with +invigorating electric currents. Even the air you will breathe will be +modified according to your chemical needs. Tomorrow when you have been +thoroughly examined your chemical formula will be worked out. I am +speaking of course of the abc’s of modern scientific prolongation of +life.” + +“So this at last is the fountain of youth,” I exclaimed, extending my +arms languorously to the warm incoming current. “I can feel my eyes +closing already!” + +“Well--good night!” said Acquilla after a moment’s hesitation, and +taking me up into her arms she whispered, “You are unlike any man I +ever knew. What is it that draws me so to you with such strange and +bewildering force? Are you glad that it was I that found you?” + +I nodded shyly, with a twentieth-century prudery, hoping desperately +that she would go and leave me alone. But as she remained staring at +me entranced, there was no help for it. I slipped from my garment and +flung myself on the couch which was indeed of a voluptuous softness +truly astounding. + +“Good night, my beautiful one,” said Acquilla softly. + +I counterfeited an extreme drowsiness. + +“Good night, dear--I can hardly keep my eyes open--tired, so tired--so +many bewildering things--” + +She slipped from the room, extinguishing the lights. My +twentieth-century inhibitions, of course! Ridiculous? Yes, even +archaic, such prudery! For after all I freely acknowledge the +superiority of this new self-unconsciousness. Besides, even in my day +were there not enfranchised spirits on the beaches of Scandinavia and +Russia, to say nothing of Germany? + +Acquilla was right. After a moment I found myself perfectly accustomed +to the new hygiene. In fact nothing could have been more delightful +than this warm indolence, lying under the great panorama of the stars +that shone down on me through the transparency above, as they shone +down once on the Garden of Eden. + +But for a long time I was unable to close my eyes. All the startling +discoveries of the day surged through my head in a confused torrent. +What did I know after all? Even the hints that Acquilla had dropped +added to my mystification. All had changed that I had known, but what +had replaced the old in this era of women’s ascendancy? A world where +a billion and a half human beings had been wiped out of existence! A +world where all social traditions seemed to have been discarded! And in +all this mystery what had become of man? Had we evolved into a state +of polyandry and communism? Gradually these disturbing speculations +passed away. I grew drowsy with some faint perfume that pervaded +the room. I thought of Dianne with a quickening of my imagination. I +thought of Acquilla too with an involuntary admiration, and yet with an +instinctive apprehension. + +Acquilla and Dianne, both beautiful, yet so differently appealing. +Acquilla who stimulated my mind and drew me to her with a soberer +affection, Dianne who fascinated me dangerously and set my blood +to racing with the flame of her young passion. Acquilla or Dianne? +Perhaps in this new society Acquilla _and_ Dianne--and thus deliciously +perplexed I fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +When I awoke it was late in the morning and my imagination still, +confused, listened for the warring jangle of the noises of New York. I +sat up, stared about me and realization returned. Whether on account +of the chemical infusion or the charge of electricity, I found the +air more delicious than any I had yet breathed. I awoke refreshed and +with an extraordinary sense of well being and following Acquilla’s +directions, touched a button at my bedside. Almost immediately the +languor of the atmosphere changed to an invigorating glow. I rose and +started to examine my surroundings when the voice of Acquilla said: + +“Good morning, Bogardus. I hope you have rested well.” + +I turned hastily, snatching a dressing robe about me, with that +instinctive modesty which is so difficult for a man to forget. To my +amazement the room was empty, though the voice continued. “I have +been called to a special meeting of the Population Council in New +Orleans and won’t be back until late. However, the housekeeper has her +instructions and you will find the library and the astronomical parlor +enough to interest you until my return.” + +Following the direction of the voice I discovered a minute disk in the +wall. The mystery was after all only a commonplace. Acquilla had used +a dictaphone which had probably been automatically released when I had +changed the temperature. + +There were no windows in the room but the glass walls, due no doubt to +some infiltrating lighting control were now so transparent that I had a +clear view of the scenery for miles about. Due to the present height of +the New York mesa I could discern not only the Sound and the entire bay +of New York but far down the Atlantic coast--an incomparable spectacle. +From where I was, down to the old Battery, there were magnificent +villas glittering in coats of many colors through the vistas of noble +parks. Immense pylons stretched up into the sky, either the gigantic +weather transformers I had seen or colossal plants for transmitting +energy. Aeroplanes flashed against the blue like the migrations of +swiftly moving birds or floated nearby like lazy clusters of poising +butterflies. The speed of some of the larger ones held me fascinated. +I judged rightly that they were huge transatlantic carriers for the +projectile-like speed of their streaking across the sky was like the +path of a shooting star across the night. + +I was in the midst of these observations when Mag the housekeeper +entered to receive my orders. I tried to explain to her unsuccessfully +my need of a razor, but after witnessing the bewilderment on her face +gave up the attempt. + +When I ran my hand expressively over the blue stubble on my cheeks her +curiosity and amazement knew no bounds. + +“But don’t men have mustaches or beards?” I exclaimed with a full +portraying gesture. + +“Goats have hair on their faces like that, not men,” she replied, +opening her eyes. + +I looked at her sharply but remembering that a sense of humor had +evidently departed with the descent of my sex, I said: + +“Very well, I shall raise a beard if only to show the modern woman what +magnificent creatures men once were.” + +“You are indeed curiously beautiful, Bogardus,” she said in a low +voice, casting down her glance. “And your voice is so deep and your +body is so strong for a man!” + +Though Mag was square and built like a blacksmith, I confess this +humble admiration was inspiring to me and opened agreeable vistas for +the future. + +“What does Acquilla wish me to do this morning?” I asked. + +“She has sent the famous Gallia to treat your body after the bath.” + +“Gallia? Who is Gallia? A masseuse?” + +“Gallia is the great Æsthete who discovered the new method of tissue +preservation. If you will come down to the bath now I will inform her.” + +I nodded, dismissed her and presently descended. + +Gallia, like the generality of her caste, was a brunette, with black +olive-shaped eyes and a delicate, slightly acquiline nose. She came +forward graceful and fragrant, and putting her arms about me embraced +me cordially, a greeting which I later discovered had replaced the +crude handshake of our male civilization. + +“What a magnificent specimen you are, Bogardus,” she said, looking +me over with the glance of a connoisseur. “Really, when we see what +demigods men once were, it is a disgrace to reflect on how we have let +your sex deteriorate.” + +“Good,” I said somewhat embarrassed at her frank admiration. “At least +you do not share the common prejudice.” + +“There are, of course, dominant reasons for our present social state +from a political and philosophic point of view,” Gallia replied with +a precautionary glance at Mag. “But looking at the matter purely from +the science of eugenics, I maintain that for the proper breeding of the +superlative female, it is necessary to regenerate the mental capacities +and initiatives of the male. Besides, men educated by women will +possess totally different characteristics.” + +“Is there a party then that holds with you?” I said eagerly. + +“Yes, but we are in the minority.” + +“But minorities are always the most powerful elements politically. It +was a minority that brought about woman suffrage in my day.” + +“Later,” she replied, frowning significantly in the direction of the +housekeeper, “it will be interesting to learn by what methods. At +present I have a duty in the interests of science, to determine what +effect your long preservation may have had on the glandular and nervous +system. You see, Bogardus, the principles of frigiferous arrestation +of life have only been tested by short periods of from fifty to sixty +years. Your arrival is of course quite the most important scientific +event that has occurred.” + +I divined from her manner that political questions had to be treated +with discretion, and so postponed until later the many questions which +occurred to me as to the status of my sex. We entered a laboratory +directly above the bath where I was subjected to a series of tests +which resembled the metabolism examination of my day. + +“Everything is normal,” said Gallia delighted. “I can find no +disturbance whatsoever. In fact for a man of sixty--” + +“Sixty. I am exactly thirty-two if you please.” + +Gallia looked at me a moment with a perplexity that suddenly lifted. + +“True, I forget. You come from an age when the glandular secrets of +youth were still a closed book. That is the reason for my mistake. You +see we begin invigoration treatments immediately at the completion of +the body growth--that is about the age of twenty. In your case, I shall +have to treat you intensively. It will be most interesting. I shall +work out the nutrition formulas and the chemistry of the air you must +have at night. Meanwhile the ordinary daily regime will work wonders.” + +“Gallia, I am curious to know to what extent you have been able to +prolong life.” + +“We have still to submit to the tests of experience,” she replied. +“We have it is true only begun our exploration, and today there are +only a few living who have reached the age of a hundred and seventy. +Theoretically, there is no reason why we cannot with our present +knowledge extend life to four or five centuries. We have eliminated +the ravages of such diseases as tuberculosis and cancer, pneumonia and +paralysis, but to be strictly scientific, we may have to encounter new +types of diseases which will have to be studied and conquered.” + +“Then there are persons who actually wish to live two hundred and three +hundred years in this world?” + +“That is the trouble. You see with the perfection of the Frigidrome, +particularly with the proof of its efficacy which you have supplied, +Bogardus, there will be an overwhelming demand to be translated from +century to century.” + +“A most natural curiosity, I should say.” + +“Exactly. But until we can supply the demand, you realize that it is a +privilege that has to be restricted. It is now an honor conferred for +distinguished services.” + +“Then I may hope for another voyage into the future in as favorable a +state as the present.” + +“Nothing easier, if you respond as I am sure you will to our treatment.” + +“Proceed then, Gallia. You will never have a more obedient patient.” + +She smiled at me the flitting Latin smile that is reflected in the eyes +and, Mag being absent, embraced me with a warmth that was more than +professional, and which I confess I returned with such interest that +she gave a little gasp of pleasure. + +“Oh! That is not at all like a man!” She gave me a long, veiled glance +and added, “Really, your case is so important I shall have to treat it +personally.” + +For two most agreeable hours I received a treatment under Gallia’s +directions, which consisted of an immersion in a chemical bath, a +massage with some violet ray machine and the application of delicious +unguents which left my skin aglow and sensitively alive. From Gallia +I learned that the day of every woman began at five o’clock with two +hours devotion to this meticulous care of the body, as the first +obligation of a civilized state. No woman, it appeared, ever took more +than four hours sleep, except in the nascent and child-bearing periods. +Sleep, to the extent in which we indulged ourselves, was an excess as +injurious as drunkenness or gluttony. All that Gallia had to say struck +me as of exceeding good sense, and I promised to follow rigorously her +precepts. + +After her departure breakfast was served while I reclined on a divan. +The repast consisted of a variety of fruits; a syrup formed on the +basis of honey but not so oppressively saccharine; coffee, which had +a vintage of twenty years and a light breakfast food which was a +mélange of different vitamins exceedingly pleasant and appetizing. I +complimented Mag, but expressed a masculine desire to indulge in the +morning newspaper. + +“Or has the newspaper been abolished as a male distraction?” I asked +facetiously. + +“Oh, no. The news came in, hours ago.” + +“Bring it to me, then.” + +Mag returned with a record about the size of an ordinary spool and +placed it in a small receptacle, explaining that the broadcasting from +the central station was recorded on these disks which could be turned +on later at will. + +I found as I had expected that the circumstances of my arrival +occupied the place of honor. But what astonished me was to discover +that the gist of my inquiries and the long explanations of Acquilla +the night before were rendered with an amazing fidelity. I surmised +that by some hidden recording device every word of our conversation +had been transmitted. The portrait given of me was flattering, though +certain liberties were taken with the amazement and admiration I had +displayed for the marvels of the new civilization. But this I put down +to the editorial tradition of local pride. The news of the day was +given briefly without the embellishments to which we are accustomed; +important discoveries in the social organization of Arcturus III +made possible by the micro-photostatic enlargement of astronomical +records; the launching of a new luminous fringe in the Paris fashions; +the meeting of the Population Council in New Orleans to deal with an +unforeseen outcrop of twins; the opening of the new Frigidrome in +the tunnelled vaults of the Palisades, capable of accommodating a +thousand new inmates, etc. There were talks on health, a description +of a new symphony, the arrival of a hundred Scandinavian males and the +excitement caused by their striking personal appearance. All this, +while interesting, left me with a feeling of depression. + +I called Mag and said: + +“But isn’t there a man’s section; a sport page, you know? You don’t +understand? Don’t men play football or baseball or golf or tennis? +Isn’t there a world’s heavyweight champion?” + +“Yes, yes. I understand,” Mag replied vaguely. “Run-jump, you mean.” + +“Exactly. Run, jump, swim, you know.” + +“Oh yes, I know! Men run, men jump and they dance, oh, beautifully!” + +I gave a gesture of discouragement. + +“You make me fear the worst,” I said dejectedly. I rose. “Never mind. +I’ll visit the grounds for a little walk and then return to the +library.” + +When I stepped out onto the broad lawn a machinot was cutting the +grass, seated on an electric machine which he guided so deftly that I +watched entranced the mathematical inevitability of his movements. + +Here again unwillingly I have to admit the fertility of the feminine +imagination. Truly the vanity of man could only create gods or +automatons in his own image. It may be debatable whether two legs are +not sufficient, but certainly any knowledge of the marvels of the +insect world should have convinced us of the utter inadequacy of two +hands. Not only were the machinots supplied with numerous antennae, +but instead of the restricted human orbit of vision they were supplied +with the myriad faceted eyes of the bee, which communicated to their +intricate mechanism what we lack--a complete vision. While I was +watching, one of the machinots in crossing the lawn evidently ran +down, for it came to a complete stop, sending out a radio call to the +head mechanic. Another machinot operating a lawnmower arrived within +ten feet of the obstruction, stopped, turned out and as deliberately +readjusted itself to its appointed path! + +Other automatons were spraying the orchards, and running cultivators +through the flower gardens. What cultivation of the soil was done was +evidently only of an ornamental nature. Vegetables and cereals for the +table were raised elsewhere, for no home cooking was necessary, with +their thermostatic devices and their central cooking stations. + +The servants’ quarters (all were women, including the gardener and +the mechanic) were behind a thicket about a quarter of a mile from +the house and constructed on a curious principle. At first glance it +resembled a circus tent and on closer inspection I found the analogy +more striking. The entire house was suspended by cables from a central +pole or tower, about twenty feet in diameter, which beside an elevator, +contained heating, lighting and air circulating equipments. The ground +floor was given over to a garage for the aeromats. On the second floor +were three large bedrooms and a bath, a laboratory and a large living +room or theatre. Above was a sheltered open roof banked with flowers, +very pleasant and comfortable. The curious thing about these houses, +which I found, later, were manufactured in a standardized form, was +that they were designed to be lifted from their sockets and transported +by aeroplanes to any distance and again set up with only the necessity +of providing an emplacement, thus obviating the necessity of separate +summer and winter homes. + +I was in the midst of these investigations when Mag informed me that I +was wanted on the radio. The way she conveyed the message with a sort +of sly impertinence, convinced me that it could not be Acquilla. I +returned to the house greatly intrigued. Who could it be? A reporter +seeking an interview? An offer for a vaudeville engagement? A moving +picture contract? Or simply an invitation from the Sons of some Native +State to be the speaker of honor at their annual banquet. + +“How ridiculous,” I thought suddenly. “All such things are vanished +with the age of publicity. Or have they?” + +I went into the television chamber and found myself looking into the +troubling eyes of the charming Dianne. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +“I heard in the morning news that Acquilla had to go to New Orleans,” +she said with a significant smile, “and stole this opportunity for a +tête-à-tête.” + +“You were casual enough last night,” I remarked, trying to assume an +indifference that my racing pulse violently denied. + +“You forget that Acquilla was present,” replied Dianne, looking at me +tenderly. “But first, go to the direction box and press the button that +is illuminated by a green fight. That is the isolator. There is no need +of anyone listening in on our conversation. You’ve done it? Good. Now +we can lunch together--just by ourselves.” + +“Lunch? But where are you, my delightful but capricious friend?” + +“I? In Chicago.” + +“But then?” + +“True, you are still a barbarian, Bogardus. But I find a certain charm +in that,” she added with one of those appraising smiles with which +women in my day used to suggest that the approach to intimacy need not +be unnecessarily prolonged. “Well, to explain to you the simplest thing +in the world; have your lunch served before you, I will do the same and +we shall talk as we eat. You look surprised? Why, I often lunch with +friends in Paris or Vienna.” + +Now as a matter of pride I had promised myself to show no astonishment, +whatever I discovered in my new experience. But this time I was caught +as flat as a country bumpkin translated to the complexities of the +metropolis. To hide my confusion I turned and gave my orders to Mag, +who received them with such evident ill-humor that I had to speak to +her sharply. The table was brought. I sat down and so complete was the +illusion that my fascinating companion appeared to be seated across it +enjoying my bewilderment. + +Of all the innovations which I had encountered so far, I must say that +this one pleased me the most; for not only were you free to select +or leave your company at a moment’s impulse, but each was assured of +the menu he preferred. What terrors of the society I had known could +have been eliminated by this simple device! To recover my authority, I +leaned forward and said: + +“My dear Dianne, there is one thing must be understood between us. +There is no use telling you that I adored you from the moment I saw +you. And I am going to be bold enough to say that I felt at once the +attraction was mutual. However, I refuse to be treated like--well, like +what you call a man today. In other words I forbid _you_ to make love +to _me_,” I concluded with a smile. + +Dianne’s eyes opened wide, she drew back and then craned forward +eagerly. + +“How exciting! Of course, in your day it _was_ the man who pursued.” + +“And I want it distinctly understood that I _am_ a man of my day and +not a spineless dehydrated invertebrate your civilization has probably +made of my noble sex.” + +Dianne’s glance met the ardor of my gaze without yielding, but I was +gratified to observe a pleasant convulsive shudder of her adorable +shoulders. + +“How strange, but how thrilling! Go on, Bogardus,” she said. It was not +so much feminine coquetry as a feline curiosity. + +“We shall see,” I thought, “if the old instincts are entirely gone.” + +“My adorable Dianne,” I continued. “This is quite the most alluring way +of staging a romance one could imagine. In my day, it was the telephone +which supplied the thrills. But how simple and primitive compared to +this.” + +“How interesting--but of course to us this is a commonplace.” + +“Then I have the advantage over you. I assure you I am already +head over heels in love. Was anything ever more delightful or more +tantalizing? I sit here. I look into your lovely eyes. I hear your +charming voice. I watch every graceful movement of your body and when I +reach out my hand, you elude me. What wouldn’t our coquettes have given +to possess such a power of mystification!” + +“Bogardus, were you run after by lots of women?” said Dianne. + +I reflected. I did not wish to appear too modest. After all, history +was as I chose to create it and this feeling I must confess gave me an +extraordinary assurance. + +“In my day, your sex pretended to be the courted, though a great many +satirists insisted the opposite was true. However, I was never exactly +lonely.” + +“How strange to hear a man talk like this, but go on. I like it, though +it gives me a funny feeling when you look at me so boldly.” + +“Dianne,” I said, beginning to lose my head a little. “You, a great +artist should know great loves. Scientifically and socially, I +confess, you have done miracles, but what have you not lost in the +conquest--laughter and love!” + +“But Bogardus dear--” + +“Stop. It is impossible to give a sentimental note to the name of +Bogardus--” + +“I confess it is rather a mouthful.” + +“My name for sentimental purposes is Jack.” + +“Jack,” she repeated, lingering over the sound. + +“I have even been called Jacko.” + +Dianne clapped her hands. + +“How delightful. But Jacko, my dear--laughter--what do you mean by +laughter? Is it those funny faces you made a while ago?” + +“Laughter,” I said majestically, “was undoubtedly the invention of the +first man who challenged the phantoms of the gods who oppressed him. +Laughter is the will to be happy despite all the sorrow and suffering +life is afflicted with. It is man’s triumph over his destinies.” + +“But we have done away with sorrow and suffering.” + +“True!” I said, struck by the thought. “Perhaps without tears, laughter +_is_ impossible.” + +“Can’t you teach me to laugh, Jacko?” + +“It is possible,” I said, struck by a sudden inspiration. “Tonight we +shall see.” + +Dianne’s expression changed swiftly. + +“Dear, it was specially about tonight I wanted to warn you--” + +“I know. Acquilla is jealous.” + +“How quick you are. Does she suspect your true feelings?” + +“She is suspicious, but I flatter myself--” + +“Be careful, be extremely careful. Acquilla wants you for herself.” + +“What of it?” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “After all, Acquilla +is a woman of seventy-six and youth must be served!” + +“True, but Acquilla is implacable and if she even suspected that you +were going to escape her--” + +“Well, even then?” I asked anxiously as Dianne hesitated. + +“I must tell you all the truth,” said Dianne making up her mind +abruptly. “For you should be warned. You see, your arrival has caused +a tremendous commotion. For Bogar--for Jacko, you are not like the men +of today. You represent another civilization. You are so resplendently +what men must have been. And just now that is very dangerous, dangerous +to you!” + +“Why?” + +“Because in the last ten years, there has grown up a new radical school +that is preaching the rehabilitation of men.” + +“What--Votes for Men?” + +“Exactly. You see how disturbing your arrival is to the powers that +be. You will be brought before the Supreme Council--I know for a fact +that already they have been deliberating over your case. Be on your +guard when you are questioned--” Dianne stopped and leaning forward +plunged her glance into mine. “Be careful for my sake.” + +“Now you are making love to me, which is contrary to orders,” I said +smiling. “But what danger do I run?” + +“You could be suppressed as a menace to society.” + +“Murdered, or if you wish, executed?” + +“Oh, no, but you would be returned to the Frigidrome and sent into +another century.” + +“I see, an ingenious way of abolishing capital punishment.” But despite +my bravado, I felt the beginnings of uneasiness. “Is the situation +really so serious?” + +“Yes. For already the male suffrage movement is a problem. Acquilla +has tremendous power. She can protect you so long as she is personally +interested--” + +“I understand. To tell the truth, my instincts did warn me.” + +“You see. Be careful, dear, be very careful.” + +“Say ‘for my sake’ again,” I said, looking at her boldly, “but drop +your eyes as you say it.” + +Dianne glanced at me in surprise, her glance wavered a moment and then +fell away. + +“What a strange effect you have on me,” she said in a low voice. + +“Say it,” I repeated insistently as I felt my growing power. + +“For my sake, dearest,” she said in a whisper. + +“Ah, my darling Dianne,” I cried, “if only I could jump through space +and snatch you up in my arms this very moment.” + +Dianne raised her eyes and again averted them. + +“Truly, dear, you have the weirdest effect on me. I have never known +anything quite--quite like this before.” + +“Dianne darling, I promise you that you will know what love once meant +between man and woman,” I continued impulsively. “Not your eugenic, +cold-blooded matings, but the love that stirs and tortures you, the +love that is pleasure and pain, that is madness and ecstasy, that takes +its moment and accepts the price, whatever it has to pay.” + +I stretched out my hands and Dianne’s lovely fingers, as her flushed +face turned to me, seemed already to yield to my clasp, when suddenly +with a click, the whole mirage vanished before my eyes. The door opened +and Mag came in. + +“Acquilla is just returning,” she said looking at me sulkily. “Quick. +Keep her outside, while I get the table out of sight.” + +From which, I gathered that certain primitive instincts still persisted +and that Mag, after the tradition of servants, had been listening at +the door. