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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8295-0.txt b/8295-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2990b0f --- /dev/null +++ b/8295-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6893 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Through the Eye of the Needle, by William Dean Howells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through the Eye of the Needle + A Romance + +Author: William Dean Howells + + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8295] +This file was first posted on July 26, 2003 +Last Updated: February 25, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + +A Romance + +With An Introduction + + +By William Dean Howells + + +1907 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Aristides Homos, an Emissary of the Altrurian Commonwealth, visited the +United States during the summer of 1893 and the fall and winter +following. For some weeks or months he was the guest of a well-known +man of letters at a hotel in one of our mountain resorts; in the early +autumn he spent several days at the great Columbian Exhibition in +Chicago; and later he came to New York, where he remained until he +sailed, rather suddenly, for Altruria, taking the circuitous route by +which he came. He seems to have written pretty constantly throughout his +sojourn with us to an intimate friend in his own country, giving freely +his impressions of our civilization. His letters from New York appear to +have been especially full, and, in offering the present synopsis of these +to the American reader, it will not be impertinent to note certain +peculiarities of the Altrurian attitude which the temperament of the +writer has somewhat modified. He is entangled in his social sophistries +regarding all the competitive civilizations; he cannot apparently do full +justice to the superior heroism of charity and self-sacrifice as +practised in countries where people live _upon_ each other as the +Americans do, instead of _for_ each other as the Altrurians do; but +he has some glimmerings of the beauty of our living, and he has +undoubtedly the wish to be fair to our ideals. He is unable to value our +devotion to the spirit of Christianity amid the practices which seem to +deny it; but he evidently wishes to recognize the possibility of such a +thing. He at least accords us the virtues of our defects, and, among +the many visitors who have censured us, he has not seen us with his +censures prepared to fit the instances; in fact, the very reverse has +been his method. + +Many of the instances which he fits with his censures are such as he +could no longer note, if he came among us again. That habit of +celebrating the munificence of the charitable rich, on which he spends +his sarcasm, has fallen from us through the mere superabundance of +occasion. Our rich people give so continuously for all manner of good +objects that it would be impossible for our press, however vigilant, to +note the successive benefactions, and millions are now daily bestowed +upon needy educational institutions, of which no mention whatever is made +in the newspapers. If a millionaire is now and then surprised in a good +action by a reporter of uncommon diligence, he is able by an appeal to +their common humanity to prevail with the witness to spare him the +revolting publicity which it must be confessed would once have followed +his discovery; the right hand which is full to overflowing is now as +skilled as the empty right hand in keeping the left hand ignorant of its +doings. This has happened through the general decay of snobbishness among +us, perhaps. It is certain that there is no longer the passion for a +knowledge of the rich, and the smart, which made us ridiculous to Mr. +Homos. Ten or twelve years ago, our newspapers abounded in intelligence +of the coming and going of social leaders, of their dinners and lunches +and teas, of their receptions and balls, and the guests who were bidden +to them. But this sort of unwholesome and exciting gossip, which was +formerly devoured by their readers with inappeasable voracity, is no +longer supplied, simply because the taste for it has wholly passed away. + +Much the same might be said of the social hospitalities which raised our +visitor's surprise. For example, many people are now asked to dinner who +really need a dinner, and not merely those who revolt from the notion of +dinner with loathing, and go to it with abhorrence. At the tables of our +highest social leaders one now meets on a perfect equality persons of +interesting minds and uncommon gifts who would once have been excluded +because they were hungry, or were not in the hostess's set, or had not a +new gown or a dress-suit. This contributes greatly to the pleasure of the +time, and promotes the increasing kindliness between the rich and poor +for which our status is above all things notable. + +The accusation which our critic brings that the American spirit has been +almost Europeanized away, in its social forms, would be less grounded in +the observance of a later visitor. The customs of good society must be +the same everywhere in some measure, but the student of the competitive +world would now find European hospitality Americanized, rather than +American hospitality Europeanized. The careful research which has been +made into our social origins has resulted in bringing back many of the +aboriginal usages; and, with the return of the old American spirit of +fraternity, many of the earlier dishes as well as amenities have been +restored. A Thanksgiving dinner in the year 1906 would have been found +more like a Thanksgiving dinner in 1806 than the dinner to which Mr. +Homos was asked in 1893, and which he has studied so interestingly, +though not quite without some faults of taste and discretion. The +prodigious change for the better in some material aspects of our status +which has taken place in the last twelve years could nowhere be so well +noted as in the picture he gives us of the housing of our people in 1893. +His study of the evolution of the apartment-house from the old +flat-house, and the still older single dwelling, is very curious, and, +upon the whole, not incorrect. But neither of these last differed so +much from the first as the apartment-house now differs from the +apartment-house of his day. There are now no dark rooms opening on +airless pits for the family, or black closets and dismal basements for +the servants. Every room has abundant light and perfect ventilation, and +as nearly a southern exposure as possible. The appointments of the houses +are no longer in the spirit of profuse and vulgar luxury which it must be +allowed once characterized them. They are simply but tastefully finished, +they are absolutely fireproof, and, with their less expensive decoration, +the rents have been so far lowered that in any good position a quarter of +nine or ten rooms, with as many baths, can be had for from three thousand +to fifteen thousand dollars. This fact alone must attract to our +metropolis the best of our population, the bone and sinew which have no +longer any use for themselves where they have been expended in rearing +colossal fortunes, and now demand a metropolitan repose. + +The apartments are much better fitted for a family of generous size than +those which Mr. Homos observed. Children, who were once almost unheard +of, and quite unheard, in apartment-houses, increasingly abound under +favor of the gospel of race preservation. The elevators are full of them, +and in the grassy courts round which the houses are built, the little +ones play all day long, or paddle in the fountains, warmed with +steam-pipes in the winter, and cooled to an agreeable temperature in a +summer which has almost lost its terrors for the stay-at-home New-Yorker. +Each child has his or her little plot of ground in the roof-garden, where +they are taught the once wellnigh forgotten art of agriculture. + +The improvement of the tenement-house has gone hand in hand with that of +the apartment-house. As nearly as the rate of interest on the landlord's +investment will allow, the housing of the poor approaches in comfort that +of the rich. Their children are still more numerous, and the playgrounds +supplied them in every open space and on every pier are visited +constantly by the better-to-do children, who exchange with them lessons +of form and fashion for the scarcely less valuable instruction in +practical life which the poorer little ones are able to give. The rents +in the tenement houses are reduced even more notably than those in the +apartment-houses, so that now, with the constant increase in wages, the +tenants are able to pay their rents promptly. The evictions once so +common are very rare; it is doubtful whether a nightly or daily walk in +the poorer quarters of the town would develop, in the coldest weather, +half a dozen cases of families set out on the sidewalk with their +household goods about them. + +The Altrurian Emissary visited this country when it was on the verge of +the period of great economic depression extending from 1894 to 1898, but, +after the Spanish War, Providence marked the divine approval of our +victory in that contest by renewing in unexampled measure the prosperity +of the Republic. With the downfall of the trusts, and the release of our +industrial and commercial forces to unrestricted activity, the condition +of every form of labor has been immeasurably improved, and it is now +united with capital in bonds of the closest affection. But in no phase +has its fate been so brightened as in that of domestic service. This has +occurred not merely through the rise of wages, but through a greater +knowledge between the employing and employed. When, a few years since, it +became practically impossible for mothers of families to get help from +the intelligence-offices, and ladies were obliged through lack of cooks +and chambermaids to do the work of the kitchen and the chamber and +parlor, they learned to realize what such work was, how poorly paid, how +badly lodged, how meanly fed. From this practical knowledge it was +impossible for them to retreat to their old supremacy and indifference as +mistresses. The servant problem was solved, once for all, by humanity, +and it is doubtful whether, if Mr. Homos returned to us now, he would +give offence by preaching the example of the Altrurian ladies, or would +be shocked by the contempt and ignorance of American women where other +women who did their household drudgery were concerned. + +As women from having no help have learned how to use their helpers, +certain other hardships have been the means of good. The flattened wheel +of the trolley, banging the track day and night, and tormenting the +waking and sleeping ear, was, oddly enough, the inspiration of reforms +which have made our city the quietest in the world. The trolleys now pass +unheard; the elevated train glides by overhead with only a modulated +murmur; the subway is a retreat fit for meditation and prayer, where the +passenger can possess his soul in a peace to be found nowhere else; the +automobile, which was unknown in the day of the Altrurian Emissary, whirs +softly through the most crowded thoroughfare, far below the speed limit, +with a sigh of gentle satisfaction in its own harmlessness, and, “like +the sweet South, taking and giving odor.” The streets that he saw so +filthy and unkempt in 1893 are now at least as clean as they are quiet. +Asphalt has universally replaced the cobble-stones and Belgian blocks of +his day, and, though it is everywhere full of holes, it is still asphalt, +and may some time be put in repair. + +There is a note of exaggeration in his characterization of our men which +the reader must regret. They are not now the intellectual inferior of our +women, or at least not so much the inferiors. Since his day they have +made a vast advance in the knowledge and love of literature. With the +multitude of our periodicals, and the swarm of our fictions selling from +a hundred thousand to half a million each, even our business-men cannot +wholly escape culture, and they have become more and more cultured, so +that now you frequently hear them asking what this or that book is all +about. With the mention of them, the reader will naturally recur to the +work of their useful and devoted lives--the accumulation of money. It is +this accumulation, this heaping-up of riches, which the Altrurian +Emissary accuses in the love-story closing his study of our conditions, +but which he might not now so totally condemn. + +As we have intimated, he has more than once guarded against a rash +conclusion, to which the logical habit of the Altrurian mind might have +betrayed him. If he could revisit us we are sure that he would have still +greater reason to congratulate himself on his forbearance, and would +doubtless profit by the lesson which events must teach all but the most +hopeless doctrinaires. The evil of even a small war (and soldiers +themselves do not deny that wars, large or small, are evil) has, as we +have noted, been overruled for good in the sort of Golden Age, or Age on +a Gold Basis, which we have long been enjoying. If our good-fortune +should be continued to us in reward of our public and private virtue, +the fact would suggest to so candid an observer that in economics, as in +other things, the rule proves the exception, and that as good times have +hitherto always been succeeded by bad times, it stands to reason that +our present period of prosperity will never be followed by a period of +adversity. + +It would seem from the story continued by another hand in the second part +of this work, that Altruria itself is not absolutely logical in its +events, which are subject to some of the anomalies governing in our own +affairs. A people living in conditions which some of our dreamers would +consider ideal, are forced to discourage foreign emigration, against +their rule of universal hospitality, and in at least one notable instance +are obliged to protect themselves against what they believe an evil +example by using compulsion with the wrongdoers, though the theory of +their life is entirely opposed to anything of the kind. Perhaps, however, +we are not to trust to this other hand at all times, since it is a +woman's hand, and is not to be credited with the firm and unerring touch +of a man's. The story, as she completes it, is the story of the +Altrurian's love for an American woman, and will be primarily interesting +for that reason. Like the Altrurian's narrative, it is here compiled from +a succession of letters, which in her case were written to a friend in +America, as his were written to a friend in Altruria. But it can by no +means have the sociological value which the record of his observations +among ourselves will have for the thoughtful reader. It is at best the +record of desultory and imperfect glimpses of a civilization +fundamentally alien to her own, such as would attract an enthusiastic +nature, but would leave it finally in a sort of misgiving as to the +reality of the things seen and heard. Some such misgiving attended the +inquiries of those who met the Altrurian during his sojourn with us, but +it is a pity that a more absolute conclusion should not have been the +effect of this lively lady's knowledge of the ideal country of her +adoption. It is, however, an interesting psychological result, and it +continues the tradition of all the observers of ideal conditions from Sir +Thomas More down to William Morris. Either we have no terms for +conditions so unlike our own that they cannot be reported to us with +absolute intelligence, or else there is in every experience of them an +essential vagueness and uncertainty. + + + + +PART FIRST + + + +THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + + + + +I + + +If I spoke with Altrurian breadth of the way New-Yorkers live, my dear +Cyril, I should begin by saying that the New-Yorkers did not live at all. +But outside of our happy country one learns to distinguish, and to allow +that there are several degrees of living, all indeed hateful to us, if we +knew them, and yet none without some saving grace in it. You would say +that in conditions where men were embattled against one another by the +greed and the envy and the ambition which these conditions perpetually +appeal to here, there could be no grace in life; but we must remember +that men have always been better than their conditions, and that +otherwise they would have remained savages without the instinct or the +wish to advance. Indeed, our own state is testimony of a potential +civility in all states, which we must keep in mind when we judge the +peoples of the plutocratic world, and especially the American people, who +are above all others the devotees and exemplars of the plutocratic ideal, +without limitation by any aristocracy, theocracy, or monarchy. They are +purely commercial, and the thing that cannot be bought and sold has +logically no place in their life. But life is not logical outside of +Altruria; we are the only people in the world, my dear Cyril, who are +privileged to live reasonably; and again I say we must put by our own +criterions if we wish to understand the Americans, or to recognize that +measure of loveliness which their warped and stunted and perverted lives +certainly show, in spite of theory and in spite of conscience, even. I +can make this clear to you, I think, by a single instance, say that of +the American who sees a case of distress, and longs to relieve it. If he +is rich, he can give relief with a good conscience, except for the harm +that may come to his beneficiary from being helped; but if he is not +rich, or not finally rich, and especially if he has a family dependent +upon him, he cannot give in anything like the measure Christ bade us give +without wronging those dear to him, immediately or remotely. That is to +say, in conditions which oblige every man to look out for himself, a man +cannot be a Christian without remorse; he cannot do a generous action +without self-reproach; he cannot be nobly unselfish without the fear of +being a fool. You would think that this predicament must deprave, and so +without doubt it does; and yet it is not wholly depraving. It often has +its effect in character of a rare and pathetic sublimity; and many +Americans take all the cruel risks of doing good, reckless of the evil +that may befall them, and defiant of the upbraidings of their own hearts. +This is something that we Altrurians can scarcely understand: it is like +the munificence of a savage who has killed a deer and shares it with his +starving tribesmen, forgetful of the hungering little ones who wait his +return from the chase with food; for life in plutocratic countries is +still a chase, and the game is wary and sparse, as the terrible average +of failures witnesses. + +Of course, I do not mean that Americans may not give at all without +sensible risk, or that giving among them is always followed by a logical +regret; but, as I said, life with them is in no wise logical. They even +applaud one another for their charities, which they measure by the amount +given, rather than by the love that goes with the giving. The widow's +mite has little credit with them, but the rich man's million has an +acclaim that reverberates through their newspapers long after his gift is +made. It is only the poor in America who do charity as we do, by giving +help where it is needed; the Americans are mostly too busy, if they are +at all prosperous, to give anything but money; and the more money they +give, the more charitable they esteem themselves. From time to time some +man with twenty or thirty millions gives one of them away, usually to a +public institution of some sort, where it will have no effect with the +people who are underpaid for their work or cannot get work; and then his +deed is famed throughout the continent as a thing really beyond praise. +Yet any one who thinks about it must know that he never earned the +millions he kept, or the millions he gave, but somehow made them from the +labor of others; that, with all the wealth left him, he cannot miss the +fortune he lavishes, any more than if the check which conveyed it were a +withered leaf, and not in any wise so much as an ordinary working-man +might feel the bestowal of a postage-stamp. + +But in this study of the plutocratic mind, always so fascinating to me, I +am getting altogether away from what I meant to tell you. I meant to tell +you not how Americans live in the spirit, illogically, blindly, and +blunderingly, but how they live in the body, and more especially how they +house themselves in this city of New York. A great many of them do not +house themselves at all, but that is a class which we cannot now +consider, and I will speak only of those who have some sort of a roof +over their heads. + + + + +II + + +Formerly the New-Yorker lived in one of three different ways: in private +houses, or boarding-houses, or hotels; there were few restaurants or +public tables outside of the hotels, and those who had lodgings and took +their meals at eating-houses were but a small proportion of the whole +number. The old classification still holds in a measure, but within the +last thirty years, or ever since the Civil War, when the enormous +commercial expansion of the country began, several different ways of +living have been opened. The first and most noticeable of these is +housekeeping in flats, or apartments of three or four rooms or more, on +the same floor, as in all the countries of Europe except England; though +the flat is now making itself known in London, too. Before the war, the +New-Yorker who kept house did so in a separate house, three or four +stories in height, with a street door of its own. Its pattern within was +fixed by long usage, and seldom varied; without, it was of brown-stone +before, and brick behind, with an open space there for drying clothes, +which was sometimes gardened or planted with trees and vines. The rear of +the city blocks which these houses formed was more attractive than the +front, as you may still see in the vast succession of monotonous +cross-streets not yet invaded by poverty or business; and often the +perspective of these rears is picturesque and pleasing. But with the +sudden growth of the population when peace came, and through the +acquaintance the hordes of American tourists had made with European +fashions of living, it became easy, or at least simple, to divide the +floors of many of these private dwellings into apartments, each with its +own kitchen and all the apparatus of housekeeping. The apartments then +had the street entrance and the stairways in common, and they had in +common the cellar and the furnace for heating; they had in common the +disadvantage of being badly aired and badly lighted. They were dark, +cramped, and uncomfortable, but they were cheaper than separate houses, +and they were more homelike than boarding-houses or hotels. Large numbers +of them still remain in use, and when people began to live in flats, in +conformity with the law of evolution, many buildings were put up and +subdivided into apartments in imitation of the old dwellings which had +been changed. + +But the apartment as the New-Yorkers now mostly have it, was at the same +time evolving from another direction. The poorer class of New York +work-people had for a long period before the war lived, as they still +live, in vast edifices, once thought prodigiously tall, which were called +tenement-houses. In these a family of five or ten persons is commonly +packed in two or three rooms, and even in one room, where they eat and +sleep, without the amenities and often without the decencies of life, and +of course without light and air. The buildings in case of fire are +death-traps; but the law obliges the owners to provide some apparent +means of escape, which they do in the form of iron balconies and ladders, +giving that festive air to their façades which I have already noted. The +bare and dirty entries and staircases are really ramifications of the +filthy streets without, and each tenement opens upon a landing as if it +opened upon a public thoroughfare. The rents extorted from the inmates is +sometimes a hundred per cent., and is nearly always cruelly out of +proportion to the value of the houses, not to speak of the wretched +shelter afforded; and when the rent is not paid the family in arrears is +set with all its poor household gear upon the sidewalk, in a pitiless +indifference to the season and the weather, which you could not realize +without seeing it, and which is incredible even of plutocratic nature. Of +course, landlordism, which you have read so much of, is at its worst +in the case of the tenement-houses. But you must understand that +comparatively few people in New York own the roofs that shelter them. By +far the greater number live, however they live, in houses owned by +others, by a class who prosper and grow rich, or richer, simply by owning +the roofs over other men's heads. The landlords have, of course, no human +relation with their tenants, and really no business relations, for all +the affairs between them are transacted by agents. Some have the +reputation of being better than others; but they all live, or expect to +live, without work, on their rents. They are very much respected for it; +the rents are considered a just return from the money invested. You must +try to conceive of this as an actual fact, and not merely as a +statistical statement. I know it will not be easy for you; it is not easy +for me, though I have it constantly before my face. + + + + +III + + +The tenement-house, such as it is, is the original of the +apartment-house, which perpetuates some of its most characteristic +features on a scale and in material undreamed of in the simple philosophy +of the inventor of the tenement-house. The worst of these features is +the want of light and air, but as much more space and as many more rooms +are conceded as the tenant will pay for. The apartment-house, however, +soars to heights that the tenement-house never half reached, and is +sometimes ten stories high. It is built fireproof, very often, and is +generally equipped with an elevator, which runs night and day, and makes +one level of all the floors. The cheaper sort, or those which have +departed less from the tenement-house original, have no elevators, but +the street door in all is kept shut and locked, and is opened only by the +tenant's latch-key or by the janitor having charge of the whole building. +In the finer houses there is a page whose sole duty it is to open and +shut this door, and who is usually brass-buttoned to one blinding effect +of livery with the elevator-boy. Where this page or hall-boy is found, +the elevator carries you to the door of any apartment you seek; where he +is not found, there is a bell and a speaking-tube in the lower entry, for +each apartment, and you ring up the occupant and talk to him as many +stories off as he happens to be. But people who can afford to indulge +their pride will not live in this sort of apartment-house, and the +rents in them are much lower than in the finer sort. The finer sort are +vulgarly fine for the most part, with a gaudy splendor of mosaic +pavement, marble stairs, frescoed ceilings, painted walls, and cabinet +wood-work. But there are many that are fine in a good taste, in the +things that are common to the inmates. Their fittings for housekeeping +are of all degrees of perfection, and, except for the want of light and +air, life in them has a high degree of gross luxury. They are heated +throughout with pipes of steam or hot water, and they are sometimes +lighted with both gas and electricity, which the inmate uses at will, +though of course at his own cost. Outside, they are the despair of +architecture, for no style has yet been invented which enables the artist +to characterize them with beauty, and wherever they lift their vast bulks +they deform the whole neighborhood, throwing the other buildings out of +scale, and making it impossible for future edifices to assimilate +themselves to the intruder. + +There is no end to the apartment-houses for multitude, and there is no +street or avenue free from them. Of course, the better sort are to be +found on the fashionable avenues and the finer cross-streets, but others +follow the course of the horse-car lines on the eastern and western +avenues, and the elevated roads on the avenues which these have invaded. +In such places they are shops below and apartments above, and I cannot +see that the inmates seem at all sensible that they are unfitly housed in +them. People are born and married, and live and die in the midst of an +uproar so frantic that you would think they would go mad of it; and I +believe the physicians really attribute something of the growing +prevalence of neurotic disorders to the wear and tear of the nerves from +the rush of the trains passing almost momently, and the perpetual jarring +of the earth and air from their swift transit. I once spent an evening in +one of these apartments, which a friend had taken for a few weeks last +spring (you can get them out of season for any length of time), and as +the weather had begun to be warm, we had the windows open, and so we had +the full effect of the railroad operated under them. My friend had become +accustomed to it, but for me it was an affliction which I cannot give you +any notion of. The trains seemed to be in the room with us, and I sat as +if I had a locomotive in my lap. Their shrieks and groans burst every +sentence I began, and if I had not been master of that visible speech +which we use so much at home I never should have known what my friend was +saying. I cannot tell you how this brutal clamor insulted me, and made +the mere exchange of thought a part of the squalid struggle which is the +plutocratic conception of life; I came away after a few hours of it, +bewildered and bruised, as if I had been beaten upon with hammers. + +Some of the apartments on the elevated lines are very good, as such +things go; they are certainly costly enough to be good; and they are +inhabited by people who can afford to leave them during the hot season +when the noise is at its worst; but most of them belong to people who +must dwell in them summer and winter, for want of money and leisure to +get out of them, and who must suffer incessantly from the noise I could +not endure for a few hours. In health it is bad enough, but in sickness +it must be horrible beyond all parallel. Imagine a mother with a dying +child in such a place; or a wife bending over the pillow of her husband +to catch the last faint whisper of farewell, as a train of five or six +cars goes roaring by the open window! What horror! What profanation! + + + + +IV + + +The noise is bad everywhere in New York, but in some of the finer +apartment-houses on the better streets you are as well out of it as you +can be anywhere in the city. I have been a guest in these at different +times, and in one of them I am such a frequent guest that I may be said +to know its life intimately. In fact, my hostess (women transact society +so exclusively in America that you seldom think of your host) in the +apartment I mean to speak of, invited me to explore it one night when I +dined with her, so that I might, as she said, tell my friends when I got +back to Altruria how people lived in America; and I cannot feel that I +am violating her hospitality in telling you now. She is that Mrs. Makely +whom I met last summer in the mountains, and whom you thought so strange +a type from the account of her I gave you, but who is not altogether +uncommon here. I confess that, with all her faults, I like her, and I +like to go to her house. She is, in fact, a very good woman, perfectly +selfish by tradition, as the American women must be, and wildly generous +by nature, as they nearly always are; and infinitely superior to her +husband in cultivation, as is commonly the case with them. As he knows +nothing but business, he thinks it is the only thing worth knowing, and +he looks down on the tastes and interests of her more intellectual life +with amiable contempt, as something almost comic. She respects business, +too, and so she does not despise his ignorance as you would suppose; it +is at least the ignorance of a business-man, who must have something in +him beyond her ken, or else he would not be able to make money as he +does. + +With your greater sense of humor, I think you would be amused if you +could see his smile of placid self-satisfaction as he listens to our +discussion of questions and problems which no more enter his daily life +than they enter the daily life of an Eskimo; but I do not find it +altogether amusing myself, and I could not well forgive it, if I did not +know that he was at heart so simple and good, in spite of his +commerciality. But he is sweet and kind, as the American men so often +are, and he thinks his wife is the delightfulest creature in the world, +as the American husband nearly always does. They have several times asked +me to dine with them _en famille;_ and, as a matter of form, he +keeps me a little while with him after dinner, when she has left the +table, and smokes his cigar, after wondering why we do not smoke in +Altruria; but I can see that he is impatient to get to her in their +drawing-room, where we find her reading a book in the crimson light of +the canopied lamp, and where he presently falls silent, perfectly happy +to be near her. The drawing-room is of a good size itself, and it has a +room opening out of it called the library, with a case of books in it, +and Mrs. Makely's piano-forte. The place is rather too richly and densely +rugged, and there is rather more curtaining and shading of the windows +than we should like; but Mrs. Makely is too well up-to-date, as she would +say, to have much of the bric-à-brac about which she tells me used to +clutter people's houses here. There are some pretty good pictures on the +walls, and a few vases and bronzes, and she says she has produced a +greater effect of space by quelling the furniture--she means, having few +pieces and having them as small as possible. There is a little stand with +her afternoon tea-set in one corner, and there is a pretty writing-desk +in the library; I remember a sofa and some easy-chairs, but not too +many of them. She has a table near one of the windows, with books and +papers on it. She tells me that she sees herself that the place is kept +just as she wishes it, for she has rather a passion for neatness, +and you never can trust servants not to stand the books on their heads or +study a vulgar symmetry in the arrangements. She never allows them in +there, she says, except when they are at work under her eye; and she +never allows anybody there except her guests, and her husband after he +has smoked. Of course, her dog must be there; and one evening after her +husband fell asleep in the arm-chair near her, the dog fell asleep on +the fleece at her feet, and we heard them softly breathing in unison. +She made a pretty little mocking mouth when the sound first became +audible, and said that she ought really to have sent Mr. Makely out with +the dog, for the dog ought to have the air every day, and she had +been kept indoors; but sometimes Mr. Makely came home from business so +tired that she hated to send him out, even for the dog's sake, though he +was so apt to become dyspeptic. “They won't let you have dogs in some of +the apartment-houses, but I tore up the first lease that had that clause +in it, and I told Mr. Makely that I would rather live in a house all my +days than any flat where my dog wasn't as welcome as I was. Of course, +they're rather troublesome.” + +The Makelys had no children, but it is seldom that the occupants of +apartment-houses of a good class have children, though there is no clause +in the lease against them. I verified this fact from Mrs. Makely herself, +by actual inquiry, for in all the times that I had gone up and down in +the elevator to her apartment I had never seen any children. She seemed +at first to think I was joking, and not to like it, but when she found +that I was in earnest she said that she did not suppose all the families +living under that roof had more than four or five children among them. +She said that it would be inconvenient; and I could not allege the +tenement-houses in the poor quarters of the city, where children seemed +to swarm, for it is but too probable that they do not regard convenience +in such places, and that neither parents nor children are more +comfortable for their presence. + + + + +V + + +Comfort is the American ideal, in a certain way, and comfort is certainly +what is studied in such an apartment as the Makelys inhabit. We got to +talking about it, and the ease of life in such conditions, and it was +then she made me that offer to show me her flat, and let me report to the +Altrurians concerning it. She is all impulse, and she asked, How would I +like to see it _now?_ and when I said I should be delighted, she +spoke to her husband, and told him that she was going to show me through +the flat. He roused himself promptly, and went before us, at her bidding, +to turn up the electrics in the passages and rooms, and then she led the +way out through the dining-room. + +“This and the parlors count three, and the kitchen here is the fourth +room of the eight,” she said, and as she spoke she pushed open the door +of a small room, blazing with light and dense with the fumes of the +dinner and the dish-washing which was now going on in a closet opening +out of the kitchen. + +She showed me the set range, at one side, and the refrigerator in an +alcove, which she said went with the flat, and, “Lena,” she said to the +cook, “this is the Altrurian gentleman I was telling you about, and I +want him to see your kitchen. Can I take him into your room?” + +The cook said, “Oh yes, ma'am,” and she gave me a good stare, while Mrs. +Makely went to the kitchen window and made me observe that it let in the +outside air, though the court that it opened into was so dark that one +had to keep the electrics going in the kitchen night and day. “Of course, +it's an expense,” she said, as she closed the kitchen door after us. She +added, in a low, rapid tone, “You must excuse my introducing the cook. +She has read all about you in the papers--you didn't know, I suppose, +that there were reporters that day of your delightful talk in the +mountains, but I had them--and she was wild, when she heard you were +coming, and made me promise to let her have a sight of you somehow. She +says she wants to go and live in Altruria, and if you would like to take +home a cook, or a servant of any kind, you wouldn't have much trouble. +Now here,” she ran on, without a moment's pause, while she flung open +another door, “is what you won't find in every apartment-house, even very +good ones, and that's a back elevator. Sometimes there are only stairs, +and they make the poor things climb the whole way up from the basement, +when they come in, and all your marketing has to be brought up that way, +too; sometimes they send it up on a kind of dumb-waiter, in the cheap +places, and you give your orders to the market-men down below through a +speaking-tube. But here we have none of that bother, and this elevator is +for the kitchen and housekeeping part of the flat. The grocer's and the +butcher's man, and anybody who has packages for you, or trunks, or that +sort of thing, use it, and, of course, it's for the servants, and they +appreciate not having to walk up as much as anybody.” + +“Oh yes,” I said, and she shut the elevator door and opened another a +little beyond it. + +“This is our guest chamber,” she continued, as she ushered me into a very +pretty room, charmingly furnished. “It isn't very light by day, for it +opens on a court, like the kitchen and the servants' room here,” and with +that she whipped out of the guest chamber and into another doorway across +the corridor. This room was very much narrower, but there were two small +beds in it, very neat and clean, with some furnishings that were in +keeping, and a good carpet under foot. Mrs. Makely was clearly proud of +it, and expected me to applaud it; but I waited for her to speak, which +upon the whole she probably liked as well. + +“I only keep two servants, because in a flat there isn't really room for +more, and I put out the wash and get in cleaning-women when it's needed. +I like to use my servants well, because it pays, and I hate to see +anybody imposed upon. Some people put in a double-decker, as they call +it--a bedstead with two tiers, like the berths on a ship; but I think +that's a shame, and I give them two regular beds, even if it does crowd +them a little more and the beds have to be rather narrow. This room has +outside air, from the court, and, though it's always dark, it's very +pleasant, as you see.” I did not say that I did not see, and this +sufficed Mrs. Makely. + +“Now,” she said, “I'll show you _our_ rooms,” and she flew down the +corridor towards two doors that stood open side by side and flashed into +them before me. Her husband was already in the first she entered, smiling +in supreme content with his wife, his belongings, and himself. + +“This is a southern exposure, and it has a perfect gush of sun from +morning till night. Some of the flats have the kitchen at the end, and +that's stupid; you can have a kitchen in any sort of hole, for you can +keep on the electrics, and with them the air is perfectly good. As soon +as I saw these chambers, and found out that they would let you keep a +dog, I told Mr. Makely to sign the lease instantly, and I would see to +the rest.” + +She looked at me, and I praised the room and its dainty tastefulness to +her heart's content, so that she said: “Well, it's some satisfaction to +show you anything, Mr. Homos, you are so appreciative. I'm sure you'll +give a good account of us to the Altrurians. Well, now we'll go back to +the pa--drawing-room. This is the end of the story.” + +“Well,” said her husband, with a wink at me, “I thought it was to be +continued in our next,” and he nodded towards the door that opened from +his wife's bower into the room adjoining. + +“Why, you poor old fellow!” she shouted. “I forgot all about _your_ +room,” and she dashed into it before us and began to show it off. It was +equipped with every bachelor luxury, and with every appliance for health +and comfort. “And here,” she said, “he can smoke, or anything, as long as +he keeps the door shut. Oh, good gracious! I forgot the bath-room,” and +they both united in showing me this, with its tiled floor and walls and +its porcelain tub; and then Mrs. Makely flew up the corridor before us. +“Put out the electrics, Dick!” she called back over her shoulder. + + + + +VI + + +When we were again seated in the drawing-room, which she had been so near +calling a parlor, she continued to bubble over with delight in herself +and her apartment. “Now, isn't it about perfect?” she urged, and I had to +own that it was indeed very convenient and very charming; and in the +rapture of the moment she invited me to criticise it. + +“I see very little to criticise,” I said, “from your point of view; but I +hope you won't think it indiscreet if I ask a few questions?” + +She laughed. “Ask anything, Mr. Homos! I hope I got hardened to your +questions in the mountains.” + +“She said you used to get off some pretty tough ones,” said her husband, +helpless to take his eyes from her, although he spoke to me. + +“It is about your servants,” I began. + +“Oh, of course! Perfectly characteristic! Go on.” + +“You told me that they had no natural light either in the kitchen or +their bedroom. Do they never see the light of day?” + +The lady laughed heartily. “The waitress is in the front of the house +several hours every morning at her work, and they both have an afternoon +off once a week. Some people only let them go once a fortnight; but I +think they are human beings as well as we are, and I let them go every +week.” + +“But, except for that afternoon once a week, your cook lives in +electric-light perpetually?” + +“Electric-light is very healthy, and it doesn't heat the air!” the lady +triumphed, “I can assure you that she thinks she's very well off; and so +she is.” I felt a little temper in her voice, and I was silent, until she +asked me, rather stiffly, “Is there any _other_ inquiry you would +like to make?” + +“Yes,” I said, “but I do not think you would like it.” + +“Now, I assure you, Mr. Homos, you were never more mistaken in your life. +I perfectly delight in your naïveté. I know that the Altrurians don't +think as we do about some things, and I don't expect it. What is it you +would like to ask?” + +“Well, why should you require your servants to go down on a different +elevator from yourselves?” + +“Why, good gracious!” cried the lady.--“aren't they different from us in +_every_ way? To be sure, they dress up in their ridiculous best when +they go out, but you couldn't expect us to let them use the _front_ +elevator? I don't want to go up and down with my own cook, and I +certainly don't with my neighbor's cook!” + +“Yes, I suppose you would feel that an infringement of your social +dignity. But if you found yourself beside a cook in a horse-car or other +public conveyance, you would not feel personally affronted?” + +“No, that is a very different thing. That is something we cannot control. +But, thank goodness, we can control our elevator, and if I were in a +house where I had to ride up and down with the servants I would no +more stay in it than I would in one where I couldn't keep a dog. I should +consider it a perfect outrage. I cannot understand you, Mr. Homos! You +are a gentleman, and you must have the traditions of a gentleman, +and yet you ask me such a thing as that!” + +I saw a cast in her husband's eye which I took for a hint not to press +the matter, and so I thought I had better say, “It is only that in +Altruria we hold serving in peculiar honor.” + +“Well,” said the lady, scornfully, “if you went and got your servants +from an intelligence-office, and had to look up their references, you +wouldn't hold them in very much honor. I tell you they look out for their +interests as sharply as we do for ours, and it's nothing between us but a +question of--” + +“Business,” suggested her husband. + +“Yes,” she assented, as if this clinched the matter. + +“That's what I'm always telling you, Dolly, and yet you _will_ try +to make them your friends, as soon as you get them into your house. You +want them to love you, and you know that sentiment hasn't got anything +to do with it.” + +“Well, I can't help it, Dick. I can't live with a person without trying +to like them and wanting them to like me. And then, when the ungrateful +things are saucy, or leave me in the lurch as they do half the time, it +almost breaks my heart. But I'm thankful to say that in these hard times +they won't be apt to leave a good place without a good reason.” + +“Are there many seeking employment?” I asked this because I thought it +was safe ground. + +“Well, they just stand around in the office as _thick!_” said the +lady. “And the Americans are trying to get places as well as the +foreigners. But I won't have Americans. They are too uppish, and they are +never half so well trained as the Swedes or the Irish. They still expect +to be treated as one of the family. I suppose,” she continued, with a +lingering ire in her voice, “that in Altruria you do treat them as one of +the family?” + +“We have no servants, in the American sense,” I answered, as +inoffensively as I could. + +Mrs. Makely irrelevantly returned to the question that had first provoked +her indignation. “And I should like to know how much worse it is to have +a back elevator for the servants than it is to have the basement door for +the servants, as you always do when you live in a separate house?” + +“I should think it was no worse,” I admitted, and I thought this a good +chance to turn the talk from the dangerous channel it had taken. “I wish, +Mrs. Makely, you would tell me something about the way people live in +separate houses in New York.” + +She was instantly pacified. “Why, I should be delighted. I only wish my +friend Mrs. Bellington Strange was back from Europe; then I could show +you a model house. I mean to take you there, as soon as she gets home. +She's a kind of Altrurian herself, you know. She was my dearest friend at +school, and it almost broke my heart when she married Mr. Strange, so +much older, and her inferior in every way. But she's got his money now, +and oh, the good she does do with it! I know you'll like each other, Mr. +Homos. I do wish Eva was at home!” + +I said that I should be very glad to meet an American Altrurian, but that +now I wished she would tell me about the normal New York house, and what +was its animating principle, beginning with the basement door. + +She laughed and said, “Why, it's just like any other house!” + + + + +VII + + +I can never insist enough, my dear Cyril, upon the illogicality of +American life. You know what the plutocratic principle is, and what the +plutocratic civilization should logically be. But the plutocratic +civilization is much better than it should logically be, bad as it is; +for the personal equation constantly modifies it, and renders it far less +dreadful than you would reasonably expect. That is, the potentialities of +goodness implanted in the human heart by the Creator forbid the +plutocratic man to be what the plutocratic scheme of life implies. He is +often merciful, kindly, and generous, as I have told you already, in +spite of conditions absolutely egotistical. You would think that the +Americans would be abashed in view of the fact that their morality is +often in contravention of their economic principles, but apparently they +are not so, and I believe that for the most part they are not aware of +the fact. Nevertheless, the fact is there, and you must keep it in mind, +if you would conceive of them rightly. You can in no other way account +for the contradictions which you will find in my experiences among them; +and these are often so bewildering that I have to take myself in hand, +from time to time, and ask myself what mad world I have fallen into, and +whether, after all, it is not a ridiculous nightmare. I am not sure that, +when I return and we talk these things over together, I shall be able to +overcome your doubts of my honesty, and I think that when I no longer +have them before my eyes I shall begin to doubt my own memory. But for +the present I can only set down what I at least seem to see, and trust +you to accept it, if you cannot understand it. + +Perhaps I can aid you by suggesting that, logically, the Americans should +be what the Altrurians are, since their polity embodies our belief that +all men are born equal, with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit +of happiness; but that illogically they are what the Europeans are, since +they still cling to the economical ideals of Europe, and hold that men +are born socially unequal, and deny them the liberty and happiness which +can come from equality alone. It is in their public life and civic life +that Altruria prevails; it is in their social and domestic life that +Europe prevails; and here, I think, is the severest penalty they must pay +for excluding women from political affairs; for women are at once the +best and the worst Americans: the best because their hearts are the +purest, the worst because their heads are the idlest. “Another +contradiction!” you will say, and I cannot deny it; for, with all their +cultivation, the American women have no real intellectual interests, but +only intellectual fads; and while they certainly think a great deal, they +reflect little, or not at all. The inventions and improvements which +have made their household work easy, the wealth that has released them in +such vast numbers from work altogether, has not enlarged them to the +sphere of duties which our Altrurian women share with us, but has left +them, with their quickened intelligences, the prey of the trivialities +which engross the European women, and which have formed the life of the +sex hitherto in every country where women have an economical and social +freedom without the political freedom that can alone give it dignity and +import. They have a great deal of beauty, and they are inconsequently +charming; I need not tell you that they are romantic and heroic, or that +they would go to the stake for a principle, if they could find one, as +willingly as any martyr of the past; but they have not much more +perspective than children, and their reading and their talk about reading +seem not to have broadened their mental horizons beyond the old sunrise +and the old sunset of the kitchen and the parlor. + +In fine, the American house as it is, the American household, is what the +American woman makes it and wills it to be, whether she wishes it to be +so or not; for I often find that the American woman wills things that she +in no wise wishes. What the normal New York house is, however, I had +great difficulty in getting Mrs. Makely to tell me, for, as she said +quite frankly, she could not imagine my not knowing. She asked me if I +really wanted her to begin at the beginning, and, when I said that I did, +she took a little more time to laugh at the idea, and then she said, “I +suppose you mean a brown-stone, four-story house in the middle of a +block?” + +“Yes, I think that is what I mean,” I said. + +“Well,” she began, “those high steps that they all have, unless they're +English-basement houses, really give them another story, for people used +to dine in the front room of their basements. You've noticed the little +front yard, about as big as a handkerchief, generally, and the steps +leading down to the iron gate, which is kept locked, and the basement +door inside the gate? Well, that's what you might call the back elevator +of a house, for it serves the same purpose: the supplies are brought in +there, and market-men go in and out, and the ashes, and the swill, and +the servants--that you object to so much. We have no alleys in New York, +the blocks are so narrow, north and south; and, of course, we have no +back doors; so we have to put the garbage out on the sidewalk--and it's +nasty enough, goodness knows. Underneath the sidewalk there are bins +where people keep their coal and kindling. You've noticed the gratings in +the pavements?” + +I said yes, and I was ashamed to own that at first I had thought them +some sort of registers for tempering the cold in winter; this would have +appeared ridiculous in the last degree to my hostess, for the Americans +have as yet no conception of publicly modifying the climate, as we do. + +“Back of what used to be the dining-room, and what is now used for a +laundry, generally, is the kitchen, with closets between, of course, and +then the back yard, which some people make very pleasant with shrubs and +vines; the kitchen is usually dark and close, and the girls can only get +a breath of fresh air in the yard; I like to see them; but generally it's +taken up with clothes-lines, for people in houses nearly all have their +washing done at home. Over the kitchen is the dining-room, which takes up +the whole of the first floor, with the pantry, and it almost always has a +bay-window out of it; of course, that overhangs the kitchen, and darkens +it a little more, but it makes the dining-room so pleasant. I tell my +husband that I should be almost willing to live in a house again, just on +account of the dining-room bay-window. I had it full of flowers in pots, +for the southern sun came in; and then the yard was so nice for the dog; +you didn't have to take him out for exercise, yourself; he chased the +cats there and got plenty of it. I must say that the cats on the back +fences were a drawback at night; to be sure, we have them here, too; it's +seven stories down, but you do hear them, along in the spring. The +parlor, or drawing-room, is usually rather long, and runs from the +dining-room to the front of the house, though where the house is very +deep they have a sort of middle room, or back parlor. Dick, get some +paper and draw it. Wouldn't you like to see a plan of the floor?” + +I said that I should, and she bade her husband make it like their old +house in West Thirty-third Street. We all looked at it together. + +“This is the front door,” Mrs. Makely explained, “where people come in, +and then begins the misery of a house--stairs! They mostly go up +straight, but sometimes they have them curve a little, and in the new +houses the architects have all sorts of little dodges for squaring them +and putting landings. Then, on the second floor--draw it, Dick--you have +two nice, large chambers, with plenty of light and air, before and +behind. I do miss the light and air in a flat, there's no denying it.” + +“You'll go back to a house yet, Dolly,” said her husband. + +“Never!” she almost shrieked, and he winked at me, as if it were the best +joke in the world. “Never, as long as houses have stairs!” + +“Put in an elevator,” he suggested. + +“Well, that is what Eveleth Strange has, and she lets the servants use +it, too,” and Mrs. Makely said, with a look at me: “I suppose that would +please you, Mr. Homos. Well, there's a nice side-room over the front door +here, and a bath-room at the rear. Then you have more stairs, and large +chambers, and two side-rooms. That makes plenty of chambers for a small +family. I used to give two of the third-story rooms to my two girls. I +ought really to have made them sleep in one; it seemed such a shame to +let the cook have a whole large room to herself; but I had nothing else +to do with it, and she did take such comfort in it, poor old thing! You +see, the rooms came wrong in our house, for it fronted north, and I had +to give the girls sunny rooms or else give them front rooms, so that it +was as broad as it was long. I declare, I was perplexed about it the +whole time we lived there, it seemed so perfectly anomalous.” + +“And what is an English-basement house like?” I ventured to ask, in +interruption of the retrospective melancholy she had fallen into. + +“Oh, _never_ live in an English-basement house, if you value your +spine!” cried the lady. “An English-basement house is nothing _but_ +stairs. In the first place, it's only one room wide, and it's a story +higher than the high-stoop house. It's one room forward and one back, the +whole way up; and in an English-basement it's always _up_, and +_never_ down. If I had my way, there wouldn't one stone be left upon +another in the English-basements in New York.” + +I have suffered Mrs. Makely to be nearly as explicit to you as she was to +me; for the kind of house she described is of the form ordinarily +prevailing in all American cities, and you can form some idea from it how +city people live here. I ought perhaps to tell you that such a house is +fitted with every housekeeping convenience, and that there is hot and +cold water throughout, and gas everywhere. It has fireplaces in all the +rooms, where fires are often kept burning for pleasure; but it is really +heated from a furnace in the basement, through large pipes carried to the +different stories, and opening into them by some such registers as we +use. The separate houses sometimes have steam-heating, but not often. +They each have their drainage into the sewer of the street, and this is +trapped and trapped again, as in the houses of our old plutocratic +cities, to keep the poison of the sewer from getting into the houses. + + + + +VIII + + +You will be curious to know something concerning the cost of living in +such a house, and you may be sure that I did not fail to question Mrs. +Makely on this point. She was at once very volubly communicative; she +told me all she knew, and, as her husband said, a great deal more. + +“Why, of course,” she began, “you can spend all you have in New York, if +you like, and people do spend fortunes every year. But I suppose you mean +the average cost of living in a brown-stone house, in a good block, that +rents for $1800 or $2000 a year, with a family of three or four children, +and two servants. Well, what should you say, Dick?” + +“Ten or twelve thousand a year--fifteen,” answered her husband. + +“Yes, fully that,” she answered, with an effect of disappointment in his +figures. “We had just ourselves, and we never spent less than seven, and +we didn't dress, and we didn't entertain, either, to speak of. But you +have to live on a certain scale, and generally you live up to your +income.” + +“Quite,” said Mr. Makely. + +“I don't know what makes it cost so. Provisions are cheap enough, and +they say people live in as good style for a third less in London. There +used to be a superstition that you could live for less in a flat, and +they always talk to you about the cost of a furnace, and a man to tend it +and keep the snow shovelled off your sidewalk, but that is all stuff. +Five hundred dollars will make up the whole difference, and more. You pay +quite as much rent for a decent flat, and then you don't get half the +room. No, if it wasn't for the stairs, I wouldn't live in a flat for an +instant. But that makes all the difference.” + +“And the young people,” I urged--“those who are just starting in +life--how do they manage? Say when the husband has $1500 or $2000 a +year?” + +“Poor things!” she returned. “I don't know how they manage. They board +till they go distracted, or they dry up and blow away; or else the wife +has a little money, too, and they take a small flat and ruin themselves. +Of course, they want to live nicely and like other people.” + +“But if they didn't?” + +“Why, then they could live delightfully. My husband says he often wishes +he was a master-mechanic in New York, with a thousand a year, and a flat +for twelve dollars a month; he would have the best time in the world.” + +Her husband nodded his acquiescence. “Fighting-cock wouldn't be in it,” + he said. “Trouble is, we all want to do the swell thing.” + +“But you can't all do it,” I ventured, “and, from what I see of the +simple, out-of-the-way neighborhoods in my walks, you don't all try.” + +“Why, no,” he said. “Some of us were talking about that the other night +at the club, and one of the fellows was saying that he believed there was +as much old-fashioned, quiet, almost countrified life in New York, among +the great mass of the people, as you'd find in any city in the world. +Said you met old codgers that took care of their own furnaces, just as +you would in a town of five thousand inhabitants.” + +“Yes, that's all very well,” said his wife; “but they wouldn't be nice +people. Nice people want to live nicely. And so they live beyond their +means or else they scrimp and suffer. I don't know which is worst.” + +“But there is no obligation to do either?” I asked. + +“Oh yes, there is,” she returned. “If you've been born in a certain way, +and brought up in a certain way, you can't get out of it. You simply +can't. You have got to keep in it till you drop. Or a woman has.” + +“That means the woman's husband, too,” said Mr. Makely, with his wink for +me. “Always die together.” + +In fact, there is the same competition in the social world as in the +business world; and it is the ambition of every American to live in some +such house as the New York house; and as soon as a village begins to +grow into a town, such houses are built. Still, the immensely greater +number of the Americans necessarily live so simply and cheaply that such +a house would be almost as strange to them as to an Altrurian. But while +we should regard its furnishings as vulgar and unwholesome, most +Americans would admire and covet its rich rugs or carpets, its papered +walls, and thickly curtained windows, and all its foolish ornamentation, +and most American women would long to have a house like the ordinary +high-stoop New York house, that they might break their backs over its +stairs, and become invalids, and have servants about them to harass them +and hate them. + +Of course, I put it too strongly, for there is often, illogically, a +great deal of love between the American women and their domestics, though +why there should be any at all I cannot explain, except by reference to +that mysterious personal equation which modifies all conditions here. You +will have made your reflection that the servants, as they are cruelly +called (I have heard them called so in their hearing, and wondered they +did not fly tooth and nail at the throat that uttered the insult), form +really no part of the house, but are aliens in the household and the +family life. In spite of this fact, much kindness grows up between them +and the family, and they do not always slight the work that I cannot +understand their ever having any heart in. Often they do slight it, and +they insist unsparingly upon the scanty privileges which their mistresses +seem to think a monstrous invasion of their own rights. The habit of +oppression grows upon the oppressor, and you would find tender-hearted +women here, gentle friends, devoted wives, loving mothers, who would be +willing that their domestics should remain indoors, week in and week out, +and, where they are confined in the ridiculous American flat, never see +the light of day. In fact, though the Americans do not know it, and would +be shocked to be told it, their servants are really slaves, who are none +the less slaves because they cannot be beaten, or bought and sold except +by the week or month, and for the price which they fix themselves, and +themselves receive in the form of wages. They are social outlaws, so far +as the society of the family they serve is concerned, and they are +restricted in the visits they receive and pay among themselves. They are +given the worst rooms in the house, and they are fed with the food that +they have prepared, only when it comes cold from the family table; in the +wealthier houses, where many of them are kept, they are supplied with a +coarser and cheaper victual bought and cooked for them apart from that +provided for the family. They are subject, at all hours, to the pleasure +or caprice of the master or mistress. Every circumstance of their life is +an affront to that just self-respect which even Americans allow is the +right of every human being. With the rich, they are said to be sometimes +indolent, dishonest, mendacious, and all that Plato long ago explained +that slaves must be; but in the middle-class families they are mostly +faithful, diligent, and reliable in a degree that would put to shame most +men who hold positions of trust, and would leave many ladies whom they +relieve of work without ground for comparison. + + + + +IX + + +After Mrs. Makely had told me about the New York house, we began to talk +of the domestic service, and I ventured to hint some of the things that I +have so plainly said to you. She frankly consented to my whole view of +the matter, for if she wishes to make an effect or gain a point she has a +magnanimity that stops at nothing short of self-devotion. “I know it,” + she said. “You are perfectly right; but here we are, and what are we to +do? What do you do in Altruria, I should like to know?” + +I said that in Altruria we all worked, and that personal service was +honored among us like medical attendance in America; I did not know what +other comparison to make; but I said that any one in health would think +it as unwholesome and as immoral to let another serve him as to let a +doctor physic him. At this Mrs. Makely and her husband laughed so that I +found myself unable to go on for some moments, till Mrs. Makely, with a +final shriek, shouted to him: “Dick, do stop, or I shall die! Excuse me, +Mr. Homos, but you are so deliciously funny, and I know you're just +joking. You _won't_ mind my laughing? Do go on.” + +I tried to give her some notion as to how we manage, in our common life, +which we have simplified so much beyond anything that this barbarous +people dream of; and she grew a little soberer as I went on, and seemed +at least to believe that I was not, as her husband said, stuffing them; +but she ended, as they always do here, by saying that it might be all +very well in Altruria, but it would never do in America, and that it was +contrary to human nature to have so many things done in common. “Now, +I'll tell you,” she said. “After we broke up housekeeping in Thirty-third +Street, we stored our furniture--” + +“Excuse me,” I said. “How--stored?” + +“Oh, I dare say you never store your furniture in Altruria. But here we +have hundreds of storage warehouses of all sorts and sizes, packed with +furniture that people put into them when they go to Europe, or get sick +to death of servants and the whole bother of house-keeping; and that's +what we did; and then, as my husband says, we browsed about for a year +or two. First, we tried hotelling it, and we took a hotel apartment +furnished, and dined at the hotel table, until I certainly thought I +should go off, I got so tired of it. Then we hired a suite in one of the +family hotels that there are so many of, and got out enough of our +things to furnish it, and had our meals in our rooms; they let you do +that for the same price, often they are _glad_ to have you, for the +dining-room is so packed. But everything got to tasting just the same as +everything else, and my husband had the dyspepsia so bad he couldn't half +attend to business, and I suffered from indigestion myself, cooped up in +a few small rooms, that way; and the dog almost died; and finally we gave +that up, and took an apartment, and got out our things--the storage cost +as much as the rent of a small house--and put them into it, and had a +caterer send in the meals as they do in Europe. But it isn't the same +here as it is in Europe, and we got so sick of it in a month that I +thought I should scream when I saw the same old dishes coming on the +table, day after day. We had to keep one servant--excuse me, Mr. Homos: +_domestic_--anyway, to look after the table and the parlor and +chamber work, and my husband said we might as well be hung for a sheep as +a lamb, and so we got in a cook; and, bad as it is, it's twenty million +times better than anything else you can do. Servants are a plague, but +you have got to have them, and so I have resigned myself to the will of +Providence. If they don't like it, neither do I, and so I fancy it's +about as broad as it's long.” I have found this is a favorite phrase of +Mrs. Makely's, and that it seems to give her a great deal of comfort. + +“And you don't feel that there's any harm in it?” I ventured to ask. + +“Harm in it?” she repeated. “Why, aren't the poor things glad to get the +work? What would they do without it?” + +“From what I see of your conditions I should be afraid that they would +starve,” I said. + +“Yes, they can't all get places in shops or restaurants, and they have to +do something, or starve, as you say,” she said; and she seemed to think +what I had said was a concession to her position. + +“But if it were your own case?” I suggested. “If you had no alternatives +but starvation and domestic service, you would think there was harm in +it, even although you were glad to take a servant's place?” + +I saw her flush, and she answered, haughtily, “You must excuse me if I +refuse to imagine myself taking a servant's place, even for the sake of +argument.” + +“And you are quite right,” I said. “Your American instinct is too strong +to brook even in imagination the indignities which seem daily, hourly, +and momently inflicted upon servants in your system.” + +To my great astonishment she seemed delighted by this conclusion. “Yes,” + she said, and she smiled radiantly, “and now you understand how it is +that American girls won't go out to service, though the pay is so much +better and they are so much better housed and fed--and everything. +Besides,” she added, with an irrelevance which always amuses her husband, +though I should be alarmed by it for her sanity if I did not find it so +characteristic of women here, who seem to be mentally characterized by +the illogicality of the civilization, “they're not half so good as the +foreign servants. They've been brought up in homes of their own, and +they're uppish, and they have no idea of anything but third-rate +boarding-house cooking, and they're always hoping to get married, so +that, really, you have no peace of your life with them.” + +“And it never seems to you that the whole relation is wrong?” I asked. + +“What relation?” + +“That between maid and mistress, the hirer and the hireling.” + +“Why, good gracious!” she burst out. “Didn't Christ himself say that the +laborer was worthy of his hire? And how would you get your work done, if +you didn't pay for it?” + +“It might be done for you, when you could not do it yourself, from +affection.” + +“From affection!” she returned, with the deepest derision. “Well, I +rather think I _shall_ have to do it myself if I want it done +from affection! But I suppose you think I _ought_ to do it +myself, as the Altrurian ladies do! I can tell you that in America it +would be impossible for a lady to do her own work, and there are no +intelligence-offices where you can find girls that want to work for love. +It's as broad as it's long.” + +“It's simply business,” her husband said. + +They were right, my dear friend, and I was wrong, strange as it must +appear to you. The tie of service, which we think as sacred as the tie of +blood, can be here only a business relation, and in these conditions +service must forever be grudgingly given and grudgingly paid. There is +something in it, I do not quite know what, for I can never place myself +precisely in an American's place, that degrades the poor creatures who +serve, so that they must not only be social outcasts, but must leave such +a taint of dishonor on their work that one cannot even do it for one's +self without a sense of outraged dignity. You might account for this in +Europe, where ages of prescriptive wrong have distorted the relation out +of all human wholesomeness and Christian loveliness; but in America, +where many, and perhaps most, of those who keep servants and call them so +are but a single generation from fathers who earned their bread by the +sweat of their brows, and from mothers who nobly served in all household +offices, it is in the last degree bewildering. I can only account for it +by that bedevilment of the entire American ideal through the retention of +the English economy when the English polity was rejected. But at the +heart of America there is this ridiculous contradiction, and it must +remain there until the whole country is Altrurianized. There is no other +hope; but I did not now urge this point, and we turned to talk of other +things, related to the matters we had been discussing. + +“The men,” said Mrs. Makely, “get out of the whole bother very nicely, as +long as they are single, and even when they're married they are apt to +run off to the club when there's a prolonged upheaval in the kitchen.” + +“_I_ don't, Dolly,” suggested her husband. + +“No, _you_ don't, Dick,” she returned, fondly. “But there are not +many like you.” + +He went on, with a wink at me, “I never live at the club, except in +summer, when you go away to the mountains.” + +“Well, you know I can't very well take you with me,” she said. + +“Oh, I couldn't leave my business, anyway,” he said, and he laughed. + + + + +X + + +I had noticed the vast and splendid club-houses in the best places in the +city, and I had often wondered about their life, which seemed to me a +blind groping towards our own, though only upon terms that forbade it to +those who most needed it. The clubs here are not like our groups, the +free association of sympathetic people, though one is a little more +literary, or commercial, or scientific, or political than another; but +the entrance to each is more or less jealously guarded; there is an +initiation-fee, and there are annual dues, which are usually heavy enough +to exclude all but the professional and business classes, though there +are, of course, successful artists and authors in them. During the past +winter I visited some of the most characteristic, where I dined and +supped with the members, or came alone when one of these put me down, for +a fortnight or a month. + +They are equipped with kitchens and cellars, and their wines and dishes +are of the best. Each is, in fact, like a luxurious private house on a +large scale; outwardly they are palaces, and inwardly they have every +feature and function of a princely residence complete, even to a certain +number of guest-chambers, where members may pass the night, or stay +indefinitely in some cases, and actually live at the club. The club, +however, is known only to the cities and larger towns, in this highly +developed form; to the ordinary, simple American of the country, or of +the country town of five or ten thousand people, a New York club would be +as strange as it would be to any Altrurian. + +“Do many of the husbands left behind in the summer live at the club?” I +asked. + +“All that _have_ a club do,” he said. “Often there's a very good +table d'hôte dinner that you couldn't begin to get for the same price +anywhere else; and there are a lot of good fellows there, and you can +come pretty near forgetting that you're homeless, or even that you're +married.” + +He laughed, and his wife said: “You ought to be ashamed, Dick; and me +worrying about you all the time I'm away, and wondering what the cook +gives you here. Yes,” she continued, addressing me, “that's the worst +thing about the clubs. They make the men so comfortable that they say +it's one of the principal obstacles to early marriages. The young men try +to get lodgings near them, so that they can take their meals there, and +they know they get much better things to eat than they could have in a +house of their own at a great deal more expense, and so they simply don't +think of getting married. Of course,” she said, with that wonderful, +unintentional, or at least unconscious, frankness of hers, “I don't blame +the clubs altogether. There's no use denying that girls are expensively +brought up, and that a young man has to think twice before taking one of +them out of the kind of home she's used to and putting her into the kind +of home he can give her. If the clubs have killed early marriages, +the women have created the clubs.” + +“Do women go much to them?” I asked, choosing this question as a safe +one. + +“_Much_!” she screamed. “They don't go at all! They _can't_! +They won't _let_ us! To be sure, there are some that have rooms +where ladies can go with their friends who are members, and have lunch or +dinner; but as for seeing the inside of the club-house proper, where +these great creatures”--she indicated her husband--“are sitting up, +smoking and telling stories, it isn't to be dreamed of.” + +Her husband laughed. “You wouldn't like the smoking, Dolly.” + +“Nor the stories, some of them,” she retorted. + +“Oh, the stories are always first-rate,” he said, and he laughed more +than before. + +“And they never gossip at the clubs, Mr. Homos--never!” she added. + +“Well, hardly ever,” said her husband, with an intonation that I did not +understand. It seemed to be some sort of catch-phrase. + +“All I know,” said Mrs. Makely, “is that I like to have my husband belong +to his club. It's a nice place for him in summer; and very often in +winter, when I'm dull, or going out somewhere that he hates, he can go +down to his club and smoke a cigar, and come home just about the time I +get in, and it's much better than worrying through the evening with a +book. He hates books, poor Dick!” She looked fondly at him, as if this +were one of the greatest merits in the world. “But I confess I shouldn't +like him to be a mere club man, like some of them.” + +“But how?” I asked. + +“Why, belonging to five or six, or more, even; and spending their whole +time at them, when they're not at business.” + +There was a pause, and Mr. Makely put on an air of modest worth, which he +carried off with his usual wink towards me. I said, finally, “And if the +ladies are not admitted to the men's clubs, why don't they have clubs of +their own?” + +“Oh, they have--several, I believe. But who wants to go and meet a lot of +women? You meet enough of them in society, goodness knows. You hardly +meet any one else, especially at afternoon teas. They bore you to death.” + +Mrs. Makely's nerves seemed to lie in the direction of a prolongation of +this subject, and I asked my next question a little away from it. “I wish +you would tell me, Mrs. Makely, something about your way of provisioning +your household. You said that the grocer's and butcher's man came up to +the kitchen with your supplies--” + +“Yes, and the milkman and the iceman; the iceman always puts the ice into +the refrigerator; it's very convenient, and quite like your own house.” + +“But you go out and select the things yourself the day before, or in the +morning?” + +“Oh, not at all! The men come and the cook gives the order; she knows +pretty well what we want on the different days, and I never meddle with +it from one week's end to the other, unless we have friends. The +tradespeople send in their bills at the end of the month, and that's all +there is of it.” Her husband gave me one of his queer looks, and she went +on: “When we were younger, and just beginning housekeeping, I used to go +out and order the things myself; I used even to go to the big markets, +and half kill myself trying to get things a little cheaper at one place +and another, and waste more car-fare and lay up more doctor's bills than +it would all come to, ten times over. I used to fret my life out, +remembering the prices; but now, thank goodness, that's all over. I don't +know any more what beef is a pound than my husband does; if a thing isn't +good, I send it straight back, and that puts them on their honor, you +know, and they have to give me the best of everything. The bills average +about the same, from month to month; a little more if we have company +but if they're too outrageous, I make a fuss with the cook, and she +scolds the men, and then it goes better for a while. Still, it's a great +bother.” + +I confess that I did not see what the bother was, but I had not the +courage to ask, for I had already conceived a wholesome dread of the +mystery of an American lady's nerves. So I merely suggested, “And that is +the way that people usually manage?” + +“Why,” she said, “I suppose that some old-fashioned people still do their +marketing, and people that have to look to their outgoes, and know what +every mouthful costs them. But their lives are not worth having. Eveleth +Strange does it--or she did do it when she was in the country; I dare say +she won't when she gets back--just from a sense of duty, and because she +says that a housekeeper ought to know about her expenses. But I ask her +who will care whether she knows or not; and as for giving the money to +the poor that she saves by spending economically, I tell her that the +butchers and the grocers have to live, too, as well as the poor, and so +it's as broad as it's long.” + + + + +XI + + +I could not make out whether Mr. Makely approved of his wife's philosophy +or not; I do not believe he thought much about it. The money probably +came easily with him, and he let it go easily, as an American likes to +do. There is nothing penurious or sordid about this curious people, so +fierce in the pursuit of riches. When these are once gained, they seem to +have no value to the man who has won them, and he has generally no object +in life but to see his womankind spend them. + +This is the season of the famous Thanksgiving, which has now become the +national holiday, but has no longer any savor in it of the grim +Puritanism it sprang from. It is now appointed by the president and the +governors of the several states, in proclamations enjoining a pious +gratitude upon the people for their continued prosperity as a nation, and +a public acknowledgment of the divine blessings. The blessings are +supposed to be of the material sort, grouped in the popular imagination +as good times, and it is hard to see what they are when hordes of men and +women of every occupation are feeling the pinch of poverty in their +different degrees. It is not merely those who have always the wolf at +their doors who are now suffering, but those whom the wolf never +threatened before; those who amuse as well as those who serve the rich +are alike anxious and fearful, where they are not already in actual want; +thousands of poor players, as well as hundreds of thousands of poor +laborers, are out of employment, and the winter threatens to be one of +dire misery. Yet you would not imagine from the smiling face of things, +as you would see it in the better parts of this great city, that there +was a heavy heart or an empty stomach anywhere below it. In fact, people +here are so used to seeing other people in want that it no longer affects +them as reality; it is merely dramatic, or hardly so lifelike as that--it +is merely histrionic. It is rendered still more spectacular to the +imaginations of the fortunate by the melodrama of charity they are +invited to take part in by endless appeals, and their fancy is flattered +by the notion that they are curing the distress they are only slightly +relieving by a gift from their superfluity. The charity, of course, is +better than nothing, but it is a fleeting mockery of the trouble, at the +best. If it were proposed that the city should subsidize a theatre a +which the idle players could get employment in producing good plays at a +moderate cost to the people, the notion would not be considered more +ridiculous than that of founding municipal works for the different sorts +of idle workers; and it would not be thought half so nefarious, for the +proposition to give work by the collectivity is supposed to be in +contravention of the sacred principle of monopolistic competition so +dear to the American economist, and it would be denounced as an +approximation to the surrender of the city to anarchism and destruction +by dynamite. + +But as I have so often said, the American life is in no wise logical, and +you will not be surprised, though you may be shocked or amused, to learn +that the festival of Thanksgiving is now so generally devoted to +witnessing a game of football between the elevens of two great +universities that the services at the churches are very scantily +attended. The Americans are practical, if they are not logical, and this +preference of football to prayer and praise on Thanksgiving-day has gone +so far that now a principal church in the city holds its services on +Thanksgiving-eve, so that the worshippers may not be tempted to keep away +from their favorite game. + +There is always a heavy dinner at home after the game, to console the +friends of those who have lost and to heighten the joy of the winning +side, among the comfortable people. The poor recognize the day largely +as a sort of carnival. They go about in masquerade on the eastern +avenues, and the children of the foreign races who populate that quarter +penetrate the better streets, blowing horns and begging of the passers. +They have probably no more sense of its difference from the old carnival +of Catholic Europe than from the still older Saturnalia of pagan times. +Perhaps you will say that a masquerade is no more pagan than a football +game; and I confess that I have a pleasure in that innocent +misapprehension of the holiday on the East Side. I am not more censorious +of it than I am of the displays of festival cheer at the provision-stores +or green-groceries throughout the city at this time. They are almost as +numerous on the avenues as the drinking-saloons, and, thanks to them, the +tasteful housekeeping is at least convenient in a high degree. The waste +is inevitable with the system of separate kitchens, and it is not in +provisions alone, but in labor and in time, a hundred cooks doing the +work of one; but the Americans have no conception of our co-operative +housekeeping, and so the folly goes on. + +Meantime the provision-stores add much to their effect of crazy gayety on +the avenues. The variety and harmony of colors is very great, and this +morning I stood so long admiring the arrangement in one of them that I am +afraid I rendered myself a little suspicious to the policeman guarding +the liquor-store on the nearest corner; there seems always to be a +policeman assigned to this duty. The display was on either side of the +provisioner's door, and began, on one hand, with a basal line of pumpkins +well out on the sidewalk. Then it was built up with the soft white and +cool green of cauliflowers and open boxes of red and white grapes, to the +window that flourished in banks of celery and rosy apples. On the other +side, gray-green squashes formed the foundation, and the wall was sloped +upward with the delicious salads you can find here, the dark red of +beets, the yellow of carrots, and the blue of cabbages. The association +of colors was very artistic, and even the line of mutton carcasses +overhead, with each a brace of grouse or half a dozen quail in its +embrace, and flanked with long sides of beef at the four ends of the +line, was picturesque, though the sight of the carnage at the +provision-stores here would always be dreadful to an Altrurian; in the +great markets it is intolerable. This sort of business is mostly in the +hands of the Germans, who have a good eye for such effects as may be +studied in it; but the fruiterers are nearly all Italians, and their +stalls are charming. I always like, too, the cheeriness of the chestnut +and peanut ovens of the Italians; the pleasant smell and friendly smoke +that rise from them suggest a simple and homelike life which there are so +any things in this great, weary, heedless city to make one forget. + + + + +XII + + +But I am allowing myself to wander too far from Mrs. Makely and her +letter, which reached me only two days before Thanksgiving. + + +“MY DEAR MR. HOMOS,--Will you give me the pleasure of your company at +dinner, on Thanksgiving-day, at eight o'clock, very informally. My +friend, Mrs. Bellington Strange, has unexpectedly returned from Europe +within the week, and I am asking a few friends, whom I can trust to +excuse this very short notice, to meet her. + +“With Mr. Makely's best regards, + +“Yours cordially, + +“DOROTHEA MAKELY. + +“The Sphinx, + +“November the twenty sixth, + +“Eighteen hundred and Ninety-three.” + + +I must tell you that it has been a fad with the ladies here to spell out +their dates, and, though the fashion is waning, Mrs. Makely is a woman +who would remain in such an absurdity among the very last. I will let you +make your own conclusions concerning this, for though, as an Altrurian, I +cannot respect her, I like her so much, and have so often enjoyed her +generous hospitality, that I cannot bring myself to criticise her except +by the implication of the facts. She is anomalous, but, to our way of +thinking, all the Americans I have met are anomalous, and she has the +merits that you would not logically attribute to her character. Of +course, I cannot feel that her evident regard for me is the least of +these, though I like to think that it is founded on more reason than the +rest. + +I have by this time become far too well versed in the polite +insincerities of the plutocratic world to imagine that, because she asked +me to come to her dinner very informally, I was not to come in all the +state I could put into my dress. You know what the evening dress of men +is here, from the costumes in our museum, and you can well believe that I +never put on those ridiculous black trousers without a sense of their +grotesqueness--that scrap of waistcoat reduced to a mere rim, so as to +show the whole white breadth of the starched shirt-bosom, and that coat +chopped away till it seems nothing but tails and lapels. It is true that +I might go out to dinner in our national costume; in fact, Mrs. Makely +has often begged me to wear it, for she says the Chinese wear theirs; but +I have not cared to make the sensation which I must if I wore it; my +outlandish views of life and my frank study of their customs signalize me +quite sufficiently among the Americans. + +At the hour named I appeared in Mrs. Makely's drawing-room in all the +formality that I knew her invitation, to come very informally, really +meant. I found myself the first, as I nearly always do, but I had only +time for a word or two with my hostess before the others began to come. +She hastily explained that as soon as she knew Mrs. Strange was in New +York she had despatched a note telling her that I was still here; and +that as she could not get settled in time to dine at home, she must come +and take Thanksgiving dinner with her. “She will have to go out with Mr. +Makely; but I am going to put you next to her at table, for I want you +both to have a good time. But don't you forget that you are going to take +_me_ out.” + +I said that I should certainly not forget it, and I showed her the +envelope with my name on the outside, and hers on a card inside, which +the serving-man at the door had given me in the hall, as the first token +that the dinner was to be unceremonious. + +She laughed, and said: “I've had the luck to pick up two or three other +agreeable people that I know will be glad to meet you. Usually it's such +a scratch lot at Thanksgiving, for everybody dines at home that can, and +you have to trust to the highways and the byways for your guests, if you +give a dinner. But I did want to bring Mrs. Strange and you together, and +so I chanced it. Of course, it's a sent-in dinner, as you must have +inferred from the man at the door; I've given my servants a holiday, and +had Claret's people do the whole thing. It's as broad as it's long, and, +as my husband says, you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; and +it saves bother. Everybody will know it's sent in, so that nobody will be +deceived. There'll be a turkey in it somewhere, and cranberry sauce; I've +insisted on that; but it won't be a regular American Thanksgiving dinner, +and I'm rather sorry, on your account, for I wanted you to see one, and I +meant to have had you here, just with ourselves; but Eveleth Strange's +coming back put a new face on things, and so I've gone in for this +affair, which isn't at all what you would like. That's the reason I tell +you at once it's sent in.” + + + + +XIII + + +I am so often at a loss for the connection in Mrs. Makely's ideas that I +am more patient with her incoherent jargon than you will be, I am afraid. +It went on to much the effect that I have tried to report until the +moment she took the hand of the guest who came next. They arrived, until +there were eight of us in all, Mrs. Strange coming last, with excuses for +being late. I had somehow figured her as a person rather mystical and +recluse in appearance, perhaps on account of her name, and I had imagined +her tall and superb. But she was, really, rather small, though not below +the woman's average, and she had a face more round than otherwise, with a +sort of business-like earnestness, but a very charming smile, and +presently, as I saw, an American sense of humor. She had brown hair and +gray eyes, and teeth not too regular to be monotonous; her mouth was very +sweet, whether she laughed or sat gravely silent. She at once affected me +like a person who had been sobered beyond her nature by responsibilities, +and had steadily strengthened under the experiences of life. She was +dressed with a sort of personal taste, in a rich gown of black lace, +which came up to her throat; and she did not subject me to that +embarrassment I always feel in the presence of a lady who is much +décolletée, when I sit next her or face to face with her: I cannot always +look at her without a sense of taking an immodest advantage. Sometimes I +find a kind of pathos in this sacrifice of fashion, which affects me as +if the poor lady were wearing that sort of gown because she thought she +really ought, and then I keep my eyes firmly on hers, or avert them +altogether; but there are other cases which have not this appealing +quality. Yet in the very worst of the cases it would be a mistake to +suppose that there was a display personally meant of the display +personally made. Even then it would be found that the gown was worn so +because the dressmaker had made it so, and, whether she had made it +in this country or in Europe, that she had made it in compliance with a +European custom. In fact, all the society customs of the Americans follow +some European original, and usually some English original; and it is only +fair to say that in this particular custom they do not go to the English +extreme. + +We did not go out to dinner at Mrs. Makely's by the rules of English +precedence, because there are nominally no ranks here, and we could not; +but I am sure it will not be long before the Americans will begin playing +at precedence just as they now play at the other forms of aristocratic +society. For the present, however, there was nothing for us to do but to +proceed, when dinner was served, in such order as offered itself, after +Mr. Makely gave his arm to Mrs. Strange; though, of course, the white +shoulders of the other ladies went gleaming out before the white +shoulders of Mrs. Makely shone beside my black ones. I have now become so +used to these observances that they no longer affect me as they once did, +and as I suppose my account of them must affect you, painfully, +comically. But I have always the sense of having a part in amateur +theatricals, and I do not see how the Americans can fail to have the same +sense, for there is nothing spontaneous in them, and nothing that has +grown even dramatically out of their own life. + +Often when I admire the perfection of the stage-setting, it is with a +vague feeling that I am derelict in not offering it an explicit applause. +In fact, this is permitted in some sort and measure, as now when we sat +down at Mrs. Makely's exquisite table, and the ladies frankly recognized +her touch in it. One of them found a phrase for it at once, and +pronounced it a symphony in chrysanthemums; for the color and the +character of these flowers played through all the appointments of the +table, and rose to a magnificent finale in the vast group in the middle +of the board, infinite in their caprices of tint and design. Another lady +said that it was a dream, and then Mrs. Makely said, “No, a memory,” and +confessed that she had studied the effect from her recollection of some +tables at a chrysanthemum show held here year before last, which seemed +failures because they were so simply and crudely adapted in the china and +napery to merely one kind and color of the flower. + +“Then,” she added, “I wanted to do something very chrysanthemummy, +because it seems to me the Thanksgiving flower, and belongs to +Thanksgiving quite as much as holly belongs to Christmas.” + +Everybody applauded her intention, and they hungrily fell to upon the +excellent oysters, with her warning that we had better make the most of +everything in its turn, for she had conformed her dinner to the brevity +of the notice she had given her guests. + + + + +XIV + + +Just what the dinner was I will try to tell you, for I think that it will +interest you to know what people here think a very simple dinner. That +is, people of any degree of fashion; for the unfashionable Americans, who +are innumerably in the majority, have, no more than the Altrurians, seen +such a dinner as Mrs. Makely's. This sort generally sit down to a single +dish of meat, with two or three vegetables, and they drink tea or coffee, +or water only, with their dinner. Even when they have company, as they +say, the things are all put on the table at once; and the average of +Americans who have seen a dinner served in courses, after the Russian +manner, invariable in the fine world here, is not greater than those who +have seen a serving-man in livery. Among these the host piles up his +guest's plate with meat and vegetables, and it is passed from hand to +hand till it reaches him; his drink arrives from the hostess by the same +means. One maid serves the table in a better class, and two maids in a +class still better; it is only when you reach people of very decided form +that you find a man in a black coat behind your chair; Mrs. Makely, +mindful of the informality of her dinner in everything, had two men. + +I should say the difference between the Altrurians and the unfashionable +Americans, in view of such a dinner as she gave us, would be that, while +it would seem to us abominable for its extravagance, and revolting in its +appeals to appetite, it would seem to most of such Americans altogether +admirable and enviable, and would appeal to their ambition to give such a +dinner themselves as soon as ever they could. + +Well, with our oysters we had a delicate French wine, though I am told +that formerly Spanish wines were served. A delicious soup followed the +oysters, and then we had fish with sliced cucumbers dressed with oil and +vinegar, like a salad; and I suppose you will ask what we could possibly +have eaten more. But this was only the beginning, and next there came a +course of sweetbreads with green peas. With this the champagne began at +once to flow, for Mrs. Makely was nothing if not original, and she had +champagne very promptly. One of the gentlemen praised her for it, and +said you could not have it too soon, and he had secretly hoped it would +have begun with the oysters. Next, we had a remove--a tenderloin of beef, +with mushrooms, fresh, and not of the canned sort which it is usually +accompanied with. This fact won our hostess more compliments from the +gentlemen, which could not have gratified her more if she had dressed and +cooked the dish herself. She insisted upon our trying the stewed +terrapin, for, if it did come in a little by the neck and shoulders, it +was still in place at a Thanksgiving dinner, because it was so American; +and the stuffed peppers, which, if they were not American, were at least +Mexican, and originated in the kitchen of a sister republic. There were +one or two other side-dishes, and, with all, the burgundy began to be +poured out. + +Mr. Makely said that claret all came now from California, no matter what +French château they named it after, but burgundy you could not err in. +His guests were now drinking the different wines, and to much the same +effect, I should think, as if they had mixed them all in one cup; though +I ought to say that several of the ladies took no wine, and kept me in +countenance after the first taste I was obliged to take of each, in order +to pacify my host. + +You must know that all the time there were plates of radishes, olives, +celery, and roasted almonds set about that every one ate of without much +reference to the courses. The talking and the feasting were at their +height, but there was a little flagging of the appetite, perhaps, when it +received the stimulus of a water-ice flavored with rum. After eating it I +immediately experienced an extraordinary revival of my hunger (I am +ashamed to confess that I was gorging myself like the rest), but I +quailed inwardly when one of the men-servants set down before Mr. Makely +a roast turkey that looked as large as an ostrich. It was received with +cries of joy, and one of the gentlemen said, “Ah, Mrs. Makely, I was +waiting to see how you would interpolate the turkey, but you never fail. +I knew you would get it in somewhere. But where,” he added, in a +burlesque whisper, behind his hand, “are the--” + +“Canvasback duck?” she asked, and at that moment the servant set before +the anxious inquirer a platter of these renowned birds, which you know +something of already from the report our emissaries have given of their +cult among the Americans. + +Every one laughed, and after the gentleman had made a despairing flourish +over them with a carving-knife in emulation of Mr. Makely's emblematic +attempt upon the turkey, both were taken away and carved at a sideboard. +They were then served in slices, the turkey with cranberry sauce, and the +ducks with currant jelly; and I noticed that no one took so much of the +turkey that he could not suffer himself to be helped also to the duck. I +must tell you that there a salad with the duck, and after that there was +an ice-cream, with fruit and all manner of candied fruits, and candies, +different kinds of cheese, coffee, and liqueurs to drink after the +coffee. + +“Well, now,” Mrs. Makely proclaimed, in high delight with her triumph, “I +must let you imagine the pumpkin-pie. I meant to have it, because it +isn't really Thanksgiving without it. But I couldn't, for the life of me, +see where it would come in.” + + + + +XV + + +The sally of the hostess made them all laugh, and they began to talk +about the genuine American character of the holiday, and what a fine +thing it was to have something truly national. They praised Mrs. Makely +for thinking of so many American dishes, and the facetious gentleman said +that she rendered no greater tribute than was due to the overruling +Providence which had so abundantly bestowed them upon the Americans as a +people. “You must have been glad, Mrs. Strange,” he said to the lady at +my side, “to get back to our American oysters. There seems nothing else +so potent to bring us home from Europe.” + +“I'm afraid,” she answered, “that I don't care so much for the American +oyster as I should. But I am certainly glad to get back.” + +“In time for the turkey, perhaps?” + +“No, I care no more for the turkey than for the oyster of my native +land,” said the lady. + +“Ah, well, say the canvasback duck, then? The canvasback duck is no +alien. He is as thoroughly American as the turkey, or as any of us.” + +“No, I should not have missed him, either,” persisted the lady. + +“What could one have missed,” the gentleman said, with a bow to the +hostess, “in the dinner Mrs. Makely has given us? If there had been +nothing, I should not have missed it,” and when the laugh at his drolling +had subsided he asked Mrs. Strange: “Then, if it is not too indiscreet, +might I inquire what in the world has lured you again to our shores, if +it was not the oyster, nor the turkey, nor yet the canvasback?” + +“The American dinner-party,” said the lady, with the same burlesque. + +“Well,” he consented, “I think I understand you. It is different from the +English dinner-party in being a festivity rather than a solemnity; +though, after all, the American dinner is only a condition of the English +dinner. Do you find us much changed, Mrs. Strange?” + +“I think we are every year a little more European,” said the lady. “One +notices it on getting home.” + +“I supposed we were so European already,” returned the gentleman, “that +a European landing among us would think he had got back to his +starting-point in a sort of vicious circle. I am myself so thoroughly +Europeanized in all my feelings and instincts that, do you know, Mrs. +Makely, if I may confess it without offence--” + +“Oh, by all means!” cried the hostess. + +“When that vast bird which we have been praising, that colossal roast +turkey, appeared, I felt a shudder go through my delicate substance, such +as a refined Englishman might have experienced at the sight, and I said +to myself, quite as if I were not one of you, 'Good Heavens! now they +will begin talking through their noses and eating with their knives.' +It's what I might have expected!” + +It was impossible not to feel that this gentleman was talking at me; if +the Americans have a foreign guest, they always talk at him more or less; +and I was not surprised when he said, “I think our friend, Mr. Homos, +will conceive my fine revolt from the crude period of our existence which +the roast turkey marks as distinctly as the graffiti of the cave-dweller +proclaim his epoch.” + +“No,” I protested, “I am afraid that I have not the documents for the +interpretation of your emotion. I hope you will take pity on my ignorance +and tell me just what you mean.” + +The others said they none of them knew, either, and would like to know, +and the gentleman began by saying that he had been going over the matter +in his mind on his way to dinner, and he had really been trying to lead +up to it ever since we sat down. “I've been struck, first of all, by the +fact, in our evolution, that we haven't socially evolved from ourselves; +we've evolved from the Europeans, from the English. I don't think you'll +find a single society rite with us now that had its origin in our +peculiar national life, if we have a peculiar national life; I doubt it, +sometimes. If you begin with the earliest thing in the day, if you begin +with breakfast, as society gives breakfasts, you have an English +breakfast, though American people and provisions.” + +“I must say, I think they're both much nicer,” said Mrs. Makely. + +“Ah, there I am with you! We borrow the form, but we infuse the spirit. I +am talking about the form, though. Then, if you come to the society +lunch, which is almost indistinguishable from the society breakfast, you +have the English lunch, which is really an undersized English dinner. +The afternoon tea is English again, with its troops of eager females and +stray, reluctant males; though I believe there are rather more men at the +English teas, owing to the larger leisure class in England. The afternoon +tea and the 'at home' are as nearly alike as the breakfast and the lunch. +Then, in the course of time, we arrive at the great society function, +the dinner; and what is the dinner with us but the dinner of our +mother-country?” + +“It is livelier,” suggested Mrs. Makely, again. + +“Livelier, I grant you, but I am still speaking of the form, and not of +the spirit. The evening reception, which is gradually fading away, as a +separate rite, with its supper and its dance, we now have as the English +have it, for the people who have not been asked to dinner. The ball, +which brings us round to breakfast again, is again the ball of our +Anglo-Saxon kin beyond the seas. In short, from the society point of view +we are in everything their mere rinsings.” + +“Nothing of the kind!” cried Mrs. Makely. “I won't let you say such a +thing! On Thanksgiving-day, too! Why, there is the Thanksgiving dinner +itself! If that isn't purely American, I should like to know what is.” + +“It is purely American, but it is strictly domestic; it is not society. +Nobody but some great soul like you, Mrs. Makely, would have the courage +to ask anybody to a Thanksgiving dinner, and even you ask only such +easy-going house-friends as we are proud to be. You wouldn't think of +giving a dinner-party on Thanksgiving?” + +“No, I certainly shouldn't. I should think it was very presuming; and you +are all as nice as you can be to have come to-day; I am not the only +great soul at the table. But that is neither here nor there. Thanksgiving +is a purely American thing, and it's more popular than ever. A few years +ago you never heard of it outside of New England.” + +The gentleman laughed. “You are perfectly right, Mrs. Makely, as you +always are. Thanksgiving is purely American. So is the corn-husking, so +is the apple-bee, so is the sugar-party, so is the spelling-match, so is +the church-sociable; but none of these have had their evolution in our +society entertainments. The New Year's call was also purely American, but +that is now as extinct as the dodo, though I believe the other American +festivities are still known in the rural districts.” + +“Yes,” said Mrs. Makely, “and I think it's a great shame that we can't +have some of them in a refined form in society. I once went to a +sugar-party up in New Hampshire when I was a girl, and I never enjoyed +myself so much in my life. I should like to make up a party to go to one +somewhere in the Catskills in March. Will you all go? It would be +something to show Mr. Homos. I should like to show him something really +American before he goes home. There's nothing American left in society!” + +“You forget the American woman,” suggested the gentleman. “She is always +American, and she is always in society.” + +“Yes,” returned our hostess, with a thoughtful air, “you're quite right +in that. One always meets more women than men in society. But it's +because the men are so lazy, and so comfortable at their clubs, they +won't go. They enjoy themselves well enough in society after they get +there, as I tell my husband when he grumbles over having to dress.” + +“Well,” said the gentleman, “a great many things, the day-time things, we +really can't come to, because we don't belong to the aristocratic class, +as you ladies do, and we are busy down-town. But I don't think we are +reluctant about dinner; and the young fellows are nearly always willing +to go to a ball, if the supper's good and it's a house where they don't +feel obliged to dance. But what do _you_ think, Mr. Homos?” he +asked. “How does your observation coincide with my experience?” + +I answered that I hardly felt myself qualified to speak, for though I had +assisted at the different kinds of society rites he had mentioned, thanks +to the hospitality of my friends in New York, I knew the English +functions only from a very brief stay in England on my way here, and from +what I had read of them in English fiction and in the relations of our +emissaries. He inquired into our emissary system, and the company +appeared greatly interested in such account of it as I could briefly +give. + +“Well,” he said, “that would do while you kept it to yourselves; but now +that your country is known to the plutocratic world, your public +documents will be apt to come back to the countries your emissaries have +visited, and make trouble. The first thing you know some of our bright +reporters will get on to one of your emissaries, and interview him, and +then we shall get what you think of us at first hands. By-the-by, have +you seen any of those primitive social delights which Mrs. Makely regrets +so much?” + +“I!” our hostess protested. But then she perceived that he was joking, +and she let me answer. + +I said that I had seen them nearly all, during the past year, in New +England and in the West, but they appeared to me inalienable of the +simpler life of the country, and that I was not surprised they should not +have found an evolution in the more artificial society of the cities. + +“I see,” he returned, “that you reserve your _opinion_ of our more +artificial society; but you may be sure that our reporters will get it +out of you yet before you leave us.” + +“Those horrid reporters!” one of the ladies irrelevantly sighed. + +The gentleman resumed: “In the mean time, I don't mind saying how it +strikes me. I think you are quite right about the indigenous American +things being adapted only to the simpler life of the country and the +smaller towns. It is so everywhere. As soon as people become at all +refined they look down upon what is their own as something vulgar. But it +is peculiarly so with us. We have nothing national that is not connected +with the life of work, and when we begin to live the life of pleasure we +must borrow from the people abroad, who have always lived the life of +pleasure.” + +“Mr. Homos, you know,” Mrs. Makely explained for me, as if this were the +aptest moment, “thinks we all ought to work. He thinks we oughtn't to +have any servants.” + +“Oh no, my dear lady,” I put in. “I don't think that of you as you +_are_. None of you could see more plainly than I do that in your +conditions you _must_ have servants, and that you cannot possibly +work unless poverty obliges you.” + +The other ladies had turned upon me with surprise and horror at Mrs. +Makely's words, but they now apparently relented, as if I had fully +redeemed myself from the charge made against me. Mrs. Strange alone +seemed to have found nothing monstrous in my supposed position. +“Sometimes,” she said, “I wish we had to work, all of us, and that we +could be freed from our servile bondage to servants.” + +Several of the ladies admitted that it was the greatest slavery in the +world, and that it would be comparative luxury to do one's own work. But +they all asked, in one form or another, what were they to do, and Mrs. +Strange owned that she did not know. The facetious gentleman asked me how +the ladies did in Altruria, and when I told them, as well as I could, +they were, of course, very civil about it, but I could see that they all +thought it impossible, or, if not impossible, then ridiculous. I did not +feel bound to defend our customs, and I knew very well that each woman +there was imagining herself in our conditions with the curse of her +plutocratic tradition still upon her. They could not do otherwise, any of +them, and they seemed to get tired of such effort as they did make. + +Mrs. Makely rose, and the other ladies rose with her, for the Americans +follow the English custom in letting the men remain at table after the +women have left. But on this occasion I found it varied by a pretty touch +from the French custom, and the men, instead of merely standing up while +the women filed out, gave each his arm, as far as the drawing-room, to +the lady he had brought in to dinner. Then we went back, and what is the +pleasantest part of the dinner to most men began for us. + + + + +XVI + + +I must say, to the credit of the Americans, that although the eating and +drinking among them appear gross enough to an Altrurian, you are not +revolted by the coarse stories which the English sometimes tell as soon +as the ladies have left them. If it is a men's dinner, or more especially +a men's supper, these stories are pretty sure to follow the coffee; but +when there have been women at the board, some sense of their presence +seems to linger in the more delicate American nerves, and the indulgence +is limited to two or three things off color, as the phrase is here, told +with anxious glances at the drawing-room doors, to see if they are fast +shut. + +I do not remember just what brought the talk back from these primrose +paths to that question of American society forms, but presently some one +said he believed the church-sociable was the thing in most towns beyond +the apple-bee and sugar-party stage, and this opened the inquiry as to +how far the church still formed the social life of the people in cities. +Some one suggested that in Brooklyn it formed it altogether, and then +they laughed, for Brooklyn is always a joke with the New-Yorkers; I do +not know exactly why, except that this vast city is so largely a suburb, +and that it has a great number of churches and is comparatively cheap. +Then another told of a lady who had come to New York (he admitted, twenty +years ago), and was very lonely, as she had no letters until she joined a +church. This at once brought her a general acquaintance, and she began to +find herself in society; but as soon as she did so she joined a more +exclusive church, where they took no notice of strangers. They all +laughed at that bit of human nature, as they called it, and they +philosophized the relation of women to society as a purely business +relation. The talk ranged to the mutable character of society, and how +people got into it, or were of it, and how it was very different from +what it once was, except that with women it was always business. They +spoke of certain new rich people with affected contempt; but I could see +that they were each proud of knowing such millionaires as they could +claim for acquaintance, though they pretended to make fun of the number +of men-servants you had to run the gantlet of in their houses before you +could get to your hostess. + +One of my commensals said he had noticed that I took little or no wine, +and, when I said that we seldom drank it in Altruria, he answered that he +did not think I could make that go in America, if I meant to dine much. +“Dining, you know, means overeating,” he explained, “and if you wish to +overeat you must overdrink. I venture to say that you will pass a worse +night than any of us, Mr. Homos, and that you will be sorrier to-morrow +than I shall.” They were all smoking, and I confess that their tobacco +was secretly such an affliction to me that I was at one moment in doubt +whether I should take a cigar myself or ask leave to join the ladies. + +The gentleman who had talked so much already said: “Well, I don't mind +dining, a great deal, especially with Makely, here, but I do object to +supping, as I have to do now and then, in the way of pleasure. Last +Saturday night I sat down at eleven o'clock to blue-point oysters, +consommé, stewed terrapin--yours was very good, Makely; I wish I had +taken more of it--lamb chops with peas, redhead duck with celery +mayonnaise, Nesselrode pudding, fruit, cheese, and coffee, with sausages, +caviare, radishes, celery, and olives interspersed wildly, and drinkables +and smokables _ad libitum_; and I can assure you that I felt very +devout when I woke up after church-time in the morning. It is this +turning night into day that is killing us. We men, who have to go to +business the next morning, ought to strike, and say that we won't go +to anything later than eight-o'clock dinner.” + +“Ah, then the women would insist upon our making it four-o'clock tea,” + said another. + +Our host seemed to be reminded of something by the mention of the women, +and he said, after a glance at the state of the cigars, “Shall we join +the ladies?” + +One of the men-servants had evidently been waiting for this question. He +held the door open, and we all filed into the drawing-room. + +Mrs. Makely hailed me with, “Ah, Mr. Homos, I'm so glad you've come! We +poor women have been having a most dismal time!” + +“Honestly,” asked the funny gentleman, “don't you always, without us?” + “Yes, but this has been worse than usual. Mrs. Strange has been asking us +how many people we supposed there were in this city, within five minutes' +walk of us, who had no dinner to-day. Do you call that kind?” + +“A little more than kin and less than kind, perhaps,” the gentleman +suggested. “But what does she propose to do about it?” + +He turned towards Mrs. Strange, who answered, “Nothing. What does any one +propose to do about it?” + +“Then, why do you think about it?” + +“I don't. It thinks about itself. Do you know that poem of Longfellow's, +'The Challenge'?” + +“No, I never heard of it.” + +“Well, it begins in his sweet old way, about some Spanish king who was +killed before a city he was besieging, and one of his knights sallies out +of the camp and challenges the people of the city, the living and the +dead, as traitors. Then the poet breaks off, _apropos de rien:_ + + 'There is a greater army + That besets us round with strife, + A numberless, starving army, + At all the gates of life. + The poverty-stricken millions + Who challenge our wine and bread + And impeach us all for traitors, + Both the living and the dead. + And whenever I sit at the banquet, + Where the feast and song are high, + Amid the mirth and the music + I can hear that fearful cry. + + And hollow and haggard faces + Look into the lighted hall, + And wasted hands are extended + To catch the crumbs that fall. + For within there is light and plenty, + And odors fill the air; + But without there is cold and darkness, + And hunger and despair. + And there, in the camp of famine, + In wind and cold and rain, + Christ, the great Lord of the Army, + Lies dead upon the plain.'” + + +“Ah,” said the facetious gentleman, “that is fine! We really forget how +fine Longfellow was. It is so pleasant to hear you quoting poetry, Mrs. +Strange! That sort of thing has almost gone out; and it's a pity.” + + + + +XVII + + +Our fashion of offering hospitality on the impulse would be as strange +here as offering it without some special inducement for its acceptance. +The inducement is, as often as can be, a celebrity or eccentricity of +some sort, or some visiting foreigner; and I suppose that I have been a +good deal used myself in one quality or the other. But when the thing has +been done, fully and guardedly at all points, it does not seem to have +been done for pleasure, either by the host or the guest. The dinner is +given in payment of another dinner; or out of ambition by people who are +striving to get forward in society; or by great social figures who give +regularly a certain number of dinners every season. In either case it is +eaten from motives at once impersonal and selfish. I do not mean to say +that I have not been at many dinners where I felt nothing perfunctory +either in host or guest, and where as sweet and gay a spirit ruled as at +any of our own simple feasts. Still, I think our main impression of +American hospitality would be that it was thoroughly infused with the +plutocratic principle, and that it meant business. + +I am speaking now of the hospitality of society people, who number, after +all, but a few thousands out of the many millions of American people. +These millions are so far from being in society, even when they are very +comfortable, and on the way to great prosperity, if they are not already +greatly prosperous, that if they were suddenly confronted with the best +society of the great Eastern cities they would find it almost as strange +as so many Altrurians. A great part of them have no conception of +entertaining except upon an Altrurian scale of simplicity, and they know +nothing and care less for the forms that society people value themselves +upon. When they begin, in the ascent of the social scale, to adopt forms, +it is still to wear them lightly and with an individual freedom and +indifference; it is long before anxiety concerning the social law renders +them vulgar. + +Yet from highest to lowest, from first to last, one invariable fact +characterizes them all, and it may be laid down as an axiom that in a +plutocracy the man who needs a dinner is the man who is never asked to +dine. I do not say that he is not given a dinner. He is very often given +a dinner, and for the most part he is kept from starving to death; but he +is not suffered to sit at meat with his host, if the person who gives him +a meal can be called his host. His need of the meal stamps him with a +hopeless inferiority, and relegates him morally to the company of the +swine at their husks, and of Lazarus, whose sores the dogs licked. +Usually, of course, he is not physically of such a presence as to fit him +for any place in good society short of Abraham's bosom; but even if he +were entirely decent, or of an inoffensive shabbiness, it would not be +possible for his benefactors, in any grade of society, to ask him to +their tables. He is sometimes fed in the kitchen; where the people of the +house feed in the kitchen themselves, he is fed at the back door. + +We were talking of this the other night at the house of that lady whom +Mrs. Makely invited me specially to meet on Thanksgiving-day. It happened +then, as it often happens here, that although I was asked to meet her, I +saw very little of her. It was not so bad as it sometimes is, for I have +been asked to meet people, very informally, and passed the whole evening +with them, and yet not exchanged a word with them. Mrs. Makely really +gave me a seat next Mrs. Strange at table, and we had some unimportant +conversation; but there was a lively little creature vis-à-vis of me, who +had a fancy of addressing me so much of her talk that my acquaintance +with. Mrs. Strange rather languished through the dinner, and she went +away so soon after the men rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room that I +did not speak to her there. I was rather surprised, then, to receive a +note from her a few days later, asking me to dinner; and I finally went, +I am ashamed to own, more from curiosity than from any other motive. I +had been, in the mean time, thoroughly coached concerning her by Mrs. +Makely, whom I told of my invitation, and who said, quite frankly, that +she wished Mrs. Strange had asked her, too. “But Eveleth Strange wouldn't +do that,” she explained, “because it would have the effect of paying me +back. I'm so glad, on your account, that you're going, for I do want you +to know at least one American woman that you can unreservedly approve of; +I know you don't _begin_ to approve of _me;_ and I was so vexed +that you really had no chance to talk with her that night you met her +here; it seemed to me as if she ran away early just to provoke me; and, +to tell you the truth, I thought she had taken a dislike to you. I wish I +could tell you just what sort of a person she is, but it would be +perfectly hopeless, for you haven't got the documents, and you never +could get them. I used to be at school with her, and even then she wasn't +like any of the other girls. She was always so original, and did things +from such a high motive, that afterwards, when we were all settled, I +was perfectly thunderstruck at her marrying old Bellington Strange, who +was twice her age and had nothing but his money; he was not related to +the New York Bellingtons at all, and nobody knows how he got the name; +nobody ever heard of the Stranges. In fact, people say that he used to be +plain Peter B. Strange till he married Eveleth, and she made him drop the +Peter and blossom out in the Bellington, so that he could seem to have a +social as well as a financial history. People who dislike her insisted +that they were not in the least surprised at her marrying him; that the +high-motive business was just her pose; and that she had jumped at the +chance of getting him. But I always stuck up for her--and I know that she +did it for the sake of her family, who were all as poor as poor, and were +dependent on her after her father went to smash in his business. She was +always as high-strung and romantic as she could be, but I don't believe +that even then she would have taken Mr. Strange if there had been anybody +else. I don't suppose any one else ever looked at her, for the young men +are pretty sharp nowadays, and are not going to marry girls without a +cent, when there are so many rich girls, just as charming every way; you +can't expect them to. At any rate, whatever her motive was, she had her +reward, for Mr. Strange died within a year of their marriage, and she got +all his money. There was no attempt to break the will, for Mr. Strange +seemed to be literally of no family; and she's lived quietly on in the +house he bought her ever since, except when she's in Europe, and that's +about two-thirds of the time. She has her mother with her, and I suppose +that her sisters and her cousins and her aunts come in for outdoor aid. +She's always helping somebody. They say that's her pose, now; but, if it +is, I don't think it's a bad one; and certainly, if she wanted to get +married again, there would be no trouble, with her three millions. I +advise you to go to her dinner, by all means, Mr. Homos. It will be +something worth while, in every way, and perhaps you'll convert her to +Altrurianism; she's as hopeful a subject as _I_ know.” + + + + +XVIII + + +I was one of the earliest of the guests, for I cannot yet believe that +people do not want me to come exactly when they say they do. I perceived, +however, that one other gentleman had come before me, and I was both +surprised and delighted to find that this was my acquaintance Mr. +Bullion, the Boston banker. He professed as much pleasure at our meeting +as I certainly felt; but after a few words he went on talking with Mrs. +Strange, while I was left to her mother, an elderly woman of quiet and +even timid bearing, who affected me at once as born and bred in a wholly +different environment. In fact, every American of the former generation +is almost as strange to it in tradition, though not in principle, as I +am; and I found myself singularly at home with this sweet lady, who +seemed glad of my interest in her. I was taken from her side to be +introduced to a lady, on the opposite side of the room, who said she had +been promised my acquaintance by a friend of hers, whom I had met in the +mountains--Mr. Twelvemough; did I remember him? She gave a little +cry while still speaking, and dramatically stretched her hand towards a +gentleman who entered at the moment, and whom I saw to be no other than +Mr. Twelvemough himself. As soon as he had greeted our hostess he +hastened up to us, and, barely giving himself time to press the still +outstretched hand of my companion, shook mine warmly, and expressed the +greatest joy at seeing me. He said that he had just got back to town, in +a manner, and had not known I was here, till Mrs. Strange had asked him +to meet me. There were not a great many other guests, when they all +arrived, and we sat down, a party not much larger than at Mrs. Makely's. + +I found that I was again to take out my hostess, but I was put next the +lady with whom I had been talking; she had come without her husband, who +was, apparently, of a different social taste from herself, and had an +engagement of his own; there was an artist and his wife, whose looks I +liked; some others whom I need not specify were there, I fancied, because +they had heard of Altruria and were curious to see me. As Mr. Twelvemough +sat quite at the other end of the table, the lady on my right could +easily ask me whether I liked his books. She said, tentatively, people +liked them because they felt sure when they took up one of his novels +they had not got hold of a tract on political economy in disguise. + +It was this complimentary close of a remark, which scarcely began with +praise, that made itself heard across the table, and was echoed with a +heartfelt sigh from the lips of another lady. + +“Yes,” she said, “that is what I find such a comfort in Mr. Twelvemough's +books.” + +“We were speaking of Mr. Twelvemough's books,” the first lady triumphed, +and several began to extol them for being fiction pure and simple, and +not dealing with anything but loves of young people. + +Mr. Twelvemough sat looking as modest as he could under the praise, and +one of the ladies said that in a novel she had lately read there was a +description of a surgical operation that made her feel as if she had +been present at a clinic. Then the author said that he had read that +passage, too, and found it extremely well done. It was fascinating, but +it was not art. + +The painter asked, Why was it not art? + +The author answered, Well, if such a thing as that was art, then anything +that a man chose to do in a work of imagination was art. + +“Precisely,” said the painter--“art _is_ choice.” + +“On that ground,” the banker interposed, “you could say that political +economy was a fit subject for art, if an artist chose to treat it.” + +“It would have its difficulties,” the painter admitted, “but there +are certain phases of political economy, dramatic moments, human +moments, which might be very fitly treated in art. For instance, who +would object to Mr. Twelvemough's describing an eviction from an East +Side tenement-house on a cold winter night, with the mother and her +children huddled about the fire the father had kindled with pieces of the +household furniture?” + +“_I_ should object very much, for one,” said the lady who had +objected to the account of the surgical operation. “It would be too +creepy. Art should give pleasure.” + +“Then you think a tragedy is not art?” asked the painter. + +“I think that these harrowing subjects are brought in altogether too +much,” said the lady. “There are enough of them in real life, without +filling all the novels with them. It's terrible the number of beggars +you meet on the street, this winter. Do you want to meet them in Mr. +Twelvemough's novels, too?” + +“Well, it wouldn't cost me any money there. I shouldn't have to give.” + +“You oughtn't to give money in real life,” said the lady. “You ought to +give charity tickets. If the beggars refuse them, it shows they are +impostors.” + +“It's some comfort to know that the charities are so active,” said the +elderly young lady, “even if half the letters one gets _do_ turn out +to be appeals from them.” + +“It's very disappointing to have them do it, though,” said the artist, +lightly. “I thought there was a society to abolish poverty. That doesn't +seem to be so active as the charities this winter. Is it possible they've +found it a failure?” + +“Well,” said Mr. Bullion, “perhaps they have suspended during the hard +times.” + +They tossed the ball back and forth with a lightness the Americans have, +and I could not have believed, if I had not known how hardened people +become to such things here, that they were almost in the actual presence +of hunger and cold. It was within five minutes' walk of their warmth and +surfeit; and if they had lifted the window and called, “Who goes there?” + the houselessness that prowls the night could have answered them from