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +I went outdoors with some trepidation, striving to assume a natural +air and dreadfully conscious of a feeling of guilt. But instead of +Acquilla’s Dionysian figure I found no one. I returned and summoned Mag. + +“Why did you interrupt me with this cock-and-bull excuse,” I said +severely. + +“You’d talked long enough with that hardened woman,” she said, +shrugging her shoulders. + +“Then you were listening at the door?” + +“Yes, I was,” she said sulkily. + +“And who permits you to judge my actions,” I continued angrily. + +The girl’s eyes filled with tears, she stammered, tried to meet my eyes +and ran away. + +“Good heavens, here’s a bit of comedy,” I thought, suddenly +enlightened. “Mag jealous! Acquilla, Dianne, Gallia and now even Mag! +Is it possible that the mere sight of a man as he used to be is going +to work such havoc?” + +I must confess that my anger vanished in a laugh, and though I +have always held myself without much vanity this revelation of my +devastating attractions was not at all displeasing. + +I presently repaired to the library, which I found to consist of +thousands of carefully packed reels, all arranged according to +subjects. For instance, I found under ancient history that the siege +of Troy was given with a faithful visualization of the Homeric legend +accompanied by a lecture explanatory of customs and traditions; the +French revolution and the Civil War were not only historically analyzed +but actually laid before my eyes. My curiosity was naturally directed +to the fate of my native city. I searched in the section entitled 20th +Century and found a reel, labelled Apotheosis of Material Civilization, +which I immediately placed in the projection and returned to my seat, +with what emotion may be imagined. + +Before my eyes rose the colossal city of my dreams, a vast intricate +triple metropolis, with superimposed avenues, crowded with traffic; the +two lower strata vibrantly brilliant in an electric flood; the upper +interlaced with vertiginous spans that supported great concourses, +lined with trees and parkways. The Pennsylvania and Grand Central +Stations, trebled in stature, discharged passengers on the concourses +of the middle stage which was reserved for pedestrians solely. The +scene which had evidently been filmed at the opening of business, +showed the ceaseless inflow of vast multitudes which were regimented +according to destination and marched in military formation under the +vigilant control of thousands of traffic officers. Heavy traffic and +incoming automobiles were rigorously kept on the lower avenue, and +only private automobiles of the greatest luxury circulated above. Each +block was treated as an architectural entity rising five hundred feet +and flanked with enormous towers at each corner with a central landing +place for aeroplanes which swarmed over the sky. Seen thus with its +standardized armies of workers it resembled nothing else than a cross +section of an ant hill or a beehive. + +But, abruptly, when my curiosity was just aroused, the scene shifted +to the new capital, Europa, showing the great woman scientist, +Selma Benegal, in her laboratory, experimenting with electronic +disassociation and the startling discovery of the deadly electroid ray. +Next came the declaration of war by the feminine controlled states of +Europe on the Americas; the consternation in New York, the panic in the +Senate at Washington as President McGuffy at the wireless telephone, +indignantly demanded of Europa some justifying explanation. + +Reply of the European Council. An epochal note relegating to the dust +heap all the hypocrisies of the old man-made diplomacy:--“Europe makes +war because Europe is ready to conquer!” + +Then, while my head swam, came in quick succession shots of the +hasty assemblage of the volunteer air forces of America; politicians +proclaiming that America was rising like one man; while all the time +the great European armada of the air was seen embarking in the night, a +hundred armored aeroplanes equipped with the new Z-ray destroyers. + +While I sat thus twisting my hands, I beheld the dreadful meeting at +dawn and the sickening destruction of the feeble American forces as the +Z-rays, with the crash of thunderbolts withered everything that opposed +them. I saw the armada sweep on toward New York; the panic in Babylon; +the first bolts toppling over the skyscrapers; crazed multitudes +flinging themselves from the topmost windows. I saw New York collapse +like an ant hill under the fall of an immense foot. + +No words can picture the satanic grandeur of this destruction. The +electroid rays seemed to have the quality of paralyzing all life, +either because joined to some deadly chemical or because the immense +concussion produced sudden deadly vacuums. From the air the tottering +city swayed and crumbled into unrecognizable heaps of stone and steel, +while great sheets of fire a hundred feet in height leaped over the +destruction. Millions died instantly of suffocation or fright while the +armada, passing on, swept the country like a plague of fiery locusts, +destroying every vestige of plant and animal life. + +I turned away in horror and rushed into the open air, where I must have +swooned, for the next thing I remember I was in Acquilla’s arms and +Acquilla’s voice, alarmed and compassionate, was calling my name. + +I sat up, recollecting myself. + +“What happened, Bogardus dear?” said Acquilla, passing her hand gently +over my forehead. + +“That awful picture,” I said with a shudder. “How could human beings be +so fiendish?” + +“Oh, you have been looking at the destruction of New York,” Acquilla +said, looking at me curiously. “And it has upset you as much as that? +And you are a representative of the war age--the age of war? So men +were not so different after all?” + +I put her arm from me indignantly and mastered my emotion, ashamed +before a woman to have so betrayed my britannic ancestry. + +“True, we made war but not on women and children. We left that to +savages.” + +“Your attitude surprises me,” said Acquilla reflectively. “What +sentimental creatures you men were after all. What horrifies you? That +you saw millions wiped out in an instant? But was there anything less +horrible in men dying by the hundreds of thousands?” + +“But a whole city, a nation, the women and children!” + +“Really, Bogardus, do you believe that war was not always directed +at the women and children? Is it easier to die suddenly or to live +blankly and carry on the burden of life? Who suffered most in your +romantic age, the lover who died or the lover who remained? As for the +horror you imagine, stop and think on this. The destruction you saw +was instantaneous, the vibration of the electroid ray paralyzes every +nerve instantly. There is no more experience with pain than a bolt of +lightning gives. Such a death was virtually an unconscious blotting +out. Yet at the same epoch in your sentimentality, you gave to your +criminals an instantaneous merciful death and allowed the ones you +loved, to die in prolonged agonies. Isn’t that true?” + +“I don’t know if it is true. It sounds logical,” I admitted unwillingly. + +“And that is what you men never were!” + +“At least we were consistent.” + +“How so?” + +“You have enslaved my sex, because you say, it lived only to kill. +Yet on what have you founded your civilization of peace? On the most +gigantic holocaust that the imagination could conceive. I call that +inconsistent.” + +“You have brought up the fundamental difference between the sexes. You +men were ever slaves to tradition and your consistency on which you +pride yourselves was after all only a servitude to a rooted idea which +no longer served. There is woman’s superior mentality. We never ask is +a thing right, but is it necessary. Your vanity made you believe you +could foresee all future conditions. We simply say the present has no +relation to the past, because new conditions and not old ones determine +our decisions.” + +“I have heard such stuff before,” I said, irritated at my own lack of +resource. + +For some reason Acquilla did not wish to further antagonize me. She +took my hand tenderly and said: + +“I must make allowance for your man’s point of view, dear Bogardus. I +don’t want to annoy you. I am simply comparing different viewpoints. +After all, remember that life is the cheapest thing in the world and +it matters little how or when we go. You will do us the justice as you +see us, to realize that if we have not yet conquered death, we never +permit suffering, and though we had to decimate the world to do it, we +have produced a state where hunger, poverty, sickness and suffering are +unknown. You are not angry with me, Bogardus,” she concluded, holding +out her arms with a charming gesture. + +I yielded to the embrace but with a certain obstinacy which she must +have felt, for she began to display the most tender solicitude to win +me out of the stubbornness of my mood. + +“Dianne is dining with us tonight and bringing Dulcina, the great +composer, and Carrilla, who plays divinely. You will see that the +aesthetics of living has not been lost in our feminine age. Come, +we’ll plan the dinner together and you shall order the banquet as the +Epicures of your day would have done. There you men remain supreme.” + +I understood the reasons of her flattery, but was somewhat mollified by +it. Yet as I took her hand and followed her to the culinary libraries, +I was curiously conscious that in this scene I had behaved strangely +like a woman and Acquilla had had all the masculine advantages. This +irritated me and I resolved not to appear again at such a disadvantage. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +I had made no reference to my luncheon and I must admit that I was +considerably perplexed as to what course to pursue. Due to the abrupt +interruption of my tête-à-tête with Dianne, we had been unable to +agree upon a story. Of Mag I felt reasonably sure, for to betray me +would be to implicate herself, but what if Dianne herself should make +a slip before I could warn her? However, my short experience with that +fascinating person had revealed to me enough of the eternal feminine to +trust to her ingenuity. + +My confidence was not misplaced for Dianne immediately on entering +remarked: + +“My dear Acquilla, I should be a thousand miles away from here, but the +opportunity to talk a second time to your strange visitor from another +world was too tempting, even if I am going to quarrel with him over my +interpretation.” + +I received this as a hint for my future attitude and answered +militantly: + +“We shall quarrel certainly, for you have done dreadful things to poor +Tristan!” + +I advanced and held out my hand. + +“What is that for?” said Dianne, staring at it. + +“Don’t you shake hands any more?” I replied perplexed in turn. + +“What a funny custom. Let me try it,” said Dianne, glancing at +Acquilla. “Gracious, how strong and vibrant your hand is! Why do you +suppose people ever greeted each other like that? And your face is all +covered with hair, like a wild animal.” + +I was explaining my predicament when Dulcina and Carrilla entered, +the last a statuesque blonde with a wig of flaming purple hair. When +Dulcina approached and kissed me on the cheek in the accepted modern +style, I purposely returned it with more warmth than I had shown. + +Acquilla, to my delight, immediately began to consider the famous +aesthete with marked aversion, and to further aggravate her suspicions, +I confess that during the evening, I pretended to be greatly attracted. +Again, I must refer to a curious phenomenon. With Dianne I felt always +the traditional male superiority; but with Acquilla, despite every +effort, I felt myself constantly resorting to those devious ways of +concealment that left me with a bewildered sense of a transmuted sex. + +Our dinner, needless to say, was of the same high order of gastronomic +delicacy as my first. The four Amazons were of faultless beauty, +slender and regal in their graceful limbs and tinted headdresses, +so that my imagination mellowed by the exquisite vintages, pictured +myself in the court of some mythological divinity surrounded by her +nymphs. Yet the fascination that Dianne had imposed on my senses from +the first view, was imperative and exclusive of all other desires. +Dinner over, the conversation naturally developed into a series of +cross-examinations on the habits and manners of the twentieth century, +which I sustained with spirit. Dulcina was particularly interested in +the aesthetic life of my sex. + +“Is it true, Bogardus,” she said, “at a time when certainly women must +have discarded the absurdities of hoop-skirts, corsets and powdered +headdresses that you men continued to dress in the livery of your +butlers?” + +“Dulcina, I shall not attempt to defend myself. On this point I admit +you score heavily. Nothing could have been more absurd than the clothes +to which we were subjected. In fact, in an age when societies for the +prevention of cruelty to animals flourished, no one ever thought of a +society for the prevention of cruelty to men.” + +“I have seen curious drawings of the times,” said Dulcina, “but I +confess I cannot comprehend them. Explain please, Bogardus, the strange +way you dressed.” + +“It is easier to explain how, than why,” I continued. “In the first +place when women’s dress did not weigh more than two to three pounds, +we were staggering about in clothes that weighed five to six times as +much. We wore heavy stiff hats, like inverted kettles and almost as +heavy, that shut out all air from our heads. We wore collars as rigid +as boards about our necks that strangled our throats in a way no human +being would have treated a dog, and at night we placed another rigid +white board over our chests and for some mysterious reason exposed +it proudly to the public view. But worst of all, while we encouraged +our women to display themselves in bright colors, exquisitely blended +and designed, we confined ourselves to browns and greys and went into +mourning each night.” + +“And yet in the past--you had Rome and Athens! Even in the middle +ages, you men in your dress rivalled the male plumage in nature. How +could such an absurdity happen then? And why did you endure it so long +without a revolt?” + +I shook my head. + +“It has been described as a product of democracy.” + +“Yet the women were never affected, Bogardus.” + +“Perhaps,” said Acquilla maliciously, “it may have been that women +never really accepted democracy.” + +“I make no defence,” I said shrugging my shoulders again. “I have +suffered too much.” + +“Wouldn’t it be fair to say, Bogardus,” said Acquilla slyly, “that this +is another proof that men were traditional and women the pioneers of +the imagination?” + +As I felt myself cornered again, I evaded the answer by saying: + +“Yet the curious thing, Dulcina, is that the great designers of the +fashions were always men.” + +“It is so today.” + +“Really?” + +“Certainly. In certain things, Bogardus, we freely admit that the +talents of men have remained supreme.” There was some objection to +this, but Dulcina persisted, “Who are the great chefs today? Men. Who +sets the fashions? The men of Paris. Who are the great producers of +masques and spectacles? Men. And of course, when you come to the great +composers and painters--” + +“How about mathematics? In my day, though women distinguished +themselves in every other field--higher mathematics was a closed door.” + +“Yes,” Acquilla admitted grudgingly. “In that one branch of science we +admit the natural talent of the male mind. When you go to the Astrodrome +you will see how we use it. But after all it is a deductive quality, +rather than a creative one.” + +“It produced an Einstein,” I said warmly. “By the way, in your +stupefying progress, have you succeeded in understanding the Einstein +theories?” + +“That exploded theory is taught in the primary schools as a scientific +curiosity,” Acquilla responded crushingly. But after a glance at the +irritation which must have been evident on my face, she said, with +that new solicitude her voice took on when she spoke to me. “However, +Bogardus, we would be most ungenerous if we devoted the evening to +an attack on the civilization of our guest. You have a treat before +you, Carrilla has promised to give us the great Stars Symphony by +Fliederfeldt, the famous composer of the twenty first century!” + +The thought that came to me instantly was that my ears were now about +to be assailed by a cacophony of strident noises along the lines of +that modern school which in my day had gone over to the rhythm of +locomotives and trip hammers. + +“The orchestron was not known to you,” said Acquilla, motioning me to a +seat on the couch beside her. “I think you have a surprise waiting for +you.” + +Carrilla who had been unusually silent, gazing at me with that +entranced concentration I was learning to expect, allowed herself to +be persuaded after the manner of all great artists, before going to a +large instrument which resembled more an organ than a piano. At the +first bars, I exclaimed in surprise: + +“But it’s impossible! She is not playing herself. It is the record of a +great symphony orchestra!” + +“It is an orchestra, true,” said Dulcina, gratified by my astonishment, +“but it is played by a single performer.” + +I rose and approached the instrument incredulously. + +“Forgive me this interruption, my dear Carrilla,” I said, “but before +you begin, explain to me how it is possible for you to produce on a +keyboard, not only the sounds of wind instruments which our organs did +imitate, but the clear and definite notes of violins and cellos.” + +“After all, it is quite simple,” Carrilla said, indicating to me an +elaborate keyboard. “If anyone had thought of it in your day, I’m +sure they would have invented it. There is but one gamut and all the +orchestron does is to reproduce the notes of all instruments. You see, +here are the strings and these delicately adjusted instruments are the +bows. As for the flutes and the horns, if a human mouth can blow into +them, surely a mechanical device can do so.” + +“It is wonderfully designed,” I said, staring into the intricate +mechanism, “but how are you able to control these multiple instruments +under one direction, particularly when one part of your orchestra is +playing one theme against another?” + +“It is a complicated art, of course,” said Carrilla proudly, “and +certain mechanical devices are necessary. For instance, when the +strings are carrying the theme, this device insures the repetition of +the motif. Music is after all only the mathematics of melody. It has +its repetitions, iterations and progressions. I indicate the theme on +the keyboard while underneath by these different pedals I throw it +into the different instruments I desire. Do you see? So. Here are the +flutes, now I close the flutes and bring up the cellos, now both mingle +and now one plays this simple theme against the other. Is it clear?” + +“Clear as the suspension of the solar system in space. Since we see it, +it is so, but just as miraculous.” + +“Recline and I shall play--just for you,” she said in a low voice, +pressing my hand. + +I returned and placed myself between Acquilla and Dianne, agreeably +intoxicated by their fragrant personalities, while Carrilla began to +play. Even now I cannot believe the testimony of my senses. All I can +say is that apparently Carrilla at the keyboard seemed to play upon an +invisible orchestra as deftly as though she were rendering a simple +performance on the pianoforte. Possibly the orchestron was merely a +glorified organ. The thought occurred to me. But if so, it was unlike +any organ I had ever listened to and there was not the faintest note of +the piping tremolo I associated with that instrument. + +After this divine music, Dianne without rising, sang to Carrilla’s +accompaniment, the air of Elsa from Lohengrin (Wagner alone seemed to +have survived) and another that resembled somewhat the salute to the +sun in Coq d’Or. She was so close that I could almost feel the passing +of the lovely liquid notes against my cheek. Once in an impassioned +burst I felt her hand slip into mine and lie there all tremulous with +emotion. My own senses were now in such a whirl by the magnetism of her +nearness that fearing to betray myself, I sat up at the conclusion of +her song and said: + +“Carrilla and Dianne, for pity’s sake, no more! If I listen any longer +to your ravishing music, I shall feel myself back on Calypso’s island +bewitched by the songs of sirens. And you know what happened to those +who listened?” I drew a long sharp breath and to recover some calm +added, “Oh, by the way, I have one complaint to make, but that is a +serious one. Who emasculated the rôle of Tristan in the otherwise +perfect performance I witnessed yesterday?” + +The Amazons glanced at one another in surprise. + +“Emasculate? Just what do you mean, Bogardus?” said Acquilla at length. + +“While it is true that the passion of love overwhelms each at the +drinking of the love potion, Tristan is a magnificent male, a hero of a +hundred battles, one of the famous knights of legend. But you make him +a pliant shrinking personality dominated by Isolde.” + +“But after all, Tristan is a man!” exclaimed Dianne, after a chorus of +exclamations. + +“Even a love potion could not have made the regal Isolde fall in love +with an invertebrate like that.” + +“Historically he is right,” said Dulcina, “I have always maintained +that we should produce the opera to represent the times.” + +“The public would never understand it!” said Acquilla. + +“Where could you find a man today to play the part differently!” + +“My dear ladies, let me tell you frankly that what you defend is +nothing but nature faking. Why, in the second act,” I continued, +boiling at the recollection, “in the sublimest love scene of all drama, +how do you represent it? By Isolde putting her arm around Tristan and +pillowing his head on her shoulder! If you don’t see the absurdity of +that, there is no sense of humor left in the world. No, really it is +too funny!” + +At this memory, and the blank seriousness of their looks, I was seized +with a sudden uncontrollable spasm of hilarity. I laughed, holding my +sides until the tears ran down my cheeks. + +“There he is doing it again,” said Acquilla in a whisper. + +“Are you in such dreadful pain,” cried Dianne, seizing my arm with a +warmth that should have betrayed her personal interest, while Dulcina +and Carrilla stood frightened and helpless staring at me. + +“Pain, no! I am laughing,” I managed to cry out. + +“Laughing, that’s what he called it,” Acquilla explained. “No, I assure +you he is not suffering. He will be quite normal in a moment!” + +I mastered my emotion, but the ludicrousness of their perplexed concern +for me so overcame me, that again I doubled up. When at last I was +master of myself, I said: + +“It is true you have abolished laughter! What a revelation!” I +cried, struck by a sudden enlightenment. “It must be true then, that +women never really had a sense of humor and only counterfeited our +inexplicable amusement!” + +“But why do you laugh, Bogardus?” said Dulcina, curiously. + +“How can I explain the nature of laughter to those who have never +laughed? And yet, wise women of the twenty-second century, don’t you +realize that laughter has overthrown kings and gods? When men slunk in +the woods and feared the night and the storm and shivered under the +tyranny of fear and superstition, it was the first man who dared to +laugh at a clay god, who made men gods of men themselves. You want to +know what it is to laugh?” I concluded. “I will teach you as we taught +our babies!” + +“I am willing to try,” said Acquilla, nerving herself in the interest +of science. + +“Very well. Slip off your sandal--so. Put out your foot.” + +Wondering, Acquilla obliged, while the others craned about us. + +I took the lovely ankle firmly in my hand and ran my fingertips lightly +over the sole of her foot. + +“Oh! Oh!” cried Acquilla, with a convulsive shiver. + +“It is not painful, is it?” I demanded, maliciously. + +“No--but it’s very strange. No, Bogardus, let go of my foot. I can’t +stand any more. It--it--” + +“Tickles?” + +“Oh how--oh, how it tickles!” she cried and suddenly began to laugh. +“Oh, how funny--how queer--but oh, how delightful. I do, I do like it!” + +Dulcina, Carrilla and Dianne each in their turn clamored for the +experiment, and each was hilariously initiated into the lost art. + +“There,” I exclaimed, pointing to Acquilla, who was laughing at their +first contortions, “now she is laughing at you.” + +“I am laughing because they are making such strange faces,” said +Acquilla, wiping the tears from her eyes. + +At this moment Mag entered with a tray. I waited my moment and suddenly +pulled the rug from under her. The four women burst out laughing at the +sudden sprawling descent. But all at once Acquilla frowned and with a +gesture of dismissal to the maid, said: + +“Bogardus, is laughter then so cruel!” + +I saw my mistake and tried to rectify it. + +“Laughter in that case was simply an atavistic sense of superiority. +It was because Mag was placed in a ludicrous light, that our +self-superiority expressed itself in a laugh. But that is only a +trivial and a very obvious side.” + +“Wait!” Acquilla stopped me with a frown. “You have done a daring and +it may be an unwise thing, Bogardus. There are illimitable consequences +to what you have taught us. Perhaps this is what was meant by the fruit +of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” + +“Acquilla, how ridiculous!” exclaimed Dulcina, and to my horror began +to giggle. + +“There you see,” said Acquilla sombrely. “The poison has already begun +to act! Bogardus, answer my question.” + +When Acquilla was in this mood the effect was terrifying. A sudden hush +ensued and I caught an admonishing glance from Dianne. + +“You say, Bogardus, that laughter has overthrown tyrannies and +superstitions. That is good. But answer me truthfully: has it never +destroyed the reputation of a genius or caused the decadence of a great +civilization?” + +“You are thinking of some particular instance?” I said, to gain time. + +“Of many, Bogardus. Was not Pericles driven out by ridicule and weren’t +the greatest of the Greek tragedians made the butt of the coarse humor +of Aristophanes and his school? And in a larger sense, did not the +most brilliant of your civilizations lapse into an intellectual and +political decadence when the Athenians had learned to turn everything +into ridicule?” + +“You are ascribing to one cause what must have been the result of +many. And I may remind you that Æschylus, Euripides and Sophocles have +remained among the immortals.” + +“You are adroit, Bogardus, but you are temporizing. Let us go further. +Answer me honestly. Was not the spirit of irony directed against your +most sacred institutions? And wasn’t the object of your so-called +humorists to ridicule everything you held by; the family relationship, +marriage, the established church, your statesmen, your professors and +your traditions?” + +“True. Our satirists and comedians amused themselves at the expense of +marriage, love, fidelity, domestic bliss, the older generation; but +Acquilla,” I added artfully, “was the attack unjustified? And since you +have abolished marriage and the home, and parentage and romance, is it +not fair to ascribe some part in the new enlightenment to that same +masculine spirit of irony which undermines with ridicule what you have +destroyed with your logic?” + +“You argue glibly,” said Acquilla, in the usual feminine way, “but one +thing is clear from your own words--this thing you exalt as laughter, +which I call the spirit of irony, has been a cruel and destructive +force, and when it dominates a society it destroys it. I see the danger +now, and Dulcina, Carrilla, Dianne, I expressly enjoin on you that what +has happened here tonight, through a careless whim, must go no further.” + +“Really, my dear,” said Dulcina, laughing, “you are just a little put +out by the brilliant exposition of a mere man and trying to magnify +into an affair of state what is a game for children.” + +“I think Bogardus has argued brilliantly and revealed to us a +surprising breadth of view. I am more of a masculinist than ever,” +said Carrilla, coming to me and looking deep into my eyes. “And if he +displeases you I shall be delighted to take him home with me.” + +“Carrilla, you are frivolous,” said Dianne, rising angrily. “I quite +agree with Acquilla, and I am confident that when Bogardus has had +time to become acquainted with our institutions he will be the last to +advocate the introduction of any spirit of criticism.” + +“Why, I thought you stood for the regeneration of men,” said Dulcina, +turning on Dianne. “At least you have said so a hundred times. It is +you who are inconsistent! I agree with Carrilla--Bogardus has convinced +me. The suppression of the male sex as it is carried on today is +contrary to nature and justice!” She turned to me and taking my hand +added: “Bogardus, all you say interests me intensely, and I invite you +now to return with me and let me personally act as your guide.” + +“Why, the idea!” said Carrilla acidly. “I asked him first.” + +“Suppose we leave the choice to Bogardus himself,” said Dianne, looking +angrily at the other two. + +Acquilla, who had watched this scene with frowning brow interrupted +with a peremptory gesture. “For shame! We are acting like a group of +silly men! Enough! When I need advice or assistance I shall know where +to find it.” She rose, ending the evening. “It is late and Bogardus is +still in need of strength and sleep. Good night!” + +Carrilla and Dulcina shrugged their shoulders and embraced me, with a +warmth that had been entirely lacking in their first contact, but when +I felt the lovely arms of Dianne about me, my pulse began to race. + +“Be careful, Jacko,” she whispered in my ear. “You went too far. +Acquilla is alarmed and Acquilla is implacable. Good night, my adorable +one!” + +The sensation of having thrown the apple of discord among these +beautiful creatures was, I confess, humorously satisfactory to my +vanity. But heeding Dianne’s warning look, and intimidated by the angry +fire in the eyes of Acquilla, I resolved that discretion was the better +part of valor. When we were left alone, I held out my hand and said, +smiling: + +“Dear Acquilla, I see that even now discussions are dangerous between +the sexes, but since we are alone, let me admit that I see a great deal +for serious consideration in what you have said.” + +“They are only Histriones and Æsthetes,” said Acquilla, her brow +clearing, “and their faculties are all emotional. You are a man of +such sound sense that I am confident of your final judgment. But +meanwhile no more such experiments as tonight, Bogardus.” + +“I promise,” I replied, smiling a relieved smile. “So it’s understood +we shall laugh no more!” + +“Oh, well,” replied Acquilla, looking at me with a tender light in her +eyes. “I don’t say never. It wasn’t so painful. But only when we are +alone, dear.” + +She came toward me with a radiant smile, opening her arms. + +Again I felt a swift metamorphosis. + +“When you look at me like that,” I said, with assumed dizziness, “my +head goes round. I--I feel--” + +Acquilla sprang forward and lifted me clear in her strong arms as I +pretended to reel and fall. + +“Poor dear! You are still not strong!” she said, holding me as a child, +and bending over my eyes. “Forgive me! I must take better care of you. +Better, dear?” + +“Yes, but--but, I don’t understand why I am so weak.” + +Thanks to my duplicity, I was carried upstairs and put to bed, but the +kiss that Acquilla laid on my lips burned into me. Again I lay awake a +long time dreaming of Dianne and Acquilla, realizing all at once the +dangers and perplexities with which my situation was now fraught;--I, +of the now decidedly weaker sex, alone and unprotected, at the mercy of +this resplendent but ruthless and unmoral Amazon. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +When I awoke, Acquilla was standing at the side of my couch. I rubbed +my eyes. The room through its glass walls was flooded with an agreeable +modified sunlight. + +“I must have overslept,” I said. + +“You’ve slept a whole day, but now you ought to feel splendidly,” she +replied eagerly. + +“It’s true. I don’t remember when I’ve felt so alive and keen. And I +feel a wolfish appetite.” + +“How fast your hair grows,” said Acquilla passing her hand over my +face, “and how wiry it is.” + +“Don’t tell me that men don’t shave any more!” + +“Oh, not for a long while here. In Southern races you occasionally +see curious throwbacks. How funny it feels,” she added, again taking +liberties with my chin. “You know I rather like it.” + +“Acquilla,” I said solemnly, “I am beginning to be worried about my +fellow men. What have you done with your brothers?” + +“I’m afraid you will be rather upset,” she said, smiling, “but you are +so different from the men of today. You are a reasoning creature and +will understand, I am sure.” + +“I reserve judgment, but meantime I am exceedingly apprehensive.” + +We breakfasted out of doors, in a charming little bower of fragrant +roses. A machinot waited on us with a dexterity that was little short +of uncanny. Twice during the meal Acquilla rose and went into the +house, probably to give the orders for the day. Each time true to the +precepts of an excellent training, I rose and waited until she resumed +her seat. + +“Why do you get up so often?” said Acquilla the second time. + +“A gentleman in my day always rose when a lady did,” I answered with a +touch of asperity. “It was a deference we paid the sex of our mothers. +We called it good manners.” + +“What a strange idea. You placed women on an inferior scale and +flattered them by treating them as your superiors.” + +I must confess that after a moment’s deliberation I found no reply +adequate. + +“What inconceivable sentimentalists you men really were,” continued +Acquilla reflectively. + +“It was an attitude, of course, that descended from the age of +chivalry--the service of the strong towards the weak.” + +“All vanity. You preferred that attitude to acknowledging our equality.” + +“Well, it seems now the situation is reversed. May I ask what is _your_ +attitude to my unfortunate sex?” + +This question evidently perplexed Acquilla for reasons I was to learn +later. Perhaps she regretted the indiscretion of her previous remarks. +But after a moment she replied. + +“As a sex, yes, we consider the male inferior, though, of course, we +make exceptions in the case of outstanding merit. To a small element +who distinguish themselves in the arts and sciences we give modified +political rights--chiefly advisory.” + +I sat up and stared at her. + +“How long since you have taken away the vote from men?” + +“Oh, men have been disfranchised for over a century,” said Acquilla +carelessly. “The age of reason could not have been achieved in any +other way.” + +“And they submit to it--tamely?” + +“Why not? They are quite happy, I assure you. There are a few radical +thinkers among us who have lately raised the cry of votes for men, but +this heresy is confined chiefly to the brunettes and the Histriones. It +will die out naturally.” + +“But the men themselves,” I exclaimed indignantly. “After all, there is +the appeal to force.” + +“What can they do? They are outnumbered twenty five to one. My dear +man, let me urge you to put aside your incurable sentimentality and +your traditional way of looking at things, and try to appreciate the +age of reason, in which you are now living. Soon, you will see how +your males are living and enjoying themselves--and afterwards tell me +candidly if we have not solved the sex problem.” + +“One man to twenty five women!!” I cried, hearing nothing else. “But +then you must have deliberately suppressed, socially murdered--” + +“All that was done long ago,” said Acquilla interrupting. “Don’t excite +yourself so, Bogardus. How like a man! Emotion should never precede +knowledge. How agitated you are before you have even investigated.” + +“Is this true everywhere?” + +“Naturally. When the male civilization collapsed in the sanguinary +World War it would have been a tragic futility to have returned man to +power again, wouldn’t it?” + +“So it is an Amazon state that we have come to!” + +“You have said it. But don’t forget that an Amazon civilization existed +three thousand years ago.” + +I contained my wrath and asked with new curiosity: + +“And this Amazon state, is it modelled on our communistic or despotic +theories?” + +“You may call it a despotism, but it has certainly nothing to do with +communism or socialism.” + +“Then democracy has survived?” + +“How absurd! You will be quoting to me the sentimentalities of Rousseau +and your Declaration of Independence! ‘All men are created free and +equal.’” + +“Well?” + +“My dear Bogardus, that was a male egotism. All men created free and +equal! No woman ever really believed that!” + +“There you have scored,” I cried laughing. “I must admit that women did +_not_ believe that.” + +“Exactly, and that is true in our sex, too. Even with our scientific +methods of advanced eugenics, we create types but never equalities.” + +“Just what then, is the basis of the modern state?” + +“You can’t guess? And yet it was written on the walls of history for +anyone to recognize. Well, Bogardus, I’ll help you. But first, you had +a civilization based on the family. The fatherhead of course.” + +“Then the tribal chief.” + +“The kinghead, of course. Then oligarchies, democracies, and +demagogueries. Now what were they based on? The army, the church or the +mob.” + +“True,” I admitted, interested in spite of myself. + +“But after all, what makes the difference between human beings, the +superior mind and the average?” + +“Power.” + +“In your days power became an artificial inheritance. In our days power +is knowledge.” + +“Knowledge is power. I remember writing that as a child in a Spencerian +copy book, I think,” I said meditatively. + +“Our state of course, is founded on the University, as any logical +civilization must be. Success is simply the process of elimination. +That is what the University accomplishes scientifically and +impartially.” + +“But then,” I asked, remembering certain remarks, “you are organized +on a system of castes.” + +“True. We have rejected your democratic sentimentalisms and have +returned to the first principle of nature, the survival of the fittest. +With that we have adopted Napoleon’s conception of an aristocracy of +achievement.” + +“Very good,” I said, “and all you say interests me keenly. For +Acquilla, you must know that there were many solitary thinkers, even in +my day, who held with you. In fact, the British sought to reinvigorate +their own aristocracy by the generous introduction of strong new +personalities. But the weakness in all such systems is, of course, in +the decline in vigor and effort which comes with the generations that +inherit. How do you handle the second generation?” + +“It is a pleasure to converse with you, Bogardus,” said Acquilla, +brightening up. “Truly, you have the mind of a woman. The answer is +simple. You have correctly pointed out the danger of all inherited +institutions. We have eliminated it.” + +“How so?” + +“There is no second generation.” + +“You--you suppress the children of your aristocracy?” I cried, gazing +at her in horror. + +“Not exactly. But we have suppressed the family which amounts to the +same thing. You see, as our great philosopher, Manfreda, has pointed +out in her epochal work which led to the final abolishment of your +archaic tribal institutions, not only did the family idea constitute a +rebellious element in society but--” + +“One moment, I do not quite seize the implication.” + +“Oh, you must read Manfreda, the greatest creative thinker of all +times. You didn’t understand? But what is the object of the family; +the strong must carry with them the weak. The moment a leader begins +to provide for his family, his loyalty is to his children and not to +the state. The parasitic second generation of which you speak retained +artificial power, only by inheritance. Is that plain?” + +“As you state it, it’s made plausible.” + +“Furthermore, Bogardus, was not the family in itself an institution +curiously contrary to the principle of the survival of the fittest?” + +“In what way?” + +“Was it not generally the weak that preyed upon the strong? In the +family as you knew it, how often was the strongest member sacrificed +for the incompetents?” + +“The idea is a novel one--” + +“Reflect.” + +“I am reflecting--yes--and many incidents come to my mind that bear out +your statement. But--” + +“Now you are going to talk morality.” + +“I was.” + +“Let us postpone morality for the present.” + +“I am curious to know how you would define it.” + +“Morality is order. Immorality disorder.” + +“I like the definition.” + +“There is no other possible. So you see until you are conversant with +our new institutions and manners, you cannot argue on morality in the +terms of the twentieth century, any more than you would have argued +then in the terms of the middle ages.” + +“To go back a little,” I said, keenly interested, I must confess, “may +I ask some questions?” + +“Do.” + +“You have abolished marriage and the family, I perceive, but how do you +handle the question of the children?” + +“The determination of sex was solved in the last century. Birth control +was in force all over the world long before that.” + +“So you permit birth control?” I exclaimed. + +“Permit? It is obligatory. As science has diminished the need of labor, +we have met the challenge of the machine by successively reducing the +population. Anything else would be unscientific. The production of +females and males is fixed for each country by the World Commission, of +which I am a member. Our decisions are immutable and never disobeyed.” + +“How can you be sure of that?” + +“Fundamental laws are reduced to the smallest number and any wilful +infraction is punishable by death. In the case of the resistance of a +community we would wipe out that community,” Acquilla concluded calmly. + +“Acquilla, when you talk like that you make me shudder.” + +“In your day,” replied Acquilla quickly, “you had thousands of laws and +expected them all to be broken.” + +“But death--” + +“The infraction of any law must be punishable by death if there is any +necessity for the law.” + +“But an unjust law--” + +“There are no unjust laws because there is no oppression of the +individual. As for the death penalty (which of course, is simply the +arrestation of life by means of the Frigidrome) you would be astonished +to see how it has simplified the observance.” + +“I shall reserve my opinion to our discussion on morality,” I said +obstinately. “But to continue; what do you do with the children when +they are born?” + +“They are removed to the state nurseries immediately and brought up in +community.” + +“And you never see them?” + +“Never.” + +“But the children?” + +“Science has demonstrated that children to be entirely normal, must be +removed from the dangers of the mother or father complex. But Freud and +Bertrand Russell, in your day, must have realized that.” + +“The mother and father complex, it is true, were held responsible for +many things.” + +“You see we have really broken up the home in the interest of the +children.” + +I felt a dizziness in my head and took a long breath. + +“What is wrong, dear?” said Acquilla solicitously. + +“I am trying to acquire your modern point of view,” I answered feebly. +“One thing occurs to me; why go through the torture of childbirth at +all?” + +“In the first place childbearing has now no discomforts. In the +second place it is a duty imposed by the state and finally it has been +established that it is a process of nature that is essential to the +complete health and mental vigor of a woman.” + +“Then all children are treated alike?” + +“No, but the children of each caste, yes. For, Bogardus, it would be +absurd to say that a child of mine has no greater equipment than the +child of a servant.” + +“Naturally.” + +“Eugenics has taught us to develop inherited characteristics. We breed +not only for physical form but for developed tendencies. A great +scientist or a philosopher in her offspring, with the proper mating, +produces a finer brain, naturally. Nothing more complex in that than +breeding for speed in horses or scent in dogs.” + +“What then, Acquilla, is the arrangement of castes?” + +“The highest caste is called the Minervenes. This comprises the highest +types of mind, the scientists, the philosophers, the teachers, the +doctors and the governors or administrators.” + +“What has become of the lawyers?” + +“I’m not sure I understand what you mean by lawyers. What were lawyers? +Do you mean law makers?” + +“On the contrary.” I hesitated before an obvious witticism before +replying. “Lawyers interpreted the laws. In my day there were so many +laws and so often in conflict that no one ever contemplated any step +without recourse to a lawyer.” + +“Laws that have to be interpreted. How strange!” + +“But how can you leave property without a lawyer to draw up the will?” + +“There is no one to leave property to. Everything returns to the state, +and the state fixes the income of each according to merit.” + +“But surely there are such things as income taxes?” + +Acquilla shook her head. + +“But in your life don’t you buy or sell?” + +“Certainly, but all this is arranged through government agencies.” + +“Then there were the corporation lawyers who found the way to +accomplish results that were seemingly forbidden by laws.” + +“There are no privately owned corporations.” + +“But the criminal lawyers--surely there must be someone to represent +the individual who is accused of breaking your laws?” + +“Why?” + +“Well, manifestly someone with the knowledge of the law must advise +the accused and plead his case before the jury.” + +“My dear Bogardus, criminology is an exact science, as you will see. We +have judges but no juries.” + +“But the laws of testimony?” + +“Confusion, mystification. We simply bring the accused before the judge +and ask him one question.” + +“What question?” + +“Why--‘Are you guilty?’ of course! Who knows better than the accused?” + +“Very simple; if all women have forgotten how to lie.” + +“But a lie is impossible. We apply the scientific test, the +detecto-vibrator, that records the truth or falsity of the answer by +the nervous reaction. That principle surely was known in your day.” + +“True, but not in use. Manifestly then, there is no need of lawyers. +This, I admit cheerfully, is a great progress. Please continue.” + +“The Minervenes are, of course, the supreme directing body in the +state. Then there are the Histriones who compose all the liberal +professions, the writers, musicians, actors, artists and architects. +Socially they rank with the Minervenes, but politically they have +nothing to do with the direction of the government, except as they may +indirectly influence ideas.” + +“And they submit to this inferiority?” + +“Submit? Inferiority? They claim it as their right to be exempt from +any such burden. Why should anyone with a creative gift wish to have +her valuable time diverted to the dry routine of government?” + +I bowed. + +“You have an answer to everything.” + +“The third caste is the Vulcates, our great mechanics and engineers. +The fourth the Æsthetes, the arbiters of fashions, the decorators, the +great culinary artists, all those who study the greatest enjoyment +to be had out of life. The fifth are the Cerenes, the agricultural +producers, farmers, cattlewomen, dairywomen, wine makers. The sixth +caste, the Mercurenes, the artisans and manufacturers, and finally the +seventh caste, the Domesticates, the servants, the clerks, and the +police.” + +“And are these castes rigid? Is there no hope of rising from one caste +to another?” + +“There is nothing rigid about any of them, Bogardus, because there +is no inheritance. A woman’s caste is determined by her education. +Opportunity is open to everyone according to their merits. You will see +how this works out. + +“We are going to visit the University?” + +“Now,” said Acquilla, pointing to the open lawn at the bottom of the +park, where an aeromat was descending at this moment. “But I have a +busy day in Europa and will have to leave you to another guide.” + +“Dulcina?” I said with simulated eagerness. + +“You are attracted by her. Admit it!” + +“I thought her interesting, more so than Carrilla or Dianne, who +are amusing but like all artists interested only in themselves,” I +replied adroitly. Again I was conscious of a translated personality in +the domineering presence of the Minervene, as though the sexes were +reversed and I was resorting to the artifices of the weaker. + +“Dulcina is even more vain and egotistical,” said Acquilla +peremptorily, “and knows nothing outside her own talent.” + +“Then it is not Dulcina?” + +“Certainly not!” + +“Carrilla?” + +“It is not Carrilla!” + +Before I could venture another guess, my lovely Dianne stepped out of +the aeromat and said, “Doctrina has an important meeting and asked me +to take her place.” + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Acquilla did not look any too well pleased at this substitution, but as +she had no time to lose she made the best of it. + +“How in the world did you manage it?” I exclaimed when Dianne and I had +soared lightly into the clear air. + +“Oh, we Histriones are privileged to lie a little now and then,” said +Dianne with the smile of a naughty child. “Were you disappointed it +wasn’t Dulcina?” + +I took quite a little time to prove to her that her jealousy had no +foundation. + +“It is Acquilla that worries me,” I concluded. + +“Acquilla is a cerebral. I am not worried about her. I shall never be +jealous of a Minervene, I promise you.” + +“She is very intelligent,” I remarked, unwilling to surrender any +advantage. + +“Are you trying to make me jealous!” exclaimed Dianne, taking me in her +arms with a savagery that crushed my body to hers. + +“The eternal feminine, thank heaven,” I cried laughing. + +Dianne’s eyes were glowing like a startled lioness. + +“If you hurt me, I shall hurt you!” she said, showing her sharp white +teeth. But instantly she relaxed under my mocking gaze. “Please, Jack +dear, don’t stir me up. Things are bad enough as they are.” + +“How am I ever going to escape from Acquilla?” I said dejectedly, but +at this moment looking down, I perceived we were about five hundred +feet over the East River, which was spanned by a dozen great bridges at +least a quarter of a mile in width. + +“But aren’t those palms and cork trees below me?” I exclaimed, peering +over. + +“Yes. By the control of the Gulf Stream we have been able to procure a +temperate zone as far north along the Atlantic coast as Newfoundland. +It is middle Athena but the temperature is not below sixty.” + +“You have changed the course of the Gulf Stream! Then you have changed +history.” + +“No. Of course, the strategic position we have allows us to deflect the +stream after it leaves the Gulf. We divide it and send a part to the +coast of Greenland, which has developed an entirely new civilization.” + +“But how?” + +“Really I don’t know--it’s all engineering and I never could understand +mathematics.” + +“My darling Dianne, how refreshing to find a woman who doesn’t know +something! But you speak of Greenland as we did. Then countries have +retained their identities?” + +“Certainly. Women have a horror of uniformity and standardization. +Climate, we know, influences the types of human brains. We do +everything to preserve the genius of local areas. Internationally we +govern as little as possible.” + +“And here--is there such a thing as the United States left?” + +“There is a loose alliance, of course, but there are broad divisions +you did not have. There are four great states. Amazonia, which extends +from Florida to Baffin Bay and as far west as the Appalachians; Dixie, +which starts from Panama and goes to the Rockies; Illinois, which takes +in the great lakes and the midwestern basin, and California, which +takes in the whole western coast.” + +“But is there no conflict of interests there?” + +“What interests could divide us?” + +“Commercial interests?” + +“Each state produces what it is best fitted for. We have a supreme +council, it is true, that controls such vital matters as health, +climate, population and the distribution of energy, but in an age of +pure reason it is impossible that any injustice should be done.” + +“Still--” + +“Later you will understand. Our solidarity is the solidarity of the +whole human race. We are united in the pursuit of great scientific +achievements. Education has broken down the barriers of prejudices and +greeds. But what do you wish most to see? The hospitals, schools or +museums? I must take you somewhere, you know!” she added, glancing at +me with adorable mischief in her eyes. + +“There is just one thing I want to see above all others,” I exclaimed +instantly. “I want to see my fellow men.” + +“I was afraid you were going to ask that,” said Dianne, looking grave. + +“Do you realize that since I have been here I haven’t seen a single +man! Do you wonder at my curiosity? Where are they? When I try to open +the subject with Acquilla she always evades me. You at least will tell +me the truth.” + +Dianne hesitated a moment and then leaning forward, gave certain +directions to the machinot, who flew rapidly down Long Island. + +“It is a dangerous thing I am doing,” she said frowning. “Dangerous +perhaps for both of us. It will make Acquilla my enemy for life, but +since you ask, my darling, I can’t refuse.” + +“I know you have carried your subordination of my sex to the extent +of shutting them out of all public life. Do you also bring them up +in ignorance, that they have forgotten what they once were?” I asked +indignantly. + +“Oh no, it is only the personal contact and the public appearance that +is eliminated. They go to school and college--a television college, of +course. For those who have a natural talent the higher education is +open. But few avail themselves of the privilege. You will find, dear, a +great change in your fellow men. You must be prepared.” + +“But what do they do?” + +“Of course males are primarily developed as breeders, naturally.” + +“So they are segregated--in some sort of glorified seraglios, I +suppose.” + +“Segregated of course, but really, Jack dear, they are quite happy with +their existence and everything is done for their physical comforts.” + +“So that is the level to which they have sunk,” I said oppressed by the +prospect. + +“I realize now,” said Dianne, gazing at me with undisguised admiration, +“how changed men will seem to you. But if you find any trace of +dissatisfaction, it will be I who will be surprised. Look over there. +We are approaching the first of the Clubs.” + +“Clubs? Is that what you call these prisons?” I exclaimed, perceiving +an immense park surrounded by high walls. + +“Oh, the walls. They are really to protect the men.” + +We flew over the enclosure which was an immense tract about the size of +lower Manhattan with a dozen golf courses and two stadiums, in one of +which I observed the familiar sight of a gridiron with a football match +in progress. + +“Couldn’t we see the game?” I said eagerly, thrilling with the memories +of my college enthusiasms. + +“No. Impossible. Women are barred from the Clubs by an ancient +tradition. But we can stop and watch for a while.” + +The aeromat sank to a distance of five hundred feet above the ground +and remained poised by some gyroscopic device. Dianne handed me a +telescopic helmet which not only brought the whole scene to my eyes in +the minutest detail, but recorded the slightest sounds. + +“But these are women!” I exclaimed after one quick glance around at the +brightly colored togas which crowded the auditorium. + +“It is the colors that confuse you.” + +“But they have long hair.” + +“Men again.” + +I looked closer and observed that on one side of the arena the entire +section was occupied by men dressed in black. When I inquired of Dianne +she said: + +“Men take these contests very seriously, Jack, and defeat is considered +such a disgrace that the losing club goes into mourning until the stain +is wiped out by victory. This Spartan attitude on the part of their +supporters is believed to inflame the eleven with the spirit to win or +die. Of course, this is a development of sport since your day which +must be surprising to you.” + +I looked at Dianne from the corner of my eye, but evaded comment. Since +the experiment on the soles of her feet, I had begun to wonder if a +sense of humor were not beginning to develop. + +“But why don’t they begin to play?” I asked, observing the field +covered with a score of figures in conclave. + +“Why the teams aren’t yet on the field.” + +“But the--” + +“Oh those are the officials.” + +“Twenty-four officials!” + +“I confess, dear, that I am not familiar with the great masculine +sport,” said Dianne, “but I believe that such a vast body of +legislation has grown up about the game that not only each player has +to be watched by two officials, but each team has to be represented by +legal experts to argue on the interpretations which may arise.” + +“Then lawyers do exist!” I exclaimed. + +“The club community has nothing to do with the state,” said Dianne. +“Inside their walls, men are allowed to organize themselves as they see +fit. That’s why a great many atavistic customs have been retained. For +example, they say everything there is run by committees.” + +“I must visit the Club,” I exclaimed. + +“Impossible!” exclaimed Dianne, really alarmed, “and I beg of you, if +you love me, don’t ask anything of the kind. You must watch every step, +dear, for our happiness depends on your discretion. You have enemies, +determined enemies already--” + +Before I could reply the air was filled with a terrific din. I looked +down and observed the section of bright colors fluttering in a state of +the wildest hysteria. + +“The home team is arriving,” said Dianne. + +Through the portals at the north end I observed the irruption of a band +of Dionysian revellers performing the most curious revolutions, shaking +tambourines and leaping to great heights in the air. Behind with their +hands on each others’ shoulders the eleven and substitutes marched +in military formation. The appearance of the home team completed the +frenzy in the stands which burst into a triumphant paean under the +skillful guidance of a score of cheer leaders. + +Hardly had the pandemonium subsided than the turn of the visitors +came--but with what a difference! The sections of mourners rose and +stood with bared heads while the procession led by similarly black clad +figures with the colors furled and wrapped around in crepe entered +and approaching the home stands, passed with solemnly uplifted hands, +as the gladiators about to die before Caesar once saluted him. From +the adherents a funereal chant rose in barbaric acclaim. It needed no +effort of my memory to realize that the team was being expected to do +or die. I am not ashamed to confess, that the noble spectacle so moved +me that my eyes filled with tears and I had to turn my head lest +Dianne should surprise my emotion. + +“What magnificent specimens,” I exclaimed when I could master my voice. +“But they are giants compared to the others,” I added, for in general +the spectators I had observed, were small and effeminately slight, +whereas the players were Goliaths. + +“We breed the athletes solely for these spectacles,” said Dianne. “They +are really good for nothing else and we never mate them with the higher +castes.” + +“What’s happening now?” + +“The officials are searching the players, of course, before the game +begins.” + +These preliminaries were conducted with the minute fidelity of a police +force. Not only were the nose guards, head guards, neck protectors, +ear mufflers, shoulder, knee and elbow protectors searched for any +metallic substance, but the soles of the shoes were displayed against +the possibility of murderous spikes. That these precautions were +not unnecessary was evidenced by the storm of boos and groans which +accompanied the unmasking of several players, when the offenders were +on the opposing side. + +The game, though so extremely sanguinary as to require the constant +passage of the stretcher bearers, I found dull, due to the fact that +at every moment the officials inflicted a penalty which necessitated +lengthy discussions and so encumbered the field that it was impossible +to follow the play. From the frequent casualties I gathered that the +game had returned to first principles and that after the forcible +elimination of the star players the result as in my day would be left +to the multitude of substitutes. + +“Enough, dear?” said Dianne observing my restlessness. + +“Plenty. The game has been ruined by the legislators,” I replied. “And +to call such beings men makes me hot with anger!” + +“I knew how you would feel,” she said taking my hand and looking at +me affectionately. “And don’t regret that you can’t visit the Clubs. +Really, you would be bored to death. Don’t waste any sympathy over +their condition. They are a lazy indulged lot and not in the least +rebellious.” + +“But is no work required of them?” I asked frowning as we rose and flew +toward the south. + +“What work could they do that is not better done by machinery?” + +“Yet you said there were exceptions.” + +“True, but they live separately. Men in general are simply the +breeders who live a pampered existence from twenty to thirty-five.” + +“And then do you operate a sort of slaughter of the drones?” I asked +ironically. + +“Yes, of course. Oh, we do not exterminate them,” she added, observing +my start of horror. “We simply consign them to the Frigidrome with +the records of their get. Occasionally if the Eugenics board is not +satisfied with the strain in some particular caste, we restore the +strongest breeders for further service.” + +“Ended and cast off at the age of thirty-five!” I said bitterly, for +the degradation of my sex aroused in me the flame of revolt. + +I was silent, sunk in my black mood, nor could any of Dianne’s +enticements draw me out of my depression. I think it was then that +the call came to me to dedicate myself to the cause, as from the blue +a voice called to Joan of Arc to lead her country out of defeat and +despair. For suddenly I felt uplifted with a new revealing purpose. +Things should not continue as they were. I would not tamely witness the +humiliation of my brothers. What man had once been he should become +again. Then and there I dedicated myself to the cause. I would be the +John of Arc of my sex, even if the end too were martyrdom! + +“Jack dear--darling, what is it! You look so strange,” cried Dianne, +who had been watching my gloomy abstraction. + +I looked at her and was conscious that in that brief interval of time +something had changed between us. I loved her--my senses rioted under +the flame in her eyes, but I was no longer the irresponsible John +Bogardus of a moment ago. I belonged to the cause and the cause came +first. + +“Dianne, my beloved Dianne,” I said, taking her hand gently. “I must +tell you the truth.” + +“Oh, not that!” she cried, for love had awakened the eternal feminine, +“your eyes, your voice frighten me.” + +“You were right! If I could only have remained ignorant, how happy we +could have been,” I said sadly. “But now that I have seen,” I continued +with flashing eyes, “my whole nature protests against this slavery you +have placed on my sex. I shall never, never know a quiet moment until I +have changed all this!” + +“But you--what can you do?” said Dianne, looking at me in terror. + +“I do not know yet, but I do know that somehow, some day, I know it, I +feel it, Dianne, I shall be the instrument to deliver my brothers out +of their bondage!” + +“How your eyes shine,” said Dianne, clasping her hands and gazing +rapturously at me. “You are like a god in his wrath.” + +She flung her arms about me, holding me to her in the terror of her +passion. I tried to comfort her, felt a certain giddiness myself, and +firmly drew the lovely arms from my neck. + +“You will help me?” + +“You know I will,” she said, catching her breath. + +“No matter what happens?” + +“If you go into the Frigidrome, I shall go with you.” + +This time it was I who held out my arms and caught her to me. + +“Tell the machinot to fly to paradise,” I cried with a happy laugh. +And for the rest of the day suspended indolently above the clouds we +dismissed our fears and there was no further talk of politics. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Fortunately Acquilla had not yet returned from Europa. Before the +jealous eyes of Mag, we sought to conceal our happiness, foolishly +believing, as lovers will, that they can look on each other without +betraying the kindling in their glances. My head was still giddy with +the fantasy of this miraculous day with my bewildering Dianne, alone +in the clear ether, even the world shut out by the fleecy canopies +of the clouds beneath us. But the moment I had gone to my room the +sternness of my resolve returned. And a little guilty, like a neophyte +who has forgotten his vows, I consecrated myself anew, determined to +conquer my passion for Dianne, if it should begin to interfere with the +accomplishment of my purpose. + +When I descended to the bath, Mag was waiting for me with eyes red with +weeping. I determined to make sure of her loyalty, so laying my hand on +her shoulder, I said gently: + +“You are my friend, are you not, Mag? And you would never do me any +harm?” + +The poor girl was struck all in a heap. Her glance dropped before mine +and bursting into tears she vowed that never, never, would she betray +me! I rewarded her with a smile and a pat on the shoulder and descended +gratefully into this healing bath of all the senses. There I spent +some time turning over in my mind my future activities as a militant +suffragist. + +I had scarcely finished dressing when Acquilla returned. At the first +glance I saw all the anxiety which was torturing her imagination. +Acquilla was jealous as only a woman can be, to whom love comes late +in life. During her going to and fro she must have had time to turn +over the sudden appearance of Dianne, and the intuitions of a jealous +woman had led her to the correct solution that Dulcina had been used +as a blind to screen my true feelings for Dianne. But perceiving the +lugubriousness of my expression, she had a momentary flash of hope. +Perhaps we had quarreled! + +“Something is wrong, dear?” she said, holding me off and searching +anxiously in my face. + +“You are right,” I replied sternly, “something is wrong. But something +that cannot be dismissed in a word. If you please, we will wait until +after dinner.” + +“You are angry with me?” she exclaimed with such sharp suffering in her +voice, that, realizing all the torments of jealousy she must have been +suffering during the day, I could not resist a movement of sympathy. I +pressed her hand in mine and allowed a smile to soften the severity of +my look. + +“Not with you personally,” I replied, shaking my head. “But much will +depend on your attitude.” + +“You cannot tell me now?” + +“Wait.” + +She was devoured with anxiety during dinner, for she scarcely touched +her extracts, while I, on the contrary, after the fashion of men, +fortified myself copiously. But all at once the perplexity in her eyes +cleared and sitting up unexpectedly she cried: + +“Ah, I know, you have seen the Clubs!” + +“Your intuitions are right,” I said sternly to avoid explanations. “I +have seen that shameful prison you call a Club, I have seen what you +call men assembled in a football arena; and I have learned precisely +what humiliating positions they occupy in your state.” + +My anger brought back her calm. Since the contest was to be on +intellectual grounds she recovered her authority. + +“I suspected it,” she said acidly. “Dianne has done a wrong, a +dangerous thing. I myself would have guided you when the time was ripe. +But this premature introduction before you have a true conception of +what our civilization has accomplished has, as I foresaw, worked on +your sentimental nature.” + +I laughed an angry ironical laugh. + +“You call my reactions sentimental, indeed!” + +“Certainly. What do you object to? You have learned that men are +kept simply as breeders, privileged to be free of all care and +responsibility. And you are in a rage. Why? Is it because we have taken +from the male instinct the inhibitions that he rebelled against in your +day? Come, let us be frank! How many men you knew would have rebelled +against this existence they now enjoy?” + +“My dear Acquilla!” I started to say, then coughed and stopped. I +realized that I was meeting the adroit feminine mind and that above +everything I must keep cool and avoid being put on the defensive. I +rose, took a turn about the room and sat down. + +“Let us discuss it calmly,” I said, biting my lips. + +“Calmly.” + +“It is not simply that you have made specialists of my sex,” I said +with an attempt at irony, “but the cold-blooded way in which you carry +out your intentions!” + +“As for instance?” + +“You have gone a little further than the insects which you admire so +much. I suppose I should return thanks for that. But I do not. I have +now recognized that sentimentality plays no part in a woman’s nature. +But I was not prepared for the machine-like efficiency--” + +“What are you talking about, my dear man?” + +I stopped, composed myself, and blurted out: + +“Do you deny that at the age of thirty-five men are disposed of in a +sort of slaughter of the drones?” + +“Oh, I see,” said Acquilla. She looked at me with one of her irritating +smiles and replied, “But how did you treat my sex when you had a +man-made civilization?” + +“What? What?” + +“I asked you a simple question, dear. How did you treat my sex when you +had a man-made civilization? After thirty-five what was there in life +for the generality of women?” + +“Their homes, their children,” I answered pontifically. + +“The drudgery of the home, the servitude to their children. No, +Bogardus, at thirty-five or before when men were still young, women +were ended. They had lost their value as women and were esteemed +according to their value as nurses and housekeepers. The final cruelty +you inflicted on them was to let them grow old. We are much more +humane.” + +“You look on history as simply a war of the sexes?” I said hotly, for +the degradation of my sex as I successively comprehended it, made it +difficult to restrain my anger. + +“Of course. So long as civilization had to rise through physical force, +the male ascendency was inevitable. Granted. But the moment that +scientific discoveries did away with the necessity of multitudes for +cannon fodder and replaced blind hands by intelligent machines women +were freed from their need of your physical protection. In the last +phases of your civilization, though you did not perceive the underlying +conflict, were you not aware that economically, and in a measure +morally, the women you rated as the weaker sex were really the despots +of your existences?” + +Some curious trick of habit made me glance over my shoulder for the +shadow of my mother-in-law before replying: + +“When you say morally, I do not entirely agree. Economically, yes, +there is no doubt that the expenditure of women for luxuries was out +of all proportion. But allowing the past to lie,” I said, striving to +be diplomatic, “tell me, Acquilla, in your opinion, is this warfare of +the sexes, as you call it, to endure forever? Do you not in some future +state of society conceive of the possibility of men and women equally +intelligent living together in harmony? For, after all, without too +much vanity, do you not prefer to converse on equal terms as you have +with me, than to treat men simply as playthings of your passions?” + +“Possibly,” she said after a moment, “what you suggest is in the future +when we have completely achieved the freedom of the individual, but the +moment is not now.” + +“Why not? Men educated by women will be different,” I suggested. + +“That is not quite honest,” said Acquilla reprovingly. “The nature of +man cannot be changed in a few hundred years.” + +“Why not experiment? What is there to fear now that the age of reason +is so completely achieved?” + +“The passion for conquest. Even today, despite all our discoveries in +the field of Eugenics the male child’s first impulse is to wrestle +down his companions. What is the passion for sport you have just +witnessed--more intense than ever--but an evolution of the desire to +kill? You men seek to destroy your opponents not to play with them. You +make of your games battles. You hate those with whom you contend.” + +“That is an exaggeration,” I interrupted, and then stopped. “At least +in my day it was only when we were young, when in school and college +we were given an exaggerated idea of winning for the glorification +of a mass ideal. Besides, even then, we did not take ourselves too +seriously.” + +“Then why this hysterical frenzy you saw in the mob of spectators--a +frenzy like the blood lust of the Roman arena? No, no, dear man, put +away your pride and prejudices. They are out of place. You are a man +of the past with a singularly honest and reasoning brain, but don’t +deceive yourself. The nature of man is the same today as yesterday or +tomorrow. If we should listen to the sentimentalist and restore him to +equality in our civilization, the world would return to war within a +generation.” + +Was it true? I was silent, troubled, finding no conviction in my +self-interrogatory. + +Acquilla was too clever to pursue her advantage. She rose and coming to +me took my hand. + +“I wished to spare you all this, dear,” she said in a swift change of +mood. “My only thought was to lead you gradually to a perception of why +the great adventure on which we are embarked cannot now be entrusted to +a divided authority.” + +“Answer me this, Acquilla,” I said looking at her fixedly, “am I a free +agent or am I simply your prisoner, delightful as that sentence may be?” + +“That is a problem that is still to be decided by the Supreme Council,” +she replied. “A very perplexing problem. Whether you will be interned +or treated as a distinguished visitor depends on you, my dear. Now do +you understand all my solicitude?” + +The thought that I could play upon my hold over her to add a new ally, +occurred to me. I said in a conciliatory tone, though I must confess +with a certain pleasant provocation: + +“My lovely Amazon, don’t you see that it is just because I am unlike +your foolish males of today--that it is my intelligence which attracts +you.” + +“To be truthful,” she said looking at me boldly, “it is that, and a +good deal more than that.” + +I acknowledged the compliment with a smile. + +“Then to continue in a truthful mood, is it not the man of yesterday +that is the true mate of the woman of today?” + +“I can admit all that between us two, yes--and yet I can deny it in its +public application,” replied Acquilla with that annoying obstinacy of +cerebral women that destroys the necessary illusion in romance. + +“Still--” + +“Oh, foolish man, are you going to spoil everything with your eternal +consistency?” she added, devouring me with eyes that were awake with +passion. + +Consistency? No, certainly not! If I had been in love with her, I +should have flung consistency to the winds. But having Dianne in all my +veins, I replied, adroitly: + +“My charming Acquilla, I shall not pretend to be more obtuse than I +am. The time has come when we must understand each other. You also +must understand one thing: I am what I am--a man brought up in the +strictest traditions of the Dutch Reformed Church; proud of my name and +my ancestry. No Bogardus has ever temporized or yielded an inch to any +doctrine that would upset the sanctity of marriage--” + +To my astonishment Acquilla began to laugh. I cannot describe it as a +complete laugh, but it was undeniably a titter. + +“You yourself have taught me the use of irony,” she said noticing my +astonishment. “Really aren’t you a little ridiculous, dear?” she added, +passing her fingers through my hair. “Since marriage no longer exists, +what has the Dutch Reformed Church to do with us?” + +I put her hand firmly from me with as much dignity as I could muster +and suddenly inspired, said: + +“It means that I keep my standards as you keep yours. When I take my +mate it shall be for life. If you love me as your attitude implies--” + +“Love you! Yes, for the first time,” she cried breathlessly. + +“Stop!” I said, as a maiden might have interposed. “I ask no +confession, but understand this, Acquilla: no matter how dazzling your +position, I refuse to be yours for a day or month. Your past is not +my affair, but in the future there must be no other man. Your free +companion for life--never your plaything for an hour!” And as she stood +staring at me absolutely dumfounded, I added in the best dramatic +manner: “All or nothing!” + +With which I escaped for fear of spoiling my climax by an +uncontrollable gasp of laughter. I went to my room and stifled my +hysterical laughter as best I could. But all at once a thought +sobered me. Suppose, blinded by passion, she should agree? Here +was a predicament. I rose and went to the door to lock it. But of +course, in these modern days, bars and bolts did not exist. At last +in despair--for what was I in strength compared with this amazing +Amazon--I drew my bed across the door and lay down. + +Twice before I fell off to sleep, I heard her footsteps hesitating +outside, and once--though it might have been my imagination--I thought +someone pressed softly on the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +When I saw Acquilla the next morning, I was shocked by the restlessness +and fatigue in her eyes. + +“How did you sleep?” I asked maliciously. + +“Badly,” she snapped back, and until the end of breakfast not another +word did she volunteer. However, she continued to stare at me with +such a look of frustrated perplexity that if I had not been secretly +delighted with the success of my artifice, I should have been +embarrassed. As it was, I had trouble in concealing my elation, for my +thoughts were racing. If only a spark of the eternal feminine still +slumbered in Acquilla! What a day it would be for the cause! At the end +of breakfast, she said abruptly: + +“Did you mean what you said last night?” + +“All or nothing,” I repeated in a way to have excited the admiration of +the empress who had invented the phrase. + +Acquilla sprang up nervously and went inside. She was away for over an +hour and I was wondering if she meant to sulk through the day when she +returned, gentleness itself. + +“Explain to me about the Dutch Reformed Church,” she said anxiously, +taking my hand in both of hers and looking earnestly in my eyes. + +I was in the midst of a fervid eulogy on that bulwark of my ancestors, +when an aeromat poised above us and began to descend. I stopped with an +involuntary wavering of my voice. + +“Who do you think has come for you, Bogardus?” she said softly, but +with the intentness of a cat. + +The idea came to me that she had brought Dianne back to learn the truth +in a difficult confrontation. + +“Not Dianne again!” I said with as much indifference as I could command. + +“No--not Dianne,” she replied slowly, not entirely the dupe of my +manner, “nor Dulcina either. This time it is really Doctrina, the head +of the University.” But all at once her antagonism vanished and leaning +close to me, she said hurriedly: “She is the enemy of all males--and +oh, my dear, be careful! Consider every word you say. Beware of every +trap she may put you, for this afternoon you must appear before the +Supreme Council. I should not warn you, I know, but I cannot help it, +my beloved--” + +She drew back hastily as Doctrina approached. Whatever reliance, in +my new Casanovian fatuity, I might have put in the strength of my +newly revealed sex appeal, one glance at Doctrina rudely dispelled my +illusions. She marched up the lawn like a procession of one, nodded +to Acquilla and gave me the conventional embrace. But the peck on +my cheeks was more like a bite than a kiss. We disliked each other +intuitively, cordially and immediately. + +“Were you anyone of importance in your day?” she demanded, eyeing me +unfavorably. + +“Only in the Socratic sense,” I replied humbly. + +“I don’t seize the allusion.” + +“Socrates, you may remember, claimed he was the wisest of men because +he knew he knew nothing,” I replied, bowing. + +I thought this rather neat and disarming, but Doctrina was impermeable. +There was something Prussian in the massiveness of her jowl and the +lantern-like eyes that faced me down. + +“Well, perhaps even so we may learn something,” she said, turning to +Acquilla, who was preparing to depart to the aero hospital. + +“You will find him not only intelligent,” said Acquilla to give me a +hint, “but most appreciative of the progress we have made.” + +“Humph--we shall see,” replied Doctrina, turning on her heel and +gesturing to me to follow. + +I raised my eyebrows involuntarily at this abruptness, and caught +the agonized look of Acquilla fixed on me entreatingly. I nodded +encouragingly and followed my new cicerone, resolved to give her no +cause for complaint. After all when one belongs to a cause, discretion +is as necessary as courage. + +“What do you know about the position of children in our civilization?” +said Doctrina when we had risen. + +I felt as though I stood before an examining board. + +“I know that in the pursuit of the noblest object of human life, +the liberation of the individual,” I replied from memory, “you have +abolished marriage and the home!” + +“Well, go on,” said Doctrina in a noncommittal voice as I paused for +approval. + +“That in order to do away with the evil of motherhood and the clash of +the generations, the children are taken as soon as born and entrusted +to the state.” + +“So far, correct,” Doctrina said rather unwillingly, “but you forget--” + +“Oh, yes,” I interjected hastily, “the new science likewise frees the +child from the evils of the mother and father complex. We heard a good +deal about that too, in our day,” I added proudly. + +“Really? Then why didn’t you act upon it?” said Doctrina, in whom the +repressed mother-in-law instinct that must slumber in every woman, had +turned blood to acid. “Those archaic tribal institutions you clung +to--motherhood and the home, were responsible for all the inhibitions, +abnormalities, psychoneurotics that made you human beings slaves of +prejudices and fears.” + +I was seized with a hot indignation and a hasty retort was on my lips +at this blasphemy, but I remembered in time and controlled myself with +difficulty. + +“There were happy memories too,” I suggested. + +“All unnecessary. The child develops quicker when thrown on his own +initiative and subjected to the stimulation of competition with other +children. We will begin with the state nurseries and the primary +schools,” she added, pointing to a long wooded tract about the middle +of Long Island. + +We alighted on a great star-shaped campus, the administration hall +in the center with hospitals like great glass hangars at the apexes. +The new-born infants were being classified and registered according to +their caste, receiving a disk which indicated the strain of the mother +and father, for statistical purposes presumably. + +“The child is subjected to the first physical tests immediately,” said +Doctrina. “In the exceedingly rare instances where some unforeseen +conjunction of inherited strains has produced a defection, we of +course, do not permit it to grow up to a life of misery.” + +“You suppress it?” I said shuddering. + +“Of course,” said Doctrina noticing my emotion. “In your sentimental +day you preferred, in order to save your own sensibilities, to condemn +it to a tragic existence.” + +“You will be surprised to know that even in my day such a course had +its male adherents,” I replied defiantly. “But then even in your +scientific breeding, failures do result.” + +“Less than one hundredth of one percent,” replied Doctrina. “Strangely +enough, these throwbacks occur in the higher castes.” + +“When the intellectual conjunction is too strong?” + +“So it appears, for of course, with us the brain has become +tremendously developed. That is one reason why, in the case of the +male, we have found it advisable to perfect the physical vigor at the +expense of the mental.” + +I had all I could do not to betray myself at this insolence. As it was, +I could not help saying: “But tell me, why, Doctrina, you are so set +against the male?” + +“I was born in a time when the memory of the male catastrophe was still +fresh. I do not theorize. I know. Are you defending that era of tragic +futility?” + +“God forbid!” I hastened to reply. “I am only curious. But men of +genius, for I believe that genius still shows itself in my decadent +sex, are not then permitted to breed?” + +“On the contrary, but not to mate with those castes which have reached +a high degree of mentality. We find the best results come from a +union with the Cerenes particularly those that live habitually in the +mountains.” + +The hospitals though on a grander scale, I found in their material +arrangements much like our own, with the exception of course, of the +ingenuous devices by which light and air were continuously provided. +All the nurses were of the lithe physical type of Acquilla, though the +visiting doctors inclined to the brunette type, not over six feet, +and thinner. Two things struck my attention at once, the absence of +eyeglasses and operating rooms. Surgery, it appeared, had passed out +of general use with the knowledge of the glandular organization of +the body and was only reserved for accidents and the experimental +laboratories. The uniform good eyesight was achieved, first by +selective breeding and more particularly with the discovery of what +might be called ocular calisthenics, exercises by which the eye was +strengthened in youth. + +Needless to say, my appearance excited the greatest curiosity, for +the circumstances of my arrival had evidently been widely broadcast. +However, the prestige of Doctrina commanded such universal deference +that all curiosity was within the bounds of good manners. + +“The first stage,” said Doctrina, resuming her lecture as we passed +to the kindergarten, “is in the education of the mind how to study. +We discover the aptitude of each child and concentrate on the things +it likes to achieve the ideal of perfection. Later when the mind has +acquired the habit of concentration, we introduce those subjects which +are difficult to it. Needless to say, we consider this period the most +critical and the indications we discover as to the quality and fineness +of the mind are seldom in error. In other words by the age of five it +is possible to make the division of the castes with unfailing accuracy.” + +“Yet many great geniuses developed late.” + +“In your time yes, from faulty early training and also from the error +of subjecting an abnormal mind to a normal routine. In our practice we +are, of course, aided by the knowledge of the inherited tendencies. +Such children are the object of special attention.” + +“Then education is specialization.” + +“Not entirely. Only we have reversed the process. We begin, as I said, +by intensive training along lines of natural aptitude in order to +produce the enthusiasm for knowledge. Later sometimes as late as ten or +eleven, we broaden the horizon along the lines of general knowledge.” + +“At what period then, do you finish your education?” + +Doctrina looked at me in surprise. + +“Really, Bogardus, for the clever man you are supposed to be, that is a +strange question.” + +I did not perceive immediately the reason for her astonishment, so I +answered, somewhat piqued: + +“I do not see anything strange in my perfectly natural curiosity. In my +day we were graduated from college at twenty-two, and spent from two +to six years in supplementary schools if we chose the profession of +medicine or law or architecture.” + +“And then you were educated?” + +“And then we were educated, yes.” + +“In the higher castes we never cease to attend the University,” said +Doctrina crushingly. “As we conceive life as a pursuit of knowledge, we +naturally never cease our studies. Even Acquilla gives ten hours a week +to following the lectures of our greatest teachers.” + +“Is this true of all castes?” + +“Certainly not. Why should it be? How absurd! The education of +Domesticates is completed at the age of eight; the Cerenes have two +years longer, the Vulcates likewise, the Æsthetes at twelve.” + +“What! But you are talking of children!” + +“We have abbreviated the period of childhood. In your day you spent +half your life in the simplest preparation of how to live. With us the +age of puberty is the one of complete maturity and the end of primary +education. That,” she added acidly, “would be about the same as your +college matriculation.” + +“So childhood has gone too,” I was betrayed into exclaiming. + +“Not at all. We give a full five years to it.” + +“But, Doctrina,” I persisted, carried away with my resentment, “if +there is no maternal instinct left--” + +“I did not say that.” + +“But if the mother surrenders her child--” + +“These are the real mothers,” said Doctrina with a gesture that +embraced the entire organization. “Because a woman bore a child, +voluntarily or involuntarily, you ascribed to her maternal qualities. +Rubbish! Sentimentality! Bearing of children has nothing to do with +the maternal instinct! A woman is either egocentric or egofugal. In +your day how many women, genuine mothers, were forced to sit and starve +themselves in a lonely spinsterhood?” + +“It is true!” I exclaimed involuntarily, “and I say now as I said then, +that the cruelest thing our society did was to deny the right of every +woman who wanted, to have a child!” + +Doctrina looked at me with almost a human sympathy and continued in a +less bellicose tone: + +“That remark does you honor. Any woman who loves children and wishes +to find her happiness in their upbringing is privileged to enter this +sisterhood. For remark another thing, which the later psycho-analysts +recognized, the maternal instinct is not necessarily confined to one’s +own child, but goes out to all.” + +“Even to friends and husbands,” I added smiling. “All this is +undeniably true.” + +“More than this we recognize that in man too, this instinct exists and +we permit a teaching brotherhood.” + +“Here?” I said, looking about eagerly. + +“It is useless,” Doctrina said severely. “The monasteries which are +devoted to the care of the young males from five to ten are never +entered by an outsider except a Minervene of the highest academic rank. +You see,” she added, “that in the treatment of your sex, we strive +to live up to a standard of enlightened justice. What they crave we +supply--with certain limitations.” + +I opened my mouth to debate this ex-parte assertion, but again +refrained. My reticence had been rewarded by a friendlier attitude. +Until I had appeared before the Supreme Council and had some inkling of +the treatment to be accorded to me, I decided not to show my hand. + +“The Histriones and the Minervenes, being the superior intellectual +castes, never complete their education. But now since we have the time, +on the way to the University, we can stop at our Museum of Archeology.” + +At the Museum we found a sizable crowd--all women of course--about the +halls devoted to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My appearance, +needless to say, created such a disturbance among the younger elements +that Doctrina, I believe, seriously considered forcing me to take a +veil. Fortunately a few peremptory commands, delivered in her best +Prussian style, had the effect of clearing the halls. + +The Museum, I confess fascinated me, for in a glance I felt myself in +a cemetery of familiar things. The first thing I saw was full-sized +reproduction of a locomotive and a section of rail labelled: + + _PRIMITIVE METHOD OF CONVEYANCE_ + + ABOUT THE YEAR 1976 + +That the railroad had disappeared before the development of highways +and motor buses, I was prepared to believe, but not to find that the +automobile likewise was a thing of the past which was gone, with +the ship--all cumbersome and unnecessary in this age of amphibian +aeroplanes able to remain stationary at any height or to streak +across the sky with the speed of projectiles. There were life-size +reproductions of the customs and manners of our day, and I must admit, +in comparison with the ease and grace of the modern garment, that at +the sight of the incredible fashions which once afflicted the men of my +day, I had to acknowledge defeat. We had of course, but a moment before +we were forced to depart for the city, or rather the University of New +York. + +I found the University laid out on the star-shaped plan which was +evidently their favorite concentration. The avenues were fully a +hundred yards in width and the buildings on that monumental scale which +one sees only at St. Peter’s and the Vatican. In the centre of each +building was an immense dome-shaped theatre which I learned was used +for the reproduction in living pictures of the records of historical +events and astronomical and scientific phenomena. There were at least +a dozen of these star-shaped campuses extending over a great area and +surrounded by grouped quadrangles where the students lived. + +What struck me at once was the small number of students, not exceeding +a hundred to each separate college; the uniformity of the type and the +air of extreme seriousness in all their contacts. + +“Acquilla told me New York consisted of fifty thousand inhabitants,” I +said turning to Doctrina in surprise. “But from what I see, there are +only a tenth of that number.” + +“This represents only the higher University. The industrial city is +across the river and residential New York of course, extends a hundred +miles in every direction.” + +“And these students I see, what age can they possibly be?” + +“As a rule a girl enters here at the age of twelve and completes her +preliminary general education in two years, when she is allotted her +caste group number according to her capabilities. She then pursues her +higher studies for from five to ten years returning for six months +every fifth year until the age of thirty. At that time if she is of the +Minervene caste she is privileged to return for two hours a day for the +rest of her existence.” + +“The University then is not simply the political symbol of the state, +but its social centre as well?” + +“Exactly, and there are of course, according to her attainments, inner +circles to which she is privileged to enter. But I have promised to +bring you, Bogardus, to the Academy and we must not be late.” + +We had been flying gently over the ground as Doctrina had been +demonstrating the organization of the buildings and now came to light +near one of the charming groves of red woods which lay between the +points of the star. A score of magnificent trees fully one hundred and +fifty feet in height blotted out the warmth of the noonday sun and made +a Parnassian retreat. + +“How is it possible,” I exclaimed, “to produce such trees in less than +two centuries?” + +“Oh, there have been discoveries in horticulture that will surprise +you,” said Doctrina, enjoying my astonishment. “It is now just as easy +to stimulate the growth of a tree, as it is that of a human being. +These trees you see are not more than fifty years old. But that is +child’s play to what has been done. An acre of farmland now produces +five crops a year by the use of the new nitrates and intensified +cultivation under water. We’ll leave the car here.” + +We descended and walked toward the grove. My appearance as usual, +created a commotion and instantly the air above was clouded over by +hundreds of small aeroplanes which hovered over us like the migration +of birds. + +“Curious how excited people are over your coming,” said Doctrina, +acidly. “I suppose it is because you are over a hundred and fifty years +older than anyone who has yet come to us.” + +Strangely enough this thought had not yet impressed itself on me. +It was true! I was actually two hundred and eighty years old and in +comparison Acquilla with the bloom of her seventy-eight years, was a +mere child! I drew a long breath, stretched myself on the points of my +toes and was reassured by a feeling of extraordinary youth and vitality. + +“You are privileged, indeed, Bogardus,” said Doctrina, leading the way +in the grove, “for you are going to meet our great Manfreda and the +Supreme Council of Amazonia, an honor that never before has been given +to a man.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +The Supreme Council were seated in a semi-circle at the foot of a +magnificent redwood, nine in number, Acquilla’s seat being at one +end. At my approach they rose with a curiosity which showed in the +alacrity of their greeting, despite all their efforts at repression. I +felt no timidity. In fact it was with a certain confident pride that +I enjoyed this opportunity of presenting to the leaders of the new +matriarchal state, a not at all ill-formed example of the sex which for +four thousand years of authentic history had ruled the world. I had +of course, no way of estimating their age but their pleasing physical +appearance and apparent youth made it very easy to grasp each one +strongly by the hand and to look into her eyes with a touch of that +possessive masculine admiration which was instinctive in my day. My +manly appearance, the deep resonance of my voice, the male challenge in +my look and I believe, a certain magnetism in the handshake to which +they were not accustomed made a distinct impression. At least this was +my belief and I set it down in no spirit of conceit, but simply for its +significance as it affected surprising later developments. + +The introduction over, I took my seat opposite, and studied my +distinguished hosts with the same curiosity which they in turn bent on +me. In the centre sat the famous philosopher and law giver, Manfreda. +She seemed older than her associates, and like Doctrina had the look of +a man in the fifties, and this was true of Directa, the executive head +of the state. (I learned afterwards that their extreme absorption in +the matters of intellect had removed them from the pardonable vanities +of the flesh, just as formerly holy men of the east retired to fasting +and contemplation.) Outside of this triumvirate that dominated the +Amazon civilization by right of authority and achievement, the others +were finely cut variations of the prevailing blonde types, Amazons +with regular features, blue eyes and the lithe bodies of young males. +The composition of the council interested me; Germa representing +the sciences of research; Stella, astronomy; Acquilla, medicine in +its universal state; Electra, the laboratories and the sources of +energy; Candora, history and philosophy, while Dulcina sat as the +representative of the caste of the Histriones. + +I had hardly made these rapid observations when Manfreda with the +dignity of a supreme judge, turned to her associates: + +“In order not to confuse Bogardus, if it is your pleasure, I shall put +to him the general questions which I know are in all our minds. At a +later day, each may interrogate him according to her special field.” +She turned to me. “You of course, Bogardus, realize the importance +of your discovery to us. Until your arrival, the principle of the +Frigidrome preservation of life was ascribed to Coperta in 2085. Will +you give us as completely as possible the account of your revolutionary +experience.” + +I repeated the details I had already supplied to Acquilla, who at the +end of my recital, remarked: + +“Though the crude use of hypnotism to produce a cataleptic stage is +decidedly archaic in this day when the glandular relationships are +better understood, there is no question that the principle of the +Frigidrome must be ascribed to Sachaloff, and I have already taken +steps to do justice to his discovery.” + +“There can be no question of that,” said Manfreda while the others +nodded acquiescence. “And now to the purpose of our inquiry. The great +world conflict which took place at the end of the twentieth century, +Bogardus, was of such devastating character, that the records of +previous civilization were blotted out in great measure. You can supply +us not only with much valuable historical detail, but can give us +an intimate judgment on the questions which interest us profoundly. +You lived at the close of the great era of materialism when the male +mechanico-civilization finally suppressed all individualism under a +standardized collectivism.” + +“I am a little bewildered,” I said tentatively, “we spoke of +standardization it is true, but in my day there was no such suppression +of that individualism of which you speak.” + +“Bogardus is speaking of 1929,” said Candora, interrupting. “The spread +of standardization into the industrial domination of the state must +have just been perceptible.” + +“You speak of things I did not witness,” I replied, more and more +confused. “To aid me in my recital, would it be possible to tell me +briefly just what happened in the fifty years after my disappearance. +For at that time, far from seeking war, the peoples of the world had +not only founded a League of Nations, but had agreed on a general +reduction of armaments.” + +Candora, at a signal from Manfreda, rose. + +“True. After 1919 there was a general revolt against war as visualized +by armaments. But the industrial conflict remained more intense than +ever. War in the last analysis is the correction for over-population, +as over-population is the cause of war. While the progress in hygiene +and the control of disease increased enormously the population, the +production of automatic machinery continually diminished the need of +man power. What was bound to happen? It became a competition for the +survival of the economically fittest nation. What was this but a war +of attrition and starvation? In order to compete internationally the +nations of the world were forced to change their political structure. +They became great business exporting corporations. The trusts were +reestablished, merged and formed one gigantic trust. This may interest +you.” + +“In fact I am listening, Candora,” I exclaimed, “and yet all this was +prophesied.” + +“By prophets without honor in their own countries,” explained Candora, +smiling. + +“Exactly, but how was all this accomplished?” + +“By 1955, there were four great trusts. The Steel Trust had absorbed +all its dependents, the railroads, the automobile, the construction +trusts, the harvester and the cement trust. Second the Mercantile +Trust, had absorbed the food trust and the chain stores. The Power +Trust had absorbed the chemical trust and the electric trust. Finally +the Money Trust had been formed from the banking trust with its chain +branches and the investment trusts. In the second step the Money Trust +absorbed all other trusts and produced the economy of one selling +office for the entire nation.” + +“But was not the effect beneficial?” + +“Momentarily, yes. The industry of the entire country was financed from +a central bank and distributed from a unified distributing system.” + +“Then the principle of the department store finally dominated?” + +“Exactly. You went to the same distributing centre for eggs or a +thousand tons of steel, a suit of clothes or a 520,000 horse power +dynamo. In a way the industrial apotheosis was sound and you will see +that we have retained its essential quality.” + +“But then why did it fail?” + +“Because in your hands it was for the purpose of conquest and +subjection of other nations. You men, Bogardus, were extremely +illogical beings. You erected your civilization on the survival of the +fittest and yet you did nothing to apply that principle internally. +The Spartans are the only example of a logical civilization for they +did expose their weaklings to die. So when the whole world was in the +grip of an economic war, you continued to breed instead of applying +the scientific principle of depopulation. But men have always been +unscientific breeders. It was only when women assumed direction of the +state that the problem could be treated from the standpoint of the +nation.” + +“Candora, I have heard a great deal in criticism of my sex since my +arrival here,” I interjected irritated beyond measure, “and a great +deal of talk about the abuse of over-population. I am willing to +admit the admirable results of the decimation of the inhabitants of +the earth. I gladly, even enthusiastically, admit that you, in your +restoration of the world to the individual have corrected the dreadful +mass tyranny to which we men had condemned society. I likewise admire +the way you breed to perfected types. But,” here I turned to my +auditors, “is it not justice to admit that in order to have lifted man +from the brute to the gods, it was necessary first to multiply? If +mankind had simply reproduced itself like the elephant, man would be as +extinct today as the dodo. I am not defending war today, but without +war would there have been any civilization? When men multiplied rapidly +they began to move over mountains and across the seas and to do so, +they had to invent and to invent is to progress. Therefore, at least +admit that only the male instinct to breed could have raised us to the +civilization of the twentieth century. Remember that I am speaking in +defence of my embattled sex.” + +There was a murmur of approbation, rather grudgingly given, it seemed +to me, but Germa, Stella and Dulcina, who represented the new radical +school of thought, beamed on me enthusiastically. Candora, however, +showed a strong atavistic tendency to be irritated by contradiction. +She hesitated and finally said: + +“As an historian, it would be idle for me to deny the truth of what you +state. But in a way it only proves my contention; the male state was +instinctive and traditional. You were committed to one principle and +could not rise above it.” + +“Let us leave till later what--after all, must be a philosophical +discussion,” I said, well pleased with the effect I had produced. “Let +me continue my questions.” + +“Well, what?” said Candora, not relishing the turn, while Acquilla +looked at me anxiously. + +“You speak of the formation of great industrial oligarchies and their +final absorption into one great national industry--then we did come to +socialism?” + +“Not at all, socialism preached the equality of men and the industrial +state was founded on a recognition of their inequalities. Socialism +is international and this on the contrary, was pure chauvinism; the +standardization of all activities for the better crushing out of +foreign competition.” + +“But was there no revolt?” + +“No, because men had become so standardized in their thinking and +habits that individualism could only exist among the leaders.” + +“But the press--” + +“The printed newspapers?” + +“Yes.” + +“They were bought up with the magazines and the radio trust in a +central control under the Mercantile Trust which in turn disappeared +with the arrival of the newspaper of the air.” + +“But if America was able to organize itself with such scientific +concentration, why did it fail?” + +“Because fatuously believing in pacific ideals, it did not protect +itself. Equally fatuously you believed that you could impoverish +other nations by economical pressure without their having recourse +to primitive methods of retaliation. That is what happened. Europe, +unable to meet the competition of America, founded first the central +state of Europe, and by means of the Electronoid ray discovered in the +laboratories of Europa, obliterated American civilization, prior to the +subjugation of Asia. These, Bogardus, are what are known as the world +wars.” + +Candora, at a nod from Manfreda, resumed her seat. Several of the +council strained forward as though to question me, but Manfreda with a +slight peremptory gesture of her uplifted fingers, enforced silence. + +“Bogardus,” she began, in her ever dispassionate voice, “you have heard +of the reasons which culminated in the final world catastrophe, and the +end of the male civilization. Later on you will be given an opportunity +to study it in more detail. Now, if you are ready, I should like to put +to you some questions of a general nature.” + +I bowed and glanced around the semi-circle, noting at once, a whispered +consultation to my left. All at once Stella spoke: + +“Manfreda, without desiring in any way to influence the witness, does +it not seem only fair that he should be informed of the real purpose of +this inquiry?” + +“I regard the interruption as unfortunate,” said Manfreda, acidly, “and +designed only to affect the impartiality of the testimony.” + +“Permit me, in the interests of justice, to record my objection with +Stella’s,” said Dulcina. + +Though I did not then grasp the full import of the dissension, I was +not without certain suspicions. + +“Would it not be better if I were represented by counsel?” I said, +ironically. + +This question seemed to perplex my auditors. + +“By counsel? What do you mean, Bogardus?” said Manfreda. + +“In my day,” I answered facetiously, “when a board of inquiry was held +to discover the truth, each witness always appeared with one or more +lawyers who advised him when to refuse to answer.” + +“But if the object was to discover the truth, what right had he to +refuse to answer?” + +“For fear of incriminating himself.” + +“But if he were guilty?” + +“He could not be proved guilty unless the board had equally good +lawyers--and all traditions were scrupulously observed.” + +“If I may remark,” said Doctrina, who had been fidgetting, “Bogardus +is speaking of a time when the curiously archaic jury system existed +and judges were regarded as presiding legal hosts. It is well to +remember that in those days of male-made justice, that it was necessary +to convince every one of twelve jurors to procure a verdict. If one +disagreed the accused was acquitted.” + +“Oh, more than that,” I added, “he was entitled to consider himself as +publicly vindicated. I gladly surrender to your jury system, Doctrina.” + +My admission evidently created a most favorable impression, for +Manfreda, stilling the chorus of surprised interjections, said in a +more cordial voice: + +“Bogardus, you are so clearly a man of intelligence and observation, +that I feel it is only a recognition of your manifested open-mindedness +to inform you of the underlying purpose of this inquiry. There has +risen lately among certain of the younger group, a school of radicals +which is urging the social and political re-establishment of man. I, +myself, have no part in such sentimentalism, but in this council, this +new issue is represented by Germa, Stella and Dulcina.” + +“I thank you for the warning,” I replied instantly, “and though my +male instinct will naturally desire to do full justice to a departed +society, I assure you that everything I have seen here has filled +me with such amazement and admiration that I would be incapable of +distorting the facts as I have known them.” + +Dulcina and Stella smiled on me with a personal pride as though I were +an excellent exponent of their political opinions, and Manfreda, after +a moment’s deliberation, said: + +“We, of course, are anxious to have your personal testimony as to the +success or failure of the institutions you knew. You were a democracy. +You believed that all men were free and equal. The phrase of Lincoln +was government of the people, by the people and for the people! High +ideals if sentimental ones. Actually how were you governed?” + +I had intended to be an honest witness, but this first question threw +me into perplexity. I found myself seeking in my imagination for +ingenuous excuses. + +“At that time,” I said by way of preface, “it is only fair to state +that a large part of the population was of recent immigration, that +there were no fixed classes and that the object of everyone was to rise +in the social scale