the +street below, “Despair!” + +“I had an amusing experience,” Mr. Twelvemough began, “when I was doing a +little visiting for the charities in our ward, the other winter.” + +“For the sake of the literary material?” the artist suggested. + +“Partly for the sake of the literary material; you know we have to look +for our own everywhere. But we had a case of an old actor's son, who had +got out of all the places he had filled, on account of rheumatism, and +could not go to sea, or drive a truck, or even wrap gas-fixtures in paper +any more.” + +“A checkered employ,” the banker mused aloud. + +“It was not of a simultaneous nature,” the novelist explained. “So he +came on the charities, and, as I knew the theatrical profession a little, +and how generous it was with all related to it, I said that I would +undertake to look after his case. You know the theory is that we get work +for our patients, or clients, or whatever they are, and I went to a +manager whom I knew to be a good fellow, and I asked him for some sort of +work. He said, Yes, send the man round, and he would give him a job +copying parts for a new play he had written.” + +The novelist paused, and nobody laughed. + +“It seems to me that your experience is instructive, rather than +amusing,” said the banker. “It shows that something can be done, if you +try.” + +“Well,” said Mr. Twelvemough, “I thought that was the moral, myself, till +the fellow came afterwards to thank me. He said that he considered +himself very lucky, for the manager had told him that there were six +other men had wanted that job.” + +Everybody laughed now, and I looked at my hostess in a little +bewilderment. She murmured, “I suppose the joke is that he had befriended +one man at the expense of six others.” + +“Oh,” I returned, “is that a joke?” + +No one answered, but the lady at my right asked, “How do you manage with +poverty in Altruria?” + +I saw the banker fix a laughing eye on me, but I answered, “In Altruria +we have no poverty.” + +“Ah, I knew you would say that!” he cried out. “That's what he always +does,” he explained to the lady. “Bring up any one of our little +difficulties, and ask how they get over it in Altruria, and he says they +have nothing like it. It's very simple.” + +They all began to ask me questions, but with a courteous incredulity +which I could feel well enough, and some of my answers made them laugh, +all but my hostess, who received them with a gravity that finally +prevailed. But I was not disposed to go on talking of Altruria then, +though they all protested a real interest, and murmured against the +hardship of being cut off with so brief an account of our country as I +had given them. + +“Well,” said the banker at last, “if there is no cure for our poverty, we +might as well go on and enjoy ourselves.” + +“Yes,” said our hostess, with a sad little smile, “we might as well enjoy +ourselves.” + + + + +XIX + + +The talk at Mrs. Strange's table took a far wider range than my meagre +notes would intimate, and we sat so long that it was almost eleven +before the men joined the ladies in the drawing-room. You will hardly +conceive of remaining two, three, or four hours at dinner, as one often +does here, in society; out of society the meals are despatched with a +rapidity unknown to the Altrurians. Our habit of listening to lectors, +especially at the evening repast, and then of reasoning upon what we +have heard, prolongs our stay at the board; but the fondest listener, +the greatest talker among us, would be impatient of the delay eked out +here by the great number and the slow procession of the courses served. +Yet the poorest American would find his ideal realized rather in the +long-drawn-out gluttony of the society dinner here than in our temperate +simplicity. + +At such a dinner it is very hard to avoid a surfeit, and I have to guard +myself very carefully, lest, in the excitement of the talk, I gorge +myself with everything, in its turn. Even at the best, my overloaded +stomach often joins with my conscience in reproaching me for what you +would think a shameful excess at table. Yet, wicked as my riot is, my +waste is worse, and I have to think, with contrition, not only of what I +have eaten, but of what I have left uneaten, in a city where so many +wake and sleep in hunger. + +The ladies made a show of lingering after we joined them in the +drawing-room; but there were furtive glances at the clock, and presently +her guests began to bid Mrs. Strange good-night. When I came up and +offered her my hand, she would not take it, but murmured, with a kind of +passion: “Don't go! I mean it! Stay, and tell us about Altruria--my +mother and me!” + +I was by no means loath, for I must confess that all I had seen and heard +of this lady interested me in her more and more. I felt at home with her, +too, as with no other society woman I have met; she seemed to me not only +good, but very sincere, and very good-hearted, in spite of the world she +lived in. Yet I have met so many disappointments here, of the kind that +our civilization wholly fails to prepare us for, that I should not have +been surprised to find that Mrs. Strange had wished me to stay, not that +she might hear me talk about Altruria, but that I might hear her talk +about herself. You must understand that the essential vice of a system +which concentres a human being's thoughts upon his own interests, from +the first moment of responsibility, colors and qualifies every motive +with egotism. All egotists are unconscious, for otherwise they would be +intolerable to themselves; but some are subtler than others; and as most +women have finer natures than most men everywhere, and in America most +women have finer minds than most men, their egotism usually takes the +form of pose. This is usually obvious, but in some cases it is so +delicately managed that you do not suspect it, unless some other woman +gives you a hint of it, and even then you cannot be sure of it, seeing +the self-sacrifice, almost to martyrdom, which the _poseuse_ makes +for it. If Mrs. Makely had not suggested that some people attributed +a pose to Mrs. Strange, I should certainly never have dreamed of looking +for it, and I should have been only intensely interested, when she began, +as soon as I was left alone with her and her mother: + +“You may not know how unusual I am in asking this favor of you, Mr. +Homos; but you might as well learn from me as from others that I am +rather unusual in everything. In fact, you can report in Altruria, when +you get home, that you found at least one woman in America whom fortune +had smiled upon in every way, and who hated her smiling fortune almost +as much as she hated herself. I'm quite satisfied,” she went on, with a +sad mockery, “that fortune is a man, and an American; when he has given +you all the materials for having a good time, he believes that you must +be happy, because there is nothing to hinder. It isn't that I want to be +happy in the greedy way that men think we do, for then I could easily be +happy. If you have a soul which is not above buttons, buttons are enough. +But if you expect to be of real use, to help on, and to help out, you +will be disappointed. I have not the faith that they say upholds you +Altrurians in trying to help out, if I don't see my way out. It seems to +me that my reason has some right to satisfaction, and that, if I am a +woman grown, I can't be satisfied with the assurances they would give +to little girls--that everything is going on well. Any one can see that +things are not going on well. There is more and more wretchedness of +every kind, not hunger of body alone, but hunger of soul. If you escape +one, you suffer the other, because, if you _have_ a soul, you must +long to help, not for a time, but for all time. I suppose,” she asked, +abruptly, “that Mrs. Makely has told you something about me?” + +“Something,” I admitted. + +“I ask,” she went on, “because I don't want to bore you with a statement +of my case, if you know it already. Ever since I heard you were in New +York I have wished to see you, and to talk with you about Altruria; I did +not suppose that there would be any chance at Mrs. Makely's, and there +wasn't; and I did not suppose there would be any chance here, unless I +could take courage to do what I have done now. You must excuse it, if it +seems as extraordinary a proceeding to you as it really is; I wouldn't at +all have you think it is usual for a lady to ask one of her guests to +stay after the rest, in order, if you please, to confess herself to him. +It's a crime without a name.” + +She laughed, not gayly, but humorously, and then went on, speaking always +with a feverish eagerness which I find it hard to give you a sense of, +for the women here have an intensity quite beyond our experience of the +sex at home. + +“But you are a foreigner, and you come from an order of things so utterly +unlike ours that perhaps you will be able to condone my offence. At any +rate, I have risked it.” She laughed again, more gayly, and recovered +herself in a cheerfuller and easier mood. “Well, the long and the short +of it is that I have come to the end of my tether. I have tried, as truly +as I believe any woman ever did, to do my share, with money and with +work, to help make life better for those whose life is bad; and though +one mustn't boast of good works, I may say that I have been pretty +thorough, and, if I've given up, it's because I see, in our state of +things, _no_ hope of curing the evil. It's like trying to soak up +the drops of a rainstorm. You do dry up a drop here and there; but the +clouds are full of them, and, the first thing you know, you stand, with +your blotting-paper in your hand, in a puddle over your shoe-tops. There +is nothing but charity, and charity is a failure, except for the moment. +If you think of the misery around you, that must remain around you for +ever and ever, as long as you live, you have your choice--to go mad and +be put into an asylum, or go mad and devote yourself to society.” + + + + +XX + +While Mrs. Strange talked on, her mother listened quietly, with a dim, +submissive smile and her hands placidly crossed in her lap. She now said: +“It seems to be very different now from what it was in my time. There are +certainly a great many beggars, and we used never to have one. Children +grew up, and people lived and died, in large towns, without ever seeing +one. I remember, when my husband first took me abroad, how astonished we +were at the beggars. Now I meet as many in New York as I met in London or +in Rome. But if you don't do charity, what can you do? Christ enjoined +it, and Paul says--” + +“Oh, people _never_ do the charity that Christ meant,” said Mrs. +Strange; “and, as things are now, how _could_ they? Who would dream +of dividing half her frocks and wraps with poor women, or selling +_all_ and giving to the poor? That is what makes it so hopeless. We +_know_ that Christ was perfectly right, and that He was perfectly +sincere in what He said to the good young millionaire; but we all go away +exceeding sorrowful, just as the good young millionaire did. We have to, +if we don't want to come on charity ourselves. How do _you_ manage +about that?” she asked me; and then she added, “But, of course, I forgot +that you have no need of charity.” + +“Oh yes, we have,” I returned; and I tried, once more, as I have tried so +often with Americans, to explain how the heavenly need of giving the self +continues with us, but on terms that do not harrow the conscience of the +giver, as self-sacrifice always must here, at its purest and noblest. I +sought to make her conceive of our nation as a family, where every one +was secured against want by the common provision, and against the +degrading and depraving inequality which comes from want. The “dead-level +of equality” is what the Americans call the condition in which all would +be as the angels of God, and they blasphemously deny that He ever meant +His creatures to be alike happy, because some, through a long succession +of unfair advantages, have inherited more brain or brawn or beauty than +others. I found that this gross and impious notion of God darkened even +the clear intelligence of a woman like Mrs. Strange; and, indeed, it +prevails here so commonly that it is one of the first things advanced as +an argument against the Altrurianization of America. + +I believe I did, at last, succeed in showing her how charity still +continues among us, but in forms that bring neither a sense of +inferiority to him who takes nor anxiety to him who gives. I said that +benevolence here often seemed to involve, essentially, some such risk as +a man should run if he parted with a portion of the vital air which +belonged to himself and his family, in succoring a fellow-being from +suffocation; but that with us, where it was no more possible for one to +deprive himself of his share of the common food, shelter, and clothing, +than of the air he breathed, one could devote one's self utterly to +others without that foul alloy of fear which I thought must basely +qualify every good deed in plutocratic conditions. + +She said that she knew what I meant, and that I was quite right in my +conjecture, as regarded men, at least; a man who did not stop to think +what the effect, upon himself and his own, his giving must have, would be +a fool or a madman; but women could often give as recklessly as they +spent, without any thought of consequences, for they did not know how +money came. + +“Women,” I said, “are exterior to your conditions, and they can sacrifice +themselves without wronging any one.” + +“Or, rather,” she continued, “without the sense of wronging any one. Our +men like to keep us in that innocence or ignorance; they think it is +pretty, or they think it is funny; and as long as a girl is in her +father's house, or a wife is in her husband's, she knows no more of +money-earning or money-making than a child. Most grown women among us, +if they had a sum of money in the bank, would not know how to get it +out. They would not know how to indorse a check, much less draw one. But +there are plenty of women who are inside the conditions, as much as men +are--poor women who have to earn their bread, and rich-women who have to +manage their property. I can't speak for the poor women; but I can speak +for the rich, and I can confess for them that what you imagine is true. +The taint of unfaith and distrust is on every dollar that you dole out, +so that, as far as the charity of the rich is concerned, I would read +Shakespeare: + +'It curseth him that gives, and him that takes.'” + +“Perhaps that is why the rich give comparatively so little. The poor can +never understand how much the rich value their money, how much the owner +of a great fortune dreads to see it less. If it were not so, they would +surely give more than they do; for a man who has ten millions could give +eight of them without feeling the loss; the man with a hundred could give +ninety and be no nearer want. Ah, it's a strange mystery! My poor husband +and I used to talk of it a great deal, in the long year that he lay +dying; and I think I hate my superfluity the more because I know he hated +it so much.” + +A little trouble had stolen into her impassioned tones, and there was a +gleam, as of tears, in the eyes she dropped for a moment. They were +shining still when she lifted them again to mine. + +“I suppose,” she said, “that Mrs. Makely told you something of my +marriage?” + +“Eveleth!” her mother protested, with a gentle murmur. + +“Oh, I think I can be frank with Mr. Homos. He is not an American, and he +will understand, or, at least, he will not misunderstand. Besides, I dare +say I shall not say anything worse than Mrs. Makely has said already. My +husband was much older than I, and I ought not to have married him; a +young girl ought never to marry an old man, or even a man who is only +a good many years her senior. But we both faithfully tried to make the +best of our mistake, not the worst, and I think this effort helped us to +respect each other, when there couldn't be any question of more. He was +a rich man, and he had made his money out of nothing, or, at least, from +a beginning of utter poverty. But in his last years he came to a sense of +its worthlessness, such as few men who have made their money ever have. +He was a common man, in a great many ways; he was imperfectly educated, +and he was ungrammatical, and he never was at home in society; but he had +a tender heart and an honest nature, and I revere his memory, as no one +would believe I could without knowing him as I did. His money became a +burden and a terror to him; he did not know what to do with it, and he +was always morbidly afraid of doing harm with it; he got to thinking that +money was an evil in itself.” + +“That is what we think,” I ventured. + +“Yes, I know. But he had thought this out for himself, and yet he had +times when his thinking about it seemed to him a kind of craze, and, at +any rate, he distrusted himself so much that he died leaving it all +to me. I suppose he thought that perhaps I could learn how to give it +without hurting; and then he knew that, in our state of things, I must +have some money to keep the wolf from the door. And I am afraid to part +with it, too. I have given and given; but there seems some evil spell on +the principal that guards it from encroachment, so that it remains the +same, and, if I do not watch, the interest grows in the bank, with that +frightful life dead money seems endowed with, as the hair of dead, people +grows in the grave.” + +“Eveleth!” her mother murmured again. + +“Oh yes,” she answered, “I dare say my words are wild. I dare say they +only mean that I loathe my luxury from the bottom of my soul, and long to +be rid of it, if I only could, without harm to others and with safety to +myself.” + + + + +XXI + + +It seemed to me that I became suddenly sensible of this luxury for the +first time. I had certainly been aware that I was in a large and stately +house, and that I had been served and banqueted with a princely pride and +profusion. But there had, somehow, been through all a sort of simplicity, +a sort of quiet, so that I had not thought of the establishment and its +operation, even so much as I had thought of Mrs. Makely's far inferior +scale of living; or else, what with my going about so much in society, I +was ceasing to be so keenly observant of the material facts as I had been +at first. But I was better qualified to judge of what I saw, and I had +now a vivid sense of the costliness of Mrs. Strange's environment. There +were thousands of dollars in the carpets underfoot; there were tens of +thousands in the pictures on the walls. In a bronze group that withdrew +itself into a certain niche, with a faint reluctance, there was the value +of a skilled artisan's wage for five years of hard work; in the bindings +of the books that showed from the library shelves there was almost as +much money as most of the authors had got for writing them. Every +fixture, every movable, was an artistic masterpiece; a fortune, as +fortunes used to be counted even in this land of affluence, had been +lavished in the mere furnishing of a house which the palaces of nobles +and princes of other times had contributed to embellish. + +“My husband,” Mrs. Strange went on, “bought this house for me, and let me +furnish it after my own fancy. After it was all done we neither of us +liked it, and when he died I felt as if he had left me in a tomb here.” + +“Eveleth,” said her mother, “you ought not to speak so before Mr. Homos. +He will not know what to think of you, and he will go back to Altruria +with a very wrong idea of American women.” + +At this protest, Mrs. Strange seemed to recover herself a little. “Yes,” + she said, “you must excuse me. I have no right to speak so. But one is +often much franker with foreigners than with one's own kind, and, +besides, there is something--I don't know what--that will not let me keep +the truth from you.” + +She gazed at me entreatingly, and then, as if some strong emotion swept +her from her own hold, she broke out: + +“He thought he would make some sort of atonement to me, as if I owed none +to him! His money was all he had to do it with, and he spent that upon me +in every way he could think of, though he knew that money could not buy +anything that was really good, and that, if it bought anything beautiful, +it uglified it with the sense of cost to every one who could value it in +dollars and cents. He was a good man, far better than people ever +imagined, and very simple-hearted and honest, like a child, in his +contrition for his wealth, which he did not dare to get rid of; and +though I know that, if he were to come back, it would be just as it was, +his memory is as dear to me as if--” + +She stopped, and pressed in her lip with her teeth, to stay its tremor. +I was painfully affected. I knew that she had never meant to be so open +with me, and was shocked and frightened at herself. I was sorry for her, +and yet I was glad, for it seemed to me that she had given me a glimpse, +not only of the truth in her own heart, but of the truth in the hearts of +a whole order of prosperous people in these lamentable conditions, whom I +shall hereafter be able to judge more leniently, more justly. + +I began to speak of Altruria, as if that were what our talk had been +leading up to, and she showed herself more intelligently interested +concerning us than any one I have yet seen in this country. We appeared, +I found, neither incredible nor preposterous to her; our life, in her +eyes, had that beauty of right living which the Americans so feebly +imagine or imagine not at all. She asked what route I had come by to +America, and she seemed disappointed and aggrieved that we placed the +restrictions we have felt necessary upon visitors from the plutocratic +world. Were we afraid, she asked, that they would corrupt our citizens or +mar our content with our institutions? She seemed scarcely satisfied when +I explained, as I have explained so often here, that the measures we had +taken were rather in the interest of the plutocratic world than of the +Altrurians; and alleged the fact that no visitor from the outside had +ever been willing to go home again, as sufficient proof that we had +nothing to fear from the spread of plutocratic ideals among us. I assured +her, and this she easily imagined, that, the better known these became, +the worse they appeared to us; and that the only concern our priors felt, +in regard to them, was that our youth could not conceive of them in their +enormity, but, in seeing how estimable plutocratic people often were, +they would attribute to their conditions the inherent good of human +nature. I said our own life was so directly reasoned from its economic +premises that they could hardly believe the plutocratic life was often an +absolute non sequitur of the plutocratic premises. I confessed that this +error was at the bottom of my own wish to visit America and study those +premises. + +“And what has your conclusion been?” she said, leaning eagerly towards +me, across the table between us, laden with the maps and charts we had +been examining for the verification of the position of Altruria, and my +own course here, by way of England. + +A slight sigh escaped Mrs. Gray, which I interpreted as an expression of +fatigue; it was already past twelve o'clock, and I made it the pretext +for escape. + +“You have seen the meaning and purport of Altruria so clearly,” I said, +“that I think I can safely leave you to guess the answer to that +question.” + +She laughed, and did not try to detain me now when I offered my hand for +good-night. I fancied her mother took leave of me coldly, and with a +certain effect of inculpation. + + + + +XXII + + +It is long since I wrote you, and you have had reason enough to be +impatient of my silence. I submit to the reproaches of your letter, with +a due sense of my blame; whether I am altogether to blame, you shall say +after you have read this. + +I cannot yet decide whether I have lost a great happiness, the greatest +that could come to any man, or escaped the worst misfortune that could +befall me. But, such as it is, I will try to set the fact honestly down. + +I do not know whether you had any conjecture, from my repeated mention of +a lady whose character greatly interested me, that I was in the way of +feeling any other interest in her than my letters expressed. I am no +longer young, though at thirty-five an Altrurian is by no means so old as +an American at the same age. The romantic ideals of the American women +which I had formed from the American novels had been dissipated; if I had +any sentiment towards them, as a type, it was one of distrust, which my +very sense of the charm in their inconsequence, their beauty, their +brilliancy, served rather to intensify. I thought myself doubly defended +by that difference between their civilization and ours which forbade +reasonable hope of happiness in any sentiment for them tenderer than +that of the student of strange effects in human nature. But we have not +yet, my dear Cyril, reasoned the passions, even in Altruria. + +After I last wrote you, a series of accidents, or what appeared so, threw +me more and more constantly into the society of Mrs. Strange. We began to +laugh at the fatality with which we met everywhere--at teas, at lunches, +at dinners, at evening receptions, and even at balls, where I have been a +great deal, because, with all my thirty-five years, I have not yet +outlived that fondness for dancing which has so often amused you in me. +Wherever my acquaintance widened among cultivated people, they had no +inspiration but to ask us to meet each other, as if there were really no +other woman in New York who could be expected to understand me. “You must +come to lunch (or tea, or dinner, whichever it might be), and we will +have her. She will be so much interested to meet you.” + +But perhaps we should have needed none of these accidents to bring us +together. I, at least, can look back and see that, when none of them +happened, I sought occasions for seeing her, and made excuses of our +common interest in this matter and in that to go to her. As for her, I +can only say that I seldom failed to find her at home, whether I called +upon her nominal day or not, and more than once the man who let me in +said he had been charged by Mrs. Strange to say that, if I called, she +was to be back very soon; or else he made free to suggest that, though +Mrs. Strange was not at home, Mrs. Gray was; and then I found it easy +to stay until Mrs. Strange returned. The good old lady had an insatiable +curiosity about Altruria, and, though I do not think she ever quite +believed in our reality, she at least always treated me kindly, as if I +were the victim of an illusion that was thoroughly benign. + +I think she had some notion that your letters, which I used often to take +with me and read to Mrs. Strange and herself, were inventions of mine; +and the fact that they bore only an English postmark confirmed her in +this notion, though I explained that in our present passive attitude +towards the world outside we had as yet no postal relations with other +countries, and, as all our communication at home was by electricity, that +we had no letter-post of our own. The very fact that she belonged to a +purer and better age in America disqualified her to conceive of Altruria; +her daughter, who had lived into a full recognition of the terrible +anarchy in which the conditions have ultimated here, could far more +vitally imagine us, and to her, I believe, we were at once a living +reality. Her perception, her sympathy, her intelligence, became more and +more to me, and I escaped to them oftener and oftener, from a world where +an Altrurian must be so painfully at odds. In all companies here I am +aware that I have been regarded either as a good joke or a bad joke, +according to the humor of the listener, and it was grateful to be taken +seriously. + +From the first I was sensible of a charm in her, different from that I +felt in other American women, and impossible in our Altrurian women. She +had a deep and almost tragical seriousness, masked with a most winning +gayety, a light irony, a fine scorn that was rather for herself than for +others. She had thought herself out of all sympathy with her environment; +she knew its falsehood, its vacuity, its hopelessness; but she +necessarily remained in it and of it. She was as much at odds in it as I +was, without my poor privilege of criticism and protest, for, as she +said, she could not set herself up as a censor of things that she must +keep on doing as other people did. She could have renounced the world, as +there are ways and means of doing here; but she had no vocation to the +religious life, and she could not feign it without a sense of sacrilege. +In fact, this generous and magnanimous and gifted woman was without that +faith, that trust in God which comes to us from living His law, and +which I wonder any American can keep. She denied nothing; but she had +lost the strength to affirm anything. She no longer tried to do good from +her heart, though she kept on doing charity in what she said was a mere +mechanical impulse from the belief of other days, but always with the +ironical doubt that she was doing harm. Women are nothing by halves, as +men can be, and she was in a despair which no man can realize, for we +have always some if or and which a woman of the like mood casts from her +in wild rejection. Where she could not clearly see her way to a true +life, it was the same to her as an impenetrable darkness. + +You will have inferred something of all this from what I have written of +her before, and from words of hers that I have reported to you. Do you +think it so wonderful, then, that in the joy I felt at the hope, the +solace, which my story of our life seemed to give her, she should become +more and more precious to me? It was not wonderful, either, I think, that +she should identify me with that hope, that solace, and should suffer +herself to lean upon me, in a reliance infinitely sweet and endearing. +But what a fantastic dream it now appears! + + + + +XXIII + + +I can hardly tell you just how we came to own our love to each other; but +one day I found myself alone with her mother, with the sense that +Eveleth had suddenly withdrawn from the room at the knowledge of my +approach. Mrs. Gray was strongly moved by something; but she governed +herself, and, after giving me a tremulous hand, bade me sit. + +“Will you excuse me, Mr. Homos,” she began, “if I ask you whether you +intend to make America your home after this?” + +“Oh no!” I answered, and I tried to keep out of my voice the despair with +which the notion filled me. I have sometimes had nightmares here, in +which I thought that I was an American by choice, and I can give you no +conception of the rapture of awakening to the fact that I could still go +back to Altruria, that I had not cast my lot with this wretched people. +“How could I do that?” I faltered; and I was glad to perceive that I had +imparted to her no hint of the misery which I had felt at such a notion. +“I mean, by getting naturalized, and becoming a citizen, and taking up +your residence among us.” + +“No,” I answered, as quietly as I could, “I had not thought of that.” + +“And you still intend to go back to Altruria?” + +“I hope so; I ought to have gone back long ago, and if I had not met the +friends I have in this house--” I stopped, for I did not know how I +should end what I had begun to say. + +“I am glad you think we are your friends,” said the lady, “for we have +tried to show ourselves your friends. I feel as if this had given me the +right to say something to you that you may think very odd.” + +“Say anything to me, my dear lady,” I returned. “I shall not think it +unkind, no matter how odd it is.” + +“Oh, it's nothing. It's merely that--that when you are not here with us I +lose my grasp on Altruria, and--and I begin to doubt--” + +I smiled. “I know! People here have often hinted something of that kind +to me. Tell me, Mrs. Gray, do Americans generally take me for an +impostor?” + +“Oh no!” she answered, fervently. “Everybody that I have heard speak of +you has the highest regard for you, and believes you perfectly sincere. +But--” + +“But what?” I entreated. + +“They think you may be mistaken.” + +“Then they think I am out of my wits--that I am in an hallucination!” + +“No, not that,” she returned. “But it is so very difficult for us to +conceive of a whole nation living, as you say you do, on the same terms +as one family, and no one trying to get ahead of another, or richer, and +having neither inferiors nor superiors, but just one dead level of +equality, where there is no distinction except by natural gifts and good +deeds or beautiful works. It seems impossible--it seems ridiculous.” + +“Yes,” I confessed, “I know that it seems so to the Americans.” + +“And I must tell you something else, Mr. Homos, and I hope you won't take +it amiss. The first night when you talked about Altruria here, and showed +us how you had come, by way of England, and the place where Altruria +ought to be on our maps, I looked them over, after you were gone, and I +could make nothing of it. I have often looked at the map since, but I +could never find Altruria; it was no use.” + +“Why,” I said, “if you will let me have your atlas--” + +She shook her head. “It would be the same again as soon as you went +away.” I could not conceal my distress, and she went on: “Now, you +mustn't mind what I say. I'm nothing but a silly old woman, and +Eveleth would never forgive me if she could know what I've been saying.” + +“Then Mrs. Strange isn't troubled, as you are, concerning me?” I asked, +and I confess my anxiety attenuated my voice almost to a whisper. + +“She won't admit that she is. It might be better for her if she would. +But Eveleth is very true to her friends, and that--that makes me all the +more anxious that she should not deceive herself.” + +“Oh, Mrs. Gray!” I could not keep a certain tone of reproach out of my +words. + +She began to weep. “There! I knew I should hurt your feelings. But you +mustn't mind what I say. I beg your pardon! I take it all back--” + +“Ah, I don't want you to take it back! But what proof shall I give you +that there is such a land as Altruria? If the darkness implies the day, +America must imply Altruria. In what way do I seem false, or mad, except +that I claim to be the citizen of a country where people love one another +as the first Christians did?” + +“That is just it,” she returned. “Nobody can imagine the first +Christians, and do you think we can imagine anything like them in our own +day?” + +“But Mrs. Strange--she imagines us, you say?” + +“She thinks she does; but I am afraid she only thinks so, and I know her +better than you do, Mr. Homos. I know how enthusiastic she always was, +and how unhappy she has been since she has lost her hold on faith, and +how eagerly she has caught at the hope you have given her of a higher +life on earth than we live here. If she should ever find out that she was +wrong, I don't know what would become of her. You mustn't mind me; you +mustn't let me wound you by what I say.” + +“You don't wound me, and I only thank you for what you say; but I entreat +you to believe in me. Mrs. Strange has not deceived herself, and I have +not deceived her. Shall I protest to you, by all I hold sacred, that I am +really what I told you I was; that I am not less, and that Altruria is +infinitely more, happier, better, gladder, than any words of mine can +say? Shall I not have the happiness to see your daughter to-day? I had +something to say to her--and now I have so much more! If she is in the +house, won't you send to her? I can make her understand--” + +I stopped at a certain expression which I fancied I saw in Mrs. Gray's +face. + +“Mr. Homos,” she began, so very seriously that my heart trembled with a +vague misgiving, “sometimes I think you had better not see my daughter +any more.” + +“Not see her any more?” I gasped. + +“Yes; I don't see what good can come of it, and it's all very strange and +uncanny. I don't know how to explain it; but, indeed, it isn't anything +personal. It's because you are of a state of things so utterly opposed to +human nature that I don't see how--I am afraid that--” + +“But I am not uncanny to _her!_” I entreated. “I am not unnatural, +not incredible--” + +“Oh no; that is the worst of it. But I have said too much; I have said a +great deal more than I ought. But you must excuse it: I am an old woman. +I am not very well, and I suppose it's that that makes me talk so much.” + +She rose from her chair, and I, perforce, rose from mine and made a +movement towards her. + +“No, no,” she said, “I don't need any help. You must come again soon and +see us, and show that you've forgotten what I've said.” She gave me her +hand, and I could not help bending over it and kissing it. She gave a +little, pathetic whimper. “Oh, I _know_ I've said the most dreadful +things to you.” + +“You haven't said anything that takes your friendship from me, Mrs. Gray, +and that is what I care for.” My own eyes filled with tears--I do not +know why--and I groped my way from the room. Without seeing any one in +the obscurity of the hallway, where I found myself, I was aware of some +one there, by that sort of fine perception which makes us know the +presence of a spirit. + +“You are going?” a whisper said. “Why are you going?” And Eveleth had me +by the hand and was drawing me gently into the dim drawing-room that +opened from the place. “I don't know all my mother has been saying to +you. I had to let her say something; she thought she ought. I knew you +would know how to excuse it.” + +“Oh, my dearest!” I said, and why I said this I do not know, or how we +found ourselves in each other's arms. + +“What are we doing?” she murmured. + +“You don't believe I am an impostor, an illusion, a visionary?” I +besought her, straining her closer to my heart. + +“I believe in you, with all my soul!” she answered. + +We sat down, side by side, and talked long. I did not go away the whole +day. With a high disdain of convention, she made me stay. Her mother sent +word that she would not be able to come to dinner, and we were alone +together at table, in an image of what our united lives might be. We +spent the evening in that happy interchange of trivial confidences that +lovers use in symbol of the unutterable raptures that fill them. We were +there in what seemed an infinite present, without a past, without a +future. + + + + +XXIV + + +Society had to be taken into our confidence, and Mrs. Makely saw to it +that there were no reserves with society. Our engagement was not quite +like that of two young persons, but people found in our character and +circumstance an interest far transcending that felt in the engagement of +the most romantic lovers. Some note of the fact came to us by accident, +as one evening when we stood near a couple and heard them talking. “It +must be very weird,” the man said; “something like being engaged to a +materialization.” “Yes,” said the girl, “quite the Demon Lover business, +I should think.” She glanced round, as people do, in talking, and, at +sight of us, she involuntarily put her hand over her mouth. I looked at +Eveleth; there was nothing expressed in her face but a generous anxiety +for me. But so far as the open attitude of society towards us was +concerned, nothing could have been more flattering. We could hardly have +been more asked to meet each other than before; but now there were +entertainments in special recognition of our betrothal, which Eveleth +said could not be altogether refused, though she found the ordeal as +irksome as I did. In America, however, you get used to many things. I +do not know why it should have been done, but in the society columns of +several of the great newspapers our likenesses were printed, from +photographs procured I cannot guess how, with descriptions of our persons +as to those points of coloring and carriage and stature which the +pictures could not give, and with biographies such as could be +ascertained in her case and imagined in mine. In some of the society +papers, paragraphs of a surprising scurrility appeared, attacking me as +an impostor, and aspersing the motives of Eveleth in her former marriage, +and treating her as a foolish crank or an audacious flirt. The goodness +of her life, her self-sacrifice and works of benevolence, counted for no +more against these wanton attacks than the absolute inoffensiveness of my +own; the writers knew no harm of her, and they knew nothing at all of me; +but they devoted us to the execration of their readers simply because we +formed apt and ready themes for paragraphs. You may judge of how wild +they were in their aim when some of them denounced me as an Altrurian +plutocrat! + +We could not escape this storm of notoriety; we had simply to let it +spend its fury. When it began, several reporters of both sexes came to +interview me, and questioned me, not only as to all the facts of my past +life, and all my purposes in the future, but as to my opinion of +hypnotism, eternal punishment, the Ibsen drama, and the tariff reform. I +did my best to answer them seriously, and certainly I answered them +civilly; but it seemed from what they printed that the answers I gave did +not concern them, for they gave others for me. They appeared to me for +the most part kindly and well-meaning young people, though vastly +ignorant of vital things. They had apparently visited me with minds made +up, or else their reports were revised by some controlling hand, and a +quality injected more in the taste of the special journals they +represented than in keeping with the facts. When I realized this, I +refused to see any more reporters, or to answer them, and then they +printed the questions they had prepared to ask me, in such form that my +silence was made of the same damaging effect as a full confession of +guilt upon the charges. + +The experience was so strange and new to me that it affected me in a +degree I was unwilling to let Eveleth imagine. But she divined my +distress, and, when she divined that it was chiefly for her, she set +herself to console and reassure me. She told me that this was something +every one here expected, in coming willingly or unwillingly before the +public; and that I must not think of it at all, for certainly no one else +would think twice of it. This, I found, was really so, for when I +ventured to refer tentatively to some of these publications, I found that +people, if they had read them, had altogether forgotten them; and that +they were, with all the glare of print, of far less effect with our +acquaintance than something said under the breath in a corner. I found +that some of our friends had not known the effigies for ours which they +had seen in the papers; others made a joke of the whole affair, as the +Americans do with so many affairs, and said that they supposed the +pictures were those of people who had been cured by some patent medicine, +they looked so strong and handsome. This, I think, was a piece of Mr. +Makely's humor in the beginning; but it had a general vogue long after +the interviews and the illustrations were forgotten. + + + + +XXV + + +I linger a little upon these trivial matters because I shrink from what +must follow. They were scarcely blots upon our happiness; rather they +were motes in the sunshine which had no other cloud. It is true that I +was always somewhat puzzled by a certain manner in Mrs. Gray, which +certainly was from no unfriendliness for me; she could not have been more +affectionate to me, after our engagement, if I had been really her own +son; and it was not until after our common kindness had confirmed itself +upon the new footing that I felt this perplexing qualification on it. I +felt it first one day when I found her alone, and I talked long and +freely to her of Eveleth, and opened to her my whole heart of joy in our +love. At one point she casually asked me how soon we should expect to +return from Altruria after our visit; and at first I did not understand. + +“Of course,” she explained, “you will want to see all your old friends, +and so will Eveleth, for they will be her friends, too; but if you want +me to go with you, as you say, you must let me know when I shall see New +York again.” + +“Why,” I said, “you will always be with us.” + +“Well, then,” she pursued, with a smile, “when shall _you_ come +back?” + +“Oh, never!” I answered. “No one ever leaves Altruria, if he can help it, +unless he is sent on a mission.” + +She looked a little mystified, and I went on: “Of course, I was not +officially authorized to visit the world outside, but I was permitted to +do so, to satisfy a curiosity the priors thought useful; but I have now +had quite enough of it, and I shall never leave home again.” + +“You won't come to live in America?” + +“God forbid!” said I, and I am afraid I could not hide the horror that +ran through me at the thought. “And when you once see our happy country, +you could no more be persuaded to return to America than a disembodied +spirit could be persuaded to return to the earth.” + +She was silent, and I asked: “But, surely, you understood this, Mrs. +Gray?” + +“No,” she said, reluctantly. “Does Eveleth?” + +“Why, certainly,” I said. “We have talked it over a hundred times. Hasn't +she--” + +“I don't know,” she returned, with a vague trouble in her voice and eyes. +“Perhaps I haven't understood her exactly. Perhaps--but I shall be ready +to do whatever you and she think best. I am an old woman, you know; and, +you know, I was born here, and I should feel the change.” + +Her words conveyed to me a delicate reproach; I felt for the first time +that, in my love of my own country, I had not considered her love of +hers. It is said that the Icelanders are homesick when they leave their +world of lava and snow; and I ought to have remembered that an American +might have some such tenderness for his atrocious conditions, if he were +exiled from them forever. I suppose it was the large and wide mind of +Eveleth, with its openness to a knowledge and appreciation of better +things, that had suffered me to forget this. She seemed always so eager +to see Altruria, she imagined it so fully, so lovingly, that I had ceased +to think of her as an alien; she seemed one of us, by birth as well as by +affinity. + +Yet now the words of her mother, and the light they threw upon the +situation, gave me pause. I began to ask myself questions I was impatient +to ask Eveleth, so that there should be no longer any shadow of misgiving +in my breast; and yet I found myself dreading to ask them, lest by some +perverse juggle I had mistaken our perfect sympathy for a perfect +understanding. + + + + +XXVI + + +Like all cowards who wait a happy moment for the duty that should not be +suffered to wait at all, I was destined to have the affair challenge me, +instead of seizing the advantage of it that instant frankness would have +given me. Shall I confess that I let several days go by, and still had +not spoken to Eveleth, when, at the end of a long evening--the last long +evening we passed together--she said: + +“What would you like to have me do with this house while we are gone?” + +“Do with this house?” I echoed; and I felt as if I were standing on the +edge of an abyss. + +“Yes; shall we let it, or sell it--or what? Or give it away?” I drew a +little breath at this; perhaps we had not misunderstood each other, after +all. She went on: “Of course, I have a peculiar feeling about it, so that +I wouldn't like to get it ready and let it furnished, in the ordinary +way. I would rather lend it to some one, if I could be sure of any one +who would appreciate it; but I can't. Not one. And it's very much the +same when one comes to think about selling it. Yes, I should like to give +it away for some good purpose, if there is any in this wretched state of +things. What do you say, Aristide?” + +She always used the French form of my name, because she said it sounded +ridiculous in English, for a white man, though I told her that the +English was nearer the Greek in sound. + +“By all means, give it away,” I said. “Give it for some public purpose. +That will at least be better than any private purpose, and put it somehow +in the control of the State, beyond the reach of individuals or +corporations. Why not make it the foundation of a free school for the +study of the Altrurian polity?” + +She laughed at this, as if she thought I must be joking. “It would be +droll, wouldn't it, to have Tammany appointees teaching Altrurianism?” + Then she said, after a moment of reflection: “Why not? It needn't be in +the hands of Tammany. It could be in the hands of the United States; I +will ask my lawyer if it couldn't; and I will endow it with money enough +to support the school handsomely. Aristide, you have hit it!” + +I began: “You can give _all_ your money to it, my dear--” But I +stopped at the bewildered look she turned on me. + +“All?” she repeated. “But what should we have to live on, then?” + +“We shall need no money to live on in Altruria,” I answered. + +“Oh, in Altruria! But when we come back to New York?” + +It was an agonizing moment, and I felt that shutting of the heart which +blinds the eyes and makes the brain reel. “Eveleth,” I gasped, “did you +expect to return to New York?” + +“Why, certainly!” she cried. “Not at once, of course. But after you had +seen your friends, and made a good, long visit--Why, surely, Aristide, +you don't understand that I--You didn't mean to _live_ in Altruria?” + +“Ah!” I answered. “Where else could I live? Did you think for an instant +that I could live in such a land as this?” I saw that she was hurt, and I +hastened to say: “I know that it is the best part of the world outside of +Altruria, but, oh, my dear, you cannot imagine how horrible the notion of +living here seems to me. Forgive me. I am going from bad to worse. I +don't mean to wound you. After all, it is your country, and you must love +it. But, indeed, I could not think of living here. I could not take the +burden of its wilful misery on my soul. I must live in Altruria, and you, +when you have once seen my country, _our_ country, will never +consent to live in any other.” + +“Yes,” she said, “I know it must be very beautiful; but I hadn't +supposed--and yet I ought--” + +“No, dearest, no! It was I who was to blame, for not being clearer from +the first. But that is the way with us. We can't imagine any people +willing to live anywhere else when once they have seen Altruria; and I +have told you so much of it, and we have talked of it together so often, +that I must have forgotten you had not actually known it. But listen, +Eveleth. We will agree to this: After we have been a year in Altruria, +if you wish to return to America I will come back and live with you +here.” + +“No, indeed!” she answered, generously. “If you are to be my husband,” + and here she began with the solemn words of the Bible, so beautiful in +their quaint English, “'whither thou goest, I will go, and I will not +return from following after thee. Thy country shall be my country, and +thy God my God.” + +I caught her to my heart, in a rapture of tenderness, and the evening +that had begun for us so forbiddingly ended in a happiness such as not +even our love had known before. I insisted upon the conditions I had +made, as to our future home, and she agreed to them gayly at last, as a +sort of reparation which I might make my conscience, if I liked, for +tearing her from a country which she had willingly lived out of for the +far greater part of the last five years. + +But when we met again I could see that she had been thinking seriously. + +“I won't give the house absolutely away,” she said. “I will keep the deed +of it myself, but I will establish that sort of school of Altrurian +doctrine in it, and I will endow it, and when we come back here, for our +experimental sojourn, after we've been in Altruria a year, we'll take up +our quarters in it--I won't give the whole house to the school--and we +will lecture on the later phases of Altrurian life to the pupils. How +will that do?” + +She put her arms around my neck, and I said that it would do admirably; +but I had a certain sinking of the heart, for I saw how hard it was even +for Eveleth to part with her property. + +“I'll endow it,” she went on, “and I'll leave the rest of my money at +interest here; unless you think that some Altrurian securities--” + +“No; there are no such things!” I cried. + +“That was what I thought,” she returned; “and as it will cost us nothing +while we are in Altruria, the interest will be something very handsome by +the time we get back, even in United States bonds.” + +“Something handsome!” I cried. “But, Eveleth, haven't I heard you say +yourself that the growth of interest from dead money was like--” + +“Oh yes; that!” she returned. “But you know you have to take it. You +can't let the money lie idle: that would be ridiculous; and then, with +the good purpose we have in view, it is our _duty_ to take the +interest. How should we keep up the school, and pay the teachers, and +everything?” + +I saw that she had forgotten the great sum of the principal, or that, +through lifelong training and association, it was so sacred to her that +she did not even dream of touching it. I was silent, and she thought that +I was persuaded. + +“You are perfectly right in theory, dear, and I feel just as you do about +such things; I'm sure I've suffered enough from them; but if we didn't +take interest for your money, what should we have to live on?” + +“Not _my_ money, Eveleth!” I entreated. “Don't say _my_ money!” + +“But whatever is mine is yours,” she returned, with a wounded air. + +“Not your money; but I hope you will soon have none. We should need no +money to live on in Altruria. Our share of the daily work of all will +amply suffice for our daily bread and shelter.” + +“In Altruria, yes. But how about America? And you have promised to come +back here in a year, you know. Ladies and gentlemen can't share in the +daily toil here, even if they could get the toil, and, where there are so +many out of work, it isn't probable they could.” + +She dropped upon my knee as she spoke, laughing, and put her hand under +my chin, to lift my fallen face. + +“Now you mustn't be a goose, Aristide, even if you _are_ an angel! +Now listen. You _know_, don't you, that I hate money just as badly +as you?” + +“You have made me think so, Eveleth,” I answered. + +“I hate it and loathe it. I think it's the source of all the sin and +misery in the world; but you can't get rid of it at a blow. For if you +gave it away you might do more harm than good with it.” + +“You could destroy it,” I said. + +“Not unless you were a crank,” she returned. “And that brings me just to +the point. I know that I'm doing a very queer thing to get married, when +we know so little, really, about you,” and she accented this confession +with a laugh that was also a kiss. “But I want to show people that we are +just as practical as anybody; and if they can know that I have left my +money in United States bonds, they'll respect us, no matter what I do +with the interest. Don't you see? We can come back, and preach and teach +Altrurianism, and as long as we pay our way nobody will have a right +to say a word. Why, Tolstoy himself doesn't destroy his money, though he +wants other people to do it. His wife keeps it, and supports the family. +You _have_ to do it.” + +“He doesn't do it willingly.” + +“No. And _we_ won't. And after a while--after we've got back, and +compared Altruria and America from practical experience, if we decide to +go and live there altogether, I will let you do what you please with +the hateful money. I suppose we couldn't take it there with us?” + +“No more than you could take it to heaven with you,” I answered, +solemnly; but she would not let me be altogether serious about it. + +“Well, in either case we could get on without it, though we certainly +could not get on without it here. Why, Aristide, it is essential to the +influence we shall try to exert for Altrurianism; for if we came back +here and preached the true life without any money to back us, no one +would pay any attention to us. But if we have a good house waiting for +us, and are able to entertain nicely, we can attract the best people, +and--and--really do some good.” + + + + +XXVII + + +I rose in a distress which I could not hide. “Oh, Eveleth, Eveleth!” I +cried. “You are like all the rest, poor child! You are the creature of +your environment, as we all are. You cannot escape what you have been. +It may be that I was wrong to wish or expect you to cast your lot with me +in Altruria, at once and forever. It may be that it is my duty to return +here with you after a time, not only to let you see that Altruria is +best, but to end my days in this unhappy land, preaching and teaching +Altrurianism; but we must not come as prophets to the comfortable people, +and entertain nicely. If we are to renew the evangel, it must be in the +life and the spirit of the First Altrurian: we must come poor to the +poor; we must not try to win any one, save through his heart and +conscience; we must be as simple and humble as the least of those that +Christ bade follow Him. Eveleth, perhaps you have made a mistake. I love +you too much to wish you to suffer even for your good. Yes, I am so weak +as that. I did not think that this would be the sacrifice for you that it +seems, and I will not ask it of you. I am sorry that we have not +understood each other, as I supposed we had. I could never become an +American; perhaps you could never become an Altrurian. Think of it, +dearest. Think well of it, before you take the step which you cannot +recede from. I hold you to no promise; I love you so dearly that I cannot +let you hold yourself. But you must choose between me and your money--no, +not me--but between love and your money. You cannot keep both.” + +She had stood listening to me; now she cast herself on my heart and +stopped my words with an impassioned kiss. “Then there is no choice for +me. My choice is made, once for all.” She set her hands against my breast +and pushed me from her. “Go now; but come again to-morrow. I want to +think it all over again. Not that I have any doubt, but because you wish +it--you wish it, don't you?--and because I will not let you ever think I +acted upon an impulse, and that I regretted it.” + +“That is right, Eveleth. That is like _you_” I said, and I took her +into my arms for good-night. + +The next day I came for her decision, or rather for her confirmation of +it. The man who opened the door to me met me with a look of concern and +embarrassment. He said Mrs. Strange was not at all well, and had told him +he was to give me the letter he handed me. I asked, in taking it, if I +could see Mrs. Gray, and he answered that Mrs. Gray had not been down +yet, but he would go and see. I was impatient to read my letter, and I +made I know not what vague reply, and I found myself, I know not how, on +the pavement, with the letter open in my hand. It began abruptly without +date or address: + +_“You will believe that I have not slept, when you read this. + +“I have thought it all over again, as you wished, and it is all over +between us. + +“I am what you said, the creature of my environment. I cannot detach +myself from it; I cannot escape from what I have been. + +“I am writing this with a strange coldness, like the chill of death, in +my very soul. I do not ask you to forgive me; I have your forgiveness +already. Do not forget me; that is what I ask. Remember me as the +unhappy woman who was not equal to her chance when heaven was opened to +her, who could not choose the best when the best came to her. + +“There is no use writing; if I kept on forever, it would always be the +same cry of shame, of love. + +“Eveleth Strange.”