by prospering financially. Also,” I added shrewdly, +“you must remember that women shared the suffrage.” + +“Shared, yes, but they did not control it,” put in Candora. + +“To be honest, I must confess that we were badly governed, but no worse +than the people deserved.” + +“Why, Bogardus?” + +“Because--well, because a large proportion of the people were +indifferent to how they were governed. In many cases only a small +fraction of the electorate took the trouble to vote. In our big cities +despite occasional revolts, we were in the hands of political machines +who fattened on their opportunities of selling offices and privileges. +In some cases, they were in direct alliance with criminals.” + +“Was this state of affairs generally known?” + +“So well known that the public was quite indifferent as to which side +robbed them.” + +“But what maintained such organizations?” + +“A sentiment called party loyalty.” + +“The traditional way of looking at things, Bogardus?” interrupted +Doctrina. + +I realized the purpose of the remark but I could not deny it. + +“But outside their cities which, of course, suffered from the evils of +over-population, in the general country, what was the state of law and +order?” + +I could not but admit that as respecting the observance of law, I had +no defence to offer. + +“However,” I hastened to add, “it is only fair to remark that in +1929 we were in a transitional stage. New experiments in government +and new authorities in social and religious forms had to be worked +out and if the surface indications were chaotic, I believe it was +simply the ferment that accompanies the rise of new standards and the +re-establishing of authority.” + +“In a way you are right,” said Manfreda, nodding, “for the age of +standardization that followed was at least a return to discipline. But +I am anxious to know what was the position of the university in all +this?” + +“Again I must plead that the universities too, were in a transitional +stage,” I said frowning, for I feared this question. + +“In what way?” + +“They were passing through a period of great material building; +providing for the future, by the laying down of great laboratories and +recitation halls; expanding their housing and the income available for +their faculties.” + +“This is the explanation. What were the facts?” + +“With the notable exceptions of the technical schools, the universities +were intent on raising the standards of the mass.” + +“But if you admit democracy as a principle of civilization, Bogardus, +this would seem a natural and laudable object. You hesitate. Is it +possible that the mass did not respond?” + +“I cannot truthfully claim that the average college student of my day +was occupied with the pursuit of knowledge. A college experience was +regarded as a school for character. It was a sort of social melting +pot which at the time certainly had a certain value. A man who was an +outstanding figure in his class--” + +“As a remarkable student, Bogardus?” said Doctrina, maliciously. + +“Well, no. A man who excelled in running and jumping, or in the control +of round balls, whether baseball or golf or tennis or football, or +a man who had certain natural social gifts, undoubtedly profited by +these attainments in college by making certain restricted groups called +societies or clubs and in after life by the friendships thus formed +with powerful elements in society.” + +“But those in control of the universities, for you must have had men +of pre-eminent intellectual abilities on your faculties, did they look +with favor on such a distortion of values?” + +“Individually no. Collectively they acquiesced in the program of +material expansion which tolerated this system in order to use it.” + +“Use it? In what way?” + +“By the bequests of millions of dollars which they received by an +adroit appeal to the emotional quality of loyalty to the Alma Mater.” + +My exposition was received, I could see, with profound astonishment. + +“But then in general, the university as you say was really a school +for character with certain resemblances to the gymnasium and the +gladiatorial arena.” + +“Of course, certain elements did pursue the acquisition of knowledge +as their prime object,” I hastened to add, feeling that I had drawn +too dark a picture, “and in later life they did rise to intellectual +prominence and received recognition.” + +“In what way?” + +“By the conferring of honorary degrees and sometimes by the belated +recognition of a class dinner--twenty years later.” + +“Let us pass to another subject,” said Manfreda, after a significant +glance at Stella and Dulcina, who were manifestly depressed. “We are +curious to know at first hand, something of the institution of marriage +as practiced in its last phases.” + +“Ask and I will endeavor to answer.” + +“Is it true, Bogardus, that in your day when a man and a woman lived +together under the institution which you called marriage, that they +were compelled to promise to live together and remain faithful to each +other for life?” + +I shifted from foot to foot before making a reply. + +“You are well informed, Manfreda. That is true.” + +“But if that is so, how was it possible for them to divorce later? For +if I am right, divorce as an institution, began about this time to have +equal popularity.” + +“The marriage ceremony,” I replied, after a moment’s deliberation, +“was, of course, a survival of ancient times. It had a certain +ceremonial picturesqueness. It was taken symbolically, like the account +of the creation in the Old Testament.” + +“But this mutual promise was symbolic of what?” + +“Well,” I resumed, beginning to flounder, “for instance, the expression +‘Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder’ was undoubtedly +a relic of that time when the belief was that marriages were made in +heaven.” + +“Did you believe that?” + +Looking backward, truth compelled me to answer: + +“No.” + +“Did many others believe that?” + +“A few--well, perhaps many. In my day, many politicians still believed +in Jonah and the whale.” + +“I see. But if the promise was made, how could it be broken?” + +“Legally--as far as the state was concerned--for infidelity, for +excessive cruelty, for failure to support. As a religious ceremony, to +divorce and remain in the church was more difficult, but certain cases +were recognized as permitting annulment.” + +“Then if the divorce was granted, how was the guilty party punished? A +prison sentence, or social ostracism?” + +“I am bound to admit that with the exception of a certain annoying +financial penalty called alimony, that there was no loss of standing.” + +“And the guilty party could remarry?” + +“Yes.” + +“And repeat the same promise?” + +“That is so.” + +“But why didn’t you change this obsolete ceremony to an agreement to +live together until each desired to part?” interjected Candora. + +“What you suggest is undoubtedly relevant, Candora,” I returned. “But +you forget that we were living under old institutions, and that the +maintenance of the home was the object of the church and the state.” + +“Why?” + +“Because the more children the greater the strength of the church and +the state.” + +“Always the same error,” said Manfreda, turning to the council. “You +see how man’s mistaken obsession for population enslaved the individual +and forced him to archaic tyrannies that were not above the level of +the early tribal state. And now, Bogardus, in those marriages which +did not terminate in divorce, would you say that in practice a larger +percent were happy?” + +“Let me preface my answer,” I replied, “it is easy to pick out the +shortcomings and failures of marriage as you have done. Most writers +and philosophers of my time did so. There was no other institution +that was so widely and continuously discussed with a sincere desire to +find a solution. I perceive now, since my arrival here, that we lived +in a sentimental age. Undoubtedly you have eliminated the greater +part of the suffering and hardships to which we were subjected. But +in our time, the union of man and woman was not a eugenic episode, +but an emotional urge. If it ended too often in disillusionment, it +had its compensations and to experience the height of a passion, we +were willing to take the consequences. We called it youth, and youth I +perceive has been abolished, along with middle age.” + +Stella and Dulcina’s eyes shone on me with such brilliance that, +encouraged, I continued: + +“It is easy indeed, Manfreda, to criticize and you will admit that I +have not sought to avoid your criticisms, though each one has been +designed to force me to condemn my sex. Very well, I admit as you +want me to do, that we lived in a chaotic state of society, that our +ideals were for the most part materialistic, that our democracy was +usually a complaisant indifference to the rule of plunderers, and that +mediocrities led us rather than supermen. This is true. But it was +also an age of liberation that produced a ferment of rebellion against +traditions. We were not smugly contented but dared to question our +gods. We applied a new searching scientific method to every relation +in life. We were explorers, rebels. Because an idea was new, we wished +to try it out even if we suffered for it. We men conquered the air +and the depths of the sea, we dared to seek the riddles of life, of +space and of eternity. We produced exceptional minds to do this. If +in our political society, we lacked pre-eminent leaders, at least +this is what we accomplished. We gave to the masses an opportunity to +enjoy life, such as kings in the middle ages had never possessed. We +no sooner invented, than we adapted the invention to the mass. What +great emperor before the year 1820, ever lived in a palace, lighted by +electricity, heated mechanically, was able to move at a hundred miles +an hour, had the world’s journal brought before his eyes each day, and +listened to great artists, great orchestras and famous men and women +at great distances. Yet, that is what the age you call materialistic +did for those who formerly would have lived in poverty and dirt, in +unsanitary hovels, who used to eat meat once a week, if at all, never +touched butter and were tied to the spot where they were born. Isn’t +this to the credit of man?” + +Several of the council sprung up to respond, agitated by the heat of +my defence but Manfreda silenced them and without departing from the +philosophic calm of her even tone said: + +“All this is true if we admit that the object of civilization is to +produce multitudes and to raise the level of a low average. That, +Bogardus, is not our conception. We stand for the selection of the +fittest, not the multiplication of a cheap article which your democracy +did, in men as in machines. But to answer you. It is true your time +saw a marvelous advance in science, but to what did you apply the +noblest creations of the scientific imagination? Every new discovery +was immediately put to the perfecting of the art of destruction. The +railroads became the arteries of military communication. The automobile +followed them and produced the dreadful juggernaut of the armored tank. +You mastered the wisdom of the fishes to do what--to make war more +horrible on the sea. You conquered the secret of the birds in order +to destroy whole country sides from the air. Your scientists evolved +high explosives, poison gases, your mathematicians calculated the +trajectory of projectiles that could bombard cities fifty miles distant +and range-finding devices to locate unseen enemies. The telephone, +the telegraph, the camera all became part of this perfected military +organization. You discovered the principle of wireless transmission +of energy to direct torpedos in the water and aeroplanes to bombard +from the sky. Even your artists were enlisted. Your musicians wrote +military marches, or glorified war and heroes in their symphonies. Your +painters not only invented camouflage but exalted the conqueror in +historic decorations. I can admit all that you record of the fertility +of an inventive age and answer that your genuises were but the servants +of man’s brutal conception of war as the sum of all talents and all +energies within a state.” + +At this moment the air was filled with the pleasant sound of chimes. +Manfreda rose and advancing towards me said: + +“Enough for today. You have an open mind, Bogardus. Keep it open and +judge our civilization fairly, having known the old. I am certain the +result will bring small comfort to those sentimentalists who today +would have us imperil all that we have achieved, by the dangerous +doctrine that men should be restored to equality with women.” + +Whatever the result of my first encounter with Manfreda, it was evident +to me from the flattering expressions I received, that the spectacle of +a mere man, stating his contentions with lucidity and inspiration, had +made a marked impression on my hearers. + +Acquilla pressed my arm with a new tenderness as we departed but I was +surprised to notice on her forehead a foreboding frown. + +“You have created a profound effect, Bogardus,” she said, when we were +alone, “too profound I’m afraid. Be on your guard and don’t let your +enthusiasms lead you into an imprudence. Remember this is a woman’s +world and sentiment plays no part in it. What I can do I shall do to +preserve your liberty of action,” she added in a tender tone, “but you +must do nothing to make it difficult.” + +Had I realized then the import of her fears, my pardonable elation +would have been chilled indeed. + +“When shall I really know how men live under this civilization?” I +asked eagerly. + +“This evening,” Acquilla answered, “I shall take you to the Promenade +of the Males, but before that, I shall give you a great sensation.” + +“Where now?” + +“We are going to the great Astrodrome in the Berkshire valley.” Acquilla +took up the telephone and gave the order to the machinot. Instantly +the aeroplane turned towards the northeast and shot off at a speed of +a thousand miles an hour; yet so easy was the motion that only the +slipping by of the landscape below betrayed our vertiginous pace. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +I was prepared of course, to find a great observatory far surpassing +our feeble edifices, but accustomed as I was now to the stupendous, I +could not resist an exclamation of amazement. Below us in the pleasant +valley of the Housatonic was what I at first took to be batteries of +gigantic siege guns on immense concrete emplacements. + +“They must be telescopes of course,” I said recovering from my +stupefaction. “But if you were to tell me that the war of the worlds +was imminent and that you were preparing against an invasion of the +Martians--I could easily believe you.” + +“Always thinking in terms of war! How like a man!” said Acquilla, +but with the affectionate superiority that in my day the husband was +gratified to show his wife. “As you surmised they are great telescopes, +at least seventy in number, but as you will see, they are also immense +inter-stellar radio receiving stations as well as transmitters.” + +“You have communicated with Mars!” I exclaimed, flushing with +excitement. + +“Mars? That would be pastime for children, but wait and learn for +yourself.” + +We began to settle gently on the great common and despite every +intention to repress my amazement, I remained gazing open-mouthed. Seen +from below, the mammoth proportions of these cupolas and stretching +barrels, dwarfed the imagination. Several of the telescopes were +two to three thousand feet in length, so grim, so formidable and so +menacing in their confrontation of the firmament above, that were +they instruments of destruction I could well imagine them capable of +blotting out the moon in a single terrific blast. + +We approached the principal observatory which was so vast that St. +Peter’s might have formed an ante-room. + +“When you enter here,” said Acquilla, “enter in reverence. To us, it is +a temple in which lie the illimitable mysteries of what the human mind +can achieve.” + +I saw her eyes lit with visions and her cheeks suffused with emotion. +I, myself, felt the contagion and with quickened pulses, followed +her into the great dome of what I found to be the central recording +station. Around the great hall were written in letters of gold, six +feet high, the famous prophecy of Manfreda: + + WHATEVER WOMAN CAN CONCEIVE IN HER + IMAGINATION SHE WILL ACHIEVE BY HER WILL + +While I was still lost in the immensity of the cathedral spaces, Stella +approached. She embraced me, but in a more restrained manner than +that to which by now, I had become accustomed. In type she of course, +resembled the blonde litheness of Acquilla, but with a more ascetic +maturity in her expression. + +“You come in good time, Bogardus,” she exclaimed. “For you will +witness a sight no one in your day could ever have dreamed of--the +most magnificent spectacle in creation--the explosion of a sun twenty +thousand light years away.” + +“Good heavens, where?” I exclaimed, looking about me hastily. + +“Oh, there is no hurry,” said Stella, smiling at my excitement. “We +have a good three quarters of an hour ahead of us.” + +“But how can you tell?” I cried staring at her incredulously. + +“Oh, the breaking up of a solar system is an every day spectacle with +us.” + +“Explain to Bogardus first,” said Acquilla, “how greatly we have +extended our vision of the known astral world since his day.” + +“But first explain,” I objected, “why there are so many observatories. +Why more than one? Acquilla tells me there are at least seventy.” + +“Seventy-three and there ought to be twenty times that number,” replied +Acquilla shaking her head. “You see, Bogardus, with the immense range +of the modern telescope which the discovery of the high-magnification +of inter-stellar radioactivity has brought us, the field of sight has +become so vast that one of these great telescopes can cover no more +than the space occupied by our sun in the firmament. It is true that +with the great stations in Europe and Asia, not to speak of ours in +Arizona and the West, over three thousand telescopes are concentrated +on a minute observation of the stars--but what an inadequate patch that +represents!” + +“Then how many stars are in your vision now?” + +“There is no mathematical figure that can give any adequate estimate,” +said Stella. “Roughly speaking, there are a hundred million stars of +a size greater than our own sun which we can place under accurate +observation and see as clearly as you saw Mars.” + +“And you can measure the distances?” + +“Certainly, but the computation is so intricate, that it requires ten +years steady application of our finest mathematicians.” + +“Why? Some new theory of relativity?” I said, brightening up. + +“Oh, all the old parallaxes were wrong,” replied Stella. “The Einstein +theories which seemed so revolutionary in your day have all had to +be adjusted to the new theory of Ir-relativity--yes, a truly complex +computation.” + +“Can it be expressed in any words that will give us a glimpse at least +of its character?” said Acquilla curiously. + +“Quite impossible! The simplest computation and I cite it to you to +show you how intricate the whole problem has to be--is one you can +perhaps understand. If an electric stream transverse another of equal +strength so as to bisect it perpendicularly, the arrestation of the +speed of the bisector can be nicely calculated. But if you vary the +relative potency of the two streams and the angle of the crossing you +naturally must have different variations.” + +“Oh, naturally,” I replied drawing a long breath. + +“That is simple, isn’t it?” + +“All theories are simple, if you don’t try to understand them,” I said +gravely. + +“Well, would you believe that is only the abc’s of the problem. We +know now that space is a great electric sea, of which the currents are +formed by myriads of light rays, crossing and recrossing, impinging +on each other, causing countless intricate refractions and deviations. +It is to bring order into these formerly undivided factors--the +unsuspected, seemingly irrelative factors, that we have had to +promulgate our new theory. The Einstein theory was founded on new +principles of relativity, the new theory is, of course, based on the +discovery that nothing in creation is irrelative to the consideration +of the properties of an apparent mass. When you realize, Bogardus, that +the rays from the star Abacadabrun must traverse the paths of hundreds +of thousands of planets’ streams--but you are perhaps a mathematician?” + +“Thank God, no!” I exclaimed holding my head. “My dear Stella, show +me everything, but for heaven’s sake don’t, don’t, I beg you, try to +explain anything!” + +“Thanks, Bogardus, my head is reeling too,” said Acquilla, and to my +amazement, she began to laugh. + +Stella noticed it and gazed at her in alarm. + +“Acquilla you are in pain!” + +“No, no, it is nothing,” said Acquilla hastily, making me a sign to be +silent. “I never could understand mathematics, anyhow. But now Stella, +leaving us outside the higher knowledge, explain to Bogardus the +organization of your plant.” + +Stella, abandoning the subject rather reluctantly, drew my attention +to a great number of doors leading to a hundred receiving rooms in each +of which one could follow on a circular glass plate the observations of +the different telescopes (these observations were likewise radioed to +the receiving sets in the home theatres). Whenever it was desirable to +concentrate on some unusual phenomena, the moving picture record was +placed in the great magnifiers underneath the floor and the projection +thrown on the top of the dome above our heads. + +“But you will see for yourself,” said Stella breaking off. “We have +just time--” + +At this moment, like the voice of the call boy in the theatre, a +mechanical voice cried: + +“Ten minutes before the explosion!” + +“Place yourself here,” said Stella, indicating one of several inclined +couches and throwing herself down on one. “To give you some idea of +what you are witnessing, I have arranged an interesting visualization. +Here is the star as it appears to the naked eye.” + +I gazed up eagerly as a complete night shut out all outlines of the +hall. + +“Where?” + +“Watch in the centre of the cupola above you.” + +“I see nothing.” + +“Not even a pin prick of light?” + +“Yes, perhaps.” + +“Now watch it grow as we magnify it.” + +The little dot of light grew into a perceptible twinkle, became a ball +of fire, expanded with alarming rapidity until I shrank from it in +alarm as though it were going to burst over me. + +“There,” said Stella when on the surface of the cupola appeared a +luminous whirling molten mass almost the size of a football, revolving +with staggering velocity. “We are now about to witness the gestation +of a new solar system. And remember this happened twenty thousand +years--light years--ago. Look!” + +All at once the spinning mass threw off a number of flaming particles +which slowly proceeded in different directions leaving the main mass +reduced at least a half in diameter. + +“But why is the speed so gradual?” I exclaimed, rather disappointed. + +“Gradual! Have you forgotten the distance we are looking across and +that the slightest fraction of space traversed has to be reckoned in +hundreds of thousands of miles?” + +“True, I forgot,” I said humbly. “But then, Stella, you can follow the +whole process to the final stabilization of a new solar system.” + +“Certainly. Within a day the minor satellites will be arrested in +their flight. Before a week is over the whole new gravital balance will +be accomplished.” + +“Wonderful! What good luck to have seen it!” + +“Oh, but this is an hourly spectacle in infinity, if our telescopes +only knew where to find them.” + +“I could remain spellbound--” + +“You have seen all in principle,” said Stella, flooding the room with +light. “Yes, the first time you see it, it is tremendously impressive. +Think, Bogardus, that we can now trace the whole creation of a world +from the first solar paroxysm to the beginnings of an atmosphere, to +the arrival of planets and the beginnings of vertebrate existence.” + +“But that is a process that covers billions of years.” + +“And there are billions of solar systems in infinity, Bogardus, all +in different stages of growth or decay. Think of the achievements of +astronomy that lie ahead of us, when we have adequate facilities for +observation. When I think what another age may know!” added Stella, +shaking her head impotently. + +“It would be amusing to show him life on some nearby planet,” suggested +Acquilla. + +“Then other worlds are inhabited!” I exclaimed. + +“Every world has been at some time inhabited but with various forms +of life. But to understand the infinite complexities of nature you +must understand this. It was only the vanity of man” (she pronounced +the word with the accent of Acquilla’s superior disdain) “that +could conceive of intelligent life only in his own image. There are +worlds where the inhabitants resemble us, but there are myriads of +civilizations, perhaps at a much greater development than ours, where +the dominant vertebrates are plainly of birdlike characteristics, or +insects, or, various curious strains of fauna.” + +“Insects--creating an intelligent world, thinking, conversing, +imagining?” I cried incredulously. + +“Why not? The determination of the dominant vertebrate in any world is +largely a conjunction of accidents, in the first sanguinary struggles +for existence. Yes, indeed, the insect worlds are of an astonishing +degree of intelligence. You will be surprised to know that Neptune is +inhabited by a race plainly derived from an insect ancestry.” + +“But an insect--how feeble!” + +“Bogardus, think a moment. The common flea or the grasshopper, has +relatively a vastly superior muscular strength than man. And when you +have insects ten times the size of a woman!” + +“Show me at once and don’t tantalize me with your explanations,” I +exclaimed feverishly. + +“Here then, is a typical Neptunian community of today,” said Stella, +leading the way into a small hall and signalling for a reel. “You see +the type has some resemblance to the dragon fly, or the winged ant that +we know. It is a true matriarchal state from the beginning, and for +that reason has probably developed so rapidly. You speak of insects. +Imagine woman twenty feet tall, equipped with wings and not two hands +and feet but eight. Imagine the strength imparted and the power of +locomotion that we cannot possess!” + +It was true, the Neptunians were of undoubted insect characteristics +and as Stella had so proudly proclaimed, of a true matriarchal +civilization. For I observed that, as in the ant colonies in this +world, the male workers were rooted to the soil, while the female of a +surpassing loveliness of gay colors and slender bodies had that gift of +soaring, which we fondly dream of for ourselves in an angelic state. +Presently I perceived an army of toiling ape-like laborers. + +“What are these strange slave-like figures that are laboring on that +great pyramid?” I asked in wonder. + +“Speaking in terms of ourselves, they are undoubtedly an arrested +development of ape or if you please, human beings. The pyramid you +speak of is undoubtedly a great telescopic emplacement, immeasurably +greater than any we have achieved. Now, look as we explore the country. +You will see any number of these pyramidical structures. Some are for +astronomical observations and others are for radio transmission.” + +“We are then in communication with Neptune and Mars?” + +“Oh, for fifty years, we have been signalling back and forth. When the +interstellar radiophone is an accomplished fact, as it is a proved +theory for radios, and has the speed of light, we may in a hundred or +five hundred years be able to receive messages that are passing us +every instant of our day.” + +“Nothing surprises me any longer,” I said bravely. “But if you can +perceive each other, why cannot you communicate intelligently?” + +“It is, of course, an insect language, and there is the difficulty. +When we shall have learned the basis of insect communication here, we +shall have taken a great step forward. We have already over a hundred +of our great scientists engaged in this study. It is possible that this +language is based on a musical vibration.” + +“What other strange civilizations are in the wonders of your +firmament?” I asked eagerly. + +“There are over a hundred known planets, where the great bird +civilizations flourish. If I had time, I could show you an example, +for in beauty of color and form, nothing excels them. There are worlds +where the feline or the canine is supreme and of course, backward +civilizations where huge mammals live in crude organizations.” Stella +stopped and gazed at me a moment. “Really, Bogardus, to see your +wonder and enthusiasm is like a tonic to one who like myself is daily +oppressed by the limitations we struggle against. If it seems to you +we have accomplished miracles since your day, why should we doubt +the genius that is imagination in woman, to conquer the seemingly +impossible?” + +“Great heavens, what is there left!” I cried involuntarily. + +“What is there left?” said Stella sadly. “What, rather, have we +accomplished? We can see, we may soon hear from planet to planet. +But what shall we see and hear? Civilizations, that were, but are no +longer. The thing that depresses us, is the tragically slow speed +of light. Will any force yet undreamed of be discovered that can +outdistance the beam that can only crawl through space at 184,000 miles +a second? Will it ever be possible with all our knowledge, to visit +other worlds, or must we remain eternally rooted here? And the problem +of life itself? What a stupefying mystery, akin to infinity! We know +that it can be prolonged immeasurably. Is the conquest of immortality +possible? Have other worlds solved it? And you stand amazed, Bogardus, +before the little veil we have lifted for you.” + +The great scientist seemed to have forgotten our presence as she stood +immersed in the terrifying consideration of these mysteries. + +Acquilla signed to me and we moved away, unnoticed. + +“She may remain hours in her abstraction,” she whispered to me. “What a +mind! What an imagination!” + +“Can we visit some of the observatories? I should like to see the great +telescope in operation.” + +“We shall return often, though the daily records are available to +us at home. However, instead of visiting personally the different +plants, which would be fatiguing, we can see everything we wish from a +television hall.” + +We entered a cabinet, similar to the one in which I had lunched with +Dianne at Acquilla’s house and installed ourselves. But at the first +interior of a great cupola with its cyclopian telescopic eye, I cried: + +“But there is a man!” + +“Of course. There are hundreds of them employed in the higher +mathematics and problems of intricate research.” + +“A man!” I repeated sadly. + +What I saw before me was a creature with a magnificent head it is true, +but the body of a frail child of eight or nine. + +“I see what surprises you,” said Acquilla quickly. “But you must not +judge by appearances. Really, though it has taken us generations, we +have at last bred the true mathematical type. They have none of those +physical appetites or deviations, that afflict us, Bogardus. They are +intellectual Buddhas, the ascetic-saints of science. They live in their +visions, in a world of their own.” + +“I prefer the slaves of the Neptunian insects,” I exclaimed +indignantly, “at least they could roam in the outer air. But these +deformed dwarfs are nothing but inhuman calculating machines.” + +“Wait and see them in their monasteries,” said Acquilla, changing the +view. + +I saw then hundreds of gnomes in a long, low building--a monastery +in fact; moving about the great esplanade gesticulating in animated +conversation, smoking pipes, playing chess or pitching quoits with all +the appearance, I must confess, of complete satisfaction. + +“Do they look as though they were abused? Now honestly.” + +“No--but I should like to assure myself of that by talking to them.” + +“Quite impossible,” said Acquilla formally. “I should not dream of +intruding myself. As for you--you would bring nothing but disorder in +their well regulated existence.” + +“They are indeed slaves,” I repeated bitterly. + +“So am I, in a sense,” said Acquilla. “Are you going back to the +sentimentalities of the Declaration of Independence? Freedom? Nonsense! +We have bred them scientifically to accomplish intricate and necessary +things and skillfully atrophied the unnecessary glands, so that they +find their happiness in their work. To receive the work you are best +fitted for and to find your happiness in your work--if that is not +Paradise, what is, Bogardus?” + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +“I dislike arguing with a woman,” I said. + +“And I with you, Bogardus dear, if it makes you cross,” she said, +changing her tone immediately. “Now we must return, if we are to be in +time for the Promenade of the Young Males.” + +I looked at her suspiciously. + +“I perceive the devilish ingenuity of the contrast you are planning to +offer me.” + +“Well, what of it--if it convinces you!” + +I took my seat in our aeromat with a feeling of complete mental +exhaustion. One cannot experience such marvels as I had witnessed, +without a limp revulsion. We rose and streaked toward the south, I too +weary to resist, as Acquilla boldly put her arm about my waist and +drawing my head toward her, pillowed it on her firm shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The Promenade of the Young Males was again a spectacle for which I was +totally unprepared. + +The spot itself was of a sylvan beauty that recalled the Elysian +fields with its shaded groves and soft greensward. Under the trees +were hundreds of marble seats grouped according to the castes where +the women as spectators had taken their posts of observation. I sought +feverishly for my lovely Dianne but in vain. Following Acquilla, I took +my place among the Minervenes and eagerly looked out at last upon my +fellow men. + +For a moment, I could not believe my eyes. Groups of young men in +twos and threes were sauntering through the sylvan avenues, with a +rhythmical Andalusian swaying of their hips, glancing with timid +provocation over their long plumed fans, at the Amazons who gazed +down upon them with an estimating curiosity. I heard around me a buzz +of comments, which I must confess, reminded me strangely of certain +memories of club windows fronting on Fifth Avenue. + +“A fine neck and shoulders.” + +“The one, the third to the left, is a darling.” + +“What a charming figure!” + +“You can have him! Too athletic, but the boy over there is like a Greek +god.” + +A Greek god! The expression in a flash made comprehensible to me the +metamorphosis. I remembered that every young girl, somewhere in her +life, had a Greek god as her ideal and now when the secrets of eugenics +were in their hands, what more natural, than that they should breed to +that ideal? + +Just as among the Amazons, I had noted three variations, the blond +Greek, the dark Latin and the heavy intellectual Prussian, so I found +the males were bred for two distinct varieties. There was a graceful +Olympian type resembling the decadent period of Greek sculpture; lithe +and delicately turned, rounded and dimpled, the hair curled above the +forehead and piled high as in the famous Apollo Belvedere. In strong +contrast the second type had brown dusky skins and glossy black hair +brushed straight back. Slender and languorous in their movements, +they had the slanted seductive eyes which recalled to me a certain +predominant type of moving picture hero popular in my day. These +last carried small lutes of an agreeable tinkling sound with which +they accompanied their soft crooning voices. Their flowing tunics, +Attic in feeling, but with a touch of the licentiousness of the later +Directoire, were in multi-colored gossamer materials of an astonishing +richness that revealed the flowing lines of the graceful young bodies +beneath. + +Several of the blonds, in fact exceeded the bounds of good taste in +the arrogant display of their soft shoulders and backs, with a curious +fluttering divided skirt which too boldly revealed the length of +their shapely legs. I noted with a growing repulsion, that not only +were these young debutants manifestly painted and powdered, but that +generally they had adopted ridiculously high heels to increase their +stature which I estimated at no more than five feet six. + +“I am waiting for your comments, Bogardus,” said Acquilla gently. “Your +face is flushed and you are positively scowling. What angers you now?” + +My face must have betrayed my extreme dejection! In truth, my courage +all but failed me then and there. What possible hope was there that I +alone against all the forces of a determined and relentless matriarchy, +could regenerate such a degenerate and decadent sex? But I did not wish +Acquilla to suspect my true thoughts. + +“As if you did not know very well,” I answered. “What other feeling +except scorn and repulsion could I have, in seeing my fellow men +reduced to this artificial slavery and parading like prospective +concubines in the humiliation of a slave mart!” + +“What do you specially object to?” + +“I object to everything, their unmanly mincings and veiled +provocations. Good God! To think that my sex has descended to the arts +of decadent courtesans, to paint and perfume, to insidious advertising +of their physical charms, to giggling and smirking. If you did not +affirm it, I should refuse to believe these theatrical voluptuous +figures were men.” + +“Yet, if they were women, nothing would astonish you?” + +I caught myself, frowned, blurted out: + +“Well, no. Of course not.” + +“You see, Bogardus, you make the mistake that men made for centuries, +in believing that woman’s nature was different from man’s. All that you +have observed in this curious display is only acquired characteristics +and the acquired characteristics of the sex whose primary function is +to attract the stronger. Once it was woman, now it is man.” + +“I am forced to believe it,” I said gloomily. + +“And to be fair, if it were possible to revive the process, wouldn’t +I be just as indignant, if you were taking me to one of your assembly +balls?” + +“I should like to drive them out with whips and scorpions,” I said, +evading an answer. + +“On the contrary, they are really quite charming--for a week or so. Nor +is it fair to believe that what annoys you now is the result of our +suppression. The young fops of decadent Greece and Rome, I imagine, +would have excited your puritanical scorn just as much. It may be +painful to you, Bogardus--but it is better to face the truth. Is it +from such that you would attempt a movement for social equality?” + +Carried away with my resentment, I did an impulsive and rash thing. + +“Which would you prefer, Acquilla?” I said looking her boldly in the +eyes. “One of these decadent Roman demigods you have created or a man +like myself?” + +“For a week or for a year?” said Acquilla, smiling. + +“As a woman, any time!” I said insistently and the desire to avenge +myself on the humiliation of my sex was so strong, that I threw into my +voice, my look and the touch of my hand, all the animal magnetism that +my male instinct could summon. + +Acquilla’s glance unlike Dianne’s, never fell. On the contrary, a +quick feline light gleamed in her eyes as she looked at me. + +“You, of course,” she said tensely, to my dismay. “Being what I am, you +on your own terms, you all my life! And just as frankly, dear man, if +it were a question of a hundred men like you to be let loose among our +society, I should cast my vote at once for extermination.” + +A shudder passed over me. To be loved by Acquilla, was like being loved +by a coldly reasoning tigress. I regretted instantly the dangerous +provocation I had given and uneasily changed the subject. + +“Now that I am reconciled to realities,” I said, with a touch of +sarcasm, “I am anxious to understand more fully your customs. What is +the object of this parade?” + +“What was the object of the introduction of your daughters to society?” +replied Acquilla. “Daughters to marry--men to mate! The principle is +the same, only I think we are franker, because we have done away with +inhibitions. Those you see with the white plumed fans are the debutants +of the first year. They do not mate immediately with the maidens of +their age, but are apprenticed to the Histriones for their sentimental +education. Those with the scarlet fans are of the second year.” + +“Yes, they have a look of men of the world,” I said with a sarcasm that +was of course, lost on Acquilla. + +At this moment, there was a perceptible stir of curiosity among the +languidly circulating males, a sudden chime of bells in the air and the +irruption of hundreds of young maidens, which I can only describe as +the scrambling rush of the stags at a ball. These young Dianas, dressed +in short tunics that stopped short of the knee, advanced eagerly and +posting themselves at points of vantage, stared appraisingly at the +fluttering males, with a boldness that Don Juan himself might have +envied. + +The debutants of the first year, I observed, pretended an indifference +which their furtive glances belied, as they endeavored by careless +and seemingly haphazard meetings to attract their attention. But the +superior Dianas (I had almost written “the young bucks,” so completely +did their impertinent inspection suggest the manners of the highborn +oglers of other days) indifferent to these timorous advances, had eyes +only for their more experienced brothers. The white fans, as though +conscious of their inferiority, gradually drifted away to the grove of +the Histriones. + +I beheld then, the curious sight of hundreds of couples moving +languidly with the woman’s arms around the man, her head bent in +solicitous courtship. + +“Are these women virgins?” I asked. + +“Oh, absolutely,” said Acquilla. “We permit no intercourse until a +woman has borne her female child. These first unions are serious and +endure for six months, during which time the male resides in the +seclusion of the woman’s home.” + +“In a solitary seraglio?” + +“Naturally. What you see is only the first of the promenades. They +continue every week for several months during the period of courtship, +before the final engagements are concluded.” + +“Then the men have a freedom of choice?” + +“Theoretically, yes, but they seldom exercise that right.” + +“But supposing several women desire the same man?” + +“That often happens, but the priority is determined by the eugenics +board according to their qualifications.” + +“But doesn’t this arouse fierce jealousies?” + +“Why, one man is like another. Besides, it’s a question of waiting.” + +“One question,” I persisted, “I comprehend that in this age of reason, +you have done away with sentiment. But have you so completely dominated +the emotions that these mating comradeships do not sometimes develop +into what we called the passion of love? And what then?” + +“In the young, it is quite true that violent attractions take place,” +said Acquilla. “But as we know that such infatuations are immoral, we +limit the duration of the attachment to six months.” + +“Immoral?” I said, looking at her fixedly. “How am I to understand +that?” + +“What do you mean?” said Acquilla perceiving, I think, her slip. + +I saw my opportunity and seized it. + +“Six months!” I exclaimed indignantly. “A plaything for six months! So +that is all you have had in mind. Now I know your real intentions.” + +“A particular case has nothing to do with a general law,” said Acquilla +with her genius for easy evasion. “Besides, such a case as yours has yet +to be determined. Trust me, my dear one. I shall know how to protect +us.” + +My glance dropped before the ardor of her look. + +“But how can passion under your society ever be immoral?” I asked. + +“Morality is order, and immorality disorder. Anything that takes +away from a woman the control over her faculties is of the quality +of disorder and therefore immoral. The moment the relationship +exceeds the bounds of her self-control, a woman passes into a state +of emotional servitude and ceases to think honestly. Of course, in +your day, you used marriage as a moral umbrella, forgetting that in +the majority of cases, marriage either became a physical slavery or +worse, and where hatred had risen, contrary to the natural selective +principles of nature and therefore doubly immoral.” + +“All this is marvelously if incredibly reasoned, Acquilla,” I said, +“but since you admit that the passions do flame out, how do you treat +them?” + +“With the exception of the Histriones, where for the purposes of art +we encourage a certain emotional latitude to produce that contact with +suffering which the artist we know must experience; the cases you refer +to, are rare. The remedy is of course, simple. All emotions have a +physical or glandular origin so that a short period of treatment in the +hospital corrects the malady.” + +It was on the tip of my tongue to recommend to her an immediate +treatment, but I conquered my sense of humor. Our relations had now +reached so critical a point that I realized they would bear no further +provocation. So I said smiling: “But if the woman doesn’t want to be +cured?” + +“You forget,” said Acquilla, with a gesture to the assembly, “that men +such as you see there, can have only a physical appeal. In the rare +case where an accidental intelligence may complicate the emotional +problem, and this has only happened to the Histriones, there is a +choice. We cannot, in the name of morality, permit the continuance +of a relationship which has degenerated into a disorganization of +the senses, but we do permit the unfortunate couple the right to be +translated together through the Frigidrome into another existence.” + +“Wait.” I stopped and took her hand genuinely moved. “Do I understand, +my dear Acquilla, that you are prepared to take this voyage into time +with me?” + +“If there is no other way out--yes,” she said tremulously. + +“But if I could show you another way?” I said, pressing her arm in my +eagerness. + +In that heroic moment, I was ready to sacrifice Dianne for Acquilla. + +“What way, dear?” she asked startled. + +“Help me to restore men to their former dignity and rights. Make them +your mates and not simply breeders.” + +“Never!” she cried, drawing her hand instantly away from me. “Betray +my beliefs--never! I shall sacrifice myself but never my civilization! +Understand that once and for all, Bogardus!” + +“Incorruptible one!” I murmured in involuntary admiration. +“Incorruptible as Robespierre,” I added to myself, “and just as +implacable.” + +“You will find as a matter of fact,” Acquilla added after a moment’s +reflection, “that we are always guided by the strictest sense of +justice. Our acquired scientific wisdom has laid down certain +inviolable rules of conduct. If an individual refuses to conform we +don’t avenge ourselves by any cruel or unusual method of punishment, we +simply remove him to another civilization.” + +“Nothing could be more just, oh, Solomon,” I admitted enthusiastically, +“and you put to shame our archaic penal system where a man was not even +permitted the right to take his own life.” + +“Bear always in mind, dear,” said Acquilla with an approving nod, “that +man’s logic always reasoned from traditions, whereas we women reason +from the immediate necessity. Your brain was a deductive one, ours is +always inductive. It is that power of divination, of sensing first +what ought to be, that has produced the great feminine discoveries in +science.” + +During the conversation, I had become increasingly aware of the +disturbance that my presence was creating. Groups of maidens passed +and repassed, gazing at me with undisguised curiosity and admiration, +until becoming bolder they remained in a whispering group gazing up at +me. Whether a certain license was permitted at these affairs or whether +Acquilla was moved by a sense of pride in a coveted possession, she +made no effort to dispel these inquisitive groupings. I sustained this +persistent admiration with as indifferent a countenance as possible +until I noticed that the attraction I exerted was arousing the evident +displeasure of the young males, who from their furious glances and +mutterings seemed to regard my presence as an unwarranted intrusion. +This attitude became so noticeable that I said hastily to Acquilla: + +“My dear Acquilla, though a man of a certain vanity, I am unfortunately +afflicted with a little modesty and as, after all, I am not on parade, +couldn’t we leave the field to its rightful possessors?” + +Acquilla rose and offering her arm drew me through the crowd which in +response to a peremptory gesture, immediately dissolved and left us +free. We passed thus, through this curiously inverted throng of lovers +and arrived at the grove of the Histriones, where unfortunately my +presence created an even greater disturbance. Dulcina and Carrilla came +hurriedly forward and embraced me with a warmth that was noticeably +displeasing to Acquilla. + +I searched feverishly for my lovely Dianne and discovered her at +length, in a farther group, devouring me with her ardent gaze. She +laid her fingers on her lips, to signal to me to be patient, and I +understood that, fearful of betraying her passion before Acquilla, she +preferred to remain in the background. + +The young males of the first year, were at this moment performing a +ballet with the evident intention of attracting the attention of the +most famous of the Histriones, and truth compels me to admit that in +the grace of their flying movement, they surpassed any ballet that I +had previously witnessed. The attention of the charming Histriones, +which had been fixed on the _premiers danseurs_, was quite naturally +diverted to me. The result was disastrous. The entire chorus, aware +of the sudden relaxation in the attention of the audience, stopped, +began to whisper and abruptly abandoned the scene. Before I could +make my apologies for this regrettable interruption, a messenger +approached Acquilla and summoned her to what I learned afterwards, was +a suddenly convoked meeting of the Supreme Council. To leave me with +the Histriones was extremely distasteful, but the summons being of a +peremptory nature, she was forced to make the best of it. + +Hardly had she disappeared, when Dianne seized my hand, and drawing me +out of the crowd, led me into a shady grotto. + +“I have only a moment to warn you,” she said hastily, “but the Council +has been convoked on your account.” + +“On mine?” I exclaimed, with a feeling of uneasiness. + +“You see, your position here is an irregular one. You are of course, +a man and subject to all the regulations, but you are enjoying the +freedom that we permit only to our own sex. The young males are +furious, naturally.” + +“At last--” I exclaimed triumphantly. “Am I to be incarcerated then?” + +“Don’t worry, my beloved,” said Dianne, putting her arm around my neck +and looking at me with glowing eyes, “and forgive me if I’m a good deal +in what is about to happen to you. For I can stand anything, rather +than the thought of your being alone day and night with Acquilla. You +will have to enter the Club for a short while, but by entering it, +you will acquire a freedom of action that you never could have had as +Acquilla’s prisoner.” + +“You will take me out yourself, oh, Dianne!” I exclaimed, divining the +whole stratagem in her amorous glances. + +“You have always the right to refuse,” said the bewitching creature, +drawing near me. + +My answer was to fold her into my arms and gather her to me with a +passion that obliterated all consciousness. All at once I felt a +shudder pass through her soft body, and with a cry of alarm she sprang +from me. I looked up. Acquilla, with blazing eyes, was staring at us. + +“I might have guessed your stratagem, treacherous Histrione,” she cried +bitterly. “Very well, the responsibility is on your head! Good-bye, +Bogardus!” + +Before we could stammer an excuse, she turned abruptly on her heel and +went off with a final menacing gesture. The next moment the officials +appeared and signified to me the decision of the Supreme Council. + +“Courage, my beloved,” said Dianne, clasping me to her a last time. +“Acquilla is a terrible enemy, but I too, have great influence. Only do +be careful at the Club. Be patient until your friends can organize in +your support. I’ll get you out as soon as I can.