_ + +I reeled as I read the lines. The street seemed to weave itself into a +circle around me. But I knew that I was not dreaming, that this was no +delirium of my sleep. + +It was three days ago, and I have not tried to see her again. I have +written her a line, to say that I shall not forget her, and to take the +blame upon myself. I expected the impossible of her. + +I have yet two days before me until the steamer sails; we were to have +sailed together, and now I shall sail alone. + +I will try to leave it all behind me forever; but while I linger out +these last long hours here I must think and I must doubt. + +Was she, then, the _poseuse_ that they said? Had she really no hear +in our love? Was it only a pretty drama she was playing, and were those +generous motives, those lofty principles which seemed to actuate her, the +poetical qualities of the play, the graces of her pose? I cannot believe +it. I believe that she was truly what she seemed, for she had been that +even before she met me. I believe that she was pure and lofty in soul as +she appeared; but that her life was warped to such a form by the false +conditions of this sad world that, when she came to look at herself +again, after she had been confronted with the sacrifice before her, she +feared that she could not make it without in a manner ceasing to be. + +She-- + +But I shall soon see you again; and, until then, farewell. + +END OF PART I + + + + +PART SECOND + + + + +I + + +I could hardly have believed, my dear Dorothea, that I should be so late +in writing to you from Altruria, but you can easily believe that I am +thoroughly ashamed of myself for my neglect. It is not for want of +thinking of you, or talking of you, that I have seemed so much more +ungrateful than I am. My husband and I seldom have any serious talk which +doesn't somehow come round to you. He admires you and likes you as much +as I do, and he does his best, poor man, to understand you; but his not +understanding you is only a part of his general failure to understand how +any American can be kind and good in conditions which he considers so +abominable as those of the capitalistic world. He is not nearly so severe +on us as he used to be at times when he was among us. When the other +Altrurians are discussing us he often puts in a reason for us against +their logic; and I think he has really forgotten, a good deal, how bad +things are with us, or else finds his own memory of them incredible. But +his experience of the world outside his own country has taught him how to +temper the passion of the Altrurians for justice with a tolerance of the +unjust; and when they bring him to book on his own report of us he tries +to explain us away, and show how we are not so bad as we ought to be. + +For weeks after we came to Altruria I was so unhistorically blest that if +I had been disposed to give you a full account of myself I should have +had no events to hang the narrative on. Life here is so subjective (if +you don't know what that is, you poor dear, you must get Mr. Twelvemough +to explain) that there is usually nothing like news in it, and I always +feel that the difference between Altruria and America is so immense that +it is altogether beyond me to describe it. But now we have had some +occurrences recently, quite in the American sense, and these have +furnished me with an incentive as well as opportunity to send you a +letter. Do you remember how, one evening after dinner, in New York, you +and I besieged my husband and tried to make him tell us why Altruria was +so isolated from the rest of the world, and why such a great and +enlightened continent should keep itself apart? I see still his look of +horror when Mr. Makely suggested that the United States should send an +expedition and “open” Altruria, as Commodore Perry “opened” Japan in +1850, and try to enter into commercial relations with it. The best he +could do was to say what always seemed so incredible, and keep on +assuring us that Altruria wished for no sort of public relations with +Europe or America, but was very willing to depend for an indefinite time +for its communication with those regions on vessels putting into its +ports from stress of one kind or other, or castaway on its coasts. They +are mostly trading-ships or whalers, and they come a great deal oftener +than you suppose; you do not hear of them afterwards, because their crews +are poor, ignorant people, whose stories of their adventures are always +distrusted, and who know they would be laughed at if they told the +stories they could of a country like Altruria. My husband himself took +one of their vessels on her home voyage when he came to us, catching the +Australasian steamer at New Zealand; and now I am writing you by the same +sort of opportunity. I shall have time enough to write you a longer +letter than you will care to read; the ship does not sail for a week yet, +because it is so hard to get her crew together. + +Now that I have actually made a beginning, my mind goes back so strongly +to that terrible night when I came to you after Aristides (I always use +the English form of his name now) left New York that I seem to be living +the tragedy over again, and this happiness of mine here is like a dream +which I cannot trust. It was not all tragedy, though, and I remember how +funny Mr. Makely was, trying to keep his face straight when the whole +truth had to come out, and I confessed that I had expected, without +really knowing it myself, that Aristides would disregard that wicked note +I had written him and come and make me marry him, not against my will, +but against my word. Of course I didn't put it in just that way, but in a +way to let you both guess it. The first glimmering of hope that I had was +when Mr. Makely said, “Then, when a woman tells a man that all is over +between them forever, she means that she would like to discuss the +business with him?” I was old enough to be ashamed, but it seemed to me +that you and I had gone back in that awful moment and were two girls +together, just as we used to be at school. I was proud of the way you +stood up for me, because I thought that if you could tolerate me after +what I had confessed I could not be quite a fool. I knew that I deserved +at least some pity, and though I laughed with Mr. Makely, I was glad of +your indignation with him, and of your faith in Aristides. When it came +to the question of what I should do, I don't know which of you I owed the +most to. It was a kind of comfort to have Mr. Makely acknowledge that +though he regarded Aristides as a myth, still he believed that he was a +thoroughly _good_ myth, and couldn't tell a lie if he wanted to; and I +loved you, and shall love you more than any one else but him, for saying +that Aristides was the most real man you had ever met, and that if +everything he said was untrue you would trust him to the end of the +world. + +But, Dolly, it wasn't all comedy, any more than it was all tragedy, and +when you and I had laughed and cried ourselves to the point where there +was nothing for me to do but to take the next boat for Liverpool, and Mr. +Makely had agreed to look after the tickets and cable Aristides that I +was coming, there was still my poor, dear mother to deal with. There is +no use trying to conceal from you that she was always opposed to my +husband. She thought there was something uncanny about him, though she +felt as we did that there was nothing uncanny _in_ him; but a man +who pretended to come from a country where there was no riches and no +poverty could not be trusted with any woman's happiness; and though she +could not help loving him, she thought I ought to tear him out of my +heart, and if I could not do that I ought to have myself shut up in an +asylum. We had a dreadful time when I told her what I had decided to do, +and I was almost frantic. At last, when she saw that I was determined to +follow him, she yielded, not because she was convinced, but because she +could not give me up; I wouldn't have let her if she could. I believe +that the only thing which reconciled her was that you and Mr. Makely +believed in him, and thought I had better do what I wanted to, if nothing +could keep me from it. I shall never, never forget Mr. Makely's goodness +in coming to talk with her, and how skillfully he managed, without +committing himself to Altruria, to declare his faith in my Altrurian. +Even then she was troubled about what she thought the indelicacy of my +behavior in following him across the sea, and she had all sorts of doubts +as to how he would receive me when we met in Liverpool. It wasn't very +reasonable of me to say that if he cast me off I should still love him +more than any other human being, and his censure would be more precious +to me than the praise of the rest of the world. + +I suppose I hardly knew what I was saying, but when once I had yielded to +my love for him there was nothing else in life. I could not have left my +mother behind, but in her opposition to me she seemed like an enemy, and +I should somehow have _forced_ her to go if she had not yielded. When she +did yield, she yielded with her whole heart and soul, and so far from +hindering me in my preparations for the voyage, I do not believe I could +have got off without her. She thought about everything, and it was her +idea to leave my business affairs entirely in Mr. Makely's hands, and +to trust the future for the final disposition of my property. I did not +care for it myself; I hated it, because it was that which had stood +between me and Aristides; but she foresaw that if by any wild +impossibility he should reject me when we met, I should need it for the +life I must go back to in New York. She behaved like a martyr as well as +a heroine, for till we reached Altruria she was a continual sacrifice to +me. She stubbornly doubted the whole affair, but now I must do her the +justice to say that she has been convinced by the fact. The best she can +say of it is that it is like the world of her girlhood; and she has gone +back to the simple life here from the artificial life in New York, with +the joy of a child. She works the whole day, and she would play if she +had ever learned how. She is a better Altrurian than I am; if there could +be a bigoted Altrurian my mother would be one. + + + + +II + + +I sent you a short letter from Liverpool, saying that by the +unprecedented delays of the _Urania_, which I had taken because it was +the swiftest boat of the Neptune line, we had failed to pass the old, +ten-day, single-screw Galaxy liner which Aristides had sailed in. I had +only time for a word to you; but a million words could not have told the +agonies I suffered, and when I overtook him on board the Orient Pacific +steamer at Plymouth, where she touched, I could just scribble off the +cable sent Mr. Makely before our steamer put off again. I am afraid you +did not find my cable very expressive, but I was glad that I did not try +to say more, for if I had tried I should simply have gibbered, at a +shilling a gibber. I expected to make amends by a whole volume of +letters, and I did post a dozen under one cover from Colombo. If they +never reached you I am very sorry, for now it is impossible to take up +the threads of that time and weave them into any sort of connected +pattern. You will have to let me off with saying that Aristides was +everything that I believed he would be and was never really afraid he +might not be. From the moment we caught sight of each other at Plymouth, +he at the rail of the steamer and I on the deck of the tender, we were as +completely one as we are now. I never could tell how I got aboard to him; +whether he came down and brought me, or whether I was simply rapt through +the air to his side. It would have been embarrassing if we had not +treated the situation frankly; but such odd things happen among the +English going out to their different colonies that our marriage, by a +missionary returning to his station, was not even a nine days' wonder +with our fellow-passengers. + +We were a good deal more than nine days on the steamer before we could +get a vessel that would take us on to Altruria; but we overhauled a ship +going there for provisions at last, and we were all put off on her, bag +and baggage, with three cheers from the friends we were leaving; I think +they thought we were going to some of the British islands that the +Pacific is full of. I had been thankful from the first that I had not +brought a maid, knowing the Altrurian prejudice against hireling service, +but I never was so glad as I was when we got aboard that vessel, for when +the captain's wife, who was with him, found that I had no one to look +after me, she looked after me herself, just for the fun of it, she +said; but _I_ knew it was the love of it. It was a sort of general +trading-ship, stopping at the different islands in the South Seas, and +had been a year out from home, where the kind woman had left her little +ones; she cried over their photographs to me. Her husband had been in +Altruria before, and he and Aristides were old acquaintances and met like +brothers; some of the crew knew him, too, and the captain relaxed +discipline so far as to let us shake hands with the second-mate as the +men's representative. + +I needn't dwell on the incidents of our home-coming--for that was what it +seemed for my mother and me as well as for my husband--but I must give +you one detail of our reception, for I still think it almost the +prettiest thing that has happened to us among the millions of pretty +things. Aristides had written home of our engagement, and he was expected +with his American wife; and before we came to anchor the captain ran up +the Emissary's signal, which my husband gave him, and then three boats +left the shore and pulled rapidly out to us. As they came nearer I saw +the first Altrurian costumes in the lovely colors that the people wear +here, and that make a group of them look like a flower-bed; and then I +saw that the boats were banked with flowers along the gunwales from stem +to stern, and that they were each not _manned,_ but _girled_ by six +rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw in our boat-races. When +they caught sight of us, leaning over the side, and Aristides lifted his +hat and waved it to them, they all stood their oars upright, and burst +into a kind of welcome song: I had been dreading one of those stupid, +banging salutes of ten or twenty guns, and you can imagine what a relief +it was. They were great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' +tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl +athletes; and when we got down over the ship's side, and Aristides said a +few words of introduction for my mother and me, as we stepped into the +largest of the boats, I thought they would crush me, catching me in their +strong, brown arms, and kissing me on each cheek; they never kiss on the +mouth in Altruria. The girls in the other boats kissed their hands to +mother and me, and shouted to Aristides, and then, when our boat set out +for the shore, they got on each side of us and sang song after song as +they pulled even stroke with our crew. Half-way, we met three other +boats, really _manned,_ these ones, and going out to get our baggage, and +then you ought to have heard the shouting and laughing, that ended in +more singing, when the young fellows' voices mixed with the girls, till +they were lost in the welcome that came off to us from the crowded quay, +where I should have thought half Altruria had gathered to receive us. + +I was afraid it was going to be too much for my mother, but she stood it +bravely; and almost at a glance people began to take her into +consideration, and she was delivered over to two young married ladies, +who saw that she was made comfortable, the first of any, in the pretty +Regionic guest-house where they put us. + +I wish I could give you a notion of that guest-house, with its cool, +quiet rooms, and its lawned and gardened enclosure, and a little fountain +purring away among the flowers! But what astonished me was that there +were no sort of carriages, or wheeled conveyances, which, after our +escort from the ship, I thought might very well have met the returning +Emissary and his wife. They made my mother get into a litter, with soft +cushions and with lilac curtains blowing round it, and six girls carried +her up to the house; but they seemed not to imagine my not walking, and, +in fact, I could hardly have imagined it myself, after the first moment +of queerness. That walk was full of such rich experience for every one of +the senses that I would not have missed a step of it; but as soon as I +could get Aristides alone I asked him about horses, and he said that +though horses were still used in farm work, not a horse was allowed in +any city or village of Altruria, because of their filthiness. As for +public vehicles, they used to have electric trolleys; in the year that he +had been absent they had substituted electric motors; but these were not +running, because it was a holiday on which we had happened to arrive. + +There was another incident of my first day which I think will amuse you, +knowing how I have always shrunk from any sort of public appearances. +When Aristides went to make his report to the people assembled in a sort +of convention, I had to go too, and take part in the proceedings; for +women are on an entire equality with the men here, and people would be +shocked if husband and wife were separated in their public life. They did +not spare me a single thing. Where Aristides was not very clear, or +rather not full enough, in describing America, I was called on to +supplement, and I had to make several speeches. Of course, as I spoke in +English, he had to put it into Altrurian for me, and it made the greatest +excitement. The Altrurians are very lively people, and as full of the +desire to hear some new things as Paul said the men of Athens were. At +times they were in a perfect gale of laughter at what we told them about +America. Afterwards some of the women confessed to me that they liked to +hear us speaking English together; it sounded like the whistling of birds +or the shrilling of locusts. But they were perfectly kind, and though +they laughed it was clear that they laughed at what we were saying, and +never at us, or at least never at _me_. + +Of course there was the greatest curiosity to know what Aristides' +wife looked like, as well as sounded like; he had written out about +our engagement before I broke it; and my clothes were of as much +interest As myself, or more. You know how I had purposely left my latest +Paris things behind, so as to come as simply as possible to the simple +life of Altruria, but still with my big leg-of-mutton sleeves, and my +picture-hat, and my pinched waist, I felt perfectly grotesque, and I have +no doubt I looked it. They had never seen a lady from the capitalistic +world before, but only now and then a whaling-captain's wife who had come +ashore; and I knew they were burning to examine my smart clothes down to +the last button and bit of braid. I had on the short skirts of last year, +and I could feel ten thousand eyes fastened on my high-heeled boots, +which you know _I_ never went to extremes in. I confess my face burned +a little, to realize what a scarecrow I must look, when I glanced round +at those Altrurian women, whose pretty, classic fashions made the whole +place like a field of lilacs and irises, and knew that they were as +comfortable as they were beautiful. Do you remember some of the +descriptions of the undergraduate maidens in the “Princess”--I know you +had it at school--where they are sitting in the palace halls together? +The effect was something like that. + +You may be sure that I got out of my things as soon as I could borrow an +Altrurian costume, and now my Paris confections are already hung up for +monuments, as Richard III. says, in the Capitalistic Museum, where people +from the outlying Regions may come and study them as object-lessons in +what not to wear. (You remember what you said Aristides told you, when he +spoke that day at the mountains, about the Regions that Altruria is +divided into? This is the Maritime Region, and the city where we are +living for the present is the capital.) You may think this was rather +hard on me, and at first it did seem pretty intimate, having my things in +a long glass case, and it gave me a shock to see them, as if it had been +my ghost, whenever I passed them. But the fact is I was more ashamed than +hurt--they were so ugly and stupid and useless. I could have borne my +Paris dress and my picture-hat if it had not been for those ridiculous +high-heeled, pointed-toe shoes, which the Curatress had stood at the +bottom of the skirts. They looked the most frantic things you can +imagine, and the mere sight of them made my poor feet _ache_ in the +beautiful sandals I am wearing now; when once you have put on sandals you +say good-bye and good-riddance to shoes. In a single month my feet have +grown almost a tenth as large again as they were, and my friends here +encourage me to believe that they will yet measure nearly the classic +size, though, as you know, I am not in my first youth and can't expect +them to do miracles. + + * * * * * + +I had to leave off abruptly at the last page because Aristides had come +in with a piece of news that took my mind off everything else. I am +afraid you are not going to get this letter even at the late date I had +set for its reaching you, my dear. It seems that there has been a sort of +mutiny among the crew of our trader, which was to sail next week, and now +there is no telling when she will sail. Ever since she came the men have +been allowed their liberty, as they call it, by watches, but the last +watch came ashore this week before another watch had returned to the +ship, and now not one of the sailors will go back. They had been +exploring the country by turns, at their leisure, it seems, and their +excuse is that they like Altruria better than America, which they say +they wish never to see again. + +You know (though I didn't, till Aristides explained to me) that in any +European country the captain in such a case would go to his consul, and +the consul would go to the police, and the police would run the men down +and send them back to the ship in irons as deserters, or put them in jail +till the captain was ready to sail, and then deliver them up to him. But +it seems that there is no law in Altruria to do anything of the kind; the +only law here that would touch the case is one which obliges any citizen +to appear and answer the complaint of any other citizen before the +Justiciary Assembly. A citizen cannot be imprisoned for anything but the +rarest offence, like killing a person in a fit of passion; and as to +seizing upon men who are guilty of nothing worse than wanting to be left +to the pursuit of happiness, as all the Altrurians are, there is no +statute and no usage for it. Aristides says that the only thing which can +be done is to ask the captain and the men to come to the Assembly and +each state his case. The Altrurians are not anxious to have the men stay, +not merely because they are coarse, rude, or vicious, but because they +think they ought to go home and tell the Americans what they have seen +and heard here, and try and get them to found an Altrurian Commonwealth +of their own. Still they will not compel them to go, and the magistrates +do not wish to rouse any sort of sentiment against them. They feel that +the men are standing on their natural rights, which they could not +abdicate if they would. I know this will appear perfectly ridiculous +to Mr. Makely, and I confess myself that there seems something binding in +a contract which ought to act on the men's consciences, at least. + + + + +III + + +Well, my dear Dorothea, the hearing before the Assembly is over, and it +has left us just where it found us, as far as the departure of our trader +is concerned. + +How I wish you could have been there! The hearing lasted three days, and +I would not have missed a minute of it. As it was, I did not miss a +syllable, and it was so deeply printed on my mind that I believe I +could repeat it word for word if I had to. But, in the first place, I +must try and realize the scene to you. I was once summoned as a witness +in one of our courts, you remember, and I have never forgotten the horror +of it: the hot, dirty room, with its foul air, the brutal spectators, the +policemen stationed among them to keep them in order, the lawyers with +the plaintiff and defendant seated all at one table, the uncouth +abruptness of the clerks and janitors, or whatever, the undignified +magistrate, who looked as if his lunch had made him drowsy, and who +seemed half asleep, as he slouched in his arm-chair behind his desk. +Instead of such a setting as this, you must imagine a vast marble +amphitheatre, larger than the Metropolitan Opera, by three or four times, +all the gradines overflowing (that is the word for the “liquefaction of +the clothes” which poured over them), and looking like those Bermudan +waters where the colors of the rainbow seem dropped around the coast. On +the platform, or stage, sat the Presidents of the Assembly, and on a tier +of seats behind and above them, the national Magistrates, who, as this is +the capital of the republic for the time being, had decided to be present +at the hearing, because they thought the case so very important. In the +hollow space, just below (like that where you remember the Chorus stood +in that Greek play which we saw at Harvard ages ago), were the captain +and the first-mate on one hand, and the seamen on the other; the +second-mate, our particular friend, was not there because he never goes +ashore anywhere, and had chosen to remain with the black cook in charge +of the ship. The captain's wife would rather have stayed with them, but I +persuaded her to come to us for the days of the hearing, because the +captain had somehow thought we were opposed to him, and because I thought +she ought to be there to encourage him by her presence. She sat next to +me, in a hat which I wish you could have seen, Dolly, and a dress which +would have set your teeth on edge; but inside of them I knew she was one +of the best souls in the world, and I loved her the more for being the +sight she was among those wonderful Altrurian women. + +The weather was perfect, as it nearly always is at this time of +year--warm, yet fresh, with a sky of that “bleu impossible” of the +Riviera on the clearest day. Some people had parasols, but they put them +down as soon as the hearing began, and everybody could see perfectly. You +would have thought they could not hear so well, but a sort of immense +sounding-plane was curved behind the stage, so that not a word of the +testimony on either side was lost to me in English. The Altrurian +translation was given the second day of the hearing through a megaphone, +as different in tone from the thing that the man in the Grand Central +Station bellows the trains through as the _vox-humana_ stop of an organ +is different from the fog-horn of a light-house. The captain's wife was +bashful, in her odd American dress, but we had got seats near the +tribune, rather out of sight, and there was nothing to hinder our +hearing, like the _frou-frou_ of stiff silks or starched skirts (which +I am afraid we poor things in America like to make when we move) from the +soft, filmy tissues that the Altrurian women wear; but I must confess +that there was a good deal of whispering while the captain and the men +were telling their stories. But, no one except the interpreters, who were +taking their testimony down in short-hand, to be translated into +Altrurian and read at the subsequent hearing, could understand what they +were saying, and so nobody was disturbed by the murmurs. The whispering +was mostly near me, where I sat with the captain's wife, for everybody I +knew got as close as they could and studied my face when they thought +anything important or significant had been said. They are very quick at +reading faces here; in fact, a great deal of the conversation is carried +on in that way, or with the visible speech; and my Altrurian friends knew +almost as well as I did when the speakers came to an interesting point. +It was rather embarrassing for me, though, with the poor captain's wife +at my side, to tell them, in my broken Altrurian, what the men were +accusing the captain of. + +I talk of the men, but it was really only one of them who at first, by +their common consent, spoke for the rest. He was a middle-aged Yankee, +and almost the only born American among them, for you know that our +sailors, nowadays, are of every nationality under the sun--Portuguese, +Norwegians, Greeks, Italians, Kanucks, and Kanakas, and even Cape Cod +Indians. He said he guessed his story was the story of most sailors, and +he had followed the sea his whole life. His story was dreadful, and I +tried to persuade the captain's wife not to come to the hearing the next +day, when it was to be read in Altrurian; but she would come. I was +afraid she would be overwhelmed by the public compassion, and would not +know what to do; for when something awful that the sailor had said +against the captain was translated the women, all about us cooed their +sympathy with her, and pressed her hand if they could, or patted her on +the shoulder, to show how much they pitied her. In Altruria they pity the +friends of those who have done wrong, and sometimes even the wrong-doers +themselves; and it is quite a luxury, for there is so little wrong-doing +here: I tell them that in America they would have as much pitying to do +as they could possibly ask. After the hearing that day my friends, who +were of a good many different Refectories, as we call them here, wanted +her to go and lunch with them; but I got her quietly home with me, and +after she had had something to eat I made her lie down awhile. + +You won't care to have me go fully into the affair. The sailors' +spokesman told how he had been born on a farm, where he had shared the +family drudgery and poverty till he grew old enough to run away. He +meant to go to sea, but he went first to a factory town and worked three +or four years in the mills. He never went back to the farm, but he sent a +little money now and then to his mother; and he stayed on till he got +into trouble. He did not say just what kind of trouble, but I fancied it +was some sort of love-trouble; he blamed himself for it; and when he left +that town to get away from the thought of it, as much as anything, and +went to work in another town, he took to drink; then, once, in a drunken +spree, he found himself in New York without knowing how. But it was in +what he called a sailors' boarding-house, and one morning, after he had +been drinking overnight “with a very pleasant gentleman,” he found +himself in the forecastle of a ship bound for Holland, and when the mate +came and cursed him up and cursed him out he found himself in the +foretop. I give it partly in his own language, because I cannot help it; +and I only wish I could give it wholly in his language; it was so graphic +and so full of queer Yankee humor. From that time on, he said, he had +followed the sea; and at sea he was always a good temperance man, but +Altruria was the only place he had ever kept sober ashore. He guessed +that was partly because there was nothing to drink but unfermented +grape-juice, and partly because there was nobody to drink with; anyhow, +he had not had a drop here. Everywhere else, as soon as he left his ship, +he made for a sailors' boarding-house, and then he did not know much till +he found himself aboard ship and bound for somewhere that he did not know +of. He was always, he said, a stolen man, as much as a negro captured on +the west coast of Africa and sold to a slaver; and, he said, it was a +slave's life he led between drinks, whether it was a long time or short. +He said he would ask his mates if it was very different with them, and +when he turned to them they all shouted back, in their various kinds of +foreign accents, No, it was just the same with them, every one. Then he +said that was how he came to ship on our captain's vessel, and though +they could not all say the same, they nodded confirmation as far as he +was concerned. + +The captain looked sheepish enough at this, but he looked sorrowful, too, +as if he could have wished it had been different, and he asked the man if +he had been abused since he came on board. Well, the man said, not unless +you called tainted salt-horse and weevilly biscuit abuse; and then the +captain sat down again, and I could feel his poor wife shrinking beside +me. The man said that he was comparatively well off on the captain's +ship, and the life was not half such a dog's life as he had led on other +vessels; but it was such that when he got ashore here in Altruria, and +saw how _white_ people lived, people that _used_ each other white, he +made up his mind that he would never go hack to any ship alive. He hated +a ship so much that if he could go home to America as a first-class +passenger on a Cunard liner, John D. Rockefeller would not have money +enough to hire him to do it. He was going to stay in Altruria till he +died, if they would let him, and he guessed they would, if what he had +heard about them was true. He just wanted, he said, while we were about +it, to have a few of his mates tell their experience, not so much on +board the _Little Sally_, but on shore, and since they could remember; +and one after another did get up and tell their miserable stories. They +were like the stories you sometimes read in your paper over your coffee, +or that you can hear any time you go into the congested districts in New +York; but I assure you, my dear, they seemed to me perfectly incredible +here, though I had known hundreds of such stories at home. As I realized +their facts I forgot where I was; I felt that I was back again in that +horror, where it sometimes seemed to me I had no right to be fed or +clothed or warm or clean in the midst of the hunger and cold and +nakedness and dirt, and where I could only reconcile myself to my comfort +because I knew my discomfort would not help others' misery. + +I can hardly tell how, but even the first day a sense of something +terrible spread through that multitude of people, to whom the words +themselves were mere empty sounds. The captain sat through it, with his +head drooping, till his face was out of sight, and the tears ran silently +down his wife's cheeks; and the women round me were somehow awed into +silence. When the men ended, and there seemed to be no one else to say +anything on that side, the captain jumped to his feet, with a sort of +ferocious energy, and shouted out, “Are you all through, men?” and their +spokesman answered, “Ay, ay, sir!” and then the captain flung back his +grizzled hair and shook his fist towards the sailors. “And do you think I +_wanted_ to do it? Do you think I _liked_ to do it? Do you think that if +I hadn't been _afraid_ my whole life long I would have had the _heart_ to +lead you the dog's life I know I've led you? I've been as poor as the +poorest of you, and as low down as the lowest; I was born in the town +poor-house, and I've been so afraid of the poor-house all my days that I +hain't had, as you may say, a minute's peace. Ask my wife, there, what +sort of a man I _am_, and whether I'm the man, _really_ the man that's +been hard and mean to you the way I know I been. It was because I was +_afraid_, and because a coward is always hard and mean. I been afraid, +ever since I could remember anything, of coming to want, and I was +willing to see other men suffer so I could make sure that me and mine +shouldn't suffer. That's the way we do at home, ain't it? That's in the +day's work, ain't it? That's playing the game, ain't it, for everybody? +You can't say it ain't.” He stopped, and the men's spokesman called back, +“Ay, ay, sir,” as he had done before, and as I had often heard the men do +when given an order on the ship. + +The captain gave a kind of sobbing laugh, and went on in a lower tone. +“Well, I know you ain't going back. I guess I didn't expect it much from +the start, and I guess I'm not surprised.” Then he lifted his head and +shouted, “And do you suppose _I_ want to go back? Don't you suppose _I_ +would like to spend the rest of my days, too, among _white_ people, +people that _use_ each other white, as you say, and where there ain't +any want or, what's worse, _fear_ of want? Men! There ain't a day, or an +hour, or a minute, when I don't think how awful it is over there, where I +got to be either some man's slave or some man's master, as much so as if +it was down in the ship's articles. My wife ain't so, because she ain't +been ashore here. I wouldn't let her; I was afraid to let her see what a +white man's country really was, because I felt so weak about it myself, +and I didn't want to put the trial on her, too. And do you know _why_ +we're going back, or want to go? I guess some of you know, but I want to +tell these folks here so they'll understand, and I want you, Mr. Homos,” + he called to my husband, “to get it down straight. It's because we've got +two little children over there, that we left with their grandmother when +my wife come with me this voyage because she had lung difficulty and +wanted to see whether she could get her health back. Nothing else on +God's green earth could take me back to America, and I guess it couldn't +my wife if she knew what Altruria was as well as I do. But when I went +around here and saw how everything was, and remembered how it was at +home, I just said, 'She'll stay on the ship.' Now, that's all I got to +say, though I thought I had a lot more. I guess it'll be enough for these +folks, and they can judge between us.” Then the captain sat down, and to +make a long story short, the facts of the hearing were repeated in +Altrurian the next day by megaphone, and when the translation was +finished there was a general rush for the captain. He plainly expected to +be lynched, and his wife screamed out, “Oh, don't hurt him! He isn't a +bad man!” But it was only the Altrurian way with a guilty person: they +wanted to let him know how sorry they were for him, and since his sin had +found him out how hopeful they were for his redemption. I had to explain +it to the sailors as well as to the captain and his wife, but I don't +believe any of them quite accepted the fact. + +The third day of the hearing was for the rendering of the decision, first +in Altrurian, and then in English. The verdict of the magistrates had to +be confirmed by a standing vote of the people, and of course the women +voted as well as the men. The decision was that the sailors should be +absolutely free to go or stay, but they took into account the fact that +it would be cruel to keep the captain and his wife away from their little +ones, and the sailors might wish to consider this. If they still remained +true to their love of Altruria they could find some means of returning. + +When the translator came to this point their spokesman jumped to his feet +and called out to the captain, “Will you _do_ it?” “Do what?” he asked, +getting slowly to his own feet. “Come back with us after you have seen +the kids?” The captain shook his fist at the sailors; it seemed to be the +only gesture he had with them. “Give me the _chance!_ All I want is to +see the children and bring them out with me to Altruria, and the old +folks with them.” “Will you _swear_ it? Will you say, 'I hope I may find +the kids dead and buried when I get home if I don't do it'?” “I'll take +that oath, or any oath you want me to.” “Shake hands on it, then.” + +The two men met in front of the tribunal and clasped hands there, and +their reconciliation did not need translation. Such a roar of cheers went +up! And then the whole assembly burst out in the national Altrurian +anthem, “Brothers All.” I wish you could have heard it! But when the +terms of the agreement were explained, the cheering that had gone before +was a mere whisper to what followed. One orator after another rose and +praised the self-sacrifice of the sailors. I was the proudest when the +last of them referred to Aristides and the reports which he had sent home +from America, and said that without some such study as he had made of +the American character they never could have understood such an act as +they were now witnessing. Illogical and insensate as their system was, +their character sometimes had a beauty, a sublimity which was not +possible to Altrurians even, for it was performed in the face of risks +and chances which their happy conditions relieved them from. At the same +time, the orator wished his hearers to consider the essential immorality +of the act. He said that civilized men had no right to take these risks +and chances. The sailors were perhaps justified, in so far as they were +homeless, wifeless, and childless men; but it must not be forgotten that +their heroism was like the reckless generosity of savages. + +The men have gone back to the ship, and she sails this afternoon. I have +persuaded the captain to let his wife stay to lunch with me at our +Refectory, where the ladies wish to bid her good-bye, and I am hurrying +forward this letter so that she can take it on board with her this +afternoon. She has promised to post it on the first Pacific steamer they +meet, or if they do not meet any to send it forward to you with a +special-delivery stamp as soon as they reach Boston. She will also +forward by express an Altrurian costume, such as I am now wearing, +sandals and all! Do put it on, Dolly, dear, for my sake, and realize what +it is for once in your life to be a _free_ woman. + +Heaven knows when I shall have another chance of getting letters to you. +But I shall live in hopes, and I shall set down my experiences here for +your benefit, not perhaps as I meet them, but as I think of them, and +you must not mind having a rather cluttered narrative. To-morrow we are +setting off on our round of the capitals, where Aristides is to make a +sort of public report to the people of the different Regions on the +working of the capitalistic conditions as he observed them among us. But +I don't expect to send you a continuous narrative of our adventures. +Good-bye, dearest, with my mother's love, and my husband's as well as my +own, to both of you; think of me as needing nothing but a glimpse of you +to complete my happiness. How I should like to tell you fully about it! +You _must_ come to Altruria! + +I came near letting this go without telling you of one curious incident +of the affair between the captain and his men. Before the men returned to +the ship they came with their spokesman to say good-bye to Aristides and +me, and he remarked casually that it was just as well, maybe, to be going +back, because, for one thing, they would know then whether it was real or +not. I asked him what he meant, and he said, “Well, you know, some of the +mates think it's a dream here, or it's too good to be true. As far forth +as I go, I'd be willing to have it a dream that I didn't ever have to +wake up from. It ain't any too good to be true for me. Anyway, I'm going +to get back somehow, and give it another chance to be a fact.” Wasn't +that charming? It had a real touch of poetry in it, but it was prose that +followed. I couldn't help asking him whether there had been nothing to +mar the pleasure of their stay in Altruria, and he answered: “Well, I +don't know as you could rightly say _mar;_ it hadn't ought to have. You +see, it was like this. You see, some of the mates wanted to lay off and +have a regular bange, but that don't seem to be the idea here. After we +had been ashore a day or two they set us to work at different jobs, or +wanted to. The mates didn't take hold very lively, and some of 'em didn't +take hold a bit. But after that went on a couple of days, there wa'n't +any breakfast one morning, and come noontime there wa'n't any dinner, and +as far forth as they could make out they had to go to bed without supper. +Then they called a halt, and tackled one of your head men here that could +speak some English. He didn't answer them right off the reel, but he +got out his English Testament and he read 'em a verse that said, 'For +even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any one would +not work neither should he eat.' That kind of fetched 'em, and after +that there wa'n't any sojerin', well not to speak of. They saw he meant +business. I guess it did more than any one thing to make 'em think they +wa'n't dreamin'.” + + + + +IV + + +You must not think, Dolly, from anything I have been telling you that the +Altrurians are ever harsh. Sometimes they cannot realize how things +really are with us, and how what seems grotesque and hideous to them +seems charming and beautiful, or at least _chic_, to us. But they are +wonderfully quick to see when they have hurt you the least, and in the +little sacrifices I have made of my wardrobe to the cause of general +knowledge there has not been the least urgence from them. When I now look +at the things I used to wear, where they have been finally placed in the +ethnological department of the Museum, along with the Esquiman kyaks +and the Thlinkeet totems, they seem like things I wore in some +prehistoric age-- + +“When wild in woods the noble savage ran.” + +Now, am I being unkind? Well, you mustn't mind me, Dolly. You must just +say, “She _has_ got it bad,” and go on and learn as much about Altruria +as you can from me. Some of the things were hard to get used to, and at +first seemed quite impossible. For one thing, there was the matter of +service, which is dishonorable with us, and honorable with the +Altrurians: I was a long time getting to understand that, though I knew +it perfectly well from hearing my husband talk about it in New York. I +believe he once came pretty near offending you by asking why you did not +do your own work, or something like that; he has confessed as much, and I +could not wonder at you in your conditions. Why, when we first went to +the guest-house, and the pretty young girls who brought in lunch sat down +at table to eat it with us, I felt the indignation making me hot all +over. You know how democratic I am, and I did not mind those great, +splendid boat-girls hugging and kissing me, but I instinctively drew the +line at cooks and waitresses. In New York, you know, I always tried to be +kind to my servants, but as for letting one of them sit down in my +presence, much less sit down at table with me, I never dreamed of such a +thing in my most democratic moments. Luckily I drew the line subjectively +here, and later I found that these young ladies were daughters of some of +the most distinguished men and women on the continent, though you must +not understand distinction as giving any sort of social primacy; that +sort of thing is not allowed in Altruria. They had drawn lots with the +girls in the Regionic school here, and were proud of having won the honor +of waiting on us. Of course, I needn't say they were what we would have +felt to be ladies anywhere, and their manners were exquisite, even to +leaving us alone together as soon as we had finished luncheon. The meal +itself was something I shall always remember for its delicious cooking of +the different kinds of mushrooms which took the place of meat, and the +wonderful salads, and the temperate and tropical fruits which we had for +dessert. + +They had to talk mostly with my husband, of course, and when they did +talk to me it was through him. They were very intelligent about our +world, much more than we are about Altruria, though, of course, it was by +deduction from premises rather than specific information, and they wanted +to ask a thousand questions; but they saw the joke of it, and laughed +with us when Aristides put them off with a promise that if they would +have a public meeting appointed we would appear and answer all the +questions anybody could think of; we were not going to waste our answers +on them the first day. He wanted them to let us go out and help wash the +dishes, but they would not hear of it. I confess I was rather glad of +that, for it seemed a lower depth to which I could not descend, even +after eating with them. But they invited us out to look at the kitchen, +after they had got it in order a little, and when we joined them there, +whom should I see but my own dear old mother, with an apron up to her +chin, wiping the glass and watching carefully through her dear old +spectacles that she got everything bright! You know she was of a simpler +day than ours, and when she was young she used to do her own work, and +she and my father always washed the dishes together after they had +company. I merely said, “_Well_, mother!” and she laughed and colored, +and said she guessed she should like it in Altruria, for it took her back +to the America she used to know. + +I must mention things as they come into my head, and not in any +regular order; there are too many of them. One thing is that I did +not notice till afterwards that we had had no meat that first day at +luncheon--the mushrooms were so delicious, and you know I never was much +of a meat-eater. It was not till we began to make our present tour of the +Regionic capitals, where Aristides has had to repeat his account of +American civilization until I am sick as well as ashamed of America, that +I first felt a kind of famine which I kept myself from recognizing as +long as I could. Then I had to own to myself, long before I owned it to +him, that I was hungry for _meat_--for roast, for broiled, for fried, for +hashed. I did not actually tell him, but he found it out, and I could not +deny it, though I felt such an ogre in it. He was terribly grieved, and +blamed himself for not having thought of it, and wished he had got some +canned meats from the trader before she left the port. He was really in +despair, for nobody since the old capitalistic times had thought of +killing sheep or cattle for food; they have them for wool and milk and +butter; and of course when I looked at them in the fields it did seem +rather formidable. You are so used to seeing them in the butchers' shops, +ready for the range, that you never think of what they have to _go +through_ before that. But at last I managed to gasp out, one day, “If I +could only have a chicken!” and he seemed to think that it could be +managed. I don't know how he made interest with the authorities, or how +the authorities prevailed on a farmer to part with one of his precious +pullets; but the thing was done somehow, and two of the farmer's children +brought it to us at one of the guest-houses where we were staying, and +then fled howling. That was bad enough, but what followed was worse. I +went another day on mushrooms before I had the heart to say chicken again +and suggest that Aristides should get it killed and dressed. The poor +fellow did try, I believe, but we had to fall back upon ourselves for the +murderous deed, and--Did you ever see a chicken have its head cut off, +and how hideously it behaves? It made us both wish we were dead; and the +sacrifice of that one pullet was quite enough for me. We buried the poor +thing under the flowers of the guest-house garden, and I went back to +my mushrooms after a visit of contrition to the farmer and many attempts +to bring his children to forgiveness. After all, the Altrurian mushrooms +are wonderfully nourishing, and they are in such variety that, what with +other succulent vegetables and the endless range of fruits and nuts, one +does not wish for meat--meat that one has killed one's self! + + + + +V + + +I wish you could be making tour of the Regionic capitals with us, Dolly! +There are swift little one-rail electric expresses running daily from one +capital to another, but these are used only when speed is required, and +we are confessedly in no hurry: Aristides wanted me to see as much of the +country as possible, and I am as eager as he. The old steam-roads of the +capitalistic epoch have been disused for generations, and their beds are +now the country roads, which are everywhere kept in beautiful repair. +There are no horse vehicles (the electric motors are employed in the +towns), though some people travel on horseback, but the favorite means of +conveyance is by electric van, which any citizen may have on proof of his +need of it; and it is comfortable beyond compare--mounted on easy +springs, and curtained and cushioned like those gypsy vans we see in the +country at home. Aristides drives himself, and sometimes we both get out +and walk, for there is plenty of time. + +I don't know whether I can make you understand how everything has tended +to simplification here. They have disused the complicated facilities and +conveniences of the capitalistic epoch, which we are so proud of, and +have got back as close as possible to nature. People stay at home a great +deal more than with us, though if any one likes to make a journey or to +visit the capitals he is quite free to do it, and those who have some +useful or beautiful object in view make the sacrifice, as they feel it, +to leave their villages every day and go to the nearest capital to carry +on their studies or experiments. What we consider modern conveniences +they would consider a superfluity of naughtiness for the most part. As +_work_ is the ideal, they do not believe in what we call labor-saving +devices. + +When we approach a village on our journey, one of the villagers, +sometimes a young man, and sometimes a girl, comes out to meet us, and +when we pass through they send some one with us on the way a little. The +people have a perfect inspiration for hospitality: they not only know +when to do and how much to do, but how little and when not at all. I +can't remember that we have ever once been bored by those nice young +things that welcomed us or speeded us on our way, and when we have +stopped in a village they have shown a genius for leaving us alone, after +the first welcome, that is beautiful. They are so regardful of our +privacy, in fact, that if it had not been for Aristides, who explained +their ideal to me, I should have felt neglected sometimes, and should +have been shy of letting them know that we would like their company. But +he understood it, and I must say that I have never enjoyed people and +their ways so much. Their hospitality is a sort of compromise between +that of the English houses where you are left free at certain houses to +follow your own devices absolutely, and that Spanish splendor which +assures you that the host's house is yours without meaning it. In fact, +the guest-house, wherever we go, _is_ ours, for it belongs to the +community, and it is absolutely a home to us for the time being. It is +usually the best house in the village, the prettiest and cosiest, where +all the houses are so pretty and cosey. There is always another building +for public meetings, called the temple, which is the principal edifice, +marble and classic and tasteful, which we see almost as much of as the +guest-house, for the news of the Emissary's return has preceded him, and +everybody is alive with curiosity, and he has to stand and deliver in the +village temples everywhere. Of course I am the great attraction, and +after being scared by it at first I have rather got to like it; the +people are so kind, and unaffected, and really delicate. + +You mustn't get the notion that the Altrurians are a solemn people at +all; they are rather gay, and they like other people's jokes as well as +their own; I am sure Mr. Makely, with his sense of humor, would be at +home with them at once. The one thing that more than any other has helped +them to conceive of the American situation is its being the gigantic joke +which we often feel it to be; I don't know but it appears to them more +grotesque than it does to us even. At first, when Aristides would explain +some peculiarity of ours, they would receive him with a gale of laughing, +but this might change into cries of horror and pity later. One of the +things that amused and then revolted them most was our patriotism. They +thought it the drollest thing in the world that men should be willing to +give their own lives and take the lives of other men for the sake of a +country which assured them no safety from want, and did not even assure +them work, and in which they had no more logical interest than the +country they were going to fight. They could understand how a rich man +might volunteer for one of our wars, but when they were told that most of +our volunteers were poor men, who left their mothers and sisters, or +their wives and children, without any means of support, except their +meagre pay, they were quite bewildered and stopped laughing, as if the +thing had passed a joke. They asked, “How if one of these citizen +soldiers was killed?” and they seemed to suppose that in this case the +country would provide for his family and give them work, or if the +children were too young would support them at the public expense. It +made me creep a little when my husband answered that the family of a +crippled or invalided soldier would have a pension of eight or ten or +fifteen dollars a month; and when they came back with the question why +the citizens of such a country should love it enough to die for it, I +could not have said why for the life of me. But Aristides, who is so +magnificently generous, tried to give them a notion of the sublimity +which is at the bottom of our illogicality and which adjusts so many +apparently hopeless points of our anomaly. They asked how this sublimity +differed from that of the savage who brings in his game and makes a feast +for the whole tribe, and leaves his wife and children without provision +against future want; but Aristides told them that there were essential +differences between the Americans and savages, which arose from the fact +that the savage condition was permanent and the American conditions were +unconsciously provisional. + +They are quite well informed about our life in some respects, but they +wished to hear at first hand whether certain things were really so or +not. For instance, they wanted to know whether people were allowed to +marry and bring children into the world if they had no hopes of +supporting them or educating them, or whether diseased people were +allowed to become parents. In Altruria, you know, the families are +generally small, only two or three children at the most, so that the +parents can devote themselves to them the more fully; and as there is no +fear of want here, the state interferes only when the parents are +manifestly unfit to bring the little ones up. They imagined that there +was something of that kind with us, but when they heard that the state +interfered in the family only when the children were unruly, and then it +punished the children by sending them to a reform school and disgracing +them for life, instead of holding the parents accountable, they seemed +to think that it was one of the most anomalous features of our great +anomaly. Here, when the father and mother are always quarrelling, the +children are taken from them, and the pair are separated, at first for a +time, but after several chances for reform they are parted permanently. + +But I must not give you the notion that all our conferences are so +serious. Many have merely the character of social entertainments, which +are not made here for invited guests, but for any who choose to come; +all are welcome. At these there are often plays given by amateurs, and +improvised from plots which supply the outline, while the performers +supply the dialogue and action, as in the old Italian comedies. The +Altrurians are so quick and fine, in fact, that they often remind me of +the Italians more than any other people. One night there was for my +benefit an American play, as the Altrurians imagined it from what they +had read about us, and they had costumed it from the pictures of us they +had seen in the newspapers Aristides had sent home while he was with us. +The effect was a good deal like that American play which the Japanese +company of Sada Yacco gave while it was in New York. It was all about a +millionaire's daughter, who was loved by a poor young man and escaped +with him to Altruria in an open boat from New York. The millionaire could +be distinctly recognized by the dollar-marks which covered him all over, +as they do in the caricatures of rich men in our yellow journals. It was +funny to the last degree. In the last act he was seen giving his millions +away to poor people, whose multitude was represented by the continually +coming and going of four or five performers in and out of the door, in +outrageously ragged clothes. The Altrurians have not yet imagined the +nice degrees of poverty which we have achieved, and they could not have +understood that a man with a hundred thousand dollars would have seemed +poor to that multi-millionaire. In fact, they do not grasp the idea of +money at all. I heard afterwards that in the usual version the +millionaire commits suicide in despair, but the piece had been given a +happy ending out of kindness to me. I must say that in spite of the +monstrous misconception the acting was extremely good, especially that of +some comic characters. + +But dancing is the great national amusement in Altruria, where it has not +altogether lost its religious nature. A sort of march in the temples is +as much a part of the worship as singing, and so dancing has been +preserved from the disgrace which it used to be in with serious people +among us. In the lovely afternoons you see young people dancing in the +meadows, and hear them shouting in time to the music, while the older men +and women watch them from their seats in the shade. Every sort of +pleasure here is improvised, and as you pass through a village the first +thing you know the young girls and young men start up in a sort of +_girandole_, and linking hands in an endless chain stretch the figure +along through the street and out over the highway to the next village, +and the next and the next. The work has all been done in the forenoon, +and every one who chooses is at liberty to join in the fun. + +The villages are a good deal alike to a stranger, and we knew what to +expect there after a while, but the country is perpetually varied, and +the unexpected is always happening in it. The old railroad-beds, on +which we travelled, are planted with fruit and nut trees and flowering +shrubs, and our progress is through a fragrant bower that is practically +endless, except where it takes the shape of a colonnade near the entrance +of a village, with vines trained about white pillars, and clusters of +grapes (which are ripening just now) hanging down. The change in the +climate created by cutting off the southeastern peninsula and letting in +the equatorial current, which was begun under the first Altrurian +president, with an unexpended war-appropriation, and finished for what +one of the old capitalistic wars used to cost, is something perfectly +astonishing. Aristides says he told you something about it in his speech +at the White Mountains, but you would never believe it without the +evidence of your senses. Whole regions to the southward, which were +nearest the pole and were sheeted with ice and snow, with the temperature +and vegetation of Labrador, now have the climate of Italy; and the +mountains, which used to bear nothing but glaciers, are covered with +olive orchards and plantations of the delicious coffee which they drink +here. Aristides says you could have the same results at home--no! _in the +United States_--by cutting off the western shore of Alaska and letting in +the Japanese current; and it could be done at the cost of any average +war. + + + + +VI + + +But I must not get away from my personal experiences in these +international statistics. Sometimes, when night overtakes us, we stop +and camp beside the road, and set about getting our supper of eggs and +bread and butter and cheese, or the fruits that are ripening all round +us. Since my experience with that pullet I go meekly mushrooming in +the fields and pastures; and when I have set the mushrooms stewing over +an open fire, Aristides makes the coffee, and in a little while we +have a banquet fit for kings--or for the poor things in every grade below +them that serve kings, political or financial or industrial. There is +always water, for it is brought down from the snow-fields of the +mountains--there is not much rainfall--and carried in little concrete +channels along the road--side from village to village, something like +those conduits the Italian peasants use to bring down the water from the +Maritime Alps to their fields and orchards; and you hear the soft gurgle +of it the whole night long, and day long, too, whenever you stop. After +supper we can read awhile by our electric lamp (we tap the current in the +telephone wires anywhere), or Aristides sacrifices himself to me in a +lesson of Altrurian grammar. Then we creep back into our van and fall +asleep with the Southern Cross glittering over our heads. It is perfectly +safe, though it was a long time before I could imagine the perfect safety +of it. In a country where there are no thieves, because a thief here +would not know what to do with his booty, we are secure from human +molestation, and the land has long been cleared of all sorts of wild +beasts, without being unpleasantly tamed. It is like England in that, and +yet it has a touch of the sylvan, which you feel nowhere as you do in our +dear New England hill country. There was one night, however, when we were +lured on and on, and did not stop to camp till fairly in the dusk. Then +we went to sleep without supper, for we had had rather a late lunch and +were not hungry, and about one o'clock in the morning I was awakened by +voices speaking Altrurian together. I recognized my husband's voice, +which is always so kind, but which seemed to have a peculiarly tender and +compassionate note in it now. The other was lower and of a sadness which +wrung my heart, though I did not know in the least what the person was +saying. The talk went on a long time, at first about some matter of +immediate interest, as I fancied, and then apparently it branched off +on some topic which seemed to concern the stranger, whoever he was. Then +it seemed to get more indistinct, as if the stranger were leaving us and +Aristides were going a little way with him. Presently I heard him coming +back, and he put his head in at the van curtains, as if to see whether I +was asleep. + +“Well?” I said, and he said how sorry he was for having waked me. “Oh, I +don't mind,” I said. “Whom were you talking with? He had the saddest +voice I ever heard. What did he want?” + +“Oh, it seems that we are not far from the ruins of one of the old +capitalistic cities, which have been left for a sort of warning against +the former conditions, and he wished to caution us against the malarial +influences from it. I think perhaps we had better push on a little way, +if you don't mind.” + +The moon was shining clearly, and of course I did not mind, and Aristides +got his hand on the lever, and we were soon getting out of the dangerous +zone. “I think,” he said, “they ought to abolish that pest-hole. I doubt +if it serves any good purpose, now, though it has been useful in times +past as an object-lesson.” + +“But who was your unknown friend?” I asked, a great deal more curious +about him than about the capitalistic ruin. + +“Oh, just a poor murderer,” he answered easily, and I shuddered back: +“A murderer!” + +“Yes. He killed his friend some fifteen years ago in a jealous rage, and +he is pursued by remorse that gives him no peace.” + +“And is the remorse his only punishment?” I asked, rather indignantly. + +“Isn't that enough? God seemed to think it was, in the case of the first +murderer, who killed his brother. All that he did to Cain was to set a +mark on him. But we have not felt sure that we have the right to do this. +We let God mark him, and He has done it with this man in the sorrow of +his face. I was rather glad you, couldn't see him, my dear. It is an +awful face.” + +I confess that this sounded like mere sentimentalism to me, and I said, +“Really, Aristides, I can't follow you. How are innocent people to be +protected against this wretch, if he wanders about among them at will?” + +“They are as safe from him as from any other man in Altruria. His case +was carefully looked into by the medical authorities, and it was decided +that he was perfectly sane, so that he could be safely left at large, to +expiate his misdeed in the only possible way that such a misdeed can be +expiated--by doing good to others. What would you have had us do with +him?” + +The question rather staggered me, but I said, “He ought to have been +imprisoned at least a year for manslaughter.” + +“Cain was not imprisoned an hour.” + +“That was a very different thing. But suppose you let a man go at large +who has killed his friend in a jealous rage, what do you do with other +murderers?” + +“In Altruria there can be no other murderers. People cannot kill here for +money, which prompts every other kind of murder in capitalistic +countries, as well as every other kind of crime. I know, my dear, that +this seems very strange to you, but you will accustom yourself to the +idea, and then you will see the reasonableness of the Altrurian plan. On +the whole, I am sorry you could not have seen that hapless man, and +heard him. He had a face like death--” + +“And a voice like death, too!” I put in. + +“You noticed that? He wanted to talk about his crime with me. He wants to +talk about it with any one who will listen to him. He is consumed with an +undying pity for the man he slew. That is the first thing, the only +thing, in his mind. If he could, I believe he would give his life for the +life he took at any moment. But you cannot recreate one life by +destroying another. There is no human means of ascertaining justice, but +we can always do mercy with divine omniscience.” As he spoke the sun +pierced the edge of the eastern horizon, and lit up the marble walls and +roofs of the Regionic capital which we were approaching. + +At the meeting we had there in the afternoon, Aristides reported our +having been warned against our danger in the night by that murderer, and +public record of the fact was made. The Altrurians consider any sort of +punishment which is not expiation a far greater sin than the wrong it +visits, and altogether barren and useless. After the record in this case +had been made, the conference naturally turned upon what Aristides had +seen of the treatment of criminals in America, and when, he told of our +prisons, where people merely arrested and not yet openly accused are +kept, I did not know which way to look, for you know I am still an +American at heart, Dolly. Did you ever see the inside of one of our +police-stations at night? Or smell it? I did, once, when I went to give +bail for a wretched girl who had been my servant, and had gone wrong, but +had been arrested for theft, and I assure you that the sight and the +smell woke me in the night for a month afterwards, and I have never quite +ceased to dream about it. + +The Altrurians listened in silence, and I hoped they could not realize +the facts, though the story was every word true; but what seemed to make +them the most indignant was the treatment of the families of the +prisoners in what we call our penitentiaries and reformatories. At first +they did not conceive of it, apparently, because it was so stupidly +barbarous; they have no patience with stupidity; and when Aristides had +carefully explained, it seemed as if they could not believe it. They +thought it right that the convicts should be made to work, but they could +not understand that the state really took away their wages, and left +their families to suffer for want of the support which it had deprived +them of. They said this was punishing the mothers and sisters, the wives +and children of the prisoners, and was like putting out the eyes of an +offender's innocent relatives as they had read was done in Oriental +countries. They asked if there was never any sort of protest against such +an atrocious perversion of justice, and when the question was put to me +I was obliged to own that I had never heard the system even criticised. +Perhaps it has been, but I spoke only from my own knowledge. + + + + +VII + + +Well, to get away from these dismal experiences, and come back to our +travels, with their perpetual novelty, and the constantly varying beauty +of the country! + +The human interest of the landscape, that is always the great interest of +it, and I wish I could make you feel it as I have felt it in this +wonderful journey of ours. It is like the New England landscape at times, +in its kind of gentle wildness, but where it has been taken back into the +hand of man, how different the human interest is! Instead of a rheumatic +old farmer, in his clumsy clothes, with some of his gaunt girls to help +him, or perhaps his ageing wife, getting in the hay of one of those sweet +meadows, and looking like so many animated scarecrows at their work; or +instead of some young farmer, on the seat of his clattering mower, or +mounted high over his tedder, but as much alone as if there were no one +else in the neighborhood, silent and dull, or fierce or sullen, as the +case might be, the work is always going on with companies of mowers or +reapers, or planters, that chatter like birds or sing like them. + +It is no use my explaining again and again that in a country like this, +where everybody works, nobody over works, and that when the few hours of +obligatory labor are passed in the mornings, people need not do anything +unless they choose. Their working-dresses are very simple, but in all +sorts of gay colors, like those you saw in the Greek play at Harvard, +with straw hats for the men, and fillets of ribbon for the girls, and +sandals for both. I speak of girls, for most of the married women are at +home gardening, or about the household work, but men of every age work in +the fields. The earth is dear to them because they get their life from it +by labor that is not slavery; they come to love it every acre, every +foot, because they have known it from childhood; and I have seen old men, +very old, pottering about the orchards and meadows during the hours of +voluntary work, and trimming them up here and there, simply because they +could not keep away from the place, or keep their hands off the trees and +bushes. Sometimes in the long, tender afternoons, we see far up on some +pasture slope, groups of girls scattered about on the grass, with their +sewing, or listening to some one reading. Other times they are giving a +little play, usually a comedy, for life is so happy here that tragedy +would not be true to it, with the characters coming and going in a grove +of small pines, for the _coulisses_, and using a level of grass for the +stage. If we stop, one of the audience comes down to us and invites us to +come up and see the play, which keeps on in spite of the sensation that I +can feel I make among them. + +Everywhere the news of us has gone before us, and there is a universal +curiosity to get a look at Aristides' capitalistic wife, as they call me. +I made him translate it, and he explained that the word was merely +descriptive and not characteristic; some people distinguished and called +me American. There was one place where they were having a picnic in the +woods up a hillside, and they asked us to join them, so we turned our +van into the roadside and followed the procession. It was headed by two +old men playing on pipes, and after these came children singing, and then +all sorts of people, young and old. When we got to an open place in the +woods, where there was a spring, and smooth grass, they built fires, and +began to get ready for the feast, while some of them did things to amuse +the rest. Every one could do something; if you can imagine a party of +artists, it was something like that. I should say the Altrurians had +artists' manners, free, friendly, and easy, with a dash of humor in +everything, and a wonderful willingness to laugh and make laugh. +Aristides is always explaining that the artist is their ideal type; that +is, some one who works gladly, and plays as gladly as he works; no one +here is asked to do work that he hates, unless he seems to hate every +kind of work. When this happens, the authorities find out something for +him that he had _better_ like, by letting him starve till he works. That +picnic lasted the whole afternoon and well into the night, and then the +picnickers went home through the starlight, leading the little ones, or +carrying them when they were too little or too tired. But first they came +down to our van with us, and sang us a serenade after we had