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +In the company of my two Amazon guides, I passed through the buzzing +crowd to a sort of official Black Maria which in this case was nothing +more or less than an aerial taxi. On our journey I attempted to extract +some information of my destination and probable length of stay. Despite +the usual bureaucratic lack of information, I did gather that the +Club to which I was being taken was a junior organization where the +young males on their first introduction into society were segregated +and carefully instructed in the arts and graces of conduct. My first +uneasiness gave place to a growing curiosity. Knowing that crimes of +violence were outlawed I ceased to fear my reception among my own +sex, confident that in a short contact I could dissipate the first +unfavorable impression. I had not, in fact, any carefully matured plan +but I was determined now that the opportunity had presented itself, to +awake in my decadent and helpless brothers a sentiment of the glory +that had been stripped from them. I set it down to my credit that, +strong as was the fascination that Dianne exercised over me, the +feeling of sex solidarity in me was so imperious that I was determined +to stop before neither threats nor reprisals. + +We alighted before a massive iron gate, fully forty feet in height, +that broke the grim monotony of the towering walls. Evidently apprised +of my intended arrival, a venerable proctor (in appearance sixty years +of age though undoubtedly much older) was waiting to greet me. Once +beyond the walls we entered a little two-seated scooter which traversed +the grounds with astonishing lightness and speed and arrived at the +home of my Nestorian companion, who evidently was a sort of super head +master. + +“It is better for you to pass the first night under my roof,” he said +when we had alighted, “until the feeling against you shall have abated +somewhat.” + +“Really? I should think that the only sentiment would be curiosity. How +have I offended?” + +“This year’s debutants are a vain and silly lot and they have been made +unruly by this talk of social equality that is in the air.” + +“Then I gather you do not believe in male suffrage,” I said, gazing at +him in surprise. + +“This is a woman’s world,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “Man’s +place is in the Club.” + +I broke out laughing with the same result. Men too in this advanced +age were totally deprived of humor. Suddenly I stopped struck by an +inspiration. To begin the revolt of the males, I must teach them to +laugh! + +The young debutants began to return in a state of great excitement. +Within half an hour, there were fully two hundred gathered in a +clamoring group outside. What they wanted was, of course, a view of me. +Nestor, with a caution to remain within, stepped outside the door and +was addressing the ring leaders in a peremptory tone, when, moved by an +impulse of disdain for these effeminate slender striplings, I sprang +out boldly, and raising my hand aloft in the best oratorical manner +cried: + +“Hello, Twenty-Second Century!” + +This salutation delivered with perfect good humor and confidence caught +that animal curiosity which is instinct in the crowd. The first ranks +stopped and stared. Profiting by the moment, I put Nestor behind me +with a commanding gesture and advancing boldly among them, said: + +“You are not a bit more curious to know what men were in my day than I +am to know you and your ways. Gentlemen, I am delighted to be with you. +And if anyone here thinks that it was with any pleasure that I have +suffered myself to be dragged about and exhibited like a tamed animal, +let him undeceive himself. Or if you think I am sent here by any +complaints of yours, you are wrong again. I am here because the female +powers that be, regard me as a menace to the society they have imposed +on you. As I shall probably be deported within forty-eight hours to +another century, make the most of this opportunity to find out how and +why men ruled the world when men were giants!” + +This speech which I personally thought rather bombastic, had a +triumphant result. My appeal to the curiosity of the male (which women +have always insisted on) turned the irritation of the crowd into one of +the friendliest eagerness. By nightfall I can truly say that I was the +most popular man in the Club. I wisely postponed any attempt to stir +my fellow men to revolt until I had taken time to acquaint myself with +their point of view, their habits and their inhibitions. + +At first I admit to a certain discouragement as I realized the full +strength of the inertia that ease and idleness had developed in them. + +The young males had been rendered so pampered and indolent that at +first I found it impossible to arouse them to any shame of the life +of luxury and indulgence in which they were steeped. Outside of +the gladiators (who were like a sex apart) the young male of the +twenty-second century was a vain and slothful creature of the harem. +Due, no doubt, to the multiplication of automatic machinery and the +use of the aeroplane, I doubt if any of them could have walked a brisk +five miles without needing resuscitation. On the other hand, all their +physical education was directed towards the terpsichorean arts, in +which they excelled for grace of movement and lightness of poise. + +Their mental education I discovered went scarcely between the three +R’s, reading, writing and arithmetic and their reading consisted in +as feverish an application to detective literature as would have +distinguished a statesman in my time. They rose late in the morning +and spent a greater part of the day in the bath with solicitous +applications for the softening of their skins, which were of an +extraordinary velvety texture. The oiling, perfuming and curling +of their hair occupied another two hours, after which they trained +themselves in the intricate choreographic steps which they would later +display to delight the eyes of the stronger sex. The habit of gambling +was a mania with them and even in their baths which were of a Roman +splendor, they were continually throwing dice in a dozen different and +extremely intricate games. At night they remained until the small hours +engrossed in their cards in a game which was a strange development of +poker and contract bridge. + +When I attempted to arouse them from their torpor of indulgence by +recitals of the exploits of the male heroes of other days, citing the +explorers who with adventurous courage had braved the Arctic colds, +dared the terrors of the deep, or first laid their perilous courses +across the uncharted sky, I found that the very idea of such dangers +appalled their imaginations. The invariable response was that it was a +woman’s world and some frankly proclaimed that the revolt I was urging, +meant nothing but exchanging a pleasant life of sheltered ease for +tasks of effort and responsibility. + +I was, I admit, in despair of any success, when fortunately I +discovered a small group whose racial characteristics marked them as +descendants of the Irish Isles. Knowing the strong instinct of that +rebellious race to any and all existing forms of government, I worked +upon this strain and found to my delight a responsive enthusiasm. + +It was then that my first inspiration returned to my memory. I +determined to begin at the beginning of all revolts, by teaching +these supernaturally sober-faced descendants the art of laughing. +Applying the same physical methods I had used in the home of Acquilla, +I succeeded in a few days in completely changing the character of +the community. No sooner had they been instructed into the manly art +of laughter than they began to seek by all manner of practical jokes +a means for giving vent to these new emotions. From morning to night +the Club was filled with boisterous outbursts and I became at last an +acknowledged leader. + +I now developed their newly discovered sense of humor by holding up +to ridicule their feminine despots until, when the time was ripe, I +brought forward triumphantly my scheme for a successful rebellion. I +recited to them the story of Lysistrata and the woman’s revolt and +having carefully demonstrated to them that they were set apart for one +particular purpose alone, I pictured the consternation that would ensue +if they steadfastly refused to venture from their walls, assuring them +that in a short time they would be able to dictate their own terms. + +This idea appealed so strongly to their rapidly developing sense of +the ridiculous that the proposition was greeted with cheers and shouts +of laughter and by unanimous acclaim I was appointed general in chief, +with power to issue the ultimatum and enforce all needed discipline +over the weaker minded elements. + +For three days not a male stirred from the walls that by inviolable +tradition protected their seclusion. On the fourth, the entire body of +the Histriones gathered outside the gates led by Dianne, and demanded a +conference. + +Restraining my forces, with some difficulty I admit, I advanced +outside the gates. While the young males in a fever of curiosity lined +the walls, the lovely Dianne approaching me with dimmed eyes and +outstretched arms enfolded me in her trembling embrace. + +“Oh, Jack,” she exclaimed reproachfully, “you do not love me!” + +It was the first time I had heard that peculiar feminine complaint +since my arrival and its evidence that the primitive instincts could be +counted upon, heartened me greatly. + +“On the contrary,” I replied with unfeigned emotion. “It is because I +am more in love with you than ever, that I have done what I have done +to free us from Acquilla’s tyranny.” + +“But what is happening? We hear the strangest noises as though the +debutants had gone mad. And what is this new strange costume I see you +in,” she added drawing back in surprise and staring at the shorts and +polo shirt I had introduced. + +“We have adopted the costume that was already being debated at the time +of my departure. Do you like them?” + +“What beautiful legs you have, Jack dear, so straight and strong and +wooly!” + +Her enthusiasm pleased but abashed me. I said hastily: + +“As for the disturbances you have heard, reassure your fellow women. +The men are in revolt, but we shall not proceed to acts of violence. +Ours is what was called the rebellion of non-resistance.” + +“What do you mean?” continued Dianne, still contemplating my legs. + +“Have you read ‘Lysistrata’? Since the sexes are reversed, we have +determined to revert to woman’s weapons!” + +“Bogardus, how cruel!” Dianne exclaimed suddenly enlightened. “But +then--no, you do not love me as I love you! You are thinking only of +your pride of sex and I think of nothing but my longing for you!” + + “_I could not love thee half so well + Loved I not honor more_,” + +I quoted triumphantly. + +“But explain. Yes, I remember ‘Lysistrata’ dimly. What is your plan and +how long are you going to hold to it?” + +“Do not reproach me, adorable Dianne, but set your wits to help me and +I assure you, in a short, a very short time we shall be triumphantly +united! Take back our ultimatum to the Minervenes and Manfreda and +the Supreme Council;--complete equality for men, political, social and +educational or we refuse to leave our walls!” + +“It is ingenious if cruel,” said Dianne meditating. “Yet I’m afraid, +terribly afraid for you! For what can mere man do against this woman’s +civilization?” + +“What can we do? We can do what any horse can do if a horse knew his +strength. Lie down and refuse to get up. The decision is up to you. If +you need us in your lives, you must restore our dignity and our rights. +This is our last word!” + +Dianne shook her head mournfully, oppressed by, alas, too well founded +premonitions. + +“I shall do my best--if it were in the power of the Histriones, you +would win, dear. We are already, as you know, your advocates. But +Manfreda and the Minervenes--I am afraid, my beloved, afraid!” + +She kissed me sadly and returned to her companions who thronged about +her with questioning lips while I entered the gates to report. + +The audacity of my defiance seemed to appall my adherents. Whereas, +before, they had been imbued with the gaiety of a child’s rebellion, I +found now a general feeling of depression, shaking heads and ominous +glances. Their forebodings were only too well justified. For two +days we were cut off from all knowledge of what was transpiring in +the outer world, radiophone and television abruptly interrupted. Then +suddenly over our heads a squadron of aerial cruisers, armed with the +devastating electronoid rays appeared. The answer of Manfreda was short +and uncompromising. I was to be delivered up for judgment immediately. +At the end of one hour a failure to comply would mean the instant +blotting out of the whole community! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +At the end of half an hour I stepped through the gates to meet my +destiny. I had not waited for the decision of my fellow men. It was +only too apparent what it would be. By my voluntary submission I did in +fact regain at least a sentimental if tragic prestige. The walls were +thronged and as I left the Club, the entire body burst forth in three +resounding cheers, which considering the time I had had to instruct +them in the art, were quite impressive. + +A great throng was gathered to witness my surrender, and my heart +leaped with a sudden hope as I perceived banners flying above the crowd +with these devices: + + VOTES FOR MEN + EQUALITY OF THE SEXES + SOCIAL EQUALITY IS SIMPLE JUSTICE + +My beloved Dianne was the first to greet me and sadly insisted on +accompanying me in the official aeroplane which was to conduct me +to the Supreme Council. Despite the cheers and flutter of hands that +greeted my progress, I perceived that her eyes were oppressed with +forebodings. + +As we rose a thousand little aeroplanes rose like the scurry of birds +and followed behind us. + +“But it is a triumph!” I exclaimed as our victorious progress developed. + +“Don’t nourish any false hopes, my dear one,” Dianne said, shaking her +lovely head. “The people are with you, and the younger students. But +what does that amount to? Manfreda dominates the Supreme Council and no +emotion has ever swayed her.” + +“But surely--the voice of the people, _vox populi, vox dei_,” I +insisted. “To defy the sovereign will might mean a revolution.” + +For answer Dianne pointed to the skies where the grim armada hovered +over us with the menace of a thunder cloud. + +“All New York could be wiped out in ten minutes. There is the answer.” + +“But a compromise--certain concessions?” + +“It is for you I fear,” she replied, slipping her adorable hand into +mine. “You have shown yourself too strong. Oh, Jack dear, if you had +only listened to my advice.” + +“After all, the worst is immortality,” I replied. + +The phrase pleased me and threw me into a heroic mood. I resolved come +what might, to face my destiny with a stoic dignity. + +We came to ground before the great dome of the hall of justice where +the Supreme Council was assembled. The square was packed with a +sympathetic and curious crowd, while the flight of the accompanying +aeroplanes flung shifting shadows like the moving silhouettes of +leaves. Two guards stood at the top of the steps holding in their hands +what seemed to be electric torches, but which were in fact deadly +electronoid batteries that plainly overawed the crowd. + +I passed with Dianne at my side, my blood tingling with the murmured +sympathy of thousands, and ascending the steps was shortly conducted +to the great hall of judgment. The dramatic sense which flames up in +all martyrs upheld me. I had sought for some word that might pass down +into history, worthy to be linked with the last of my sex, but to tell +the truth the inspiration deserted me and all I could find to say, as I +confronted the judges, was: + +“Ladies, I am here!” + +However I put into the words a certain defiance, smiled proudly and +stood at rest. + +My judges, as before at our first meeting, were seated in a hemicycle +with the austere Manfreda in the centre. I looked for Acquilla and +perceived her sitting with downcast eyes. She raised her glance, +perceived Dianne, and a flush of anger transformed her. + +“Be seated, Bogardus,” said Manfreda, indicating a seat in the centre. +Her tone as always was emotionless, calm as authority itself. “You +are accused of rebellion against the state, of exciting the Clubs to +defy our customs, and of an intention to overthrow the existing order. +Prisoner before us, are you guilty?” + +Dianne had warned me of the recording apparatus, of which indeed +Acquilla had already exposed to me the secret. I was prepared and even +as the question was put, I rose and standing, replied: + +“Manfreda, in your woman’s age of pure logic, is the accused still +permitted to defend himself, or am I brought here simply to hear a +sentence passed upon me?” + +She was visibly surprised at this challenge, but recovering herself, +she replied coldly: + +“You have every right to defend yourself.” + +“Then may I inquire what is the penalty which may be imposed upon me +if I am considered guilty in your eyes of the charges you have brought +against me?” + +“There is only one punishment, Bogardus, as you know.” + +“For great crimes and little offences.” + +“The crime is always against the sanctity of the law. We impose no laws +unless we intend to have them observed.” + +“Then the punishment is invariably death?” + +“We do not take human life.” + +“Then if guilty, I shall be returned to the Frigidrome and translated +to another century,” I exclaimed eagerly. + +“You are right, Bogardus.” + +“Ladies,” I cried joyfully, “you see before you the happiest prisoner +in history. I am certain that you will find me guilty. You must if you +hold as strictly to justice as you claim, and I demand now as my right +the immediate infliction of the penalty.” + +I heard a low groan from Dianne behind me, and at the same time I +noticed that the anger seemed to depart from Acquilla’s furrowed brow. + +“The accused is wanting in respect,” said Doctrina severely. + +“Perhaps,” I took up instantly, “but is that not precisely the whole +of my offending? I come from that uncivilized age, that strangely +emotional age, that age of curious sentimentalities and when I am +introduced to this woman-ruled society I remain un-impressed. And +because, my dear ladies, you are afraid to answer my arguments you are +going to send me to another age, perhaps another world. I answer as we +used to answer. How like a woman!” + +The taunt which I had flung out intentionally, to procure a hearing, +stirred the assembly to violent protests. Doctrina and some of the +council were on their feet demanding to reply. Manfreda, however, +without any further show of emotion, calmed the council and waved them +back to their seats. From that moment I felt secure of being heard, +for I knew that if there was one weakness in the coldly logically +composition of Manfreda it was the age-old primitive instinct of women. +Manfreda intended to have the last word. + +“You are in error, Bogardus,” she said in chiselled accents. “There +will be no obstacle placed in the way of anything you wish to say. +Now may I ask you to return to the point. Do you plead guilty or not +guilty?” + +“I might retort, Manfreda,” I replied, “that I should like to be +informed on what evidence I am accused?” + +“It is hardly necessary to remind you, Bogardus,” she replied with a +spidery satisfaction, “that every word and every movement you have made +since you were in the Club has been heard and noted by every woman in +the state. But to proceed to overt acts. Do you deny that you were the +author of the ultimatum delivered by the young males to the Histriones?” + +“I was the author. Yes, but that does not constitute treason.” + +“And why not?” + +“Because,” I replied, taking a long chance, “I am certain as the +incident cannot have happened before, that no law can be on the statute +books dealing with the case. I appeal to the Council and wait for a +reply.” + +My surmise was correct, as a hurried consultation and furtive +whispering showed me. + +“The question is, of course, one of a technical defence,” said +Manfreda. “If you were appealing to a jury of men, accustomed daily +to see justice miscarry, by appeals to legal mystification, you could +evade the issue in the name of Justice. But--” + +“No buts, Manfreda,” I said, smiling at the immediate relief visible +in the council at this extraordinary reply. “Your answer does credit +to your sex, but in my day I have heard just as ingenuous answers +from your prehistoric sisters. I pass to the next point. I am accused +of rebellion against the State. A very serious charge. But on what +grounds? Because I have urged my fellow men to demand social and +political equality and to become total abstainers until their rights +shall have been granted? Am I right?” + +I waited, but already a certain defiance of my legal acumen had become +evident. There was a pause but no precipitation to reply. Finally +Manfreda, forced to meet the issue, said: + +“And how do you reply to this charge you yourself have formulated?” + +“Ah, Manfreda, you are subtle but you are evading the issue, and you +know it. Is this or is this not _your_ complaint against me?” + +For the first time I observed that adamantine temperament, show a touch +of human resentment. + +“Yes, it is,” she snapped back irritably. + +“Good. Observe, you yourself, you the great Manfreda, have said it. It +is treason for me to stir up my fellow men to insist upon equality. +That is right, is it not, oh, Manfreda?” + +I think she perceived the trap, for she twisted in her seat and made as +though to answer, but it was too late. + +“Your silence is consent, but it would have been franker to have said +it,” I continued, for in humiliating Manfreda before the assembly I +knew was my one chance of escape. “Now I appeal to every woman present. +Was I the first to launch the cry of ‘Votes for Men’? Before I came +was there not a party already formed who sought to rehabilitate my sex? +Hasn’t the discussion been open and has there been any concealment that +here even in this council its proponents have urged their views? Again +I ask, am I right and pause for an answer? No one protests. I continue. +If it was not treason to the State to urge male equality before I +came, I submit that it cannot be treason for me to do so now. Again I +appeal to the council that the second charge as the first charge has no +bearing in fact, and ask that both be dismissed.” + +There was a burst of applause from the great crowd outside, to whom +every word evidently was being transmitted, mingled with shouts of: + +“Votes for Men!” + +“Hurrah for Bogardus!” + +Within, the consternation was so evident that even Acquilla, carried +away by her passion, dared to exclaim: + +“He is right!” + +“Ah, Acquilla,” I exclaimed, moved by the daring of her act, “by that +word you have doomed me. Your sex has always forgiven us when we were +in the wrong, but never for being right!” + +“Bogardus has at least the intelligence to perceive the issue,” said +Manfreda, raising her hand for silence. “It is not a question of right +or wrong. True justice is a matter of necessity. And we shall decide +this question not on legal quibbles or adroit justification but on one +simple issue. Is it necessary to remove Bogardus from the State?” + +There was a visible brightening among the Minervenes. I bowed +ironically and replied: + +“For a moment I was afraid that I might convince you. Thank heaven that +a sense of humor no longer exists, for I shudder to think that if it +did, you would compel me to go on living in this dreadful state!” + +Dianne, my beloved Dianne sprang to my side, crying: + +“If you sentence this man, I demand the right to follow him.” + +“And I!” cried Dulcina. + +“And I!” cried Carrilla, to my surprise. + +Acquilla hesitated, stunned, and covered her eyes with her arm. + +Encouraged by the stupor these defections produced, I stood with my arm +about Dianne and taunted them: + +“If you only knew how gladly I welcome my fate! Your vaunted +civilization is nothing but a dreadful monotony. Your freedom of the +individual is only a terrifying loneliness. You are not human beings; +you are as mechanical as your machinots. You are so afraid of suffering +that you have cut away every emotion that makes life worth living. +You can’t laugh with a friend, romp with a child or cling to a man! +This magnificent scientific era is, my dear ladies, to me a man who +has lived in the glorious twentieth century--just a flat, drab, dreary +existence! If God had intended humanity to end thus, He would have +taken color and beauty out of His universe as you have done out of +life. Stay here? Thanks, ladies! I should be bored to death!” + +“Before we pass to a vote,” said Manfreda flushing, as she stilled the +outburst of angry protests, “it is well to take up the challenge that +this barbaric man has flung out. We are accused of oppressing the male +sex. I shall answer, and my answer is directed to all those mistaken +emotional minds who have allowed themselves to be tricked into an +advocacy of male equality. But first how have we oppressed the male +sex? What have men been deprived of? We have abolished poverty, so that +no man need longer work. We have abolished sickness, so that every man +may indulge his appetites and luxuries without fear of consequence. We +have taken from him the conduct of public affairs where even Bogardus +has admitted he has been a tragic failure. We have ended crime and war +so that no false sentiment demands the sacrifice of his life. We have +freed him from monogamy so that his natural instincts need no longer be +repressed. Is this oppression or what once was man’s idea of a heavenly +paradise?” + +I rose and bowed. + +“Paradise, oh Manfreda, but how did you guess it?” + +A sense of humor has always misled me. From this moment I felt the +assembly turn against me. + +“Now to pass to the major consideration,” continued Manfreda. “To +restore male equality means just one thing--to destroy authority. One +thing is certain--history has always been the record of the war of the +sexes. One or the other must dominate. Authority cannot be shared. +Read history. The world was at its worst when a divided authority +broke down the standards of morality. The age this man represents was +an age of compromise and anarchy. Restore the male--you will bring +back the hypocrisy of marriage with its lies and its treachery, its +mutual tyranny. You will restore the family and permit the weak to +prey upon the strong, the unfit to ride upon the backs of the fit. You +will return to the jealousy and irreverence of the younger generation, +impatient to crowd out the older. For the family is nothing but the +battleground of the sexes and the clash of opposing generations. You +are now free and self sufficing individualities. Do you wish to return +to a society of sacrifice and mutual tyranny?” + +I sprang up, through the applause and exclaimed indignantly: + +“It is for me to recall you to the point, Manfreda. You have made an +ex-parte statement, with the evident intention of prejudicing my judges +by an appeal to their emotions, and this from a woman who feigns to +hold up to ridicule our system of justice. Enough. Let me state the +issue and save you the waste of your adroit pleadings. I am guilty of +being too intelligent for you, and that is my crime. Have the courage +to admit it. Remove me because you cannot, you dare not allow me to +remain here any longer. But for heaven’s sake, ladies, please don’t try +to be logical. Let us ignore the charges. You have decided to condemn +me, please, please don’t try to justify your actions!” + +I sat down well pleased at the adroitness of my answer, feeling that +woman-like they could not let my taunt stand on the record, and that to +remove me would be to approve me. But I misjudged the infinite subtlety +of the feminine mind. The room was in an uproar and the hubbub in the +square was deafening. In the midst of the clamor Doctrina, having +obtained silence, rose and pointing her finger at me cried angrily: + +“Well, I will bring a charge that cannot be denied. I demand this man’s +removal for having corrupted the morals of youth by the introduction of +a shameful and detestable costume, and I call on all to witness,” she +added, tempestuously pointing to the shorts and polo shirt in which I +was clothed, “that he himself stands before us in this nude and unmanly +exposure.” + +“Rubbish!” I shouted at the top of my voice, losing my temper at the +last. “Ridiculous! Condemn me honestly or not at all. Listen, all! I +demand to be heard!” + +“And I move now that all discussion end,” continued Doctrina, “and that +a vote be taken.” + +Everyone was standing up gesticulating wildly. Dianne clung to my side, +but I pushed past her. + +“I will be heard!” I shouted furiously, sprang forward, tripped and +went down with a crash. + + * * * * * + +When I came to consciousness, Manfreda was standing before me, and +Doctrina shaking my arm. + +“Wake up, John, wake up,” said the voice of my wife. “You are having a +dreadful nightmare.” + +I sat up, staring wildly. The face of Doctrina was the face of Emelia, +and the terrible calm of Manfreda was on the face of my mother-in-law. + +“Don’t touch me,” I cried. “Traitors, spies! Never again will I listen +to you! Between us it is war--open war to the end!” + +And then and there I fled from my home. + + * * * * * + +[Note by Theodosia Sitwell. Assistant physician in the Clarendon County +Hospital for the Insane.] + +_John Bogardus was confined in this hospital for over eight months +during which time he wrote the preceding curious manuscript. Despite +some hesitation we have decided on its publication in the interest +of medical science, revealing as it does how strange and casual +suggestions may lead to the most exaggerated hallucinations. During +the whole of his confinement, John Bogardus, with the exception of a +fixed feminaphobia and an obsession that his duty lay in warning his +sex of the danger of feminine progress, was an exemplary and tractable +patient. His tragic death could not have been foreseen. A week after +the completion of his manuscript, he disappeared and after forty-eight +hours’ search, his frozen body was recovered in the large refrigerator +of the asylum, where he had taken refuge under the evident delusion +that it was a Frigidrome._ + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + +Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged. + +Typos corrected: “sariette” to “sarriette” (page 30); “Of” corrected to +“Or” in “Or simply an invitation” (page 71); “brittanic” to “britannic” +(page 85); “Astrodome” to “Astrodrome” (page 94); “tremulo” to +“tremolo” (page 97); “superor” to “superior” (page 114); “comtemplated” +to “contemplated” (page 121); “psychoanalists” to “psycho-analysts” +(page 162); “chorographic” to “choreographic” (page 230); “is” +corrected to “it” in “revealing as it does” (page 251). + +Missing comma added after “Besides” in “Besides, men educated by” (page +63) and “Besides, such a case as yours” (page 218) + +Missing/misprinted single/double quotes corrected. + +Differing spellings of “ascendancy” (page 57) and “ascendency” (page +144) retained. + +Author’s spelling of “dumfounded” retained. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78687 *** |