disappeared +into it, and then left us, and sent their voices back to us out of the +dark. + +One morning at dawn, as we came into a village, we saw nearly the whole +population mounting the marble steps of the temple, all the holiday dress +of the Voluntaries, which they put on here every afternoon when the work +is done. Last of the throng came a procession of children, looking +something like a May-Day party, and midway of their line were a young man +and a young girl, hand in hand, who parted at the door of the temple, and +entered separately. Aristides called out, “Oh, it is a wedding! You are +in luck, Eveleth,” and then and there I saw my first Altrurian wedding. + +Within, the pillars and the altar and the seats of the elders were +garlanded with flowers, so fresh and fragrant that they seemed to have +blossomed from the marble overnight, and there was a soft murmur of +Altrurian voices that might very well have seemed the hum of bees among +the blossoms. This subsided, as the young couple, who had paused just +inside the temple door, came up the middle side by side, and again +separated and took their places, the youth on the extreme right of the +elder, and the maiden on the extreme left of the eldresses, and stood +facing the congregation, which was also on foot, and joined in the hymn +which everybody sang. Then one of the eldresses rose and began a sort of +statement which Aristides translated to me afterwards. She said that the +young couple whom we saw there had for the third time asked to become man +and wife, after having believed for a year that they loved each other, +and having statedly come before the marriage authorities and been +questioned as to the continuance of their affection. She said that +probably every one present knew that they had been friends from +childhood, and none would be surprised that they now wished to be united +for life. They had been carefully instructed as to the serious nature of +the marriage bond, and admonished as to the duties they were entering +into, not only to each other, but to the community. At each successive +visit to the authorities they had been warned, separately and together, +against the danger of trusting to anything like a romantic impulse, and +they had faithfully endeavored to act upon this advice, as they +testified. In order to prove the reality of their affection, they had +been parted every third month, and had lived during that time in +different Regions where it was meant they should meet many other young +people, so that if they felt any swerving of the heart they might not +persist in an intention which could only bring them final unhappiness. It +seems this is the rule in the case of young lovers, and people usually +marry very young here, but if they wish to marry later in life the rule +is not enforced so stringently, or not at all. The bride and groom we saw +had both stood these trials, and at each return they had been more and +more sure that they loved each other, and loved no one else. Now they +were here to unite their hands, and to declare the union of their hearts +before the people. + +Then the eldress sat down and an elder arose, who bade the young people +come forward to the centre of the line, where the elders and eldresses +were sitting. He took his place behind them, and once more and for the +last time he conjured them not to persist if they felt any doubt of +themselves. He warned them that if they entered into the married state, +and afterwards repented to the point of seeking divorce, the divorce +would indeed be granted them, but on terms, as they must realize, of +lasting grief to themselves through the offence they would commit against +the commonwealth. They answered that they were sure of themselves, and +ready to exchange their troth for life and death. Then they joined hands, +and declared that they took each other for husband and wife. The +congregation broke into another hymn and slowly dispersed, leaving the +bride and groom with their families, who came up to them and embraced +them, pressing their cheeks against the cheeks of the young pair. + +This ended the solemnity, and then the festivity began, as it ended, with +a wedding feast, where people sang and danced and made speeches and drank +toasts, and the fun was kept up till the hours of the Obligatories +approached; and then, what do you think? The married pair put off their +wedding garments with the rest and went to work in the fields! Later, +I understood, if they wished to take a wedding journey they could freely +do so; but the first thing in their married life they must honor the +Altrurian ideal of work, by which every one must live in order that +every other may live without overwork. I believe that the marriage +ceremonial is something like that of the Quakers, but I never saw a +Quaker wedding, and I could only compare this with the crazy romps with +which our house-weddings often end, with throwing of rice and old shoes, +and tying ribbons to the bridal carriage and baggage, and following the +pair to the train with outbreaks of tiresome hilarity, which make them +conspicuous before their fellow-travellers; or with some of our ghastly +church weddings, in which the religious ceremonial is lost in the social +effect, and ends with that everlasting thumping march from “Lohengrin,” + and the outsiders storming about the bridal pair and the guests with the +rude curiosity that the fattest policemen at the canopied and carpeted +entrance cannot check. + + + + +VIII + + +We have since been at other weddings and at christenings and at funerals. +The ceremonies are always held in the temples, and are always in the same +serious spirit. As the Altrurians are steadfast believers in immortality, +there is a kind of solemn elevation in the funeral ceremonies which I +cannot give you a real notion of. It is helped, I think, by the custom of +not performing the ceremony over the dead; a brief rite is reserved for +the cemetery, where it is wished that the kindred shall not be present, +lest they think always of the material body and not of the spiritual body +which shall be raised in incorruption. Religious service is held in the +temples every day at the end of the Obligatories, and whenever we are +near a village or in any of the capitals we always go. It is very simple. +After a hymn, to which the people sometimes march round the interior of +the temple, each lays on the altar an offering from the fields or woods +where they have been working, if it is nothing but a head of grain or a +wild flower or a leaf. Then any one is at liberty to speak, but any one +else may go out without offence. There is no ritual; sometimes they read +a chapter from the New Testament, preferably a part of the story of +Christ or a passage from His discourses. The idea of coming to the temple +at the end of the day's labor is to consecrate that day's work, and they +do not call anything work that is not work with the hands. When I +explained, or tried to explain, that among us a great many people worked +with their brains, to amuse others or to get handwork out of them, they +were unable to follow me. I asked if they did not consider composing +music or poetry or plays, or painting pictures work, and they said, No, +that was pleasure, and must be indulged only during the Voluntaries; it +was never to be honored like work with the hands, for it would not +equalize the burden of that, but might put an undue share of it on +others. They said that lives devoted to such pursuits must be very +unwholesome, and they brought me to book about the lives of most artists, +literary men, and financiers in the capitalistic world to prove what they +said. They held that people must work with their hands willingly, in the +artistic spirit, but they could only do that when they knew that others +differently gifted were working in like manner with their hands. + +I couldn't begin to tell you all our queer experiences. As I have kept +saying, I am a great curiosity everywhere, and I could flatter myself +that people were more eager to see me than to hear Aristides. Sometimes I +couldn't help thinking that they expected to find me an awful warning, a +dreadful example of whatever a woman ought not to be, and a woman from +capitalistic conditions must be logically. But sometimes they were very +intelligent, even the simplest villagers, as we should call them, though +there is such an equality of education and opportunity here that no +simplicity of life has the effect of dulling people as it has with us. +One thing was quite American: they always wanted to know how I liked +Altruria, and when I told them, as I sincerely could, that I adored it, +they were quite affecting in their pleasure. They generally asked if I +would like to go back to America, and when I said No, they were delighted +beyond anything. They said I must become a citizen and vote and take part +in the government, for that was every woman's duty as well as right; it +was wrong to leave the whole responsibility to the men. They asked if +American women took no interest in the government, and when I told them +there was a very small number who wished to influence politics socially, +as the Englishwomen did, but without voting or taking any responsibility, +they were shocked. In one of the Regionic capitals they wanted me to +speak after Aristides, but I had nothing prepared; at the next I did get +off a little speech in English, which he translated after me. Later he +put it into Altrurian, and I memorized it, and made myself immensely +popular by parroting it. + +The pronunciation of Altrurian is not difficult, for it is spelled +phonetically, and the sounds are very simple. Where they were once +difficult they have been simplified, for here the simplification of life +extends to everything; and the grammar has been reduced in its structure +till it is as elemental as English grammar or Norwegian. The language is +Greek in origin, but the intricate inflections and the declensions have +been thrown away, and it has kept only the simplest forms. You must get +Mr. Twelvemough to explain this to you, Dolly, for it would take me too +long, and I have so much else to tell you. A good many of the women have +taken up English, but they learn it as a dead language, and they give it +a comical effect by trying to pronounce it as it is spelled. + +I suppose you are anxious, if these letters which are piling up and +piling up should ever reach you, or even start to do so, to know +something about the Altrurian cities, and what they are like. Well, in +the first place, you must cast all images of American cities out of your +mind, or any European cities, except, perhaps, the prettiest and +stateliest parts of Paris, where there is a regular sky-line, and the +public buildings and monuments are approached through shaded avenues. +There are no private houses here, in our sense--that is, houses which +people have built with their own money on their own land, and made as +ugly outside and as molestive to their neighbors and the passers-by as +they chose. As the buildings belong to the whole people, the first +requirement is that they shall be beautiful inside and out. There are a +few grand edifices looking like Greek temples, which are used for the +government offices, and these are, of course, the most dignified, but the +dwellings are quite as attractive and comfortable. They are built round +courts, with gardens and flowers in the courts, and wide grassy spaces +round them. They are rather tall, but never so tall as our great hotels +or apartment-houses, and the floors are brought to one level by +elevators, which are used only in the capitals; and, generally speaking, +I should say the villages were pleasanter than the cities. In fact, the +village is the Altrurian ideal, and there is an effort everywhere to +reduce the size of the towns and increase the number of the villages. +The outlying farms have been gathered into these, and now there is not +one of those lonely places in the country, like those where our farmers +toil alone outdoors and their wives alone indoors, and both go mad +so often in the solitude. The villages are almost in sight of each other, +and the people go to their fields in company, while the women carry on +their house-keeping co-operatively, with a large kitchen which they +use in common; they have their meals apart or together, as they like. If +any one is sick or disabled the neighbors come in and help do her work, +as they used with us in the early times, and as they still do in country +places. Village life here is preferred, just as country life is in +England, and one thing that will amuse you, with your American ideas, and +your pride in the overgrowth of our cities: the Altrurian papers solemnly +announce from time to time that the population of such or such a capital +has been reduced so many hundreds or thousands since the last census. +That means that the villages in the neighborhood have been increased in +number and population. + +Meanwhile, I must say the capitals are delightful: clean, airy, quiet, +with the most beautiful architecture, mostly classic and mostly marble, +with rivers running through them and round them, and every real +convenience, but not a clutter of artificial conveniences, as with us. In +the streets there are noiseless trolleys (where they have not been +replaced by public automobiles) which the long distances of the ample +ground-plan make rather necessary, and the rivers are shot over with +swift motor-boats; for the short distances you always expect to walk, or +if you don't expect it, you walk anyway. The car-lines and boat-lines are +public, and they are free, for the Altrurians think that the community +owes transportation to every one who lives beyond easy reach of the +points which their work calls them to. + +Of course the great government stores are in the capitals, and +practically there are no stores in the villages, except for what you +might call emergency supplies. But you must not imagine, Dolly, that +shopping, here, is like shopping at home--or in America, as I am learning +to say, for Altruria is home now. That is, you don't fill your purse with +bank-notes, or have things charged. You get everything you want, within +reason, and certainly everything you need, for nothing. You have only to +provide yourself with a card, something like that you have to show at the +Army and Navy Stores in London, when you first go to buy there, which +certifies that you belong to this or that working-phalanx, and that you +have not failed in the Obligatories for such and such a length of time. +If you are not entitled to this card, you had better not go shopping, for +there is no possible equivalent for it which will enable you to carry +anything away or have it sent to your house. At first I could not help +feeling rather indignant when I was asked to show my work-card in the +stores; I had usually forgotten to bring it, or sometimes I had brought +my husband's card, which would not do at all, unless I could say that I +had been ill or disabled, for a woman is expected to work quite the same +as a man. Of course her housework counts, and as we are on a sort of +public mission, they count our hours of travel as working-hours, +especially as Aristides has made it a point of good citizenship for us to +stop every now and then and join in the Obligatories when the villagers +were getting in the farm crops or quarrying stone or putting up a house. +I am never much use in quarrying or building, but I come in strong in the +hay-fields or the apple orchards or the orange groves. + +The shopping here is not so enslaving as it is with us--I mean, with +you--because the fashions do not change, and you get things only when you +need them, not when you want them, or when other people think you do. The +costume was fixed long ago, when the Altrurian era began, by a commission +of artists, and it would be considered very bad form as well as bad +morals to try changing it in the least. People are allowed to choose +their own colors, but if one goes very wrong, or so far wrong as to +offend the public taste, she is gently admonished by the local art +commission. If she insists, they let her have her own way, but she seldom +wants it when she knows that people think her a fright. Of course the +costume is modified somewhat for the age and shape of the wearer, but +this is not so often as you might think. There are no very lean or very +stout people, though there are old and young, just as there are with us. +But the Altrurians keep young very much longer than capitalistic peoples +do, and the life of work keeps down their weight. You know I used to +incline a little to over-plumpness, I really believe because I overate at +times simply to keep from thinking of the poor who had to undereat, but +that is quite past now; I have lost at least twenty-five pounds from +working out-doors and travelling so much and living very, very simply. + + + + +IX + + +I have to jot things down as they come into my mind, and I am afraid I +forget some of the most important. Everybody is so novel on this famous +tour of ours that I am continually interested, but one has one's +preferences even in Altruria, and I believe I like best the wives of the +artists and literary men whom one finds working in the galleries and +libraries of the capitals everywhere. They are not more intelligent than +other women, perhaps, but they are more sympathetic; and one sees so +little of those people in New York, for all they abound there. + +The galleries are not only for the exhibition of pictures, but each has +numbers of ateliers, where the artists work and teach. The libraries are +the most wonderfully imagined things. You do not have to come and study +in them, but if you are working up any particular subject, the books +relating to it are sent to your dwelling every morning and brought away +every noon, so that during the obligatory hours you have them completely +at your disposition, and during the Voluntaries you can consult them with +the rest of the public in the library; it is not thought best that study +should be carried on throughout the day, and the results seem to justify +this theory. If you want to read a book merely for pleasure, you are +allowed to take it out and live with it as long as you like; the copy you +have is immediately replaced with another, so that you do not feel +hurried and are not obliged to ramp through it in a week or a fortnight. + +The Altrurian books are still rather sealed books to me, but they are +delightful to the eye, all in large print on wide margins, with flexible +bindings, and such light paper that you can hold them in one hand +indefinitely without tiring. I must send you some with this, if I ever +get my bundle of letters off to you. You will see by the dates that I am +writing you one every day; I had thought of keeping a journal for you, +but then I should have had left out a good many things that happened +during our first days, when the impressions were so vivid, and I should +have got to addressing my records to myself, and I think I had better +keep to the form of letters. If they reach you, and you read them at +random, why that is very much the way I write them. + +I despair of giving you any real notion of the capitals, but if you +remember the White City at the Columbian Fair at Chicago in 1893, you can +have some idea of the general effect of one; only there is nothing +heterogeneous in their beauty. There is one classic rule in the +architecture, but each of the different architects may characterize an +edifice from himself, just as different authors writing the same language +characterize it by the diction natural to him. There are suggestions of +the capitals in some of our cities, and if you remember Commonwealth +Avenue in Boston, you can imagine something like the union of street and +garden which every street of them is. The trolleys run under the +overarching trees between the lawns, flanked by gravelled footpaths +between flower-beds, and you take the cars or not as you like. As there +is no hurry, they go about as fast as English trams, and the clanger from +them is practically reduced to nothing by the crossings dipping under +them at the street corners. The centre of the capital is approached by +colonnades, which at night bear groups of great bulbous lamps, and by day +flutter with the Altrurian and Regionic flags. Around this centre are the +stores and restaurants and theatres, and galleries and libraries, with +arcades over the sidewalks, like those in Bologna; sometimes the arcades +are in two stories, as they are in Chester. People are constantly coming +and going in an easy way during the afternoon, though in the morning the +streets are rather deserted. + +But what is the use? I could go on describing and describing, and never +get in half the differences from American cities, with their hideous +uproar, and their mud in the wet, and their clouds of swirling dust in +the wind. But there is one feature which I must mention, because you can +fancy it from the fond dream of a great national highway which some of +our architects projected while they were still in the fervor of +excitement from the beauty of the Peristyle, and other features of the +White City. They really have such a highway here, crossing the whole +Altrurian continent, and uniting the circle of the Regionic capitals. As +we travelled for a long time by the country roads on the beds of the old +railways, I had no idea of this magnificent avenue, till one day my +husband suddenly ran our van into the one leading up to the first capital +we were to visit. Then I found myself between miles and miles of stately +white pillars, rising and sinking as the road found its natural levels, +and growing in the perspective before us and dwindling behind us. I could +not keep out of my mind a colonnade of palm-trees, only the fronds were +lacking, and there were never palms so beautiful. Each pillar was +inscribed with the name of some Altrurian who had done something for his +country, written some beautiful poem or story, or history, made some +scientific discovery, composed an opera, invented a universal +convenience, performed a wonderful cure, or been a delightful singer, or +orator, or gardener, or farmer. Not one soldier, general or admiral, +among them! That seemed very strange to me, and I asked Aristides how +it was. Like everything else in Altruria, it was very simple; there had +been no war for so long that there were no famous soldiers to +commemorate. But he stopped our van when he came to the first of the many +arches which spanned the highway, and read out to me in English the +Altrurian record that it was erected in honor of the first President of +the Altrurian Commonwealth, who managed the negotiations when the +capitalistic oligarchies to the north and south were peacefully annexed, +and the descendants of the three nations joined in the commemoration of +an event that abolished war forever on the Altrurian continent. + +Here I can imagine Mr. Makely asking who footed the bills for this beauty +and magnificence, and whether these works were constructed at the cost of +the nation, or the different Regions, or the abuttors on the different +highways. But the fact is, you poor, capitalistic dears, they cost nobody +a dollar, for there is not a dollar in Altruria. You must worry into the +idea somehow that in Altruria you cannot buy anything except by working, +and that work is the current coin of the republic: you pay for everything +by drops of sweat, and off your own brow, not somebody else's brow. The +people built these monuments and colonnades, and aqueducts and highways +and byways, and sweet villages and palatial cities with their own hands, +after the designs of artists, who also took part in the labor. But it was +a labor that they delighted in so much that they chose to perform it +during the Voluntaries, when they might have been resting, and not during +the Obligatories, when they were required to work. So it was all joy and +all glory. They say there never was such happiness in any country since +the world began. While the work went on it was like a perpetual Fourth of +July or an everlasting picnic. + +But I know you hate this sort of economical stuff, Dolly, and I will make +haste to get down to business, as Mr. Makely would say, for I am really +coming to something that you will think worth while. One morning, when we +had made half the circle of the capitals, and were on the homestretch to +the one where we had left our dear mother--for Aristides claims her, +too--and I was letting that dull nether anxiety for her come to the top, +though we had had the fullest telephonic talks with her every day, and +knew she was well and happy, we came round the shoulder of a wooded cliff +and found ourselves on an open stretch of the northern coast. At first I +could only exclaim at the beauty of the sea, lying blue and still beyond +a long beach closed by another headland, and I did not realize that a +large yacht which I saw close to land had gone ashore. The beach was +crowded with Altrurians, who seemed to have come to the rescue, for they +were putting off to the yacht in boats and returning with passengers, and +jumping out, and pulling their boats with them up on to the sand. + +I was quite bewildered, and I don't know what to say I was the next +thing, when I saw that the stranded yacht was flying the American flag +from her peak. I supposed she must be one of our cruisers, she was so +large, and the first thing that flashed into my mind was a kind of amused +wonder what those poor Altrurians would do with a ship-of-war and her +marines and crew. I couldn't ask any coherent questions, and luckily +Aristides was answering my incoherent ones in the best possible way by +wheeling our van down on the beach and making for the point nearest the +yacht. He had time to say he did not believe she was a government vessel, +and, in fact, I remembered that once I had seen a boat in the North River +getting up steam to go to Europe which was much larger, and had her decks +covered with sailors that I took for bluejackets; but she was only the +private yacht of some people I knew. These stupid things kept going and +coming in my mind while my husband was talking with some of the +Altrurian girls who were there helping with the men. They said that the +yacht had gone ashore the night before last in one of the sudden fogs +that come up on that coast, and that some people whom the sailors seemed +to obey were camping on the edge of the upland above the beach, under a +large tent they had brought from the yacht. They had refused to go to the +guest-house in the nearest village, and as nearly as the girls could make +out they expected the yacht to get afloat from tide to tide, and then +intended to re-embark on her. In the mean time they had provisioned +themselves from the ship, and were living in a strange way of their own. +Some of them seemed to serve the others, but these appeared to be used +with a very ungrateful indifference, as if they were of a different race. +There was one who wore a white apron and white cap who directed the +cooking for the rest, and had several assistants; and from time to time +very disagreeable odors came from the camp, like burning flesh. The +Altrurians had carried them fruits and vegetables, but the men-assistants +had refused them contemptuously and seemed suspicious of the variety of +mushrooms they offered them. They called out, “To-stoo!” and I understood +that the strangers were afraid they were bringing toad-stools. One of the +Altrurian girls had been studying English in the nearest capital, and she +had tried to talk with these people, pronouncing it in the Altrurian way, +but they could make nothing of one another; then she wrote down what she +wanted to say, but as she spelled it phonetically they were not able to +read her English. She asked us if I was the American Altrurian she had +heard of, and when I said yes she lost no time in showing us to the camp +of the castaways. + +As soon as we saw their tents we went forward till we were met at +the largest by a sort of marine footman, who bowed slightly and said +to me, “What name shall I say, ma'am?” and I answered distinctly, so +that he might get the name right, “Mr. and Mrs. Homos.” Then he held +back the flap of the marquee, which seemed to serve these people as a +drawing-room, and called out, standing very rigidly upright, to let us +pass, in the way that I remembered so well, “Mr. And Mrs. 'Omos!” and a +severe-looking, rather elderly lady rose to meet us with an air that was +both anxious and forbidding, and before she said anything else she burst +out, “You don't mean to say you speak English?” + +I said that I spoke English, and had not spoken anything else but rather +poor French until six months before, and then she demanded, “Have you +been cast away on this outlandish place, too?” + +I laughed and said I lived here, and I introduced my husband as well as I +could without knowing her name. He explained with his pretty Altrurian +accent, which you used to like so much, that we had ventured to come in +the hope of being of use to them, and added some regrets for their +misfortune so sweetly that I wondered she could help responding in kind. +But she merely said, “Oh!” and then she seemed to recollect herself, and +frowning to a very gentle-looking old man to come forward, she ignored my +husband in presenting me. “Mr. Thrall, Mrs. ----” + +She hesitated for my name, and I supplied it, “Homos,” and as the old man +had put out his hand in a kindly way I took it. + +“And this is my husband, Aristides Homos, an Altrurian,” I said, and +then, as the lady had not asked us to sit down, or shown the least sign +of liking our being there, the natural woman flamed up in me as she +hadn't in all the time I have been away from New York. “I am glad you are +so comfortable here, Mr. Thrall. You won't need us, I see. The people +about will do anything in their power for you. Come, my dear,” and I was +sweeping out of that tent in a manner calculated to give the eminent +millionaire's wife a notion of Altrurian hauteur which I must own would +have been altogether mistaken. + +I knew who they were perfectly. Even if I had not once met them I should +have known that they were the ultra-rich Thralls, from the multitudinous +pictures of them that I had seen in the papers at home, not long after +they came on to New York. + +He was beginning, “Oh no, oh no,” but I cut in. “My husband and I are on +our way to the next Regionic capital, and we are somewhat hurried. You +will be quite well looked after by the neighbors here, and I see that we +are rather in your housekeeper's way.” + +It _was_ nasty, Dolly, and I won't deny it; it was _vulgar_. But what +would _you_ have done? I could feel Aristides' mild eye sadly on me, and +I was sorry for him, but I assure him I was not sorry for them, till that +old man spoke again, so timidly: “It isn't my--it's my wife, Mrs. Homos. +Let me introduce her. But haven't we met before?” + +“Perhaps during my first husband's lifetime. I was Mrs. Bellington +Strange.” + +“Mrs. P. Bellington Strange? Your husband was a dear friend of mine when +we were both young--a good man, if ever there was one; the best in the +world! I am so glad to see you again. Ah--my dear, you remember my +speaking of Mrs. Strange?” + +He took my hand again and held it in his soft old hands, as if hesitating +whether to transfer it to her, and my heart melted towards him. You may +think it very odd, Dolly, but it was what he said of my dear, dead +husband that softened me. It made him seem very fatherly, and I felt the +affection for him that I felt for my husband, when he seemed more like a +father. Aristides and I often talk of it, and he has no wish that I +should forget him. + +Mrs. Thrall made no motion to take my hand from him, but she said, “I +think I have met Mr. Strange,” and now I saw in the background, sitting +on a camp-stool near a long, lank young man stretched in a hammock, a +very handsome girl, who hastily ran through a book, and then dropped it +at the third mention of my name. I suspected that the book was the Social +Register, and that the girl's search for me had been satisfactory, for +she rose and came vaguely towards us, while the young man unfolded +himself from the hammock, and stood hesitating, but looking as if he +rather liked what had happened. + +Mr. Thrall bustled about for camp-stools, and said, “Do stop and have +some breakfast with us, it's just coming in. May I introduce my daughter, +Lady Moors and--and Lord Moors?” The girl took my hand, and the young man +bowed from his place; but if that poor old man had known, peace was not +to be made so easily between two such bad-tempered women as Mrs. Thrall +and myself. We expressed some very stiff sentiments in regard to the +weather, and the prospect of the yacht getting off with the next tide, +and my husband joined in with that manly gentleness of his, but we did +not sit down, much less offer to stay to breakfast. We had got to the +door of the tent, the family following us, even to the noble son-in-law, +and as she now realized that we are actually going, Mrs. Thrall gasped +out, “But you are not _leaving_ us? What shall we _do_ with all these +natives?” + +This was again too much, and I flamed out at her. “_Natives_! They are +cultivated and refined people, for they are Altrurians, and I assure you +you will be in much better hands than mine with them, for I am only +Altrurian by marriage!” + +She was one of those leathery egotists that nothing will make a dint in, +and she came back with, “But we don't speak the language, and they don't +speak English, and how are we to manage if the yacht doesn't get afloat?” + +“Oh, no doubt you will be looked after from the capital we have just +left. But I will venture to make a little suggestion with regard to the +natives in the mean time. They are not proud, but they are very +sensitive, and if you fail in any point of consideration, they will +understand that you do not want their hospitality.” + +“I imagine our own people will be able to look after us,” she answered +quite as nastily. “We do not propose to be dependent on them. We can pay +our way here as we do elsewhere.” + +“The experiment will be worth trying,” I said. “Come, Aristides!” and I +took the poor fellow away with me to our van. Mr. Thrall made some +hopeless little movements towards us, but I would not stop or even look +back. When we got into the van, I made Aristides put on the full power, +and fell back into my seat and cried a while, and then I scolded him +because he would not scold me, and went on in a really scandalous way. It +must have been a revelation to him, but he only smoothed me on the +shoulder and said, “Poor Eveleth, poor Eveleth,” till I thought I should +scream; but it ended in my falling on his neck, and saying I knew I was +horrid, and what did he want me to do? + +After I calmed down into something like rationality, he said he thought +we had perhaps done the best thing we could for those people in leaving +them to themselves, for they could come to no possible harm among the +neighbors. He did not believe from what he had seen of the yacht from the +shore, and from what the Altrurians had told him, that there was one +chance in a thousand of her ever getting afloat. But those people would +have to convince themselves of the fact, and of several other facts in +their situation. I asked him what he meant, and he said he could tell me, +but that as yet it was a public affair, and he would rather not +anticipate the private interest I would feel in it. I did not insist; in +fact, I wanted to get that odious woman out of my mind as soon as I +could, for the thought of her threatened to poison the pleasure of the +rest of our tour. + +I believe my husband hurried it a little, though he did not shorten it, +and we got back to the Maritime Region almost a week sooner than we had +first intended. I found my dear mother well, and still serenely happy in +her Altrurian surroundings. She had begun to learn the language, and she +had a larger acquaintance in the capital, I believe, than any other one +person. She said everybody had called on her, and they were the kindest +people she had ever dreamed of. She had exchanged cooking-lessons with +one lady who, they told her, was a distinguished scientist, and she had +taught another, who was a great painter, a peculiar embroidery stitch +which she had learned from my grandmother, and which everybody admired. +These two ladies had given her most of her grammatical instruction in +Altrurian, but there was a bright little girl who had enlarged her +vocabulary more than either, in helping her about her housework, the +mother having lent her for the purpose. My mother said she was not +ashamed to make blunders before a child, and the little witch had taken +the greatest delight in telling her the names of things in the house and +the streets and the fields outside the town, where they went long walks +together. + + + + +X + + +Well, my dear Dorothea, I had been hoping to go more into detail about my +mother and about our life in the Maritime Capital, which is to be our +home for a year, but I had hardly got down the last words when Aristides +came in with a despatch from the Seventh Regionic, summoning us there on +important public business: I haven't got over the feeling yet of being +especially distinguished and flattered at sharing in public business; but +the Altrurian women are so used to it that they do not think anything of +it. The despatch was signed by an old friend of my husband's, Cyril +Chrysostom, who had once been Emissary in England, and to whom my husband +wrote his letters when he was in America. I hated to leave my mother so +soon, but it could not be helped, and we took the first electric express +for the Seventh Regionic, where we arrived in about an hour and forty +minutes, making the three hundred miles in that time easily. I couldn't +help regretting our comfortable van, but there was evidently haste in the +summons, and I confess that I was curious to know what the matter was, +though I had made a shrewd guess the first instant, and it turned out +that I was not mistaken. + +The long and the short of it was that there was trouble with the people +who had come ashore in that yacht, and were destined never to go to sea +in her. She was hopelessly bedded in the sand, and the waves that were +breaking over her were burying her deeper and deeper. The owners were +living in their tent as we had left them, and her crew were camped in +smaller tents and any shelter they could get, along the beach. They had +brought her stores away, but many of the provisions had been damaged, and +it had become a pressing question what should be done about the people. +We had been asked to consult with Cyril and his wife, and the other +Regionic chiefs and their wives, and we threshed the question out nearly +the whole night. + +I am afraid it will appear rather comical in some aspects to you and Mr. +Makely, but I can assure you that it was a very serious matter with the +Altrurian authorities. If there had been any hope of a vessel from the +capitalistic world touching at Altruria within a definite time, they +could have managed, for they would have gladly kept the yacht's people +and owners till they could embark them for Australia or New Zealand, and +would have made as little of the trouble they were giving as they could. +But until the trader that brought us should return with the crew, as the +captain had promised, there was no ship expected, and any other wreck in +the mean time would only add to their difficulty. You may be surprised, +though I was not, that the difficulty was mostly with the yacht-owners, +and above all with Mrs. Thrall, who had baffled every effort of the +authorities to reduce what they considered the disorder of their life. + +With the crew it was a different matter. As soon as they had got drunk on +the wines and spirits they had brought from the wreck, and then had got +sober because they had drunk all the liquors up, they began to be more +manageable; when their provisions ran short, and they were made to +understand that they would not be allowed to plunder the fields and +woods, or loot the villages for something to eat, they became almost +exemplarily docile. At first they were disposed to show fight, and +the principles of the Altrurians did not allow them to use violence in +bringing them to subjection; but the men had counted without their hosts +in supposing that they could therefore do as they pleased, unless they +pleased to do right. After they had made their first foray they were +warned by Cyril, who came from the capital to speak English with them, +that another raid would not be suffered. They therefore attempted it +by night, but the Altrurians were prepared for them with the flexible +steel nets which are their only means of defence, and half a dozen +sailors were taken in one. When they attempted to break out, and their +shipmates attempted to break in to free them, a light current of +electricity was sent through the wires and the thing was done. Those +who were rescued--the Altrurians will not say captured--had hoes put into +their hands the next morning, and were led into the fields and set to +work, after a generous breakfast of coffee, bread, and mushrooms. The +chickens they had killed in their midnight expedition were buried, and +those which they had not killed lost no time in beginning to lay eggs for +the sustenance of the reformed castaways. As an extra precaution with the +“rescued,” when they were put to work, each of them with a kind of shirt +of mail, worn over his coat, which could easily be electrized by a +metallic filament connecting with the communal dynamo, and under these +conditions they each did a full day's work during the Obligatories. + +As the short commons grew shorter and shorter, both meat and drink, at +Camp Famine, and the campers found it was useless to attempt thieving +from the Altrurians, they had tried begging from the owners in their +large tent, but they were told that the provisions were giving out there, +too, and there was nothing for them. When they insisted the servants of +the owners had threatened them with revolvers, and the sailors, who had +nothing but their knives, preferred to attempt living on the country. +Within a week the whole crew had been put to work in the woods and fields +and quarries, or wherever they could make themselves useful. They were, +on the whole, so well fed and sheltered that they were perfectly +satisfied, and went down with the Altrurians on the beach during the +Voluntaries and helped secure the yacht's boats and pieces of wreckage +that came ashore. Until they became accustomed or resigned to the +Altrurian diet, they were allowed to catch shell-fish and the crabs that +swarmed along the sand and cook them, but on condition that they built +their fires on the beach, and cooked only during an offshore wind, so +that the fumes of the roasting should not offend the villagers. + +Cyril acknowledged, therefore, that the question of the crew was for the +present practically settled, but Mr. and Mrs. Thrall, and their daughter +and son-in-law, with their servants, still presented a formidable +problem. As yet, their provisions had not run out, and they were living +in their marquee as we had seen them three weeks earlier, just after +their yacht went ashore. It could not be said that they were molestive in +the same sense as the sailors, but they were even more demoralizing in +the spectacle they offered the neighborhood of people dependent on hired +service, and in their endeavors to supply themselves in perishable +provisions, like milk and eggs, by means of money. Cyril had held several +interviews with them, in which he had at first delicately intimated, and +then explicitly declared, that the situation could not be prolonged. +The two men had been able to get the Altrurian point of view in some +measure, and so had Lady Moors, but Mrs. Thrall had remained stiffly +obtuse and obstinate, and it was in despair of bringing her to terms +without resorting to rescue that he had summoned us to help him. + +It was not a pleasant job, but of course we could not refuse, and we +agreed that as soon as we had caught a nap, and had a bite of breakfast +we would go over to their camp with Cyril and his wife, and see what we +could do with the obnoxious woman. I confess that I had some little +consolation in the hope that I should see her properly humbled. + + + + +XI + + +Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors must have seen us coming, for they met us at +the door of the tent without the intervention of the footman, and gave us +quite as much welcome as we could expect in our mission, so disagreeable +all round. Mr. Thrall was as fatherly with me as before, and Lord Moors +was as polite to Cyril and Mrs. Chrysostom as could have been wished. In +fact he and Cyril were a sort of acquaintances from the time of Cyril's +visit to England where he met the late Earl Moors, the father of the +present peer, in some of his visits to Toynbee Hall, and the Whitechapel +Settlements. The earl was very much interested in the slums, perhaps +because he was rather poor himself, if not quite slummy. The son was then +at the university, and when he came out and into his title he so far +shared his father's tastes that he came to America; it was not slumming, +exactly, but a nobleman no doubt feels it to be something like it. After +a little while in New York he went out to Colorado, where so many needy +noblemen bring up, and there he met the Thralls, and fell in love with +the girl. Cyril had understood--or rather Mrs. Cyril,--that it was a +love-match on both sides, but on Mrs. Thrall's side it was business. He +did not even speak of settlements--the English are so romantic when they +_are_ romantic!--but Mr. Thrall saw to all that, and the young people +were married after a very short courtship. They spent their honeymoon +partly in Colorado Springs and partly in San Francisco, where the +Thralls' yacht was lying, and then they set out on a voyage round the +world, making stops at the interesting places, and bringing up on the +beach of the Seventh Region of Altruria, on route for the eastern coast +of South America. From that time on, Cyril said, we knew their history. + +After Mr. Thrall had shaken hands tenderly with me, and cordially with +Aristides, he said, “Won't you all come inside and have breakfast with +us? My wife and daughter”-- + +“Thank you, Mr. Thrall,” Cyril answered for us, “we will sit down here, +if you please; and as your ladies are not used to business, we will not +ask you to disturb them.” + +“I'm sure Lady Moors,” the young nobleman began, but Cyril waved him +silent. + +“We shall be glad later, but not now! Gentlemen, I have asked my friends +Aristides Homos and Eveleth Homos to accompany my wife and me this +morning because Eveleth is an American, and will understand your +position, and he has lately been in America and will be able to clarify +the situation from both sides. We wish you to believe that we are +approaching you in the friendliest spirit, and that nothing could be more +painful to us than to seem inhospitable.” + +“Then why,” the old man asked, with business-like promptness, “do you +object to our presence here? I don't believe I get your idea.” + +“Because the spectacle which your life offers is contrary to good morals, +and as faithful citizens we cannot countenance it.” + +“But in what way is our life immoral? I have always thought that I was a +good citizen at home; at least I can't remember having been arrested for +disorderly conduct.” + +He smiled at me, as if I should appreciate the joke, and it hurt me to +keep grave, but suspecting what a bad time he was going to have, I +thought I had better not join him in any levity. + +“I quite conceive you,” Cyril replied. “But you present to our people, +who are offended by it, the spectacle of dependence upon hireling service +for your daily comfort and convenience.” + +“But, my dear sir,” Mr. Thrall returned, “don't we _pay_ for it? Do our +servants object to rendering us this service?” + +“That has nothing to do with the case; or, rather, it makes it worse. The +fact that your servants do not object shows how completely they are +depraved by usage. We should not object if they served you from +affection, and if you repaid them in kindness; but the fact that you +think you have made them a due return by giving them money shows how far +from the right ideal in such a matter the whole capitalistic world is.” + +Here, to my great delight, Aristides spoke up: + +“If the American practice were half as depraving as it ought logically to +be in their conditions, their social system would drop to pieces. It was +always astonishing to me that a people with their facilities for evil, +their difficulties for good, should remain so kind and just and pure.” + +“That is what I understood from your letters to me, my dear Aristides. I +am willing to leave the general argument for the present. But I should +like to ask Mr. Thrall a question, and I hope it won't be offensive.” + +Mr. Thrall smiled. “At any rate I promise not to be offended.” + +“You are a very rich man?” + +“Much richer than I would like to be.” + +“How rich?” + +“Seventy millions; eighty; a hundred; three hundred; I don't just know.” + +“I don't suppose you've always felt your great wealth a great blessing?” + +“A blessing? There have been times when I felt it a millstone hanged +about my neck, and could have wished nothing so much as that I were +thrown into the sea. Man, you don't _know_ what a curse I have felt my +money to be at such times. When I have given it away, as I have by +millions at a time, I have never been sure that I was not doing more harm +than good with it. I have hired men to seek out good objects for me, and +I have tried my best to find for myself causes and institutions and +persons who might be helped without hindering others as worthy, but +sometimes it seems as if every dollar of my money carried a blight with +it, and infected whoever touched it with a moral pestilence. It has +reached a sum where the wildest profligate couldn't spend it, and it +grows and grows. It's as if it were a rising flood that had touched my +lips, and would go over my head before I could reach the shore. I believe +I got it honestly, and I have tried to share it with those whose labor +earned it for me. I have founded schools and hospitals and homes for +old men and old women, and asylums for children, and the blind, and deaf, +and dumb, and halt, and mad. Wherever I have found one of my old workmen +in need, and I have looked personally into the matter, I have provided +for him fully, short of pauperization. Where I have heard of some gifted +youth, I have had him educated in the line of his gift. I have collected +a gallery of works of art, and opened it on Sundays as well as week-days +to the public free. If there is a story of famine, far or near, I send +food by the shipload. If there is any great public calamity, my agents +have instructions to come to the rescue without referring the case to me. +But it is all useless! The money grows and grows, and I begin to feel +that my efforts to employ it wisely and wholesomely are making me a +public laughing-stock as well as an easy mark for every swindler with a +job or a scheme.” He turned abruptly to me. “But you must often have +heard the same from my old friend Strange. We used to talk these things +over together, when our money was not the heap that mine is now; and it +seems to me I can hear his voice saying the very words I have been +using.” + +I, too, seemed to hear his voice in the words, and it was as if speaking +from his grave. + +I looked at Aristides, and read compassion in his dear face; but the face +of Cyril remained severe and judicial. He said: “Then, if what you say is +true, you cannot think it a hardship if we remove your burden for the +time you remain with us. I have consulted with the National and Regional +as well as the Communal authorities, and we cannot let you continue to +live in the manner you are living here. You must pay your way.” + +“I shall be only too glad to do that,” Mr. Thrall returned, more +cheerfully. “We have not a great deal of cash in hand, but I can give you +my check on London or Paris or New York.” + +“In Altruria,” Cyril returned, “we have no use for money. You must _pay_ +your way as soon as your present provision from your yacht is exhausted.” + +Mr. Thrall turned a dazed look on the young lord, who suggested: “I don't +think we follow you. How can Mr. Thrall pay his way except with money?” + +“He must pay with _work_. As soon as you come upon the neighbors here for +the necessities of life you must all work. To-morrow or the next day or +next week at the furthest you must go to work, or you must starve.” + +Then he came out with that text of Scripture which had been so efficient +with the crew of the _Little Sally_: “For even when we were with you this +we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat.” + +Lord Moors seemed very interested, and not so much surprised as I had +expected. “Yes, I have often thought of that passage and of its +susceptibility to a simpler interpretation than we usually give it. +But--” + +“There is but one interpretation of which it is susceptible,” Cyril +interrupted. “The apostle gives that interpretation when he prefaces the +text with the words, 'For yourselves know how you ought to follow us; for +we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any +man's bread for nought; but _wrought with travail_ night and day, that we +might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but +to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.' The whole economy +of Altruria is founded on these passages.” + +“Literally?” + +“Literally.” + +“But, my dear sir,” the young lord reasoned, “you surely do not wrench +the text from some such meaning as that if a man has money, he may pay +his way without working?” + +“No, certainly not. But here you have no money, and as we cannot suffer +any to 'walk among us disorderly, working not at all,' we must not exempt +you from our rule.” + + + + +XII + + +At this point there came a sound from within the marquee as of skirts +sweeping forward sharply, imperiously, followed by a softer _frou-frou_, +and Mrs. Thrall put aside the curtain of the tent with one hand, and +stood challenging our little Altrurian group, while Lady Moors peered +timidly at us from over her mother's shoulder. I felt a lust of battle +rising in me at sight of that woman, and it was as much as I could do to +control myself; but in view of the bad time I knew she was going to have, +I managed to hold in, though I joined very scantly in the polite +greetings of the Chrysostoms and Aristides, which she ignored as if they +had been the salutations of savages. She glared at her husband for +explanation, and he said, gently, “This is a delegation from the +Altrurian capital, my dear, and we have been talking over the situation +together.” + +“But what is this,” she demanded, “that I have heard about our not +paying? Do they accuse us of not paying? You could buy and sell the whole +country.” + +I never imagined so much mildness could be put into such offensive words +as Cyril managed to get into his answer. “We accuse you of not paying, +and we do not mean that you shall become chargeable to us. The men and +women who served you on shipboard have been put to work, and you must go +to work, too.” + +“Mr. Thrall--Lord Moors--have you allowed these people to treat you as if +you were part of the ship's crew? Why don't you give them what they want +and let them go? Of course it's some sort of blackmailing scheme. But you +ought to get rid of them at any cost. Then you can appeal to the +authorities, and tell them that you will bring the matter to the notice +of the government at Washington. They must be taught that they cannot +insult American citizens with impunity.” No one spoke, and she added, +“What do they really want?” + +“Well, my dear,” her husband hesitated, “I hardly know how to explain. +But it seems that they think our living here in the way we do is +orderly, and--and they want us to go to work, in short.” + +“To _work!_” she shouted. + +“Yes, all of us. That is, so I understand.” + +“What nonsense!” + +She looked at us one after another, and when her eye rested on me, I +began to suspect that insolent as she was she was even duller; in fact, +that she was so sodden in her conceit of wealth that she was plain +stupid. So when she said to me, “You are an American by birth, I believe. +Can you tell me the meaning of this?” I answered: + +“Cyril Chrysostom represents the authorities. If _he_ asks me to speak, I +will speak.” Cyril nodded at me with a smile, and I went on. “It is a +very simple matter. In Altruria everybody works with his hands three +hours a day. After that he works or not, as he likes.” + +“What have we to do with that?” she asked. + +“The rule has no exceptions.” + +“But we are not Altrurians; we are Americans.” + +“I am an American, too, and I work three hours every day, unless I am +passing from one point to another on public business with my husband. +Even then we prefer to stop during the work-hours, and help in the +fields, or in the shops, or wherever we are needed. I left my own mother +at home doing her kitchen work yesterday afternoon, though it was out of +hours, and she need not have worked.” + +“Very well, then, we will do nothing of the kind, neither I, nor my +daughter, nor my husband. He has worked hard all his life, and he has +come away for a much-needed rest. I am not going to have him breaking +himself down.” + +I could not help suggesting, “I suppose the men at work in his mines, and +mills, and on his railroads and steamship lines are taking a much-needed +rest, too. I hope you are not going to let them break themselves down, +either.” + +Aristides gave me a pained glance, and Cyril and his wife looked grave, +but she not quite so grave as he. Lord Moors said, “We don't seem to be +getting on. What Mrs. Thrall fails to see, and I confess I don't quite +see it myself, is that if we are not here _in forma pauperis_--” + +“But you _are_ here _in forma pauperis_,” Cyril interposed, smilingly. + +“How is that? If we are willing to pay--if Mr. Thrall's credit is +undeniably good--” + +“Mr. Thrall's credit is not good in Altruria; you can pay here only in +one currency, in the sweat of your faces.” + +“You want us to be Tolstoys, I suppose,” Mrs. Thrall said, +contemptuously. + +Cyril replied, gently, “The endeavor of Tolstoy, in capitalistic +conditions, is necessarily dramatic. Your labor here will be for your +daily bread, and it will be real.” The inner dullness of the woman came +into her eyes again, and he addressed himself to Lord Moors in +continuing: “If a company of indigent people were cast away on an English +coast, after you had rendered them the first aid, what should you do?” + +The young man reflected. “I suppose we should put them in the way of +earning a living until some ship arrived to take them home.” + +“That is merely what we propose to do in your case here,” Cyril said. + +“But we are not indigent--” + +“Yes, you are absolutely destitute. You have money and credit, but +neither has any value in Altruria. Nothing but work or love has any value +in Altruria. You cannot realize too clearly that you stand before us _in +forma pauperis_. But we require of you nothing that we do not require of +ourselves. In Altruria every one is poor till he pays with work; then, +for that time, he is rich; and he cannot otherwise lift himself above +charity, which, except in the case of the helpless, we consider immoral. +Your life here offers a very corrupting spectacle. You are manifestly +living without work, and you are served by people whose hire you are not +able to pay.” + +“My dear sir,” Mr. Thrall said at this point, with a gentle smile, “I +think they are willing to take the chances of being paid.” + +“We cannot suffer them to do so. At present we know of no means of your +getting away from Altruria. We have disused our custom of annually +connecting with the Australasian steamers, and it may be years before a +vessel touches on our coast. A ship sailed for Boston some months ago, +with the promise of returning in order that the crew may cast in their +lot with us permanently. We do not confide in that promise, and you must +therefore conform to our rule of life. Understand clearly that the +willingness of your servants to serve you has nothing to do with the +matter. That is part of the falsity in which the whole capitalistic world +lives. As the matter stands with you, here, there is as much reason why +you should serve them as they should serve you. If on their side they +should elect to serve you from love, they will be allowed to do so. +Otherwise, you and they must go to work with the neighbors at the tasks +they will assign you.” + +“Do you mean at once?” Lord Moors asked. + +“The hours of the obligatory labors are nearly past for the day. But if +you are interested in learning what you will be set to doing to-morrow, +the Communal authorities will be pleased to instruct you during the +Voluntaries this afternoon. You may be sure that in no case will your +weakness or inexperience be overtasked. Your histories will be studied, +and appropriate work will be assigned to each of you.” + +Mrs. Thrall burst out, “If you think I am going into my kitchen--” + +Then I burst in, “I left my mother in _her_ kitchen!” + +“And a very fit place for her, I dare say,” she retorted, but Lady Moors +caught her mother's arm and murmured, in much the same distress as showed +in my husband's mild eyes, “Mother! Mother!” and drew her within. + + + + +XIII + + +Well, Dolly, I suppose you will think it was pretty hard for those +people, and when I got over my temper I confess that I felt sorry for the +two men, and for the young girl whom the Altrurians would not call Lady +Moors, but addressed by her Christian name, as they did each of the +American party in his or her turn; even Mrs. Thrall had to answer to +Rebecca. They were all rather bewildered, and so were the butler and +the footmen, and the _chef_ and his helpers, and the ladies' maids. +These were even more shocked than those they considered their betters, +and I quite took to my affections Lord Moors' man Robert, who was in an +awe-stricken way trying to get some light from me on the situation. He +contributed as much as any one to bring about a peaceful submission to +the inevitable, for he had been a near witness of what had happened to +the crew when they attempted their rebellion to the authorities; but he +did not profess to understand the matter, and from time to time he seemed +to question the reality of it. + +The two masters, as you would call Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors, both took +an attitude of amiable curiosity towards their fate, and accepted it with +interest when they had partly chosen and partly been chosen by it. Mr. +Thrall had been brought up on a farm till his ambition carried him into +the world; and he found the light gardening assigned him for his first +task by no means a hardship. He was rather critical of the Altrurian +style of hoe at first, but after he got the hang of it, as he said, he +liked it better, and during the three hours of the first morning's +Obligatoires, his ardor to cut all the weeds out at once had to be +restrained rather than prompted. He could not be persuaded to take five +minutes for rest out of every twenty, and he could not get over his +life-long habit of working against time. The Altrurians tried to make +him understand that here people must not work _against_ time, but must +always work _with_ it, so as to have enough work to do each day; +otherwise they must remain idle during the Obligatoires and tend to +demoralize the workers. It seemed that Lady Moors had a passion for +gardening, and she was set to work with her father on the border of +flowers surrounding the vegetable patch he was hoeing. She knew about +flowers, and from her childhood had amused herself by growing them, and +so far from thinking it a hardship or disgrace to dig, she was delighted +to get at them. It was easy to see that she and her father were cronies, +and when I went round in the morning with Aristides to ask if we could do +anything for them, we heard them laughing and talking gayly together +before we reached them. They said they had looked their job (as Mr. +Thrall called it) over the afternoon before during the Voluntaries, and +had decided how they would manage, and they had set to work that morning +as soon as they had breakfast. Lady Moors had helped her mother get the +breakfast, and she seemed to regard the whole affair as a picnic, though +from the look of Mrs. Thrall's back, as she turned it on me, when I saw +her coming to the door of the marquee with a coffee-pot in her hand, I +decided that she was not yet resigned to her new lot in life. + +Lord Moors was nowhere to be seen, and I felt some little curiosity about +him which was not quite anxiety. Later, as we were going back to our +quarters in the village, we saw him working on the road with a party +of Altrurians who were repairing a washout from an overnight rain. They +were having all kinds of a time, except a bad time, trying to understand +each other in their want of a common language. It appeared that the +Altrurians were impressed with his knowledge of road-making, and were +doing something which he had indicated to them by signs. We offered +our services as interpreters, and then he modestly owned in defence of +his suggestions that when he was at Oxford he had been one of the band of +enthusiastic undergraduates who had built a piece of highway under Mr. +Ruskin's direction. The Altrurians regarded his suggestions as rather +amateurish, but they were glad to act upon them, when they could, out of +pure good feeling and liking for him; and from time to time they rushed +upon him and shook hands with him; their affection did not go further, +and he was able to stand the handshaking, though he told us he hoped they +would not feel it necessary to keep it up, for it was really only a very +simple matter like putting a culvert in place of a sluice which they had +been using to carry the water off. They understood what he was saying, +from his gestures, and they crowded round us to ask whether he would like +to join them during the Voluntaries that afternoon, in getting the stone +out of a neighboring quarry, and putting in the culvert at once. We +explained to him, and he said he should be very happy. All the time he +was looking at them admirably, and he said, “It's really very good,” and +we understood that he meant their classic working-dress, and when he +added, “I should really fancy trying it myself one day,” and we told them +they wanted to go and bring him an Altrurian costume at once. But we +persuaded them not to urge him, and in fact he looked very fit for his +work in his yachting flannels. + +I talked him over a long time with Aristides, and tried to get his point +of view. I decided finally that an Englishman of his ancient lineage and +high breeding, having voluntarily come down to the level of an American +millionaire by marriage, could not feel that he was lowering himself any +further by working with his hands. In fact, he probably felt that his +merely undertaking a thing dignified the thing; but of course this was +only speculation on my part, and he may have been resigned to working for +a living because like poor people elsewhere he was obliged to do it. +Aristides thought there was a good deal in that idea, but it is hard for +an Altrurian to conceive of being ashamed of work, for they regard +idleness as pauperism, and they would look upon our leisure classes, so +far as we have them, very much as we look upon tramps, only they would +make the excuse for our tramps that they often cannot get work. + +We had far more trouble with the servants than we had with the masters in +making them understand that they were to go to work in the fields and +shops, quite as the crew of the yacht had done. Some of them refused +outright, and stuck to their refusal until the village electrician +rescued them with the sort of net and electric filament which had been +employed with the recalcitrant sailors; others were brought to a better +mind by withholding food from them till they were willing to pay for it +by working. You will be sorry to learn, Dolly, that the worst of the +rebels were the ladies' maids, who, for the honor of our sex, ought not +to have required the application of the net and filament; but they had +not such appetites as the men-servants, and did not mind starving so +much. However, in a very short time they were at work, too, and more or +less resigned, though they did not profess to understand it. + +You will think me rather fickle, I am afraid, but after I made the +personal acquaintance of Mr. Thrall's _chef,_ Anatole, I found my +affections dividing themselves between him and his lordship's man Robert, +my first love. But Anatole was magnificent, a gaunt, little, aquiline +man, with a branching mustache and gallant goatee, and having held an +exalted position at a salary of ten thousand a year from Mr. Thrall, he +could easily stoop from it, while poor Robert was tormented with +misgivings, not for himself, but for Lord and Lady Moors and Mr. Thrall. +It became my pleasing office to explain the situation to Monsieur +Anatole, who, when he imagined it, gave a cry of joy, and confessed, what +he had never liked to tell Mr. Thrall, knowing the misconceptions of +Americans on the subject, that he had belonged in France to a party of +which the political and social ideal was almost identical with that +of the Altrurians. He asked for an early opportunity of addressing the +village Assembly and explaining this delightful circumstance in public, +and he profited by the occasion to embrace the first Altrurian we met and +kiss him on both cheeks. + +His victim was a messenger from the Commune, who had been sent to inquire +whether Anatole had a preference as to the employment which should be +assigned to him, and I had to reply for him that he was a man of science; +that he would be happy to serve the republic in whatever capacity his +concitizens chose, but that he thought he could be most useful in +studying the comestible vegetation of the neighborhood, and the +substitution of the more succulent herbs for the flesh-meats to the use +of which, he understood from me, the Altrurians were opposed. In the +course of his preparation for the rôle of _chef_, which he had played +both in France and America, he had made a specialty of edible fungi; +and the result was that Anatole was set to mushrooming, and up to this +moment he has discovered no less than six species hitherto unknown to the +Altrurian table. This has added to their dietary in several important +particulars, the fungi he has discovered being among those highly +decorative and extremely poisonous-looking sorts which flourish in the +deep woods and offer themselves almost inexhaustibly in places near the +ruins of the old capitalistic cities, where hardly any other foods will +grow. Anatole is very proud of his success, and at more than one Communal +Assembly has lectured upon his discoveries and treated of their +preparation for the table, with sketches of them as he found them +growing, colored after nature by his own hand. He has himself become a +fanatical vegetarian, having, he confesses, always had a secret loathing +for the meats he stooped to direct the cooking of among the French and +American bourgeoisie in the days which he already looks back upon as +among the most benighted of his history. + + + + +XIV + + +The scene has changed again, Dolly, and six months have elapsed without +your knowing it. Aristides and I long ago completed the tour of the +capitals which the Thrall incident interrupted, and we have been settled +for many months in the Maritime Capital, where it has been decided we had +better fill out the first two years of my husband's repatriation. I have +become more and more thoroughly naturalized, and if I am not yet a +perfect Altrurian, it is not for not loving better and better the best +Altrurian of them all, and not for not admiring and revering this +wonderful civilization. + +During the Obligatories of the forenoons I do my housework with my own +hands, and as my mother lives with us we have long talks together, and +try to make each other believe that the American conditions were a sort +of nightmare from which we have happily awakened. You see how terribly +frank I am, my dear, but if I were not, I could not make you understand +how I feel. My heart aches for you, there, and the more because I know +that you do not want to live differently, that you are proud of your +economic and social illogicality, and that you think America is the best +country under the sun! I can never persuade you, but if you could only +come here, once, and see for yourselves! Seeing would be believing, and +believing would be the wish never to go away, but to be at home here +always. + +I can imagine your laughing at me and asking Mr. Makely whether the +_Little Sally_ has ever returned to Altruria, and how I can account for +the captain's failure to keep his word. I confess that is a sore point +with me. It is now more than a year since she sailed, and, of course, we +have not had a sign or whisper from her. I could almost wish that the +crew were willing to stay away, but I am afraid it is the captain who is +keeping them. It has become almost a mania with me, and every morning, +the first thing when I wake, I go for my before-breakfast walk along the +marble terrace that overlooks the sea, and scan the empty rounding for +the recreant ship. I do not want to think so badly of human nature, as I +must if the _Little Sally_ never comes back, and I am sure you will not +blame me if I should like her to bring me some word from you. I know that +if she ever reached Boston you got my letters and presents, and that you +have been writing me as faithfully as I have been writing you, and what a +sheaf of letters from you there will be if her masts ever pierce +the horizon! To tell the truth, I do long for a little American news! Do +you still keep on murdering and divorcing, and drowning, and burning, and +mommicking, and maiming people by sea and land? Has there been any war +since I left? Is the financial panic as great as ever, and is there as +much hunger and cold? I know that whatever your crimes and calamities +are, your heroism and martyrdom, your wild generosity and self-devotion, +are equal to them. + +It is no use to pretend that in little over a year I can have become +accustomed to the eventlessness of life in Altruria. I go on for a good +many days together and do not miss the exciting incidents you have in +America, and then suddenly I am wolfishly hungry for the old sensations, +just as now and then I _want meat_, though I know I should loathe the +sight and smell of it if I came within reach of it. You would laugh, I +dare say, at the Altrurian papers, and what they print for news. Most of +the space is taken up with poetry, and character study in the form of +fiction, and scientific inquiry of every kind. But now and then there is +a report of the production of a new play in one of the capitals; or an +account of an open-air pastoral in one of the communes; or the progress +of some public work, like the extension of the National Colonnade; or the +wonderful liberation of some section from malaria; or the story of some +good man or woman's life, ended at the patriarchal age they reach here. +They also print selected passages of capitalistic history, from the +earliest to the latest times, showing how in war and pestilence and +needless disaster the world outside Altruria remains essentially the same +that it was at the beginning of civilization, with some slight changes +through the changes of human nature for the better in its slow approaches +to the Altrurian ideal. In noting these changes the writers get some sad +amusement out of the fact that the capitalistic world believes human +nature cannot be changed, though cannibalism and slavery and polygamy +have all been extirpated in the so-called Christian countries, and these +things were once human nature, which is always changing, while brute +nature remains the same. Now and then they touch very guardedly on that +slavery, worse than war, worse than any sin or shame conceivable to the +Altrurians, in which uncounted myriads of women are held and bought and +sold, and they have to note that in this the capitalistic world is +without the hope of better things. You know what I mean, Dolly; every +good woman knows the little she cannot help knowing; but if you had ever +inquired into that horror, as I once felt obliged to do, you would think +it the blackest horror of the state of things where it must always exist +as long as there are riches and poverty. Now, when so many things in +America seem bad dreams, I cannot take refuge in thinking that a bad +dream; the reality was so deeply burnt into my brain by the words of +some of the slaves; and when I think of it I want to grovel on the ground +with my mouth in the dust. But I know this can only distress you, for you +cannot get away from the fact as I have got away from it; that there it +is in the next street, perhaps in the next house, and that any night when +you leave your home with your husband, you may meet it at the first step +from your door. + +You can very well imagine what a godsend the reports of Aristides and the +discussions of them have been to our papers. They were always taken down +stenographically, and they were printed like dialogue, so that at a +little distance you would take them at first for murder trials or divorce +cases, but when you look closer, you find them questions and answers +about the state of things in America. There are often humorous passages, +for the Altrurians are inextinguishably amused by our illogicality, and +what they call the perpetual _non sequiturs_ of our lives and laws. In +the discussions they frequently burlesque these, but as they present them +they seem really beyond the wildest burlesque. Perhaps you will be +surprised to know that a nation of working-people like these feel more +compassion than admiration for our working-people. They pity them, but +they blame them more than they blame the idle rich for the existing +condition of things in America. They ask why, if the American workmen +are in the immense majority, they do not vote a true and just state, and +why they go on striking and starving their families instead; they cannot +distinguish in principle between the confederations of labor and the +combinations of capital, between the trusts and the trades-unions, and +they condemn even more severely the oppressions and abuses of the unions. +My husband tries to explain that the unions are merely provisional, and +are a temporary means of enabling the employees to stand up against the +tyranny of the employers, but they always come back and ask him if the +workmen have not most of the votes, and if they have, why they do not +protect themselves peacefully instead of organizing themselves in +fighting shape, and making a warfare of industry. + +There is not often anything so much like news in the Altrurian papers as +the grounding of the Thrall yacht on the coast of the Seventh Region, and +the incident has been treated and discussed in every possible phase by +the editors and their correspondents. They have been very frank about it, +as they are about everything in Altruria, and they have not concealed +their anxieties about their unwelcome guests. They got on without much +trouble in the case of the few sailors of the _Little Sally_, but the +crew of the _Saraband_ is so large that it is a different matter. In the +first place, they do not like the application of force, even in the mild +electrical form in which they employ it, and they fear that the effect +with themselves will be bad, however good it is for their guests. +Besides, they dread the influence which a number of people, invested with +the charm of strangeness, may have with the young men and especially the +young girls of the neighborhood. The hardest thing the Altrurians have to +grapple with is feminine curiosity, and the play of this about the +strangers is what they seek the most anxiously to control. Of course, you +will think it funny, and I must say that it seemed so to me at first, but +I have come to think it is serious. The Altrurian girls are cultivated +and refined, but as they have worked all their lives with their hands +they cannot imagine the difference that work makes in Americans; that it +coarsens and classes them, especially if they have been in immediate +contact with rich people, and been degraded or brutalized by the +knowledge of the contempt in which labor is held among us by those who +are not compelled to it. Some of my Altrurian friends have talked it over +with me, and I could take their point of view, though secretly I could +not keep my poor American feelings from being hurt when they said that to +have a large number of people from the capitalistic world thrown upon +their hands was very much as it would be with us if we had the same +number of Indians, with all their tribal customs and ideals, thrown upon +our hands. They say they will not shirk their duty in the matter, and +will study it carefully; but all the same, they wish the incident had not +happened. + + + +XV + + +I am glad that I was called away from the disagreeable point I left in my +last, and that I have got back temporarily to the scene of the +Altrurianization of Mr. Thrall and his family. So far as it has gone it +is perfect, if I may speak from the witness of happiness in those +concerned, except perhaps Mrs. Thrall; she is as yet only partially +reconstructed, but even she has moments of forgetting her lost grandeur +and of really enjoying herself in her work. She is an excellent +housekeeper, and she has become so much interested in making the marquee +a simple home for her family that she is rather proud of showing it off +as the effect of her unaided efforts. She was allowed to cater to them +from the canned meats brought ashore from the yacht as long as they would +stand it, but the wholesome open-air conditions have worked a wonderful +change in them, and neither Mr. Thrall nor Lord and Lady Moors now have +any taste for such dishes. Here Mrs. Thrall's old-time skill as an +excellent vegetable cook, when she was the wife of a young mechanic, has +come into play, and she believes that she sets the best table in the +whole neighborhood, with fruits and many sorts of succulents and the +everlasting and ever-pervading mushrooms. + +As the Altrurians do not wish to annoy their involuntary guests, or to +interfere with their way of life where they do not consider it immoral, +their control has ended with setting them to work for a living. They +have not asked them to the communal refectory, but, as long as they have +been content to serve each other, have allowed them their private table. +Of course, their adaptation to their new way of life has proceeded more +slowly than it otherwise would, but with the exception of Mrs. Thrall +they are very intelligent people, and I have been charmed in talking the +situation over with them. The trouble has not been so great with the +ship's people, as was feared. Such of these as have imagined their stay +here permanent, or wished it to be so, have been received into the +neighboring communes, and have taken the first steps towards +naturalization; those who look forward to getting away some time, or +express the wish for it, are allowed to live in a community of their own, +where they are not molested as long as they work in the three hours of +the Obligatoires. Naturally, they are kept out of mischief, but after +their first instruction in the ideas of public property and the +impossibility of enriching themselves at the expense of any one else, +they have behaved very well. The greatest trouble they ever gave was in +trapping and killing the wild things for food; but when they were told +that this must not be done, and taught to recognize the vast range of +edible fungi, they took not unwillingly to mushrooms and the ranker +tubers and roots, from which, with unlimited eggs, cheese, milk, and +shell-fish, they have constructed a diet of which they do not complain. + +This brings me rather tangentially to Monsieur Anatole, who has become a +fanatical Altrurian, and has even had to be restrained in some of his +enthusiastic plans for the compulsory naturalization of his fellow +castaways. His value as a scientist has been cordially recognized, and +his gifts as an artist in the exquisite water-color studies of edible +fungi has won his notice in the capital of the Seventh Regional where +they have been shown at the spring water-color exhibition. He has printed +several poems in the _Regional Gazette_, villanelles, rondeaux, and +triolets, with accompanying versions of the French, into Altrurian by one +of the first Altrurian poets. This is a widow of about Monsieur Anatole's +own age; and the literary friendship between them has ripened into +something much more serious. In fact they are engaged to be married. I +suppose you will laugh at this, Dolly, and at first I confess that there +was enough of the old American in me to be shocked at the idea of a +French _chef_ marrying an Altrurian lady who could trace her descent to +the first Altrurian president of the Commonwealth, and who is universally +loved and honored. I could not help letting something of the kind escape +me by accident, to a friend, and presently Mrs. Chrysostom was sent to +interview me on the subject, and to learn just how the case appeared to +me. This put me on my honor, and I was obliged to say how it would appear +in America, though every moment I grew more and more ashamed of myself +and my native country, where we pretend that labor is honorable, and are +always heaping dishonor on it. I told how certain of our girls and +matrons had married their coachmen and riding-masters and put themselves +at odds with society, and I confessed that marrying a cook would be +regarded as worse, if possible. + +Mrs. Chrysostom was accompanied by a lady in her second youth, very +graceful, very charmingly dressed, and with an expression of winning +intelligence, whom she named to me simply as Cecilia, in the Altrurian +fashion. She apparently knew no English, and at first Mrs. Chrysostom +translated each of her questions and my answers. When I had got through, +this lady began to question me herself in Altrurian, which I owned to +understanding a little. She said: + +“You know Anatole?” + +“Yes, certainly, and I like him, as I think every one must who knows +him.” + +“He is a skillful _chef_?” + +“Mr. Thrall would not have paid him ten thousand dollars a year if he had +not been.” + +“You have seen some of his water-colors?” + +“Yes. They are exquisite. He is unquestionably an artist of rare talent.” + +“And it is known to you that he is a man of scientific attainments?” + +“That is something I cannot judge of so well as Aristides; but _he_ says +M. Anatole is learned beyond any man he knows in edible fungi.” + +“As an adoptive Altrurian, and knowing the American ideas from our point +of view, should you respect their ideas of social inequality?” + +“Not the least in the world. I understand as well as you do that their +ideas must prevail wherever one works for a living and another does not. +hose ideas are practically as much accepted in America as they are in +Europe, but I have fully renounced them.” + +You see, Dolly, how far I have gone! + +The unknown, who could be pretty easily imagined, rose up and gave me her +hand. “If you are in the Region on the third of May you must come to our +wedding.” + +The same afternoon I had a long talk with Mr. Thrall, whom I found at +work replanting a strawberry-patch during the Voluntaries. He rose up at +the sound of my voice, and after an old man's dim moment for getting me +mentally in focus, he brightened into a genial smile, and said, “Oh, Mrs. +Homos! I am glad to see you.” + +I told him to go on with his planting, and I offered to get down on my +knees beside him and help, but he gallantly handed me to a seat in the +shade beside his daughter's flower-bed, and it was there that we had a +long talk about conditions in America and Altruria, and how he felt about +the great change in his life. + +“Well, I can truly say,” he answered much more at length than I shall +report, “that I have never been so happy since the first days of my +boyhood. All care has dropped from me; I don't feel myself rich, and I +don't feel myself poor in this perfect safety from want. The only thing +that gives me any regret is that my present state has not been the effect +of my own will and deed. If I am now following the greatest and truest of +all counsels it has not been because I have sold all and given to the +poor, but because my money has been mercifully taken from me, and I have +been released from its responsibilities in a state of things where there +is no money.” + +“But, Mr. Thrall,” I said, “don't you ever feel that you have a duty to +the immense fortune which you have left in America, and which must be +disposed of somehow when people are satisfied that you are not going to +return and dispose of it yourself?” + +“No, none. I was long ago satisfied that I could really do no good with +it. Perhaps if I had had more faith in it I might have done some good +with it, but I believe that I never did anything but harm, even when I +seemed to be helping the most, for I was aiding in the perpetuation of a +state of things essentially wrong. Now, if I never go back--and I never +wish to go back--let the law dispose of it as seems best to the +authorities. I have no kith or kin, and my wife has none, so there is no +one to feel aggrieved by its application to public objects.” + +“And how do you imagine it will be disposed of?” + +“Oh, I suppose for charitable and educational purposes. Of course a good +deal of it will go in graft; but that cannot be helped.” + +“But if you could now dispose of it according to your clearest ideas of +justice, and if you were forced to make the disposition yourself, what +would you do with it?” + +“Well, that is something I have been thinking of, and as nearly as I can +make out, I ought to go into the records of my prosperity and ascertain +just how and when I made my money. Then I ought to seek out as fully as +possible the workmen who helped me make it by their labor. Their wages, +which, were always the highest, were never a fair share, though I forced +myself to think differently, and it should be my duty to inquire for them +and pay them each a fair share, or, if they are dead, then their children +or their next of kin. But even when I had done this I should not be sure +that I had not done them more harm than good.” + +How often I had heard poor Mr. Strange say things like this, and heard +of other rich men saying them, after lives of what is called beneficence! +Mr. Thrall drew a deep sigh, and cast a longing look at his +strawberry-bed. I laughed, and said, “You are anxious to get back to your +plants, and I won't keep you. I wonder if Mrs. Thrall could see me if I +called; or Lady Moors?” + +He said he was sure they would, and I took my way over to the marquee. I +was a little surprised to be met at the door by Lord Moors' man Robert. +He told me he was very sorry, but her ladyship was helping his lordship +at a little job on the roads, which they were doing quite in the +Voluntaries, with the hope of having the National Colonnade extended to a +given point; the ladies were helping the gentlemen get the place in +shape. He was still sorrier, but I not so much, that Mrs. Thrall was +lying down and would like to be excused; she was rather tired from +putting away the luncheon things. + +He asked me if I would not sit down, and he offered me one of the +camp-stools at the door of the marquee, and I did sit down for a moment, +while he flitted about the interior doing various little things. At last +I said, “How is this, Robert? I thought you had been assigned to a place +in the communal refectory. You're not here on the old terms?” + +He came out and stood respectfully holding a dusting-cloth in his hand. +“Thank you, not exactly, ma'am. But the fact is, ma'am, that the communal +monitors have allowed me to come back here a few hours in the afternoon, +on what I may call terms of my own.” + +“I don't understand. But won't you sit down, Robert?” + +“Thank you, if it is the same to you, ma'am, I would rather stand while +I'm here. In the refectory, of course, it's different.” + +“But about your own terms?” + +“Thanks. You see, ma'am, I've thought all along it was a bit awkward for +them here, they not being so much used to looking after things, and I +asked leave to come and help now and then. Of course, they said that +I could not be allowed to serve for hire in Altruria; and one thing led +to another, and I said it would really be a favor to me, and I didn't +expect money for my work, for I did not suppose I should ever be where I +could use it again, but if they would let me come here and do it for--” + +Robert stopped and blushed and looked down, and I took the word, “For +love?” + +“Well, ma'am, that's what they called it.” + +Dolly, it made the tears come into my eyes, and I said very solemnly, +“Robert, do you know, I believe you are the sweetest soul even in this +and flowing with milk and honey?” + +“Oh, you mustn't say that, ma'am. There's Mr. Thrall and his lordship and +her ladyship. I'm sure they would do the like for me if I needed their +help. And there are the Altrurians, you know.” + +“But they are used to it, Robert, and--Robert! Be frank with me! What do +you think of Altruria?” + +“Quite frank, ma'am, as if you were not connected with it, as you are?” + +“Quite frank.” + +“Well, ma'am, if you are sure you wouldn't mind it, or consider it out of +the way for me, I should say it was--rum.” + +“_Rum_? Don't you think it is beautiful here, to see people living for +each other instead of living _on_ each other, and the whole nation like +one family, and the country a paradise?” + +“Well, that's just it, ma'am, if you won't mind my saying so. That's what +I mean by rum.” + +“Won't you explain?” + +“It doesn't seem _real_. Every night when I go to sleep, and think that +there isn't a thief or a policeman on the whole continent, and only a few +harmless homicides, as you call them, that wouldn't hurt a fly, and not a +person hungry or cold, and no poor and no rich, and no servants and no +masters, and no soldiers, and no--disreputable characters, it seems as if +I was going to wake up in the morning and find myself on the _Saraband_ +and it all a dream here.” + +“Yes, Robert,” I had to own, “that was the way with me, too, for a long +while. And even now I have dreams about America and the way matters are +there, and I wake myself weeping for fear Altruria _isn't_ true. Robert! +You must be honest with me! When you are awake, and it's broad day, and +you see how happy every one is here, either working or playing, and the +whole land without an ugly place in it, and the lovely villages and the +magnificent towns, and everything, does it still seem--rum?” + +“It's like that, ma'am, at times. I don't say at all times.” + +“And you don't believe that the rest of the world--England and +America--will ever be rum, too?” + +“I don't see how they can. You see the poor are against it as well as the +rich. Everybody wants to have something of his own, and the trouble seems +to come from that. I don't suppose it was brought about in a day, +Altruria wasn't, ma'am?” + +“No, it was whole centuries coming.” + +“That was what I understood from that Mr. Chrysostom--Cyril, he wants me +to call him, but I can't quite make up my mouth to it--who speaks +English, and says he has been in England. He was telling me about it, one +day when we were drying the dishes at the refectory together. He says +they used to have wars and trusts and trades-unions here in the old days, +just as we do now in civilized countries.” + +“And you don't consider Altruria civilized?” + +“Well, not in just that sense of the word, ma'am. You wouldn't call +heaven civilized?” + +“Well, not in just that sense of the word. Robert.” + +“You see, it's rum here, because, though everything seems to go so right, +it's against human nature.” + +“The Altrurians say it isn't.” + +“I hope I don't differ from you, ma'am, but what would people--the best +people--at home say? They would say it wasn't reasonable; they would say +it wasn't even possible. That's what makes me think it's a dream--that +it's rum. Begging your pardon, ma'am.” + +“Oh, I quite understand, Robert. Then you don't believe a camel can ever +go through the eye of a needle?” + +“I don't quite see how, ma'am.” + +“But you are proof of as great a miracle, Robert.” + +“Beg your pardon, ma'am?” + +“Some day I will explain. But is there nothing that can make you believe +Altruria is true here, and that it can be true anywhere?” + +“I have been thinking a good deal about that, ma'am. One doesn't quite +like to go about in a dream, or think one is dreaming, and I have got to +saying to myself that if some ship was to come here from England or +America, or even from Germany, and we could compare our feelings with the +feelings of people who were fresh to it, we might somehow get to believe +that it was real.” + +“Yes,” I had to own. “We need fresh proofs from time to time. There was a +ship that sailed from here something over a year ago, and the captain +promised his crew to let them bring her back, but at times I am afraid +that was part of the dream, too, and that we're all something I am +dreaming about.” + +“Just so, ma'am,” Robert said, and I came away downhearted enough, though +he called after me, “Mrs. Thrall will be very sorry, ma'am.” + +Back in the Maritime Capital, and oh, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! They have +sighted the _Little Sally_ from the terrace! How happy I am! There will +be letters from you, and I shall hear all that has happened in America, +and I shall never again doubt that Altruria is real! I don't know how I +shall get these letters of mine back to you, but somehow it can be +managed. Perhaps the _Saraband's_ crew will like to take the _Little +Sally_ home again; perhaps when Mr. Thrall knows the ship is here he will +want to buy it and go back to his money in America and the misery of it! +Do you believe he will? Should I like to remind my husband of his promise +to take me home on a visit? Oh, my heart misgives me! I wonder if the +captain of the _Little Sally_ has brought his wife and children with him, +and is going to settle among us, or whether he has just let his men have +the vessel, and they have come to Altruria without him? I dare not ask +anything, I dare not think anything! + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Eye of the Needle, by +William Dean Howells + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 8295-0.txt or 8295-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/9/8295/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through the Eye of the Needle + A Romance + +Author: William Dean Howells + + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8295] +This file was first posted on July 26, 2003 +Last Updated: February 25, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + </h1> + <h3> + A Romance + </h3> + <h4> + With An Introduction + </h4> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Dean Howells + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + 1907 + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PART"> <b>PART FIRST</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> XV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XVII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XVIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> XIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> XX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> XXI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> XXII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> XXIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> XXIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> XXV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> XXVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> XXVII </a><br /> + </p> + + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PART2"> <b>PART SECOND</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> XIV </a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + Aristides Homos, an Emissary of the Altrurian Commonwealth, visited the + United States during the summer of 1893 and the fall and winter following. + For some weeks or months he was the guest of a well-known man of letters + at a hotel in one of our mountain resorts; in the early autumn he spent + several days at the great Columbian Exhibition in Chicago; and later he + came to New York, where he remained until he sailed, rather suddenly, for + Altruria, taking the circuitous route by which he came. He seems to have + written pretty constantly throughout his sojourn with us to an intimate + friend in his own country, giving freely his impressions of our + civilization. His letters from New York appear to have been especially + full, and, in offering the present synopsis of these to the American + reader, it will not be impertinent to note certain peculiarities of the + Altrurian attitude which the temperament of the writer has somewhat + modified. He is entangled in his social sophistries regarding all the + competitive civilizations; he cannot apparently do full justice to the + superior heroism of charity and self-sacrifice as practised in countries + where people live <i>upon</i> each other as the Americans do, instead of + <i>for</i> each other as the Altrurians do; but he has some glimmerings of + the beauty of our living, and he has undoubtedly the wish to be fair to + our ideals. He is unable to value our devotion to the spirit of + Christianity amid the practices which seem to deny it; but he evidently + wishes to recognize the possibility of such a thing. He at least accords + us the virtues of our defects, and, among the many visitors who have + censured us, he has not seen us with his censures prepared to fit the + instances; in fact, the very reverse has been his method. + </p> + <p> + Many of the instances which he fits with his censures are such as he could + no longer note, if he came among us again. That habit of celebrating the + munificence of the charitable rich, on which he spends his sarcasm, has + fallen from us through the mere superabundance of occasion. Our rich + people give so continuously for all manner of good objects that it would + be impossible for our press, however vigilant, to note the successive + benefactions, and millions are now daily bestowed upon needy educational + institutions, of which no mention whatever is made in the newspapers. If a + millionaire is now and then surprised in a good action by a reporter of + uncommon diligence, he is able by an appeal to their common humanity to + prevail with the witness to spare him the revolting publicity which it + must be confessed would once have followed his discovery; the right hand + which is full to overflowing is now as skilled as the empty right hand in + keeping the left hand ignorant of its doings. This has happened through + the general decay of snobbishness among us, perhaps. It is certain that + there is no longer the passion for a knowledge of the rich, and the smart, + which made us ridiculous to Mr. Homos. Ten or twelve years ago, our + newspapers abounded in intelligence of the coming and going of social + leaders, of their dinners and lunches and teas, of their receptions and + balls, and the guests who were bidden to them. But this sort of + unwholesome and exciting gossip, which was formerly devoured by their + readers with inappeasable voracity, is no longer supplied, simply because + the taste for it has wholly passed away. + </p> + <p> + Much the same might be said of the social hospitalities which raised our + visitor's surprise. For example, many people are now asked to dinner who + really need a dinner, and not merely those who revolt from the notion of + dinner with loathing, and go to it with abhorrence. At the tables of our + highest social leaders one now meets on a perfect equality persons of + interesting minds and uncommon gifts who would once have been excluded + because they were hungry, or were not in the hostess's set, or had not a + new gown or a dress-suit. This contributes greatly to the pleasure of the + time, and promotes the increasing kindliness between the rich and poor for + which our status is above all things notable. + </p> + <p> + The accusation which our critic brings that the American spirit has been + almost Europeanized away, in its social forms, would be less grounded in + the observance of a later visitor. The customs of good society must be the + same everywhere in some measure, but the student of the competitive world + would now find European hospitality Americanized, rather than American + hospitality Europeanized. The careful research which has been made into + our social origins has resulted in bringing back many of the aboriginal + usages; and, with the return of the old American spirit of fraternity, + many of the earlier dishes as well as amenities have been restored. A + Thanksgiving dinner in the year 1906 would have been found more like a + Thanksgiving dinner in 1806 than the dinner to which Mr. Homos was asked + in 1893, and which he has studied so interestingly, though not quite + without some faults of taste and discretion. The prodigious change for the + better in some material aspects of our status which has taken place in the + last twelve years could nowhere be so well noted as in the picture he + gives us of the housing of our people in 1893. His study of the evolution + of the apartment-house from the old flat-house, and the still older single + dwelling, is very curious, and, upon the whole, not incorrect. But neither + of these last differed so much from the first as the apartment-house now + differs from the apartment-house of his day. There are now no dark rooms + opening on airless pits for the family, or black closets and dismal + basements for the servants. Every room has abundant light and perfect + ventilation, and as nearly a southern exposure as possible. The + appointments of the houses are no longer in the spirit of profuse and + vulgar luxury which it must be allowed once characterized them. They are + simply but tastefully finished, they are absolutely fireproof, and, with + their less expensive decoration, the rents have been so far lowered that + in any good position a quarter of nine or ten rooms, with as many baths, + can be had for from three thousand to fifteen thousand dollars. This fact + alone must attract to our metropolis the best of our population, the bone + and sinew which have no longer any use for themselves where they have been + expended in rearing colossal fortunes, and now demand a metropolitan + repose. + </p> + <p> + The apartments are much better fitted for a family of generous size than + those which Mr. Homos observed. Children, who were once almost unheard of, + and quite unheard, in apartment-houses, increasingly abound under favor of + the gospel of race preservation. The elevators are full of them, and in + the grassy courts round which the houses are built, the little ones play + all day long, or paddle in the fountains, warmed with steam-pipes in the + winter, and cooled to an agreeable temperature in a summer which has + almost lost its terrors for the stay-at-home New-Yorker. Each child has + his or her little plot of ground in the roof-garden, where they are taught + the once wellnigh forgotten art of agriculture. + </p> + <p> + The improvement of the tenement-house has gone hand in hand with that of + the apartment-house. As nearly as the rate of interest on the landlord's + investment will allow, the housing of the poor approaches in comfort that + of the rich. Their children are still more numerous, and the playgrounds + supplied them in every open space and on every pier are visited constantly + by the better-to-do children, who exchange with them lessons of form and + fashion for the scarcely less valuable instruction in practical life which + the poorer little ones are able to give. The rents in the tenement houses + are reduced even more notably than those in the apartment-houses, so that + now, with the constant increase in wages, the tenants are able to pay + their rents promptly. The evictions once so common are very rare; it is + doubtful whether a nightly or daily walk in the poorer quarters of the + town would develop, in the coldest weather, half a dozen cases of families + set out on the sidewalk with their household goods about them. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurian Emissary visited this country when it was on the verge of + the period of great economic depression extending from 1894 to 1898, but, + after the Spanish War, Providence marked the divine approval of our + victory in that contest by renewing in unexampled measure the prosperity + of the Republic. With the downfall of the trusts, and the release of our + industrial and commercial forces to unrestricted activity, the condition + of every form of labor has been immeasurably improved, and it is now + united with capital in bonds of the closest affection. But in no phase has + its fate been so brightened as in that of domestic service. This has + occurred not merely through the rise of wages, but through a greater + knowledge between the employing and employed. When, a few years since, it + became practically impossible for mothers of families to get help from the + intelligence-offices, and ladies were obliged through lack of cooks and + chambermaids to do the work of the kitchen and the chamber and parlor, + they learned to realize what such work was, how poorly paid, how badly + lodged, how meanly fed. From this practical knowledge it was impossible + for them to retreat to their old supremacy and indifference as mistresses. + The servant problem was solved, once for all, by humanity, and it is + doubtful whether, if Mr. Homos returned to us now, he would give offence + by preaching the example of the Altrurian ladies, or would be shocked by + the contempt and ignorance of American women where other women who did + their household drudgery were concerned. + </p> + <p> + As women from having no help have learned how to use their helpers, + certain other hardships have been the means of good. The flattened wheel + of the trolley, banging the track day and night, and tormenting the waking + and sleeping ear, was, oddly enough, the inspiration of reforms which have + made our city the quietest in the world. The trolleys now pass unheard; + the elevated train glides by overhead with only a modulated murmur; the + subway is a retreat fit for meditation and prayer, where the passenger can + possess his soul in a peace to be found nowhere else; the automobile, + which was unknown in the day of the Altrurian Emissary, whirs softly + through the most crowded thoroughfare, far below the speed limit, with a + sigh of gentle satisfaction in its own harmlessness, and, “like the sweet + South, taking and giving odor.” The streets that he saw so filthy and + unkempt in 1893 are now at least as clean as they are quiet. Asphalt has + universally replaced the cobble-stones and Belgian blocks of his day, and, + though it is everywhere full of holes, it is still asphalt, and may some + time be put in repair. + </p> + <p> + There is a note of exaggeration in his characterization of our men which + the reader must regret. They are not now the intellectual inferior of our + women, or at least not so much the inferiors. Since his day they have made + a vast advance in the knowledge and love of literature. With the multitude + of our periodicals, and the swarm of our fictions selling from a hundred + thousand to half a million each, even our business-men cannot wholly + escape culture, and they have become more and more cultured, so that now + you frequently hear them asking what this or that book is all about. With + the mention of them, the reader will naturally recur to the work of their + useful and devoted lives—the accumulation of money. It is this + accumulation, this heaping-up of riches, which the Altrurian Emissary + accuses in the love-story closing his study of our conditions, but which + he might not now so totally condemn. + </p> + <p> + As we have intimated, he has more than once guarded against a rash + conclusion, to which the logical habit of the Altrurian mind might have + betrayed him. If he could revisit us we are sure that he would have still + greater reason to congratulate himself on his forbearance, and would + doubtless profit by the lesson which events must teach all but the most + hopeless doctrinaires. The evil of even a small war (and soldiers + themselves do not deny that wars, large or small, are evil) has, as we + have noted, been overruled for good in the sort of Golden Age, or Age on a + Gold Basis, which we have long been enjoying. If our good-fortune should + be continued to us in reward of our public and private virtue, the fact + would suggest to so candid an observer that in economics, as in other + things, the rule proves the exception, and that as good times have + hitherto always been succeeded by bad times, it stands to reason that our + present period of prosperity will never be followed by a period of + adversity. + </p> + <p> + It would seem from the story continued by another hand in the second part + of this work, that Altruria itself is not absolutely logical in its + events, which are subject to some of the anomalies governing in our own + affairs. A people living in conditions which some of our dreamers would + consider ideal, are forced to discourage foreign emigration, against their + rule of universal hospitality, and in at least one notable instance are + obliged to protect themselves against what they believe an evil example by + using compulsion with the wrongdoers, though the theory of their life is + entirely opposed to anything of the kind. Perhaps, however, we are not to + trust to this other hand at all times, since it is a woman's hand, and is + not to be credited with the firm and unerring touch of a man's. The story, + as she completes it, is the story of the Altrurian's love for an American + woman, and will be primarily interesting for that reason. Like the + Altrurian's narrative, it is here compiled from a succession of letters, + which in her case were written to a friend in America, as his were written + to a friend in Altruria. But it can by no means have the sociological + value which the record of his observations among ourselves will have for + the thoughtful reader. It is at best the record of desultory and imperfect + glimpses of a civilization fundamentally alien to her own, such as would + attract an enthusiastic nature, but would leave it finally in a sort of + misgiving as to the reality of the things seen and heard. Some such + misgiving attended the inquiries of those who met the Altrurian during his + sojourn with us, but it is a pity that a more absolute conclusion should + not have been the effect of this lively lady's knowledge of the ideal + country of her adoption. It is, however, an interesting psychological + result, and it continues the tradition of all the observers of ideal + conditions from Sir Thomas More down to William Morris. Either we have no + terms for conditions so unlike our own that they cannot be reported to us + with absolute intelligence, or else there is in every experience of them + an essential vagueness and uncertainty. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART" id="link2H_PART"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PART FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + If I spoke with Altrurian breadth of the way New-Yorkers live, my dear + Cyril, I should begin by saying that the New-Yorkers did not live at all. + But outside of our happy country one learns to distinguish, and to allow + that there are several degrees of living, all indeed hateful to us, if we + knew them, and yet none without some saving grace in it. You would say + that in conditions where men were embattled against one another by the + greed and the envy and the ambition which these conditions perpetually + appeal to here, there could be no grace in life; but we must remember that + men have always been better than their conditions, and that otherwise they + would have remained savages without the instinct or the wish to advance. + Indeed, our own state is testimony of a potential civility in all states, + which we must keep in mind when we judge the peoples of the plutocratic + world, and especially the American people, who are above all others the + devotees and exemplars of the plutocratic ideal, without limitation by any + aristocracy, theocracy, or monarchy. They are purely commercial, and the + thing that cannot be bought and sold has logically no place in their life. + But life is not logical outside of Altruria; we are the only people in the + world, my dear Cyril, who are privileged to live reasonably; and again I + say we must put by our own criterions if we wish to understand the + Americans, or to recognize that measure of loveliness which their warped + and stunted and perverted lives certainly show, in spite of theory and in + spite of conscience, even. I can make this clear to you, I think, by a + single instance, say that of the American who sees a case of distress, and + longs to relieve it. If he is rich, he can give relief with a good + conscience, except for the harm that may come to his beneficiary from + being helped; but if he is not rich, or not finally rich, and especially + if he has a family dependent upon him, he cannot give in anything like the + measure Christ bade us give without wronging those dear to him, + immediately or remotely. That is to say, in conditions which oblige every + man to look out for himself, a man cannot be a Christian without remorse; + he cannot do a generous action without self-reproach; he cannot be nobly + unselfish without the fear of being a fool. You would think that this + predicament must deprave, and so without doubt it does; and yet it is not + wholly depraving. It often has its effect in character of a rare and + pathetic sublimity; and many Americans take all the cruel risks of doing + good, reckless of the evil that may befall them, and defiant of the + upbraidings of their own hearts. This is something that we Altrurians can + scarcely understand: it is like the munificence of a savage who has killed + a deer and shares it with his starving tribesmen, forgetful of the + hungering little ones who wait his return from the chase with food; for + life in plutocratic countries is still a chase, and the game is wary and + sparse, as the terrible average of failures witnesses. + </p> + <p> + Of course, I do not mean that Americans may not give at all without + sensible risk, or that giving among them is always followed by a logical + regret; but, as I said, life with them is in no wise logical. They even + applaud one another for their charities, which they measure by the amount + given, rather than by the love that goes with the giving. The widow's mite + has little credit with them, but the rich man's million has an acclaim + that reverberates through their newspapers long after his gift is made. It + is only the poor in America who do charity as we do, by giving help where + it is needed; the Americans are mostly too busy, if they are at all + prosperous, to give anything but money; and the more money they give, the + more charitable they esteem themselves. From time to time some man with + twenty or thirty millions gives one of them away, usually to a public + institution of some sort, where it will have no effect with the people who + are underpaid for their work or cannot get work; and then his deed is + famed throughout the continent as a thing really beyond praise. Yet any + one who thinks about it must know that he never earned the millions he + kept, or the millions he gave, but somehow made them from the labor of + others; that, with all the wealth left him, he cannot miss the fortune he + lavishes, any more than if the check which conveyed it were a withered + leaf, and not in any wise so much as an ordinary working-man might feel + the bestowal of a postage-stamp. + </p> + <p> + But in this study of the plutocratic mind, always so fascinating to me, I + am getting altogether away from what I meant to tell you. I meant to tell + you not how Americans live in the spirit, illogically, blindly, and + blunderingly, but how they live in the body, and more especially how they + house themselves in this city of New York. A great many of them do not + house themselves at all, but that is a class which we cannot now consider, + and I will speak only of those who have some sort of a roof over their + heads. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + Formerly the New-Yorker lived in one of three different ways: in private + houses, or boarding-houses, or hotels; there were few restaurants or + public tables outside of the hotels, and those who had lodgings and took + their meals at eating-houses were but a small proportion of the whole + number. The old classification still holds in a measure, but within the + last thirty years, or ever since the Civil War, when the enormous + commercial expansion of the country began, several different ways of + living have been opened. The first and most noticeable of these is + housekeeping in flats, or apartments of three or four rooms or more, on + the same floor, as in all the countries of Europe except England; though + the flat is now making itself known in London, too. Before the war, the + New-Yorker who kept house did so in a separate house, three or four + stories in height, with a street door of its own. Its pattern within was + fixed by long usage, and seldom varied; without, it was of brown-stone + before, and brick behind, with an open space there for drying clothes, + which was sometimes gardened or planted with trees and vines. The rear of + the city blocks which these houses formed was more attractive than the + front, as you may still see in the vast succession of monotonous + cross-streets not yet invaded by poverty or business; and often the + perspective of these rears is picturesque and pleasing. But with the + sudden growth of the population when peace came, and through the + acquaintance the hordes of American tourists had made with European + fashions of living, it became easy, or at least simple, to divide the + floors of many of these private dwellings into apartments, each with its + own kitchen and all the apparatus of housekeeping. The apartments then had + the street entrance and the stairways in common, and they had in common + the cellar and the furnace for heating; they had in common the + disadvantage of being badly aired and badly lighted. They were dark, + cramped, and uncomfortable, but they were cheaper than separate houses, + and they were more homelike than boarding-houses or hotels. Large numbers + of them still remain in use, and when people began to live in flats, in + conformity with the law of evolution, many buildings were put up and + subdivided into apartments in imitation of the old dwellings which had + been changed. + </p> + <p> + But the apartment as the New-Yorkers now mostly have it, was at the same + time evolving from another direction. The poorer class of New York + work-people had for a long period before the war lived, as they still + live, in vast edifices, once thought prodigiously tall, which were called + tenement-houses. In these a family of five or ten persons is commonly + packed in two or three rooms, and even in one room, where they eat and + sleep, without the amenities and often without the decencies of life, and + of course without light and air. The buildings in case of fire are + death-traps; but the law obliges the owners to provide some apparent means + of escape, which they do in the form of iron balconies and ladders, giving + that festive air to their façades which I have already noted. The bare and + dirty entries and staircases are really ramifications of the filthy + streets without, and each tenement opens upon a landing as if it opened + upon a public thoroughfare. The rents extorted from the inmates is + sometimes a hundred per cent., and is nearly always cruelly out of + proportion to the value of the houses, not to speak of the wretched + shelter afforded; and when the rent is not paid the family in arrears is + set with all its poor household gear upon the sidewalk, in a pitiless + indifference to the season and the weather, which you could not realize + without seeing it, and which is incredible even of plutocratic nature. Of + course, landlordism, which you have read so much of, is at its worst in + the case of the tenement-houses. But you must understand that + comparatively few people in New York own the roofs that shelter them. By + far the greater number live, however they live, in houses owned by others, + by a class who prosper and grow rich, or richer, simply by owning the + roofs over other men's heads. The landlords have, of course, no human + relation with their tenants, and really no business relations, for all the + affairs between them are transacted by agents. Some have the reputation of + being better than others; but they all live, or expect to live, without + work, on their rents. They are very much respected for it; the rents are + considered a just return from the money invested. You must try to conceive + of this as an actual fact, and not merely as a statistical statement. I + know it will not be easy for you; it is not easy for me, though I have it + constantly before my face. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + The tenement-house, such as it is, is the original of the apartment-house, + which perpetuates some of its most characteristic features on a scale and + in material undreamed of in the simple philosophy of the inventor of the + tenement-house. The worst of these features is the want of light and air, + but as much more space and as many more rooms are conceded as the tenant + will pay for. The apartment-house, however, soars to heights that the + tenement-house never half reached, and is sometimes ten stories high. It + is built fireproof, very often, and is generally equipped with an + elevator, which runs night and day, and makes one level of all the floors. + The cheaper sort, or those which have departed less from the + tenement-house original, have no elevators, but the street door in all is + kept shut and locked, and is opened only by the tenant's latch-key or by + the janitor having charge of the whole building. In the finer houses there + is a page whose sole duty it is to open and shut this door, and who is + usually brass-buttoned to one blinding effect of livery with the + elevator-boy. Where this page or hall-boy is found, the elevator carries + you to the door of any apartment you seek; where he is not found, there is + a bell and a speaking-tube in the lower entry, for each apartment, and you + ring up the occupant and talk to him as many stories off as he happens to + be. But people who can afford to indulge their pride will not live in this + sort of apartment-house, and the rents in them are much lower than in the + finer sort. The finer sort are vulgarly fine for the most part, with a + gaudy splendor of mosaic pavement, marble stairs, frescoed ceilings, + painted walls, and cabinet wood-work. But there are many that are fine in + a good taste, in the things that are common to the inmates. Their fittings + for housekeeping are of all degrees of perfection, and, except for the + want of light and air, life in them has a high degree of gross luxury. + They are heated throughout with pipes of steam or hot water, and they are + sometimes lighted with both gas and electricity, which the inmate uses at + will, though of course at his own cost. Outside, they are the despair of + architecture, for no style has yet been invented which enables the artist + to characterize them with beauty, and wherever they lift their vast bulks + they deform the whole neighborhood, throwing the other buildings out of + scale, and making it impossible for future edifices to assimilate + themselves to the intruder. + </p> + <p> + There is no end to the apartment-houses for multitude, and there is no + street or avenue free from them. Of course, the better sort are to be + found on the fashionable avenues and the finer cross-streets, but others + follow the course of the horse-car lines on the eastern and western + avenues, and the elevated roads on the avenues which these have invaded. + In such places they are shops below and apartments above, and I cannot see + that the inmates seem at all sensible that they are unfitly housed in + them. People are born and married, and live and die in the midst of an + uproar so frantic that you would think they would go mad of it; and I + believe the physicians really attribute something of the growing + prevalence of neurotic disorders to the wear and tear of the nerves from + the rush of the trains passing almost momently, and the perpetual jarring + of the earth and air from their swift transit. I once spent an evening in + one of these apartments, which a friend had taken for a few weeks last + spring (you can get them out of season for any length of time), and as the + weather had begun to be warm, we had the windows open, and so we had the + full effect of the railroad operated under them. My friend had become + accustomed to it, but for me it was an affliction which I cannot give you + any notion of. The trains seemed to be in the room with us, and I sat as + if I had a locomotive in my lap. Their shrieks and groans burst every + sentence I began, and if I had not been master of that visible speech + which we use so much at home I never should have known what my friend was + saying. I cannot tell you how this brutal clamor insulted me, and made the + mere exchange of thought a part of the squalid struggle which is the + plutocratic conception of life; I came away after a few hours of it, + bewildered and bruised, as if I had been beaten upon with hammers. + </p> + <p> + Some of the apartments on the elevated lines are very good, as such things + go; they are certainly costly enough to be good; and they are inhabited by + people who can afford to leave them during the hot season when the noise + is at its worst; but most of them belong to people who must dwell in them + summer and winter, for want of money and leisure to get out of them, and + who must suffer incessantly from the noise I could not endure for a few + hours. In health it is bad enough, but in sickness it must be horrible + beyond all parallel. Imagine a mother with a dying child in such a place; + or a wife bending over the pillow of her husband to catch the last faint + whisper of farewell, as a train of five or six cars goes roaring by the + open window! What horror! What profanation! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + The noise is bad everywhere in New York, but in some of the finer + apartment-houses on the better streets you are as well out of it as you + can be anywhere in the city. I have been a guest in these at different + times, and in one of them I am such a frequent guest that I may be said to + know its life intimately. In fact, my hostess (women transact society so + exclusively in America that you seldom think of your host) in the + apartment I mean to speak of, invited me to explore it one night when I + dined with her, so that I might, as she said, tell my friends when I got + back to Altruria how people lived in America; and I cannot feel that I am + violating her hospitality in telling you now. She is that Mrs. Makely whom + I met last summer in the mountains, and whom you thought so strange a type + from the account of her I gave you, but who is not altogether uncommon + here. I confess that, with all her faults, I like her, and I like to go to + her house. She is, in fact, a very good woman, perfectly selfish by + tradition, as the American women must be, and wildly generous by nature, + as they nearly always are; and infinitely superior to her husband in + cultivation, as is commonly the case with them. As he knows nothing but + business, he thinks it is the only thing worth knowing, and he looks down + on the tastes and interests of her more intellectual life with amiable + contempt, as something almost comic. She respects business, too, and so + she does not despise his ignorance as you would suppose; it is at least + the ignorance of a business-man, who must have something in him beyond her + ken, or else he would not be able to make money as he does. + </p> + <p> + With your greater sense of humor, I think you would be amused if you could + see his smile of placid self-satisfaction as he listens to our discussion + of questions and problems which no more enter his daily life than they + enter the daily life of an Eskimo; but I do not find it altogether amusing + myself, and I could not well forgive it, if I did not know that he was at + heart so simple and good, in spite of his commerciality. But he is sweet + and kind, as the American men so often are, and he thinks his wife is the + delightfulest creature in the world, as the American husband nearly always + does. They have several times asked me to dine with them <i>en famille;</i> + and, as a matter of form, he keeps me a little while with him after + dinner, when she has left the table, and smokes his cigar, after wondering + why we do not smoke in Altruria; but I can see that he is impatient to get + to her in their drawing-room, where we find her reading a book in the + crimson light of the canopied lamp, and where he presently falls silent, + perfectly happy to be near her. The drawing-room is of a good size itself, + and it has a room opening out of it called the library, with a case of + books in it, and Mrs. Makely's piano-forte. The place is rather too richly + and densely rugged, and there is rather more curtaining and shading of the + windows than we should like; but Mrs. Makely is too well up-to-date, as + she would say, to have much of the bric-à-brac about which she tells me + used to clutter people's houses here. There are some pretty good pictures + on the walls, and a few vases and bronzes, and she says she has produced a + greater effect of space by quelling the furniture—she means, having + few pieces and having them as small as possible. There is a little stand + with her afternoon tea-set in one corner, and there is a pretty + writing-desk in the library; I remember a sofa and some easy-chairs, but + not too many of them. She has a table near one of the windows, with books + and papers on it. She tells me that she sees herself that the place is + kept just as she wishes it, for she has rather a passion for neatness, and + you never can trust servants not to stand the books on their heads or + study a vulgar symmetry in the arrangements. She never allows them in + there, she says, except when they are at work under her eye; and she never + allows anybody there except her guests, and her husband after he has + smoked. Of course, her dog must be there; and one evening after her + husband fell asleep in the arm-chair near her, the dog fell asleep on the + fleece at her feet, and we heard them softly breathing in unison. She made + a pretty little mocking mouth when the sound first became audible, and + said that she ought really to have sent Mr. Makely out with the dog, for + the dog ought to have the air every day, and she had been kept indoors; + but sometimes Mr. Makely came home from business so tired that she hated + to send him out, even for the dog's sake, though he was so apt to become + dyspeptic. “They won't let you have dogs in some of the apartment-houses, + but I tore up the first lease that had that clause in it, and I told Mr. + Makely that I would rather live in a house all my days than any flat where + my dog wasn't as welcome as I was. Of course, they're rather troublesome.” + </p> + <p> + The Makelys had no children, but it is seldom that the occupants of + apartment-houses of a good class have children, though there is no clause + in the lease against them. I verified this fact from Mrs. Makely herself, + by actual inquiry, for in all the times that I had gone up and down in the + elevator to her apartment I had never seen any children. She seemed at + first to think I was joking, and not to like it, but when she found that I + was in earnest she said that she did not suppose all the families living + under that roof had more than four or five children among them. She said + that it would be inconvenient; and I could not allege the tenement-houses + in the poor quarters of the city, where children seemed to swarm, for it + is but too probable that they do not regard convenience in such places, + and that neither parents nor children are more comfortable for their + presence. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + Comfort is the American ideal, in a certain way, and comfort is certainly + what is studied in such an apartment as the Makelys inhabit. We got to + talking about it, and the ease of life in such conditions, and it was then + she made me that offer to show me her flat, and let me report to the + Altrurians concerning it. She is all impulse, and she asked, How would I + like to see it <i>now?</i> and when I said I should be delighted, she + spoke to her husband, and told him that she was going to show me through + the flat. He roused himself promptly, and went before us, at her bidding, + to turn up the electrics in the passages and rooms, and then she led the + way out through the dining-room. + </p> + <p> + “This and the parlors count three, and the kitchen here is the fourth room + of the eight,” she said, and as she spoke she pushed open the door of a + small room, blazing with light and dense with the fumes of the dinner and + the dish-washing which was now going on in a closet opening out of the + kitchen. + </p> + <p> + She showed me the set range, at one side, and the refrigerator in an + alcove, which she said went with the flat, and, “Lena,” she said to the + cook, “this is the Altrurian gentleman I was telling you about, and I want + him to see your kitchen. Can I take him into your room?” + </p> + <p> + The cook said, “Oh yes, ma'am,” and she gave me a good stare, while Mrs. + Makely went to the kitchen window and made me observe that it let in the + outside air, though the court that it opened into was so dark that one had + to keep the electrics going in the kitchen night and day. “Of course, it's + an expense,” she said, as she closed the kitchen door after us. She added, + in a low, rapid tone, “You must excuse my introducing the cook. She has + read all about you in the papers—you didn't know, I suppose, that + there were reporters that day of your delightful talk in the mountains, + but I had them—and she was wild, when she heard you were coming, and + made me promise to let her have a sight of you somehow. She says she wants + to go and live in Altruria, and if you would like to take home a cook, or + a servant of any kind, you wouldn't have much trouble. Now here,” she ran + on, without a moment's pause, while she flung open another door, “is what + you won't find in every apartment-house, even very good ones, and that's a + back elevator. Sometimes there are only stairs, and they make the poor + things climb the whole way up from the basement, when they come in, and + all your marketing has to be brought up that way, too; sometimes they send + it up on a kind of dumb-waiter, in the cheap places, and you give your + orders to the market-men down below through a speaking-tube. But here we + have none of that bother, and this elevator is for the kitchen and + housekeeping part of the flat. The grocer's and the butcher's man, and + anybody who has packages for you, or trunks, or that sort of thing, use + it, and, of course, it's for the servants, and they appreciate not having + to walk up as much as anybody.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes,” I said, and she shut the elevator door and opened another a + little beyond it. + </p> + <p> + “This is our guest chamber,” she continued, as she ushered me into a very + pretty room, charmingly furnished. “It isn't very light by day, for it + opens on a court, like the kitchen and the servants' room here,” and with + that she whipped out of the guest chamber and into another doorway across + the corridor. This room was very much narrower, but there were two small + beds in it, very neat and clean, with some furnishings that were in + keeping, and a good carpet under foot. Mrs. Makely was clearly proud of + it, and expected me to applaud it; but I waited for her to speak, which + upon the whole she probably liked as well. + </p> + <p> + “I only keep two servants, because in a flat there isn't really room for + more, and I put out the wash and get in cleaning-women when it's needed. I + like to use my servants well, because it pays, and I hate to see anybody + imposed upon. Some people put in a double-decker, as they call it—a + bedstead with two tiers, like the berths on a ship; but I think that's a + shame, and I give them two regular beds, even if it does crowd them a + little more and the beds have to be rather narrow. This room has outside + air, from the court, and, though it's always dark, it's very pleasant, as + you see.” I did not say that I did not see, and this sufficed Mrs. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” she said, “I'll show you <i>our</i> rooms,” and she flew down the + corridor towards two doors that stood open side by side and flashed into + them before me. Her husband was already in the first she entered, smiling + in supreme content with his wife, his belongings, and himself. + </p> + <p> + “This is a southern exposure, and it has a perfect gush of sun from + morning till night. Some of the flats have the kitchen at the end, and + that's stupid; you can have a kitchen in any sort of hole, for you can + keep on the electrics, and with them the air is perfectly good. As soon as + I saw these chambers, and found out that they would let you keep a dog, I + told Mr. Makely to sign the lease instantly, and I would see to the rest.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at me, and I praised the room and its dainty tastefulness to + her heart's content, so that she said: “Well, it's some satisfaction to + show you anything, Mr. Homos, you are so appreciative. I'm sure you'll + give a good account of us to the Altrurians. Well, now we'll go back to + the pa—drawing-room. This is the end of the story.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said her husband, with a wink at me, “I thought it was to be + continued in our next,” and he nodded towards the door that opened from + his wife's bower into the room adjoining. + </p> + <p> + “Why, you poor old fellow!” she shouted. “I forgot all about <i>your</i> + room,” and she dashed into it before us and began to show it off. It was + equipped with every bachelor luxury, and with every appliance for health + and comfort. “And here,” she said, “he can smoke, or anything, as long as + he keeps the door shut. Oh, good gracious! I forgot the bath-room,” and + they both united in showing me this, with its tiled floor and walls and + its porcelain tub; and then Mrs. Makely flew up the corridor before us. + “Put out the electrics, Dick!” she called back over her shoulder. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + When we were again seated in the drawing-room, which she had been so near + calling a parlor, she continued to bubble over with delight in herself and + her apartment. “Now, isn't it about perfect?” she urged, and I had to own + that it was indeed very convenient and very charming; and in the rapture + of the moment she invited me to criticise it. + </p> + <p> + “I see very little to criticise,” I said, “from your point of view; but I + hope you won't think it indiscreet if I ask a few questions?” + </p> + <p> + She laughed. “Ask anything, Mr. Homos! I hope I got hardened to your + questions in the mountains.” + </p> + <p> + “She said you used to get off some pretty tough ones,” said her husband, + helpless to take his eyes from her, although he spoke to me. + </p> + <p> + “It is about your servants,” I began. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, of course! Perfectly characteristic! Go on.” + </p> + <p> + “You told me that they had no natural light either in the kitchen or their + bedroom. Do they never see the light of day?” + </p> + <p> + The lady laughed heartily. “The waitress is in the front of the house + several hours every morning at her work, and they both have an afternoon + off once a week. Some people only let them go once a fortnight; but I + think they are human beings as well as we are, and I let them go every + week.” + </p> + <p> + “But, except for that afternoon once a week, your cook lives in + electric-light perpetually?” + </p> + <p> + “Electric-light is very healthy, and it doesn't heat the air!” the lady + triumphed, “I can assure you that she thinks she's very well off; and so + she is.” I felt a little temper in her voice, and I was silent, until she + asked me, rather stiffly, “Is there any <i>other</i> inquiry you would + like to make?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I said, “but I do not think you would like it.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, I assure you, Mr. Homos, you were never more mistaken in your life. + I perfectly delight in your naïveté. I know that the Altrurians don't + think as we do about some things, and I don't expect it. What is it you + would like to ask?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, why should you require your servants to go down on a different + elevator from yourselves?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, good gracious!” cried the lady.—“aren't they different from us + in <i>every</i> way? To be sure, they dress up in their ridiculous best + when they go out, but you couldn't expect us to let them use the <i>front</i> + elevator? I don't want to go up and down with my own cook, and I certainly + don't with my neighbor's cook!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I suppose you would feel that an infringement of your social + dignity. But if you found yourself beside a cook in a horse-car or other + public conveyance, you would not feel personally affronted?” + </p> + <p> + “No, that is a very different thing. That is something we cannot control. + But, thank goodness, we can control our elevator, and if I were in a house + where I had to ride up and down with the servants I would no more stay in + it than I would in one where I couldn't keep a dog. I should consider it a + perfect outrage. I cannot understand you, Mr. Homos! You are a gentleman, + and you must have the traditions of a gentleman, and yet you ask me such a + thing as that!” + </p> + <p> + I saw a cast in her husband's eye which I took for a hint not to press the + matter, and so I thought I had better say, “It is only that in Altruria we + hold serving in peculiar honor.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the lady, scornfully, “if you went and got your servants from + an intelligence-office, and had to look up their references, you wouldn't + hold them in very much honor. I tell you they look out for their interests + as sharply as we do for ours, and it's nothing between us but a question + of—” + </p> + <p> + “Business,” suggested her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she assented, as if this clinched the matter. + </p> + <p> + “That's what I'm always telling you, Dolly, and yet you <i>will</i> try to + make them your friends, as soon as you get them into your house. You want + them to love you, and you know that sentiment hasn't got anything to do + with it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I can't help it, Dick. I can't live with a person without trying to + like them and wanting them to like me. And then, when the ungrateful + things are saucy, or leave me in the lurch as they do half the time, it + almost breaks my heart. But I'm thankful to say that in these hard times + they won't be apt to leave a good place without a good reason.” + </p> + <p> + “Are there many seeking employment?” I asked this because I thought it was + safe ground. + </p> + <p> + “Well, they just stand around in the office as <i>thick!</i>” said the + lady. “And the Americans are trying to get places as well as the + foreigners. But I won't have Americans. They are too uppish, and they are + never half so well trained as the Swedes or the Irish. They still expect + to be treated as one of the family. I suppose,” she continued, with a + lingering ire in her voice, “that in Altruria you do treat them as one of + the family?” + </p> + <p> + “We have no servants, in the American sense,” I answered, as inoffensively + as I could. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely irrelevantly returned to the question that had first provoked + her indignation. “And I should like to know how much worse it is to have a + back elevator for the servants than it is to have the basement door for + the servants, as you always do when you live in a separate house?” + </p> + <p> + “I should think it was no worse,” I admitted, and I thought this a good + chance to turn the talk from the dangerous channel it had taken. “I wish, + Mrs. Makely, you would tell me something about the way people live in + separate houses in New York.” + </p> + <p> + She was instantly pacified. “Why, I should be delighted. I only wish my + friend Mrs. Bellington Strange was back from Europe; then I could show you + a model house. I mean to take you there, as soon as she gets home. She's a + kind of Altrurian herself, you know. She was my dearest friend at school, + and it almost broke my heart when she married Mr. Strange, so much older, + and her inferior in every way. But she's got his money now, and oh, the + good she does do with it! I know you'll like each other, Mr. Homos. I do + wish Eva was at home!” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should be very glad to meet an American Altrurian, but that + now I wished she would tell me about the normal New York house, and what + was its animating principle, beginning with the basement door. + </p> + <p> + She laughed and said, “Why, it's just like any other house!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + I can never insist enough, my dear Cyril, upon the illogicality of + American life. You know what the plutocratic principle is, and what the + plutocratic civilization should logically be. But the plutocratic + civilization is much better than it should logically be, bad as it is; for + the personal equation constantly modifies it, and renders it far less + dreadful than you would reasonably expect. That is, the potentialities of + goodness implanted in the human heart by the Creator forbid the + plutocratic man to be what the plutocratic scheme of life implies. He is + often merciful, kindly, and generous, as I have told you already, in spite + of conditions absolutely egotistical. You would think that the Americans + would be abashed in view of the fact that their morality is often in + contravention of their economic principles, but apparently they are not + so, and I believe that for the most part they are not aware of the fact. + Nevertheless, the fact is there, and you must keep it in mind, if you + would conceive of them rightly. You can in no other way account for the + contradictions which you will find in my experiences among them; and these + are often so bewildering that I have to take myself in hand, from time to + time, and ask myself what mad world I have fallen into, and whether, after + all, it is not a ridiculous nightmare. I am not sure that, when I return + and we talk these things over together, I shall be able to overcome your + doubts of my honesty, and I think that when I no longer have them before + my eyes I shall begin to doubt my own memory. But for the present I can + only set down what I at least seem to see, and trust you to accept it, if + you cannot understand it. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps I can aid you by suggesting that, logically, the Americans should + be what the Altrurians are, since their polity embodies our belief that + all men are born equal, with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit + of happiness; but that illogically they are what the Europeans are, since + they still cling to the economical ideals of Europe, and hold that men are + born socially unequal, and deny them the liberty and happiness which can + come from equality alone. It is in their public life and civic life that + Altruria prevails; it is in their social and domestic life that Europe + prevails; and here, I think, is the severest penalty they must pay for + excluding women from political affairs; for women are at once the best and + the worst Americans: the best because their hearts are the purest, the + worst because their heads are the idlest. “Another contradiction!” you + will say, and I cannot deny it; for, with all their cultivation, the + American women have no real intellectual interests, but only intellectual + fads; and while they certainly think a great deal, they reflect little, or + not at all. The inventions and improvements which have made their + household work easy, the wealth that has released them in such vast + numbers from work altogether, has not enlarged them to the sphere of + duties which our Altrurian women share with us, but has left them, with + their quickened intelligences, the prey of the trivialities which engross + the European women, and which have formed the life of the sex hitherto in + every country where women have an economical and social freedom without + the political freedom that can alone give it dignity and import. They have + a great deal of beauty, and they are inconsequently charming; I need not + tell you that they are romantic and heroic, or that they would go to the + stake for a principle, if they could find one, as willingly as any martyr + of the past; but they have not much more perspective than children, and + their reading and their talk about reading seem not to have broadened + their mental horizons beyond the old sunrise and the old sunset of the + kitchen and the parlor. + </p> + <p> + In fine, the American house as it is, the American household, is what the + American woman makes it and wills it to be, whether she wishes it to be so + or not; for I often find that the American woman wills things that she in + no wise wishes. What the normal New York house is, however, I had great + difficulty in getting Mrs. Makely to tell me, for, as she said quite + frankly, she could not imagine my not knowing. She asked me if I really + wanted her to begin at the beginning, and, when I said that I did, she + took a little more time to laugh at the idea, and then she said, “I + suppose you mean a brown-stone, four-story house in the middle of a + block?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I think that is what I mean,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” she began, “those high steps that they all have, unless they're + English-basement houses, really give them another story, for people used + to dine in the front room of their basements. You've noticed the little + front yard, about as big as a handkerchief, generally, and the steps + leading down to the iron gate, which is kept locked, and the basement door + inside the gate? Well, that's what you might call the back elevator of a + house, for it serves the same purpose: the supplies are brought in there, + and market-men go in and out, and the ashes, and the swill, and the + servants—that you object to so much. We have no alleys in New York, + the blocks are so narrow, north and south; and, of course, we have no back + doors; so we have to put the garbage out on the sidewalk—and it's + nasty enough, goodness knows. Underneath the sidewalk there are bins where + people keep their coal and kindling. You've noticed the gratings in the + pavements?” + </p> + <p> + I said yes, and I was ashamed to own that at first I had thought them some + sort of registers for tempering the cold in winter; this would have + appeared ridiculous in the last degree to my hostess, for the Americans + have as yet no conception of publicly modifying the climate, as we do. + </p> + <p> + “Back of what used to be the dining-room, and what is now used for a + laundry, generally, is the kitchen, with closets between, of course, and + then the back yard, which some people make very pleasant with shrubs and + vines; the kitchen is usually dark and close, and the girls can only get a + breath of fresh air in the yard; I like to see them; but generally it's + taken up with clothes-lines, for people in houses nearly all have their + washing done at home. Over the kitchen is the dining-room, which takes up + the whole of the first floor, with the pantry, and it almost always has a + bay-window out of it; of course, that overhangs the kitchen, and darkens + it a little more, but it makes the dining-room so pleasant. I tell my + husband that I should be almost willing to live in a house again, just on + account of the dining-room bay-window. I had it full of flowers in pots, + for the southern sun came in; and then the yard was so nice for the dog; + you didn't have to take him out for exercise, yourself; he chased the cats + there and got plenty of it. I must say that the cats on the back fences + were a drawback at night; to be sure, we have them here, too; it's seven + stories down, but you do hear them, along in the spring. The parlor, or + drawing-room, is usually rather long, and runs from the dining-room to the + front of the house, though where the house is very deep they have a sort + of middle room, or back parlor. Dick, get some paper and draw it. Wouldn't + you like to see a plan of the floor?” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should, and she bade her husband make it like their old + house in West Thirty-third Street. We all looked at it together. + </p> + <p> + “This is the front door,” Mrs. Makely explained, “where people come in, + and then begins the misery of a house—stairs! They mostly go up + straight, but sometimes they have them curve a little, and in the new + houses the architects have all sorts of little dodges for squaring them + and putting landings. Then, on the second floor—draw it, Dick—you + have two nice, large chambers, with plenty of light and air, before and + behind. I do miss the light and air in a flat, there's no denying it.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll go back to a house yet, Dolly,” said her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Never!” she almost shrieked, and he winked at me, as if it were the best + joke in the world. “Never, as long as houses have stairs!” + </p> + <p> + “Put in an elevator,” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + “Well, that is what Eveleth Strange has, and she lets the servants use it, + too,” and Mrs. Makely said, with a look at me: “I suppose that would + please you, Mr. Homos. Well, there's a nice side-room over the front door + here, and a bath-room at the rear. Then you have more stairs, and large + chambers, and two side-rooms. That makes plenty of chambers for a small + family. I used to give two of the third-story rooms to my two girls. I + ought really to have made them sleep in one; it seemed such a shame to let + the cook have a whole large room to herself; but I had nothing else to do + with it, and she did take such comfort in it, poor old thing! You see, the + rooms came wrong in our house, for it fronted north, and I had to give the + girls sunny rooms or else give them front rooms, so that it was as broad + as it was long. I declare, I was perplexed about it the whole time we + lived there, it seemed so perfectly anomalous.” + </p> + <p> + “And what is an English-basement house like?” I ventured to ask, in + interruption of the retrospective melancholy she had fallen into. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, <i>never</i> live in an English-basement house, if you value your + spine!” cried the lady. “An English-basement house is nothing <i>but</i> + stairs. In the first place, it's only one room wide, and it's a story + higher than the high-stoop house. It's one room forward and one back, the + whole way up; and in an English-basement it's always <i>up</i>, and <i>never</i> + down. If I had my way, there wouldn't one stone be left upon another in + the English-basements in New York.” + </p> + <p> + I have suffered Mrs. Makely to be nearly as explicit to you as she was to + me; for the kind of house she described is of the form ordinarily + prevailing in all American cities, and you can form some idea from it how + city people live here. I ought perhaps to tell you that such a house is + fitted with every housekeeping convenience, and that there is hot and cold + water throughout, and gas everywhere. It has fireplaces in all the rooms, + where fires are often kept burning for pleasure; but it is really heated + from a furnace in the basement, through large pipes carried to the + different stories, and opening into them by some such registers as we use. + The separate houses sometimes have steam-heating, but not often. They each + have their drainage into the sewer of the street, and this is trapped and + trapped again, as in the houses of our old plutocratic cities, to keep the + poison of the sewer from getting into the houses. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <p> + You will be curious to know something concerning the cost of living in + such a house, and you may be sure that I did not fail to question Mrs. + Makely on this point. She was at once very volubly communicative; she told + me all she knew, and, as her husband said, a great deal more. + </p> + <p> + “Why, of course,” she began, “you can spend all you have in New York, if + you like, and people do spend fortunes every year. But I suppose you mean + the average cost of living in a brown-stone house, in a good block, that + rents for $1800 or $2000 a year, with a family of three or four children, + and two servants. Well, what should you say, Dick?” + </p> + <p> + “Ten or twelve thousand a year—fifteen,” answered her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, fully that,” she answered, with an effect of disappointment in his + figures. “We had just ourselves, and we never spent less than seven, and + we didn't dress, and we didn't entertain, either, to speak of. But you + have to live on a certain scale, and generally you live up to your + income.” + </p> + <p> + “Quite,” said Mr. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know what makes it cost so. Provisions are cheap enough, and they + say people live in as good style for a third less in London. There used to + be a superstition that you could live for less in a flat, and they always + talk to you about the cost of a furnace, and a man to tend it and keep the + snow shovelled off your sidewalk, but that is all stuff. Five hundred + dollars will make up the whole difference, and more. You pay quite as much + rent for a decent flat, and then you don't get half the room. No, if it + wasn't for the stairs, I wouldn't live in a flat for an instant. But that + makes all the difference.” + </p> + <p> + “And the young people,” I urged—“those who are just starting in life—how + do they manage? Say when the husband has $1500 or $2000 a year?” + </p> + <p> + “Poor things!” she returned. “I don't know how they manage. They board + till they go distracted, or they dry up and blow away; or else the wife + has a little money, too, and they take a small flat and ruin themselves. + Of course, they want to live nicely and like other people.” + </p> + <p> + “But if they didn't?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, then they could live delightfully. My husband says he often wishes + he was a master-mechanic in New York, with a thousand a year, and a flat + for twelve dollars a month; he would have the best time in the world.” + </p> + <p> + Her husband nodded his acquiescence. “Fighting-cock wouldn't be in it,” he + said. “Trouble is, we all want to do the swell thing.” + </p> + <p> + “But you can't all do it,” I ventured, “and, from what I see of the + simple, out-of-the-way neighborhoods in my walks, you don't all try.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, no,” he said. “Some of us were talking about that the other night at + the club, and one of the fellows was saying that he believed there was as + much old-fashioned, quiet, almost countrified life in New York, among the + great mass of the people, as you'd find in any city in the world. Said you + met old codgers that took care of their own furnaces, just as you would in + a town of five thousand inhabitants.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that's all very well,” said his wife; “but they wouldn't be nice + people. Nice people want to live nicely. And so they live beyond their + means or else they scrimp and suffer. I don't know which is worst.” + </p> + <p> + “But there is no obligation to do either?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, there is,” she returned. “If you've been born in a certain way, + and brought up in a certain way, you can't get out of it. You simply + can't. You have got to keep in it till you drop. Or a woman has.” + </p> + <p> + “That means the woman's husband, too,” said Mr. Makely, with his wink for + me. “Always die together.” + </p> + <p> + In fact, there is the same competition in the social world as in the + business world; and it is the ambition of every American to live in some + such house as the New York house; and as soon as a village begins to grow + into a town, such houses are built. Still, the immensely greater number of + the Americans necessarily live so simply and cheaply that such a house + would be almost as strange to them as to an Altrurian. But while we should + regard its furnishings as vulgar and unwholesome, most Americans would + admire and covet its rich rugs or carpets, its papered walls, and thickly + curtained windows, and all its foolish ornamentation, and most American + women would long to have a house like the ordinary high-stoop New York + house, that they might break their backs over its stairs, and become + invalids, and have servants about them to harass them and hate them. + </p> + <p> + Of course, I put it too strongly, for there is often, illogically, a great + deal of love between the American women and their domestics, though why + there should be any at all I cannot explain, except by reference to that + mysterious personal equation which modifies all conditions here. You will + have made your reflection that the servants, as they are cruelly called (I + have heard them called so in their hearing, and wondered they did not fly + tooth and nail at the throat that uttered the insult), form really no part + of the house, but are aliens in the household and the family life. In + spite of this fact, much kindness grows up between them and the family, + and they do not always slight the work that I cannot understand their ever + having any heart in. Often they do slight it, and they insist unsparingly + upon the scanty privileges which their mistresses seem to think a + monstrous invasion of their own rights. The habit of oppression grows upon + the oppressor, and you would find tender-hearted women here, gentle + friends, devoted wives, loving mothers, who would be willing that their + domestics should remain indoors, week in and week out, and, where they are + confined in the ridiculous American flat, never see the light of day. In + fact, though the Americans do not know it, and would be shocked to be told + it, their servants are really slaves, who are none the less slaves because + they cannot be beaten, or bought and sold except by the week or month, and + for the price which they fix themselves, and themselves receive in the + form of wages. They are social outlaws, so far as the society of the + family they serve is concerned, and they are restricted in the visits they + receive and pay among themselves. They are given the worst rooms in the + house, and they are fed with the food that they have prepared, only when + it comes cold from the family table; in the wealthier houses, where many + of them are kept, they are supplied with a coarser and cheaper victual + bought and cooked for them apart from that provided for the family. They + are subject, at all hours, to the pleasure or caprice of the master or + mistress. Every circumstance of their life is an affront to that just + self-respect which even Americans allow is the right of every human being. + With the rich, they are said to be sometimes indolent, dishonest, + mendacious, and all that Plato long ago explained that slaves must be; but + in the middle-class families they are mostly faithful, diligent, and + reliable in a degree that would put to shame most men who hold positions + of trust, and would leave many ladies whom they relieve of work without + ground for comparison. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <p> + After Mrs. Makely had told me about the New York house, we began to talk + of the domestic service, and I ventured to hint some of the things that I + have so plainly said to you. She frankly consented to my whole view of the + matter, for if she wishes to make an effect or gain a point she has a + magnanimity that stops at nothing short of self-devotion. “I know it,” she + said. “You are perfectly right; but here we are, and what are we to do? + What do you do in Altruria, I should like to know?” + </p> + <p> + I said that in Altruria we all worked, and that personal service was + honored among us like medical attendance in America; I did not know what + other comparison to make; but I said that any one in health would think it + as unwholesome and as immoral to let another serve him as to let a doctor + physic him. At this Mrs. Makely and her husband laughed so that I found + myself unable to go on for some moments, till Mrs. Makely, with a final + shriek, shouted to him: “Dick, do stop, or I shall die! Excuse me, Mr. + Homos, but you are so deliciously funny, and I know you're just joking. + You <i>won't</i> mind my laughing? Do go on.” + </p> + <p> + I tried to give her some notion as to how we manage, in our common life, + which we have simplified so much beyond anything that this barbarous + people dream of; and she grew a little soberer as I went on, and seemed at + least to believe that I was not, as her husband said, stuffing them; but + she ended, as they always do here, by saying that it might be all very + well in Altruria, but it would never do in America, and that it was + contrary to human nature to have so many things done in common. “Now, I'll + tell you,” she said. “After we broke up housekeeping in Thirty-third + Street, we stored our furniture—” + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me,” I said. “How—stored?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I dare say you never store your furniture in Altruria. But here we + have hundreds of storage warehouses of all sorts and sizes, packed with + furniture that people put into them when they go to Europe, or get sick to + death of servants and the whole bother of house-keeping; and that's what + we did; and then, as my husband says, we browsed about for a year or two. + First, we tried hotelling it, and we took a hotel apartment furnished, and + dined at the hotel table, until I certainly thought I should go off, I got + so tired of it. Then we hired a suite in one of the family hotels that + there are so many of, and got out enough of our things to furnish it, and + had our meals in our rooms; they let you do that for the same price, often + they are <i>glad</i> to have you, for the dining-room is so packed. But + everything got to tasting just the same as everything else, and my husband + had the dyspepsia so bad he couldn't half attend to business, and I + suffered from indigestion myself, cooped up in a few small rooms, that + way; and the dog almost died; and finally we gave that up, and took an + apartment, and got out our things—the storage cost as much as the + rent of a small house—and put them into it, and had a caterer send + in the meals as they do in Europe. But it isn't the same here as it is in + Europe, and we got so sick of it in a month that I thought I should scream + when I saw the same old dishes coming on the table, day after day. We had + to keep one servant—excuse me, Mr. Homos: <i>domestic</i>—anyway, + to look after the table and the parlor and chamber work, and my husband + said we might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, and so we got in a + cook; and, bad as it is, it's twenty million times better than anything + else you can do. Servants are a plague, but you have got to have them, and + so I have resigned myself to the will of Providence. If they don't like + it, neither do I, and so I fancy it's about as broad as it's long.” I have + found this is a favorite phrase of Mrs. Makely's, and that it seems to + give her a great deal of comfort. + </p> + <p> + “And you don't feel that there's any harm in it?” I ventured to ask. + </p> + <p> + “Harm in it?” she repeated. “Why, aren't the poor things glad to get the + work? What would they do without it?” + </p> + <p> + “From what I see of your conditions I should be afraid that they would + starve,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, they can't all get places in shops or restaurants, and they have to + do something, or starve, as you say,” she said; and she seemed to think + what I had said was a concession to her position. + </p> + <p> + “But if it were your own case?” I suggested. “If you had no alternatives + but starvation and domestic service, you would think there was harm in it, + even although you were glad to take a servant's place?” + </p> + <p> + I saw her flush, and she answered, haughtily, “You must excuse me if I + refuse to imagine myself taking a servant's place, even for the sake of + argument.” + </p> + <p> + “And you are quite right,” I said. “Your American instinct is too strong + to brook even in imagination the indignities which seem daily, hourly, and + momently inflicted upon servants in your system.” + </p> + <p> + To my great astonishment she seemed delighted by this conclusion. “Yes,” + she said, and she smiled radiantly, “and now you understand how it is that + American girls won't go out to service, though the pay is so much better + and they are so much better housed and fed—and everything. Besides,” + she added, with an irrelevance which always amuses her husband, though I + should be alarmed by it for her sanity if I did not find it so + characteristic of women here, who seem to be mentally characterized by the + illogicality of the civilization, “they're not half so good as the foreign + servants. They've been brought up in homes of their own, and they're + uppish, and they have no idea of anything but third-rate boarding-house + cooking, and they're always hoping to get married, so that, really, you + have no peace of your life with them.” + </p> + <p> + “And it never seems to you that the whole relation is wrong?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “What relation?” + </p> + <p> + “That between maid and mistress, the hirer and the hireling.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, good gracious!” she burst out. “Didn't Christ himself say that the + laborer was worthy of his hire? And how would you get your work done, if + you didn't pay for it?” + </p> + <p> + “It might be done for you, when you could not do it yourself, from + affection.” + </p> + <p> + “From affection!” she returned, with the deepest derision. “Well, I rather + think I <i>shall</i> have to do it myself if I want it done from + affection! But I suppose you think I <i>ought</i> to do it myself, as the + Altrurian ladies do! I can tell you that in America it would be impossible + for a lady to do her own work, and there are no intelligence-offices where + you can find girls that want to work for love. It's as broad as it's + long.” + </p> + <p> + “It's simply business,” her husband said. + </p> + <p> + They were right, my dear friend, and I was wrong, strange as it must + appear to you. The tie of service, which we think as sacred as the tie of + blood, can be here only a business relation, and in these conditions + service must forever be grudgingly given and grudgingly paid. There is + something in it, I do not quite know what, for I can never place myself + precisely in an American's place, that degrades the poor creatures who + serve, so that they must not only be social outcasts, but must leave such + a taint of dishonor on their work that one cannot even do it for one's + self without a sense of outraged dignity. You might account for this in + Europe, where ages of prescriptive wrong have distorted the relation out + of all human wholesomeness and Christian loveliness; but in America, where + many, and perhaps most, of those who keep servants and call them so are + but a single generation from fathers who earned their bread by the sweat + of their brows, and from mothers who nobly served in all household + offices, it is in the last degree bewildering. I can only account for it + by that bedevilment of the entire American ideal through the retention of + the English economy when the English polity was rejected. But at the heart + of America there is this ridiculous contradiction, and it must remain + there until the whole country is Altrurianized. There is no other hope; + but I did not now urge this point, and we turned to talk of other things, + related to the matters we had been discussing. + </p> + <p> + “The men,” said Mrs. Makely, “get out of the whole bother very nicely, as + long as they are single, and even when they're married they are apt to run + off to the club when there's a prolonged upheaval in the kitchen.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>I</i> don't, Dolly,” suggested her husband. + </p> + <p> + “No, <i>you</i> don't, Dick,” she returned, fondly. “But there are not + many like you.” + </p> + <p> + He went on, with a wink at me, “I never live at the club, except in + summer, when you go away to the mountains.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you know I can't very well take you with me,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I couldn't leave my business, anyway,” he said, and he laughed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <p> + I had noticed the vast and splendid club-houses in the best places in the + city, and I had often wondered about their life, which seemed to me a + blind groping towards our own, though only upon terms that forbade it to + those who most needed it. The clubs here are not like our groups, the free + association of sympathetic people, though one is a little more literary, + or commercial, or scientific, or political than another; but the entrance + to each is more or less jealously guarded; there is an initiation-fee, and + there are annual dues, which are usually heavy enough to exclude all but + the professional and business classes, though there are, of course, + successful artists and authors in them. During the past winter I visited + some of the most characteristic, where I dined and supped with the + members, or came alone when one of these put me down, for a fortnight or a + month. + </p> + <p> + They are equipped with kitchens and cellars, and their wines and dishes + are of the best. Each is, in fact, like a luxurious private house on a + large scale; outwardly they are palaces, and inwardly they have every + feature and function of a princely residence complete, even to a certain + number of guest-chambers, where members may pass the night, or stay + indefinitely in some cases, and actually live at the club. The club, + however, is known only to the cities and larger towns, in this highly + developed form; to the ordinary, simple American of the country, or of the + country town of five or ten thousand people, a New York club would be as + strange as it would be to any Altrurian. + </p> + <p> + “Do many of the husbands left behind in the summer live at the club?” I + asked. + </p> + <p> + “All that <i>have</i> a club do,” he said. “Often there's a very good + table d'hôte dinner that you couldn't begin to get for the same price + anywhere else; and there are a lot of good fellows there, and you can come + pretty near forgetting that you're homeless, or even that you're married.” + </p> + <p> + He laughed, and his wife said: “You ought to be ashamed, Dick; and me + worrying about you all the time I'm away, and wondering what the cook + gives you here. Yes,” she continued, addressing me, “that's the worst + thing about the clubs. They make the men so comfortable that they say it's + one of the principal obstacles to early marriages. The young men try to + get lodgings near them, so that they can take their meals there, and they + know they get much better things to eat than they could have in a house of + their own at a great deal more expense, and so they simply don't think of + getting married. Of course,” she said, with that wonderful, unintentional, + or at least unconscious, frankness of hers, “I don't blame the clubs + altogether. There's no use denying that girls are expensively brought up, + and that a young man has to think twice before taking one of them out of + the kind of home she's used to and putting her into the kind of home he + can give her. If the clubs have killed early marriages, the women have + created the clubs.” + </p> + <p> + “Do women go much to them?” I asked, choosing this question as a safe one. + </p> + <p> + “<i>Much</i>!” she screamed. “They don't go at all! They <i>can't</i>! + They won't <i>let</i> us! To be sure, there are some that have rooms where + ladies can go with their friends who are members, and have lunch or + dinner; but as for seeing the inside of the club-house proper, where these + great creatures”—she indicated her husband—“are sitting up, + smoking and telling stories, it isn't to be dreamed of.” + </p> + <p> + Her husband laughed. “You wouldn't like the smoking, Dolly.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor the stories, some of them,” she retorted. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, the stories are always first-rate,” he said, and he laughed more than + before. + </p> + <p> + “And they never gossip at the clubs, Mr. Homos—never!” she added. + </p> + <p> + “Well, hardly ever,” said her husband, with an intonation that I did not + understand. It seemed to be some sort of catch-phrase. + </p> + <p> + “All I know,” said Mrs. Makely, “is that I like to have my husband belong + to his club. It's a nice place for him in summer; and very often in + winter, when I'm dull, or going out somewhere that he hates, he can go + down to his club and smoke a cigar, and come home just about the time I + get in, and it's much better than worrying through the evening with a + book. He hates books, poor Dick!” She looked fondly at him, as if this + were one of the greatest merits in the world. “But I confess I shouldn't + like him to be a mere club man, like some of them.” + </p> + <p> + “But how?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Why, belonging to five or six, or more, even; and spending their whole + time at them, when they're not at business.” + </p> + <p> + There was a pause, and Mr. Makely put on an air of modest worth, which he + carried off with his usual wink towards me. I said, finally, “And if the + ladies are not admitted to the men's clubs, why don't they have clubs of + their own?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, they have—several, I believe. But who wants to go and meet a + lot of women? You meet enough of them in society, goodness knows. You + hardly meet any one else, especially at afternoon teas. They bore you to + death.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely's nerves seemed to lie in the direction of a prolongation of + this subject, and I asked my next question a little away from it. “I wish + you would tell me, Mrs. Makely, something about your way of provisioning + your household. You said that the grocer's and butcher's man came up to + the kitchen with your supplies—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and the milkman and the iceman; the iceman always puts the ice into + the refrigerator; it's very convenient, and quite like your own house.” + </p> + <p> + “But you go out and select the things yourself the day before, or in the + morning?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, not at all! The men come and the cook gives the order; she knows + pretty well what we want on the different days, and I never meddle with it + from one week's end to the other, unless we have friends. The tradespeople + send in their bills at the end of the month, and that's all there is of + it.” Her husband gave me one of his queer looks, and she went on: “When we + were younger, and just beginning housekeeping, I used to go out and order + the things myself; I used even to go to the big markets, and half kill + myself trying to get things a little cheaper at one place and another, and + waste more car-fare and lay up more doctor's bills than it would all come + to, ten times over. I used to fret my life out, remembering the prices; + but now, thank goodness, that's all over. I don't know any more what beef + is a pound than my husband does; if a thing isn't good, I send it straight + back, and that puts them on their honor, you know, and they have to give + me the best of everything. The bills average about the same, from month to + month; a little more if we have company but if they're too outrageous, I + make a fuss with the cook, and she scolds the men, and then it goes better + for a while. Still, it's a great bother.” + </p> + <p> + I confess that I did not see what the bother was, but I had not the + courage to ask, for I had already conceived a wholesome dread of the + mystery of an American lady's nerves. So I merely suggested, “And that is + the way that people usually manage?” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” she said, “I suppose that some old-fashioned people still do their + marketing, and people that have to look to their outgoes, and know what + every mouthful costs them. But their lives are not worth having. Eveleth + Strange does it—or she did do it when she was in the country; I dare + say she won't when she gets back—just from a sense of duty, and + because she says that a housekeeper ought to know about her expenses. But + I ask her who will care whether she knows or not; and as for giving the + money to the poor that she saves by spending economically, I tell her that + the butchers and the grocers have to live, too, as well as the poor, and + so it's as broad as it's long.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI + </h2> + <p> + I could not make out whether Mr. Makely approved of his wife's philosophy + or not; I do not believe he thought much about it. The money probably came + easily with him, and he let it go easily, as an American likes to do. + There is nothing penurious or sordid about this curious people, so fierce + in the pursuit of riches. When these are once gained, they seem to have no + value to the man who has won them, and he has generally no object in life + but to see his womankind spend them. + </p> + <p> + This is the season of the famous Thanksgiving, which has now become the + national holiday, but has no longer any savor in it of the grim Puritanism + it sprang from. It is now appointed by the president and the governors of + the several states, in proclamations enjoining a pious gratitude upon the + people for their continued prosperity as a nation, and a public + acknowledgment of the divine blessings. The blessings are supposed to be + of the material sort, grouped in the popular imagination as good times, + and it is hard to see what they are when hordes of men and women of every + occupation are feeling the pinch of poverty in their different degrees. It + is not merely those who have always the wolf at their doors who are now + suffering, but those whom the wolf never threatened before; those who + amuse as well as those who serve the rich are alike anxious and fearful, + where they are not already in actual want; thousands of poor players, as + well as hundreds of thousands of poor laborers, are out of employment, and + the winter threatens to be one of dire misery. Yet you would not imagine + from the smiling face of things, as you would see it in the better parts + of this great city, that there was a heavy heart or an empty stomach + anywhere below it. In fact, people here are so used to seeing other people + in want that it no longer affects them as reality; it is merely dramatic, + or hardly so lifelike as that—it is merely histrionic. It is + rendered still more spectacular to the imaginations of the fortunate by + the melodrama of charity they are invited to take part in by endless + appeals, and their fancy is flattered by the notion that they are curing + the distress they are only slightly relieving by a gift from their + superfluity. The charity, of course, is better than nothing, but it is a + fleeting mockery of the trouble, at the best. If it were proposed that the + city should subsidize a theatre a which the idle players could get + employment in producing good plays at a moderate cost to the people, the + notion would not be considered more ridiculous than that of founding + municipal works for the different sorts of idle workers; and it would not + be thought half so nefarious, for the proposition to give work by the + collectivity is supposed to be in contravention of the sacred principle of + monopolistic competition so dear to the American economist, and it would + be denounced as an approximation to the surrender of the city to anarchism + and destruction by dynamite. + </p> + <p> + But as I have so often said, the American life is in no wise logical, and + you will not be surprised, though you may be shocked or amused, to learn + that the festival of Thanksgiving is now so generally devoted to + witnessing a game of football between the elevens of two great + universities that the services at the churches are very scantily attended. + The Americans are practical, if they are not logical, and this preference + of football to prayer and praise on Thanksgiving-day has gone so far that + now a principal church in the city holds its services on Thanksgiving-eve, + so that the worshippers may not be tempted to keep away from their + favorite game. + </p> + <p> + There is always a heavy dinner at home after the game, to console the + friends of those who have lost and to heighten the joy of the winning + side, among the comfortable people. The poor recognize the day largely as + a sort of carnival. They go about in masquerade on the eastern avenues, + and the children of the foreign races who populate that quarter penetrate + the better streets, blowing horns and begging of the passers. They have + probably no more sense of its difference from the old carnival of Catholic + Europe than from the still older Saturnalia of pagan times. Perhaps you + will say that a masquerade is no more pagan than a football game; and I + confess that I have a pleasure in that innocent misapprehension of the + holiday on the East Side. I am not more censorious of it than I am of the + displays of festival cheer at the provision-stores or green-groceries + throughout the city at this time. They are almost as numerous on the + avenues as the drinking-saloons, and, thanks to them, the tasteful + housekeeping is at least convenient in a high degree. The waste is + inevitable with the system of separate kitchens, and it is not in + provisions alone, but in labor and in time, a hundred cooks doing the work + of one; but the Americans have no conception of our co-operative + housekeeping, and so the folly goes on. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the provision-stores add much to their effect of crazy gayety on + the avenues. The variety and harmony of colors is very great, and this + morning I stood so long admiring the arrangement in one of them that I am + afraid I rendered myself a little suspicious to the policeman guarding the + liquor-store on the nearest corner; there seems always to be a policeman + assigned to this duty. The display was on either side of the provisioner's + door, and began, on one hand, with a basal line of pumpkins well out on + the sidewalk. Then it was built up with the soft white and cool green of + cauliflowers and open boxes of red and white grapes, to the window that + flourished in banks of celery and rosy apples. On the other side, + gray-green squashes formed the foundation, and the wall was sloped upward + with the delicious salads you can find here, the dark red of beets, the + yellow of carrots, and the blue of cabbages. The association of colors was + very artistic, and even the line of mutton carcasses overhead, with each a + brace of grouse or half a dozen quail in its embrace, and flanked with + long sides of beef at the four ends of the line, was picturesque, though + the sight of the carnage at the provision-stores here would always be + dreadful to an Altrurian; in the great markets it is intolerable. This + sort of business is mostly in the hands of the Germans, who have a good + eye for such effects as may be studied in it; but the fruiterers are + nearly all Italians, and their stalls are charming. I always like, too, + the cheeriness of the chestnut and peanut ovens of the Italians; the + pleasant smell and friendly smoke that rise from them suggest a simple and + homelike life which there are so any things in this great, weary, heedless + city to make one forget. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII + </h2> + <p> + But I am allowing myself to wander too far from Mrs. Makely and her + letter, which reached me only two days before Thanksgiving. + </p> + <p> + “MY DEAR MR. HOMOS,—Will you give me the pleasure of your company at + dinner, on Thanksgiving-day, at eight o'clock, very informally. My friend, + Mrs. Bellington Strange, has unexpectedly returned from Europe within the + week, and I am asking a few friends, whom I can trust to excuse this very + short notice, to meet her. + </p> + <p> + “With Mr. Makely's best regards, + </p> + <p> + “Yours cordially, + </p> + <h3> + “DOROTHEA MAKELY. + </h3> + <p> + “The Sphinx, + </p> + <p> + “November the twenty sixth, + </p> + <p> + “Eighteen hundred and Ninety-three.” + </p> + <p> + I must tell you that it has been a fad with the ladies here to spell out + their dates, and, though the fashion is waning, Mrs. Makely is a woman who + would remain in such an absurdity among the very last. I will let you make + your own conclusions concerning this, for though, as an Altrurian, I + cannot respect her, I like her so much, and have so often enjoyed her + generous hospitality, that I cannot bring myself to criticise her except + by the implication of the facts. She is anomalous, but, to our way of + thinking, all the Americans I have met are anomalous, and she has the + merits that you would not logically attribute to her character. Of course, + I cannot feel that her evident regard for me is the least of these, though + I like to think that it is founded on more reason than the rest. + </p> + <p> + I have by this time become far too well versed in the polite insincerities + of the plutocratic world to imagine that, because she asked me to come to + her dinner very informally, I was not to come in all the state I could put + into my dress. You know what the evening dress of men is here, from the + costumes in our museum, and you can well believe that I never put on those + ridiculous black trousers without a sense of their grotesqueness—that + scrap of waistcoat reduced to a mere rim, so as to show the whole white + breadth of the starched shirt-bosom, and that coat chopped away till it + seems nothing but tails and lapels. It is true that I might go out to + dinner in our national costume; in fact, Mrs. Makely has often begged me + to wear it, for she says the Chinese wear theirs; but I have not cared to + make the sensation which I must if I wore it; my outlandish views of life + and my frank study of their customs signalize me quite sufficiently among + the Americans. + </p> + <p> + At the hour named I appeared in Mrs. Makely's drawing-room in all the + formality that I knew her invitation, to come very informally, really + meant. I found myself the first, as I nearly always do, but I had only + time for a word or two with my hostess before the others began to come. + She hastily explained that as soon as she knew Mrs. Strange was in New + York she had despatched a note telling her that I was still here; and that + as she could not get settled in time to dine at home, she must come and + take Thanksgiving dinner with her. “She will have to go out with Mr. + Makely; but I am going to put you next to her at table, for I want you + both to have a good time. But don't you forget that you are going to take + <i>me</i> out.” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should certainly not forget it, and I showed her the + envelope with my name on the outside, and hers on a card inside, which the + serving-man at the door had given me in the hall, as the first token that + the dinner was to be unceremonious. + </p> + <p> + She laughed, and said: “I've had the luck to pick up two or three other + agreeable people that I know will be glad to meet you. Usually it's such a + scratch lot at Thanksgiving, for everybody dines at home that can, and you + have to trust to the highways and the byways for your guests, if you give + a dinner. But I did want to bring Mrs. Strange and you together, and so I + chanced it. Of course, it's a sent-in dinner, as you must have inferred + from the man at the door; I've given my servants a holiday, and had + Claret's people do the whole thing. It's as broad as it's long, and, as my + husband says, you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; and it + saves bother. Everybody will know it's sent in, so that nobody will be + deceived. There'll be a turkey in it somewhere, and cranberry sauce; I've + insisted on that; but it won't be a regular American Thanksgiving dinner, + and I'm rather sorry, on your account, for I wanted you to see one, and I + meant to have had you here, just with ourselves; but Eveleth Strange's + coming back put a new face on things, and so I've gone in for this affair, + which isn't at all what you would like. That's the reason I tell you at + once it's sent in.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII + </h2> + <p> + I am so often at a loss for the connection in Mrs. Makely's ideas that I + am more patient with her incoherent jargon than you will be, I am afraid. + It went on to much the effect that I have tried to report until the moment + she took the hand of the guest who came next. They arrived, until there + were eight of us in all, Mrs. Strange coming last, with excuses for being + late. I had somehow figured her as a person rather mystical and recluse in + appearance, perhaps on account of her name, and I had imagined her tall + and superb. But she was, really, rather small, though not below the + woman's average, and she had a face more round than otherwise, with a sort + of business-like earnestness, but a very charming smile, and presently, as + I saw, an American sense of humor. She had brown hair and gray eyes, and + teeth not too regular to be monotonous; her mouth was very sweet, whether + she laughed or sat gravely silent. She at once affected me like a person + who had been sobered beyond her nature by responsibilities, and had + steadily strengthened under the experiences of life. She was dressed with + a sort of personal taste, in a rich gown of black lace, which came up to + her throat; and she did not subject me to that embarrassment I always feel + in the presence of a lady who is much décolletée, when I sit next her or + face to face with her: I cannot always look at her without a sense of + taking an immodest advantage. Sometimes I find a kind of pathos in this + sacrifice of fashion, which affects me as if the poor lady were wearing + that sort of gown because she thought she really ought, and then I keep my + eyes firmly on hers, or avert them altogether; but there are other cases + which have not this appealing quality. Yet in the very worst of the cases + it would be a mistake to suppose that there was a display personally meant + of the display personally made. Even then it would be found that the gown + was worn so because the dressmaker had made it so, and, whether she had + made it in this country or in Europe, that she had made it in compliance + with a European custom. In fact, all the society customs of the Americans + follow some European original, and usually some English original; and it + is only fair to say that in this particular custom they do not go to the + English extreme. + </p> + <p> + We did not go out to dinner at Mrs. Makely's by the rules of English + precedence, because there are nominally no ranks here, and we could not; + but I am sure it will not be long before the Americans will begin playing + at precedence just as they now play at the other forms of aristocratic + society. For the present, however, there was nothing for us to do but to + proceed, when dinner was served, in such order as offered itself, after + Mr. Makely gave his arm to Mrs. Strange; though, of course, the white + shoulders of the other ladies went gleaming out before the white shoulders + of Mrs. Makely shone beside my black ones. I have now become so used to + these observances that they no longer affect me as they once did, and as I + suppose my account of them must affect you, painfully, comically. But I + have always the sense of having a part in amateur theatricals, and I do + not see how the Americans can fail to have the same sense, for there is + nothing spontaneous in them, and nothing that has grown even dramatically + out of their own life. + </p> + <p> + Often when I admire the perfection of the stage-setting, it is with a + vague feeling that I am derelict in not offering it an explicit applause. + In fact, this is permitted in some sort and measure, as now when we sat + down at Mrs. Makely's exquisite table, and the ladies frankly recognized + her touch in it. One of them found a phrase for it at once, and pronounced + it a symphony in chrysanthemums; for the color and the character of these + flowers played through all the appointments of the table, and rose to a + magnificent finale in the vast group in the middle of the board, infinite + in their caprices of tint and design. Another lady said that it was a + dream, and then Mrs. Makely said, “No, a memory,” and confessed that she + had studied the effect from her recollection of some tables at a + chrysanthemum show held here year before last, which seemed failures + because they were so simply and crudely adapted in the china and napery to + merely one kind and color of the flower. + </p> + <p> + “Then,” she added, “I wanted to do something very chrysanthemummy, because + it seems to me the Thanksgiving flower, and belongs to Thanksgiving quite + as much as holly belongs to Christmas.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody applauded her intention, and they hungrily fell to upon the + excellent oysters, with her warning that we had better make the most of + everything in its turn, for she had conformed her dinner to the brevity of + the notice she had given her guests. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV + </h2> + <p> + Just what the dinner was I will try to tell you, for I think that it will + interest you to know what people here think a very simple dinner. That is, + people of any degree of fashion; for the unfashionable Americans, who are + innumerably in the majority, have, no more than the Altrurians, seen such + a dinner as Mrs. Makely's. This sort generally sit down to a single dish + of meat, with two or three vegetables, and they drink tea or coffee, or + water only, with their dinner. Even when they have company, as they say, + the things are all put on the table at once; and the average of Americans + who have seen a dinner served in courses, after the Russian manner, + invariable in the fine world here, is not greater than those who have seen + a serving-man in livery. Among these the host piles up his guest's plate + with meat and vegetables, and it is passed from hand to hand till it + reaches him; his drink arrives from the hostess by the same means. One + maid serves the table in a better class, and two maids in a class still + better; it is only when you reach people of very decided form that you + find a man in a black coat behind your chair; Mrs. Makely, mindful of the + informality of her dinner in everything, had two men. + </p> + <p> + I should say the difference between the Altrurians and the unfashionable + Americans, in view of such a dinner as she gave us, would be that, while + it would seem to us abominable for its extravagance, and revolting in its + appeals to appetite, it would seem to most of such Americans altogether + admirable and enviable, and would appeal to their ambition to give such a + dinner themselves as soon as ever they could. + </p> + <p> + Well, with our oysters we had a delicate French wine, though I am told + that formerly Spanish wines were served. A delicious soup followed the + oysters, and then we had fish with sliced cucumbers dressed with oil and + vinegar, like a salad; and I suppose you will ask what we could possibly + have eaten more. But this was only the beginning, and next there came a + course of sweetbreads with green peas. With this the champagne began at + once to flow, for Mrs. Makely was nothing if not original, and she had + champagne very promptly. One of the gentlemen praised her for it, and said + you could not have it too soon, and he had secretly hoped it would have + begun with the oysters. Next, we had a remove—a tenderloin of beef, + with mushrooms, fresh, and not of the canned sort which it is usually + accompanied with. This fact won our hostess more compliments from the + gentlemen, which could not have gratified her more if she had dressed and + cooked the dish herself. She insisted upon our trying the stewed terrapin, + for, if it did come in a little by the neck and shoulders, it was still in + place at a Thanksgiving dinner, because it was so American; and the + stuffed peppers, which, if they were not American, were at least Mexican, + and originated in the kitchen of a sister republic. There were one or two + other side-dishes, and, with all, the burgundy began to be poured out. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Makely said that claret all came now from California, no matter what + French château they named it after, but burgundy you could not err in. His + guests were now drinking the different wines, and to much the same effect, + I should think, as if they had mixed them all in one cup; though I ought + to say that several of the ladies took no wine, and kept me in countenance + after the first taste I was obliged to take of each, in order to pacify my + host. + </p> + <p> + You must know that all the time there were plates of radishes, olives, + celery, and roasted almonds set about that every one ate of without much + reference to the courses. The talking and the feasting were at their + height, but there was a little flagging of the appetite, perhaps, when it + received the stimulus of a water-ice flavored with rum. After eating it I + immediately experienced an extraordinary revival of my hunger (I am + ashamed to confess that I was gorging myself like the rest), but I quailed + inwardly when one of the men-servants set down before Mr. Makely a roast + turkey that looked as large as an ostrich. It was received with cries of + joy, and one of the gentlemen said, “Ah, Mrs. Makely, I was waiting to see + how you would interpolate the turkey, but you never fail. I knew you would + get it in somewhere. But where,” he added, in a burlesque whisper, behind + his hand, “are the—” + </p> + <p> + “Canvasback duck?” she asked, and at that moment the servant set before + the anxious inquirer a platter of these renowned birds, which you know + something of already from the report our emissaries have given of their + cult among the Americans. + </p> + <p> + Every one laughed, and after the gentleman had made a despairing flourish + over them with a carving-knife in emulation of Mr. Makely's emblematic + attempt upon the turkey, both were taken away and carved at a sideboard. + They were then served in slices, the turkey with cranberry sauce, and the + ducks with currant jelly; and I noticed that no one took so much of the + turkey that he could not suffer himself to be helped also to the duck. I + must tell you that there a salad with the duck, and after that there was + an ice-cream, with fruit and all manner of candied fruits, and candies, + different kinds of cheese, coffee, and liqueurs to drink after the coffee. + </p> + <p> + “Well, now,” Mrs. Makely proclaimed, in high delight with her triumph, “I + must let you imagine the pumpkin-pie. I meant to have it, because it isn't + really Thanksgiving without it. But I couldn't, for the life of me, see + where it would come in.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XV + </h2> + <p> + The sally of the hostess made them all laugh, and they began to talk about + the genuine American character of the holiday, and what a fine thing it + was to have something truly national. They praised Mrs. Makely for + thinking of so many American dishes, and the facetious gentleman said that + she rendered no greater tribute than was due to the overruling Providence + which had so abundantly bestowed them upon the Americans as a people. “You + must have been glad, Mrs. Strange,” he said to the lady at my side, “to + get back to our American oysters. There seems nothing else so potent to + bring us home from Europe.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid,” she answered, “that I don't care so much for the American + oyster as I should. But I am certainly glad to get back.” + </p> + <p> + “In time for the turkey, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I care no more for the turkey than for the oyster of my native land,” + said the lady. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, well, say the canvasback duck, then? The canvasback duck is no alien. + He is as thoroughly American as the turkey, or as any of us.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I should not have missed him, either,” persisted the lady. + </p> + <p> + “What could one have missed,” the gentleman said, with a bow to the + hostess, “in the dinner Mrs. Makely has given us? If there had been + nothing, I should not have missed it,” and when the laugh at his drolling + had subsided he asked Mrs. Strange: “Then, if it is not too indiscreet, + might I inquire what in the world has lured you again to our shores, if it + was not the oyster, nor the turkey, nor yet the canvasback?” + </p> + <p> + “The American dinner-party,” said the lady, with the same burlesque. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he consented, “I think I understand you. It is different from the + English dinner-party in being a festivity rather than a solemnity; though, + after all, the American dinner is only a condition of the English dinner. + Do you find us much changed, Mrs. Strange?” + </p> + <p> + “I think we are every year a little more European,” said the lady. “One + notices it on getting home.” + </p> + <p> + “I supposed we were so European already,” returned the gentleman, “that a + European landing among us would think he had got back to his + starting-point in a sort of vicious circle. I am myself so thoroughly + Europeanized in all my feelings and instincts that, do you know, Mrs. + Makely, if I may confess it without offence—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, by all means!” cried the hostess. + </p> + <p> + “When that vast bird which we have been praising, that colossal roast + turkey, appeared, I felt a shudder go through my delicate substance, such + as a refined Englishman might have experienced at the sight, and I said to + myself, quite as if I were not one of you, 'Good Heavens! now they will + begin talking through their noses and eating with their knives.' It's what + I might have expected!” + </p> + <p> + It was impossible not to feel that this gentleman was talking at me; if + the Americans have a foreign guest, they always talk at him more or less; + and I was not surprised when he said, “I think our friend, Mr. Homos, will + conceive my fine revolt from the crude period of our existence which the + roast turkey marks as distinctly as the graffiti of the cave-dweller + proclaim his epoch.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I protested, “I am afraid that I have not the documents for the + interpretation of your emotion. I hope you will take pity on my ignorance + and tell me just what you mean.” + </p> + <p> + The others said they none of them knew, either, and would like to know, + and the gentleman began by saying that he had been going over the matter + in his mind on his way to dinner, and he had really been trying to lead up + to it ever since we sat down. “I've been struck, first of all, by the + fact, in our evolution, that we haven't socially evolved from ourselves; + we've evolved from the Europeans, from the English. I don't think you'll + find a single society rite with us now that had its origin in our peculiar + national life, if we have a peculiar national life; I doubt it, sometimes. + If you begin with the earliest thing in the day, if you begin with + breakfast, as society gives breakfasts, you have an English breakfast, + though American people and provisions.” + </p> + <p> + “I must say, I think they're both much nicer,” said Mrs. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, there I am with you! We borrow the form, but we infuse the spirit. I + am talking about the form, though. Then, if you come to the society lunch, + which is almost indistinguishable from the society breakfast, you have the + English lunch, which is really an undersized English dinner. The afternoon + tea is English again, with its troops of eager females and stray, + reluctant males; though I believe there are rather more men at the English + teas, owing to the larger leisure class in England. The afternoon tea and + the 'at home' are as nearly alike as the breakfast and the lunch. Then, in + the course of time, we arrive at the great society function, the dinner; + and what is the dinner with us but the dinner of our mother-country?” + </p> + <p> + “It is livelier,” suggested Mrs. Makely, again. + </p> + <p> + “Livelier, I grant you, but I am still speaking of the form, and not of + the spirit. The evening reception, which is gradually fading away, as a + separate rite, with its supper and its dance, we now have as the English + have it, for the people who have not been asked to dinner. The ball, which + brings us round to breakfast again, is again the ball of our Anglo-Saxon + kin beyond the seas. In short, from the society point of view we are in + everything their mere rinsings.” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing of the kind!” cried Mrs. Makely. “I won't let you say such a + thing! On Thanksgiving-day, too! Why, there is the Thanksgiving dinner + itself! If that isn't purely American, I should like to know what is.” + </p> + <p> + “It is purely American, but it is strictly domestic; it is not society. + Nobody but some great soul like you, Mrs. Makely, would have the courage + to ask anybody to a Thanksgiving dinner, and even you ask only such + easy-going house-friends as we are proud to be. You wouldn't think of + giving a dinner-party on Thanksgiving?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I certainly shouldn't. I should think it was very presuming; and you + are all as nice as you can be to have come to-day; I am not the only great + soul at the table. But that is neither here nor there. Thanksgiving is a + purely American thing, and it's more popular than ever. A few years ago + you never heard of it outside of New England.” + </p> + <p> + The gentleman laughed. “You are perfectly right, Mrs. Makely, as you + always are. Thanksgiving is purely American. So is the corn-husking, so is + the apple-bee, so is the sugar-party, so is the spelling-match, so is the + church-sociable; but none of these have had their evolution in our society + entertainments. The New Year's call was also purely American, but that is + now as extinct as the dodo, though I believe the other American + festivities are still known in the rural districts.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Mrs. Makely, “and I think it's a great shame that we can't + have some of them in a refined form in society. I once went to a + sugar-party up in New Hampshire when I was a girl, and I never enjoyed + myself so much in my life. I should like to make up a party to go to one + somewhere in the Catskills in March. Will you all go? It would be + something to show Mr. Homos. I should like to show him something really + American before he goes home. There's nothing American left in society!” + </p> + <p> + “You forget the American woman,” suggested the gentleman. “She is always + American, and she is always in society.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” returned our hostess, with a thoughtful air, “you're quite right in + that. One always meets more women than men in society. But it's because + the men are so lazy, and so comfortable at their clubs, they won't go. + They enjoy themselves well enough in society after they get there, as I + tell my husband when he grumbles over having to dress.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the gentleman, “a great many things, the day-time things, we + really can't come to, because we don't belong to the aristocratic class, + as you ladies do, and we are busy down-town. But I don't think we are + reluctant about dinner; and the young fellows are nearly always willing to + go to a ball, if the supper's good and it's a house where they don't feel + obliged to dance. But what do <i>you</i> think, Mr. Homos?” he asked. “How + does your observation coincide with my experience?” + </p> + <p> + I answered that I hardly felt myself qualified to speak, for though I had + assisted at the different kinds of society rites he had mentioned, thanks + to the hospitality of my friends in New York, I knew the English functions + only from a very brief stay in England on my way here, and from what I had + read of them in English fiction and in the relations of our emissaries. He + inquired into our emissary system, and the company appeared greatly + interested in such account of it as I could briefly give. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he said, “that would do while you kept it to yourselves; but now + that your country is known to the plutocratic world, your public documents + will be apt to come back to the countries your emissaries have visited, + and make trouble. The first thing you know some of our bright reporters + will get on to one of your emissaries, and interview him, and then we + shall get what you think of us at first hands. By-the-by, have you seen + any of those primitive social delights which Mrs. Makely regrets so much?” + </p> + <p> + “I!” our hostess protested. But then she perceived that he was joking, and + she let me answer. + </p> + <p> + I said that I had seen them nearly all, during the past year, in New + England and in the West, but they appeared to me inalienable of the + simpler life of the country, and that I was not surprised they should not + have found an evolution in the more artificial society of the cities. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” he returned, “that you reserve your <i>opinion</i> of our more + artificial society; but you may be sure that our reporters will get it out + of you yet before you leave us.” + </p> + <p> + “Those horrid reporters!” one of the ladies irrelevantly sighed. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman resumed: “In the mean time, I don't mind saying how it + strikes me. I think you are quite right about the indigenous American + things being adapted only to the simpler life of the country and the + smaller towns. It is so everywhere. As soon as people become at all + refined they look down upon what is their own as something vulgar. But it + is peculiarly so with us. We have nothing national that is not connected + with the life of work, and when we begin to live the life of pleasure we + must borrow from the people abroad, who have always lived the life of + pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Homos, you know,” Mrs. Makely explained for me, as if this were the + aptest moment, “thinks we all ought to work. He thinks we oughtn't to have + any servants.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no, my dear lady,” I put in. “I don't think that of you as you <i>are</i>. + None of you could see more plainly than I do that in your conditions you + <i>must</i> have servants, and that you cannot possibly work unless + poverty obliges you.” + </p> + <p> + The other ladies had turned upon me with surprise and horror at Mrs. + Makely's words, but they now apparently relented, as if I had fully + redeemed myself from the charge made against me. Mrs. Strange alone seemed + to have found nothing monstrous in my supposed position. “Sometimes,” she + said, “I wish we had to work, all of us, and that we could be freed from + our servile bondage to servants.” + </p> + <p> + Several of the ladies admitted that it was the greatest slavery in the + world, and that it would be comparative luxury to do one's own work. But + they all asked, in one form or another, what were they to do, and Mrs. + Strange owned that she did not know. The facetious gentleman asked me how + the ladies did in Altruria, and when I told them, as well as I could, they + were, of course, very civil about it, but I could see that they all + thought it impossible, or, if not impossible, then ridiculous. I did not + feel bound to defend our customs, and I knew very well that each woman + there was imagining herself in our conditions with the curse of her + plutocratic tradition still upon her. They could not do otherwise, any of + them, and they seemed to get tired of such effort as they did make. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely rose, and the other ladies rose with her, for the Americans + follow the English custom in letting the men remain at table after the + women have left. But on this occasion I found it varied by a pretty touch + from the French custom, and the men, instead of merely standing up while + the women filed out, gave each his arm, as far as the drawing-room, to the + lady he had brought in to dinner. Then we went back, and what is the + pleasantest part of the dinner to most men began for us. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVI + </h2> + <p> + I must say, to the credit of the Americans, that although the eating and + drinking among them appear gross enough to an Altrurian, you are not + revolted by the coarse stories which the English sometimes tell as soon as + the ladies have left them. If it is a men's dinner, or more especially a + men's supper, these stories are pretty sure to follow the coffee; but when + there have been women at the board, some sense of their presence seems to + linger in the more delicate American nerves, and the indulgence is limited + to two or three things off color, as the phrase is here, told with anxious + glances at the drawing-room doors, to see if they are fast shut. + </p> + <p> + I do not remember just what brought the talk back from these primrose + paths to that question of American society forms, but presently some one + said he believed the church-sociable was the thing in most towns beyond + the apple-bee and sugar-party stage, and this opened the inquiry as to how + far the church still formed the social life of the people in cities. Some + one suggested that in Brooklyn it formed it altogether, and then they + laughed, for Brooklyn is always a joke with the New-Yorkers; I do not know + exactly why, except that this vast city is so largely a suburb, and that + it has a great number of churches and is comparatively cheap. Then another + told of a lady who had come to New York (he admitted, twenty years ago), + and was very lonely, as she had no letters until she joined a church. This + at once brought her a general acquaintance, and she began to find herself + in society; but as soon as she did so she joined a more exclusive church, + where they took no notice of strangers. They all laughed at that bit of + human nature, as they called it, and they philosophized the relation of + women to society as a purely business relation. The talk ranged to the + mutable character of society, and how people got into it, or were of it, + and how it was very different from what it once was, except that with + women it was always business. They spoke of certain new rich people with + affected contempt; but I could see that they were each proud of knowing + such millionaires as they could claim for acquaintance, though they + pretended to make fun of the number of men-servants you had to run the + gantlet of in their houses before you could get to your hostess. + </p> + <p> + One of my commensals said he had noticed that I took little or no wine, + and, when I said that we seldom drank it in Altruria, he answered that he + did not think I could make that go in America, if I meant to dine much. + “Dining, you know, means overeating,” he explained, “and if you wish to + overeat you must overdrink. I venture to say that you will pass a worse + night than any of us, Mr. Homos, and that you will be sorrier to-morrow + than I shall.” They were all smoking, and I confess that their tobacco was + secretly such an affliction to me that I was at one moment in doubt + whether I should take a cigar myself or ask leave to join the ladies. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman who had talked so much already said: “Well, I don't mind + dining, a great deal, especially with Makely, here, but I do object to + supping, as I have to do now and then, in the way of pleasure. Last + Saturday night I sat down at eleven o'clock to blue-point oysters, + consommé, stewed terrapin—yours was very good, Makely; I wish I had + taken more of it—lamb chops with peas, redhead duck with celery + mayonnaise, Nesselrode pudding, fruit, cheese, and coffee, with sausages, + caviare, radishes, celery, and olives interspersed wildly, and drinkables + and smokables <i>ad libitum</i>; and I can assure you that I felt very + devout when I woke up after church-time in the morning. It is this turning + night into day that is killing us. We men, who have to go to business the + next morning, ought to strike, and say that we won't go to anything later + than eight-o'clock dinner.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, then the women would insist upon our making it four-o'clock tea,” + said another. + </p> + <p> + Our host seemed to be reminded of something by the mention of the women, + and he said, after a glance at the state of the cigars, “Shall we join the + ladies?” + </p> + <p> + One of the men-servants had evidently been waiting for this question. He + held the door open, and we all filed into the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely hailed me with, “Ah, Mr. Homos, I'm so glad you've come! We + poor women have been having a most dismal time!” + </p> + <p> + “Honestly,” asked the funny gentleman, “don't you always, without us?” + “Yes, but this has been worse than usual. Mrs. Strange has been asking us + how many people we supposed there were in this city, within five minutes' + walk of us, who had no dinner to-day. Do you call that kind?” + </p> + <p> + “A little more than kin and less than kind, perhaps,” the gentleman + suggested. “But what does she propose to do about it?” + </p> + <p> + He turned towards Mrs. Strange, who answered, “Nothing. What does any one + propose to do about it?” + </p> + <p> + “Then, why do you think about it?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't. It thinks about itself. Do you know that poem of Longfellow's, + 'The Challenge'?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I never heard of it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it begins in his sweet old way, about some Spanish king who was + killed before a city he was besieging, and one of his knights sallies out + of the camp and challenges the people of the city, the living and the + dead, as traitors. Then the poet breaks off, <i>apropos de rien:</i> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'There is a greater army + That besets us round with strife, + A numberless, starving army, + At all the gates of life. + The poverty-stricken millions + Who challenge our wine and bread + And impeach us all for traitors, + Both the living and the dead. + And whenever I sit at the banquet, + Where the feast and song are high, + Amid the mirth and the music + I can hear that fearful cry. + + And hollow and haggard faces + Look into the lighted hall, + And wasted hands are extended + To catch the crumbs that fall. + For within there is light and plenty, + And odors fill the air; + But without there is cold and darkness, + And hunger and despair. + And there, in the camp of famine, + In wind and cold and rain, + Christ, the great Lord of the Army, + Lies dead upon the plain.'” + </pre> + <p> + “Ah,” said the facetious gentleman, “that is fine! We really forget how + fine Longfellow was. It is so pleasant to hear you quoting poetry, Mrs. + Strange! That sort of thing has almost gone out; and it's a pity.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVII + </h2> + <p> + Our fashion of offering hospitality on the impulse would be as strange + here as offering it without some special inducement for its acceptance. + The inducement is, as often as can be, a celebrity or eccentricity of some + sort, or some visiting foreigner; and I suppose that I have been a good + deal used myself in one quality or the other. But when the thing has been + done, fully and guardedly at all points, it does not seem to have been + done for pleasure, either by the host or the guest. The dinner is given in + payment of another dinner; or out of ambition by people who are striving + to get forward in society; or by great social figures who give regularly a + certain number of dinners every season. In either case it is eaten from + motives at once impersonal and selfish. I do not mean to say that I have + not been at many dinners where I felt nothing perfunctory either in host + or guest, and where as sweet and gay a spirit ruled as at any of our own + simple feasts. Still, I think our main impression of American hospitality + would be that it was thoroughly infused with the plutocratic principle, + and that it meant business. + </p> + <p> + I am speaking now of the hospitality of society people, who number, after + all, but a few thousands out of the many millions of American people. + These millions are so far from being in society, even when they are very + comfortable, and on the way to great prosperity, if they are not already + greatly prosperous, that if they were suddenly confronted with the best + society of the great Eastern cities they would find it almost as strange + as so many Altrurians. A great part of them have no conception of + entertaining except upon an Altrurian scale of simplicity, and they know + nothing and care less for the forms that society people value themselves + upon. When they begin, in the ascent of the social scale, to adopt forms, + it is still to wear them lightly and with an individual freedom and + indifference; it is long before anxiety concerning the social law renders + them vulgar. + </p> + <p> + Yet from highest to lowest, from first to last, one invariable fact + characterizes them all, and it may be laid down as an axiom that in a + plutocracy the man who needs a dinner is the man who is never asked to + dine. I do not say that he is not given a dinner. He is very often given a + dinner, and for the most part he is kept from starving to death; but he is + not suffered to sit at meat with his host, if the person who gives him a + meal can be called his host. His need of the meal stamps him with a + hopeless inferiority, and relegates him morally to the company of the + swine at their husks, and of Lazarus, whose sores the dogs licked. + Usually, of course, he is not physically of such a presence as to fit him + for any place in good society short of Abraham's bosom; but even if he + were entirely decent, or of an inoffensive shabbiness, it would not be + possible for his benefactors, in any grade of society, to ask him to their + tables. He is sometimes fed in the kitchen; where the people of the house + feed in the kitchen themselves, he is fed at the back door. + </p> + <p> + We were talking of this the other night at the house of that lady whom + Mrs. Makely invited me specially to meet on Thanksgiving-day. It happened + then, as it often happens here, that although I was asked to meet her, I + saw very little of her. It was not so bad as it sometimes is, for I have + been asked to meet people, very informally, and passed the whole evening + with them, and yet not exchanged a word with them. Mrs. Makely really gave + me a seat next Mrs. Strange at table, and we had some unimportant + conversation; but there was a lively little creature vis-à-vis of me, who + had a fancy of addressing me so much of her talk that my acquaintance + with. Mrs. Strange rather languished through the dinner, and she went away + so soon after the men rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room that I did + not speak to her there. I was rather surprised, then, to receive a note + from her a few days later, asking me to dinner; and I finally went, I am + ashamed to own, more from curiosity than from any other motive. I had + been, in the mean time, thoroughly coached concerning her by Mrs. Makely, + whom I told of my invitation, and who said, quite frankly, that she wished + Mrs. Strange had asked her, too. “But Eveleth Strange wouldn't do that,” + she explained, “because it would have the effect of paying me back. I'm so + glad, on your account, that you're going, for I do want you to know at + least one American woman that you can unreservedly approve of; I know you + don't <i>begin</i> to approve of <i>me;</i> and I was so vexed that you + really had no chance to talk with her that night you met her here; it + seemed to me as if she ran away early just to provoke me; and, to tell you + the truth, I thought she had taken a dislike to you. I wish I could tell + you just what sort of a person she is, but it would be perfectly hopeless, + for you haven't got the documents, and you never could get them. I used to + be at school with her, and even then she wasn't like any of the other + girls. She was always so original, and did things from such a high motive, + that afterwards, when we were all settled, I was perfectly thunderstruck + at her marrying old Bellington Strange, who was twice her age and had + nothing but his money; he was not related to the New York Bellingtons at + all, and nobody knows how he got the name; nobody ever heard of the + Stranges. In fact, people say that he used to be plain Peter B. Strange + till he married Eveleth, and she made him drop the Peter and blossom out + in the Bellington, so that he could seem to have a social as well as a + financial history. People who dislike her insisted that they were not in + the least surprised at her marrying him; that the high-motive business was + just her pose; and that she had jumped at the chance of getting him. But I + always stuck up for her—and I know that she did it for the sake of + her family, who were all as poor as poor, and were dependent on her after + her father went to smash in his business. She was always as high-strung + and romantic as she could be, but I don't believe that even then she would + have taken Mr. Strange if there had been anybody else. I don't suppose any + one else ever looked at her, for the young men are pretty sharp nowadays, + and are not going to marry girls without a cent, when there are so many + rich girls, just as charming every way; you can't expect them to. At any + rate, whatever her motive was, she had her reward, for Mr. Strange died + within a year of their marriage, and she got all his money. There was no + attempt to break the will, for Mr. Strange seemed to be literally of no + family; and she's lived quietly on in the house he bought her ever since, + except when she's in Europe, and that's about two-thirds of the time. She + has her mother with her, and I suppose that her sisters and her cousins + and her aunts come in for outdoor aid. She's always helping somebody. They + say that's her pose, now; but, if it is, I don't think it's a bad one; and + certainly, if she wanted to get married again, there would be no trouble, + with her three millions. I advise you to go to her dinner, by all means, + Mr. Homos. It will be something worth while, in every way, and perhaps + you'll convert her to Altrurianism; she's as hopeful a subject as <i>I</i> + know.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVIII + </h2> + <p> + I was one of the earliest of the guests, for I cannot yet believe that + people do not want me to come exactly when they say they do. I perceived, + however, that one other gentleman had come before me, and I was both + surprised and delighted to find that this was my acquaintance Mr. Bullion, + the Boston banker. He professed as much pleasure at our meeting as I + certainly felt; but after a few words he went on talking with Mrs. + Strange, while I was left to her mother, an elderly woman of quiet and + even timid bearing, who affected me at once as born and bred in a wholly + different environment. In fact, every American of the former generation is + almost as strange to it in tradition, though not in principle, as I am; + and I found myself singularly at home with this sweet lady, who seemed + glad of my interest in her. I was taken from her side to be introduced to + a lady, on the opposite side of the room, who said she had been promised + my acquaintance by a friend of hers, whom I had met in the mountains—Mr. + Twelvemough; did I remember him? She gave a little cry while still + speaking, and dramatically stretched her hand towards a gentleman who + entered at the moment, and whom I saw to be no other than Mr. Twelvemough + himself. As soon as he had greeted our hostess he hastened up to us, and, + barely giving himself time to press the still outstretched hand of my + companion, shook mine warmly, and expressed the greatest joy at seeing me. + He said that he had just got back to town, in a manner, and had not known + I was here, till Mrs. Strange had asked him to meet me. There were not a + great many other guests, when they all arrived, and we sat down, a party + not much larger than at Mrs. Makely's. + </p> + <p> + I found that I was again to take out my hostess, but I was put next the + lady with whom I had been talking; she had come without her husband, who + was, apparently, of a different social taste from herself, and had an + engagement of his own; there was an artist and his wife, whose looks I + liked; some others whom I need not specify were there, I fancied, because + they had heard of Altruria and were curious to see me. As Mr. Twelvemough + sat quite at the other end of the table, the lady on my right could easily + ask me whether I liked his books. She said, tentatively, people liked them + because they felt sure when they took up one of his novels they had not + got hold of a tract on political economy in disguise. + </p> + <p> + It was this complimentary close of a remark, which scarcely began with + praise, that made itself heard across the table, and was echoed with a + heartfelt sigh from the lips of another lady. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said, “that is what I find such a comfort in Mr. Twelvemough's + books.” + </p> + <p> + “We were speaking of Mr. Twelvemough's books,” the first lady triumphed, + and several began to extol them for being fiction pure and simple, and not + dealing with anything but loves of young people. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Twelvemough sat looking as modest as he could under the praise, and + one of the ladies said that in a novel she had lately read there was a + description of a surgical operation that made her feel as if she had been + present at a clinic. Then the author said that he had read that passage, + too, and found it extremely well done. It was fascinating, but it was not + art. + </p> + <p> + The painter asked, Why was it not art? + </p> + <p> + The author answered, Well, if such a thing as that was art, then anything + that a man chose to do in a work of imagination was art. + </p> + <p> + “Precisely,” said the painter—“art <i>is</i> choice.” + </p> + <p> + “On that ground,” the banker interposed, “you could say that political + economy was a fit subject for art, if an artist chose to treat it.” + </p> + <p> + “It would have its difficulties,” the painter admitted, “but there are + certain phases of political economy, dramatic moments, human moments, + which might be very fitly treated in art. For instance, who would object + to Mr. Twelvemough's describing an eviction from an East Side + tenement-house on a cold winter night, with the mother and her children + huddled about the fire the father had kindled with pieces of the household + furniture?” + </p> + <p> + “<i>I</i> should object very much, for one,” said the lady who had + objected to the account of the surgical operation. “It would be too + creepy. Art should give pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you think a tragedy is not art?” asked the painter. + </p> + <p> + “I think that these harrowing subjects are brought in altogether too + much,” said the lady. “There are enough of them in real life, without + filling all the novels with them. It's terrible the number of beggars you + meet on the street, this winter. Do you want to meet them in Mr. + Twelvemough's novels, too?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it wouldn't cost me any money there. I shouldn't have to give.” + </p> + <p> + “You oughtn't to give money in real life,” said the lady. “You ought to + give charity tickets. If the beggars refuse them, it shows they are + impostors.” + </p> + <p> + “It's some comfort to know that the charities are so active,” said the + elderly young lady, “even if half the letters one gets <i>do</i> turn out + to be appeals from them.” + </p> + <p> + “It's very disappointing to have them do it, though,” said the artist, + lightly. “I thought there was a society to abolish poverty. That doesn't + seem to be so active as the charities this winter. Is it possible they've + found it a failure?” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Mr. Bullion, “perhaps they have suspended during the hard + times.” + </p> + <p> + They tossed the ball back and forth with a lightness the Americans have, + and I could not have believed, if I had not known how hardened people + become to such things here, that they were almost in the actual presence + of hunger and cold. It was within five minutes' walk of their warmth and + surfeit; and if they had lifted the window and called, “Who goes there?” + the houselessness that prowls the night could have answered them from the + street below, “Despair!” + </p> + <p> + “I had an amusing experience,” Mr. Twelvemough began, “when I was doing a + little visiting for the charities in our ward, the other winter.” + </p> + <p> + “For the sake of the literary material?” the artist suggested. + </p> + <p> + “Partly for the sake of the literary material; you know we have to look + for our own everywhere. But we had a case of an old actor's son, who had + got out of all the places he had filled, on account of rheumatism, and + could not go to sea, or drive a truck, or even wrap gas-fixtures in paper + any more.” + </p> + <p> + “A checkered employ,” the banker mused aloud. + </p> + <p> + “It was not of a simultaneous nature,” the novelist explained. “So he came + on the charities, and, as I knew the theatrical profession a little, and + how generous it was with all related to it, I said that I would undertake + to look after his case. You know the theory is that we get work for our + patients, or clients, or whatever they are, and I went to a manager whom I + knew to be a good fellow, and I asked him for some sort of work. He said, + Yes, send the man round, and he would give him a job copying parts for a + new play he had written.” + </p> + <p> + The novelist paused, and nobody laughed. + </p> + <p> + “It seems to me that your experience is instructive, rather than amusing,” + said the banker. “It shows that something can be done, if you try.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Mr. Twelvemough, “I thought that was the moral, myself, till + the fellow came afterwards to thank me. He said that he considered himself + very lucky, for the manager had told him that there were six other men had + wanted that job.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody laughed now, and I looked at my hostess in a little + bewilderment. She murmured, “I suppose the joke is that he had befriended + one man at the expense of six others.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” I returned, “is that a joke?” + </p> + <p> + No one answered, but the lady at my right asked, “How do you manage with + poverty in Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + I saw the banker fix a laughing eye on me, but I answered, “In Altruria we + have no poverty.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, I knew you would say that!” he cried out. “That's what he always + does,” he explained to the lady. “Bring up any one of our little + difficulties, and ask how they get over it in Altruria, and he says they + have nothing like it. It's very simple.” + </p> + <p> + They all began to ask me questions, but with a courteous incredulity which + I could feel well enough, and some of my answers made them laugh, all but + my hostess, who received them with a gravity that finally prevailed. But I + was not disposed to go on talking of Altruria then, though they all + protested a real interest, and murmured against the hardship of being cut + off with so brief an account of our country as I had given them. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the banker at last, “if there is no cure for our poverty, we + might as well go on and enjoy ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said our hostess, with a sad little smile, “we might as well enjoy + ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIX + </h2> + <p> + The talk at Mrs. Strange's table took a far wider range than my meagre + notes would intimate, and we sat so long that it was almost eleven before + the men joined the ladies in the drawing-room. You will hardly conceive of + remaining two, three, or four hours at dinner, as one often does here, in + society; out of society the meals are despatched with a rapidity unknown + to the Altrurians. Our habit of listening to lectors, especially at the + evening repast, and then of reasoning upon what we have heard, prolongs + our stay at the board; but the fondest listener, the greatest talker among + us, would be impatient of the delay eked out here by the great number and + the slow procession of the courses served. Yet the poorest American would + find his ideal realized rather in the long-drawn-out gluttony of the + society dinner here than in our temperate simplicity. + </p> + <p> + At such a dinner it is very hard to avoid a surfeit, and I have to guard + myself very carefully, lest, in the excitement of the talk, I gorge myself + with everything, in its turn. Even at the best, my overloaded stomach + often joins with my conscience in reproaching me for what you would think + a shameful excess at table. Yet, wicked as my riot is, my waste is worse, + and I have to think, with contrition, not only of what I have eaten, but + of what I have left uneaten, in a city where so many wake and sleep in + hunger. + </p> + <p> + The ladies made a show of lingering after we joined them in the + drawing-room; but there were furtive glances at the clock, and presently + her guests began to bid Mrs. Strange good-night. When I came up and + offered her my hand, she would not take it, but murmured, with a kind of + passion: “Don't go! I mean it! Stay, and tell us about Altruria—my + mother and me!” + </p> + <p> + I was by no means loath, for I must confess that all I had seen and heard + of this lady interested me in her more and more. I felt at home with her, + too, as with no other society woman I have met; she seemed to me not only + good, but very sincere, and very good-hearted, in spite of the world she + lived in. Yet I have met so many disappointments here, of the kind that + our civilization wholly fails to prepare us for, that I should not have + been surprised to find that Mrs. Strange had wished me to stay, not that + she might hear me talk about Altruria, but that I might hear her talk + about herself. You must understand that the essential vice of a system + which concentres a human being's thoughts upon his own interests, from the + first moment of responsibility, colors and qualifies every motive with + egotism. All egotists are unconscious, for otherwise they would be + intolerable to themselves; but some are subtler than others; and as most + women have finer natures than most men everywhere, and in America most + women have finer minds than most men, their egotism usually takes the form + of pose. This is usually obvious, but in some cases it is so delicately + managed that you do not suspect it, unless some other woman gives you a + hint of it, and even then you cannot be sure of it, seeing the + self-sacrifice, almost to martyrdom, which the <i>poseuse</i> makes for + it. If Mrs. Makely had not suggested that some people attributed a pose to + Mrs. Strange, I should certainly never have dreamed of looking for it, and + I should have been only intensely interested, when she began, as soon as I + was left alone with her and her mother: + </p> + <p> + “You may not know how unusual I am in asking this favor of you, Mr. Homos; + but you might as well learn from me as from others that I am rather + unusual in everything. In fact, you can report in Altruria, when you get + home, that you found at least one woman in America whom fortune had smiled + upon in every way, and who hated her smiling fortune almost as much as she + hated herself. I'm quite satisfied,” she went on, with a sad mockery, + “that fortune is a man, and an American; when he has given you all the + materials for having a good time, he believes that you must be happy, + because there is nothing to hinder. It isn't that I want to be happy in + the greedy way that men think we do, for then I could easily be happy. If + you have a soul which is not above buttons, buttons are enough. But if you + expect to be of real use, to help on, and to help out, you will be + disappointed. I have not the faith that they say upholds you Altrurians in + trying to help out, if I don't see my way out. It seems to me that my + reason has some right to satisfaction, and that, if I am a woman grown, I + can't be satisfied with the assurances they would give to little girls—that + everything is going on well. Any one can see that things are not going on + well. There is more and more wretchedness of every kind, not hunger of + body alone, but hunger of soul. If you escape one, you suffer the other, + because, if you <i>have</i> a soul, you must long to help, not for a time, + but for all time. I suppose,” she asked, abruptly, “that Mrs. Makely has + told you something about me?” + </p> + <p> + “Something,” I admitted. + </p> + <p> + “I ask,” she went on, “because I don't want to bore you with a statement + of my case, if you know it already. Ever since I heard you were in New + York I have wished to see you, and to talk with you about Altruria; I did + not suppose that there would be any chance at Mrs. Makely's, and there + wasn't; and I did not suppose there would be any chance here, unless I + could take courage to do what I have done now. You must excuse it, if it + seems as extraordinary a proceeding to you as it really is; I wouldn't at + all have you think it is usual for a lady to ask one of her guests to stay + after the rest, in order, if you please, to confess herself to him. It's a + crime without a name.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, not gayly, but humorously, and then went on, speaking always + with a feverish eagerness which I find it hard to give you a sense of, for + the women here have an intensity quite beyond our experience of the sex at + home. + </p> + <p> + “But you are a foreigner, and you come from an order of things so utterly + unlike ours that perhaps you will be able to condone my offence. At any + rate, I have risked it.” She laughed again, more gayly, and recovered + herself in a cheerfuller and easier mood. “Well, the long and the short of + it is that I have come to the end of my tether. I have tried, as truly as + I believe any woman ever did, to do my share, with money and with work, to + help make life better for those whose life is bad; and though one mustn't + boast of good works, I may say that I have been pretty thorough, and, if + I've given up, it's because I see, in our state of things, <i>no</i> hope + of curing the evil. It's like trying to soak up the drops of a rainstorm. + You do dry up a drop here and there; but the clouds are full of them, and, + the first thing you know, you stand, with your blotting-paper in your + hand, in a puddle over your shoe-tops. There is nothing but charity, and + charity is a failure, except for the moment. If you think of the misery + around you, that must remain around you for ever and ever, as long as you + live, you have your choice—to go mad and be put into an asylum, or + go mad and devote yourself to society.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XX + </h2> + <p> + While Mrs. Strange talked on, her mother listened quietly, with a dim, + submissive smile and her hands placidly crossed in her lap. She now said: + “It seems to be very different now from what it was in my time. There are + certainly a great many beggars, and we used never to have one. Children + grew up, and people lived and died, in large towns, without ever seeing + one. I remember, when my husband first took me abroad, how astonished we + were at the beggars. Now I meet as many in New York as I met in London or + in Rome. But if you don't do charity, what can you do? Christ enjoined it, + and Paul says—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, people <i>never</i> do the charity that Christ meant,” said Mrs. + Strange; “and, as things are now, how <i>could</i> they? Who would dream + of dividing half her frocks and wraps with poor women, or selling <i>all</i> + and giving to the poor? That is what makes it so hopeless. We <i>know</i> + that Christ was perfectly right, and that He was perfectly sincere in what + He said to the good young millionaire; but we all go away exceeding + sorrowful, just as the good young millionaire did. We have to, if we don't + want to come on charity ourselves. How do <i>you</i> manage about that?” + she asked me; and then she added, “But, of course, I forgot that you have + no need of charity.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, we have,” I returned; and I tried, once more, as I have tried so + often with Americans, to explain how the heavenly need of giving the self + continues with us, but on terms that do not harrow the conscience of the + giver, as self-sacrifice always must here, at its purest and noblest. I + sought to make her conceive of our nation as a family, where every one was + secured against want by the common provision, and against the degrading + and depraving inequality which comes from want. The “dead-level of + equality” is what the Americans call the condition in which all would be + as the angels of God, and they blasphemously deny that He ever meant His + creatures to be alike happy, because some, through a long succession of + unfair advantages, have inherited more brain or brawn or beauty than + others. I found that this gross and impious notion of God darkened even + the clear intelligence of a woman like Mrs. Strange; and, indeed, it + prevails here so commonly that it is one of the first things advanced as + an argument against the Altrurianization of America. + </p> + <p> + I believe I did, at last, succeed in showing her how charity still + continues among us, but in forms that bring neither a sense of inferiority + to him who takes nor anxiety to him who gives. I said that benevolence + here often seemed to involve, essentially, some such risk as a man should + run if he parted with a portion of the vital air which belonged to himself + and his family, in succoring a fellow-being from suffocation; but that + with us, where it was no more possible for one to deprive himself of his + share of the common food, shelter, and clothing, than of the air he + breathed, one could devote one's self utterly to others without that foul + alloy of fear which I thought must basely qualify every good deed in + plutocratic conditions. + </p> + <p> + She said that she knew what I meant, and that I was quite right in my + conjecture, as regarded men, at least; a man who did not stop to think + what the effect, upon himself and his own, his giving must have, would be + a fool or a madman; but women could often give as recklessly as they + spent, without any thought of consequences, for they did not know how + money came. + </p> + <p> + “Women,” I said, “are exterior to your conditions, and they can sacrifice + themselves without wronging any one.” + </p> + <p> + “Or, rather,” she continued, “without the sense of wronging any one. Our + men like to keep us in that innocence or ignorance; they think it is + pretty, or they think it is funny; and as long as a girl is in her + father's house, or a wife is in her husband's, she knows no more of + money-earning or money-making than a child. Most grown women among us, if + they had a sum of money in the bank, would not know how to get it out. + They would not know how to indorse a check, much less draw one. But there + are plenty of women who are inside the conditions, as much as men are—poor + women who have to earn their bread, and rich-women who have to manage + their property. I can't speak for the poor women; but I can speak for the + rich, and I can confess for them that what you imagine is true. The taint + of unfaith and distrust is on every dollar that you dole out, so that, as + far as the charity of the rich is concerned, I would read Shakespeare: + </p> + <p> + 'It curseth him that gives, and him that takes.'” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps that is why the rich give comparatively so little. The poor can + never understand how much the rich value their money, how much the owner + of a great fortune dreads to see it less. If it were not so, they would + surely give more than they do; for a man who has ten millions could give + eight of them without feeling the loss; the man with a hundred could give + ninety and be no nearer want. Ah, it's a strange mystery! My poor husband + and I used to talk of it a great deal, in the long year that he lay dying; + and I think I hate my superfluity the more because I know he hated it so + much.” + </p> + <p> + A little trouble had stolen into her impassioned tones, and there was a + gleam, as of tears, in the eyes she dropped for a moment. They were + shining still when she lifted them again to mine. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose,” she said, “that Mrs. Makely told you something of my + marriage?” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth!” her mother protested, with a gentle murmur. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I think I can be frank with Mr. Homos. He is not an American, and he + will understand, or, at least, he will not misunderstand. Besides, I dare + say I shall not say anything worse than Mrs. Makely has said already. My + husband was much older than I, and I ought not to have married him; a + young girl ought never to marry an old man, or even a man who is only a + good many years her senior. But we both faithfully tried to make the best + of our mistake, not the worst, and I think this effort helped us to + respect each other, when there couldn't be any question of more. He was a + rich man, and he had made his money out of nothing, or, at least, from a + beginning of utter poverty. But in his last years he came to a sense of + its worthlessness, such as few men who have made their money ever have. He + was a common man, in a great many ways; he was imperfectly educated, and + he was ungrammatical, and he never was at home in society; but he had a + tender heart and an honest nature, and I revere his memory, as no one + would believe I could without knowing him as I did. His money became a + burden and a terror to him; he did not know what to do with it, and he was + always morbidly afraid of doing harm with it; he got to thinking that + money was an evil in itself.” + </p> + <p> + “That is what we think,” I ventured. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I know. But he had thought this out for himself, and yet he had + times when his thinking about it seemed to him a kind of craze, and, at + any rate, he distrusted himself so much that he died leaving it all to me. + I suppose he thought that perhaps I could learn how to give it without + hurting; and then he knew that, in our state of things, I must have some + money to keep the wolf from the door. And I am afraid to part with it, + too. I have given and given; but there seems some evil spell on the + principal that guards it from encroachment, so that it remains the same, + and, if I do not watch, the interest grows in the bank, with that + frightful life dead money seems endowed with, as the hair of dead, people + grows in the grave.” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth!” her mother murmured again. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes,” she answered, “I dare say my words are wild. I dare say they + only mean that I loathe my luxury from the bottom of my soul, and long to + be rid of it, if I only could, without harm to others and with safety to + myself.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXI + </h2> + <p> + It seemed to me that I became suddenly sensible of this luxury for the + first time. I had certainly been aware that I was in a large and stately + house, and that I had been served and banqueted with a princely pride and + profusion. But there had, somehow, been through all a sort of simplicity, + a sort of quiet, so that I had not thought of the establishment and its + operation, even so much as I had thought of Mrs. Makely's far inferior + scale of living; or else, what with my going about so much in society, I + was ceasing to be so keenly observant of the material facts as I had been + at first. But I was better qualified to judge of what I saw, and I had now + a vivid sense of the costliness of Mrs. Strange's environment. There were + thousands of dollars in the carpets underfoot; there were tens of + thousands in the pictures on the walls. In a bronze group that withdrew + itself into a certain niche, with a faint reluctance, there was the value + of a skilled artisan's wage for five years of hard work; in the bindings + of the books that showed from the library shelves there was almost as much + money as most of the authors had got for writing them. Every fixture, + every movable, was an artistic masterpiece; a fortune, as fortunes used to + be counted even in this land of affluence, had been lavished in the mere + furnishing of a house which the palaces of nobles and princes of other + times had contributed to embellish. + </p> + <p> + “My husband,” Mrs. Strange went on, “bought this house for me, and let me + furnish it after my own fancy. After it was all done we neither of us + liked it, and when he died I felt as if he had left me in a tomb here.” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth,” said her mother, “you ought not to speak so before Mr. Homos. + He will not know what to think of you, and he will go back to Altruria + with a very wrong idea of American women.” + </p> + <p> + At this protest, Mrs. Strange seemed to recover herself a little. “Yes,” + she said, “you must excuse me. I have no right to speak so. But one is + often much franker with foreigners than with one's own kind, and, besides, + there is something—I don't know what—that will not let me keep + the truth from you.” + </p> + <p> + She gazed at me entreatingly, and then, as if some strong emotion swept + her from her own hold, she broke out: + </p> + <p> + “He thought he would make some sort of atonement to me, as if I owed none + to him! His money was all he had to do it with, and he spent that upon me + in every way he could think of, though he knew that money could not buy + anything that was really good, and that, if it bought anything beautiful, + it uglified it with the sense of cost to every one who could value it in + dollars and cents. He was a good man, far better than people ever + imagined, and very simple-hearted and honest, like a child, in his + contrition for his wealth, which he did not dare to get rid of; and though + I know that, if he were to come back, it would be just as it was, his + memory is as dear to me as if—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, and pressed in her lip with her teeth, to stay its tremor. I + was painfully affected. I knew that she had never meant to be so open with + me, and was shocked and frightened at herself. I was sorry for her, and + yet I was glad, for it seemed to me that she had given me a glimpse, not + only of the truth in her own heart, but of the truth in the hearts of a + whole order of prosperous people in these lamentable conditions, whom I + shall hereafter be able to judge more leniently, more justly. + </p> + <p> + I began to speak of Altruria, as if that were what our talk had been + leading up to, and she showed herself more intelligently interested + concerning us than any one I have yet seen in this country. We appeared, I + found, neither incredible nor preposterous to her; our life, in her eyes, + had that beauty of right living which the Americans so feebly imagine or + imagine not at all. She asked what route I had come by to America, and she + seemed disappointed and aggrieved that we placed the restrictions we have + felt necessary upon visitors from the plutocratic world. Were we afraid, + she asked, that they would corrupt our citizens or mar our content with + our institutions? She seemed scarcely satisfied when I explained, as I + have explained so often here, that the measures we had taken were rather + in the interest of the plutocratic world than of the Altrurians; and + alleged the fact that no visitor from the outside had ever been willing to + go home again, as sufficient proof that we had nothing to fear from the + spread of plutocratic ideals among us. I assured her, and this she easily + imagined, that, the better known these became, the worse they appeared to + us; and that the only concern our priors felt, in regard to them, was that + our youth could not conceive of them in their enormity, but, in seeing how + estimable plutocratic people often were, they would attribute to their + conditions the inherent good of human nature. I said our own life was so + directly reasoned from its economic premises that they could hardly + believe the plutocratic life was often an absolute non sequitur of the + plutocratic premises. I confessed that this error was at the bottom of my + own wish to visit America and study those premises. + </p> + <p> + “And what has your conclusion been?” she said, leaning eagerly towards me, + across the table between us, laden with the maps and charts we had been + examining for the verification of the position of Altruria, and my own + course here, by way of England. + </p> + <p> + A slight sigh escaped Mrs. Gray, which I interpreted as an expression of + fatigue; it was already past twelve o'clock, and I made it the pretext for + escape. + </p> + <p> + “You have seen the meaning and purport of Altruria so clearly,” I said, + “that I think I can safely leave you to guess the answer to that + question.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, and did not try to detain me now when I offered my hand for + good-night. I fancied her mother took leave of me coldly, and with a + certain effect of inculpation. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXII + </h2> + <p> + It is long since I wrote you, and you have had reason enough to be + impatient of my silence. I submit to the reproaches of your letter, with a + due sense of my blame; whether I am altogether to blame, you shall say + after you have read this. + </p> + <p> + I cannot yet decide whether I have lost a great happiness, the greatest + that could come to any man, or escaped the worst misfortune that could + befall me. But, such as it is, I will try to set the fact honestly down. + </p> + <p> + I do not know whether you had any conjecture, from my repeated mention of + a lady whose character greatly interested me, that I was in the way of + feeling any other interest in her than my letters expressed. I am no + longer young, though at thirty-five an Altrurian is by no means so old as + an American at the same age. The romantic ideals of the American women + which I had formed from the American novels had been dissipated; if I had + any sentiment towards them, as a type, it was one of distrust, which my + very sense of the charm in their inconsequence, their beauty, their + brilliancy, served rather to intensify. I thought myself doubly defended + by that difference between their civilization and ours which forbade + reasonable hope of happiness in any sentiment for them tenderer than that + of the student of strange effects in human nature. But we have not yet, my + dear Cyril, reasoned the passions, even in Altruria. + </p> + <p> + After I last wrote you, a series of accidents, or what appeared so, threw + me more and more constantly into the society of Mrs. Strange. We began to + laugh at the fatality with which we met everywhere—at teas, at + lunches, at dinners, at evening receptions, and even at balls, where I + have been a great deal, because, with all my thirty-five years, I have not + yet outlived that fondness for dancing which has so often amused you in + me. Wherever my acquaintance widened among cultivated people, they had no + inspiration but to ask us to meet each other, as if there were really no + other woman in New York who could be expected to understand me. “You must + come to lunch (or tea, or dinner, whichever it might be), and we will have + her. She will be so much interested to meet you.” + </p> + <p> + But perhaps we should have needed none of these accidents to bring us + together. I, at least, can look back and see that, when none of them + happened, I sought occasions for seeing her, and made excuses of our + common interest in this matter and in that to go to her. As for her, I can + only say that I seldom failed to find her at home, whether I called upon + her nominal day or not, and more than once the man who let me in said he + had been charged by Mrs. Strange to say that, if I called, she was to be + back very soon; or else he made free to suggest that, though Mrs. Strange + was not at home, Mrs. Gray was; and then I found it easy to stay until + Mrs. Strange returned. The good old lady had an insatiable curiosity about + Altruria, and, though I do not think she ever quite believed in our + reality, she at least always treated me kindly, as if I were the victim of + an illusion that was thoroughly benign. + </p> + <p> + I think she had some notion that your letters, which I used often to take + with me and read to Mrs. Strange and herself, were inventions of mine; and + the fact that they bore only an English postmark confirmed her in this + notion, though I explained that in our present passive attitude towards + the world outside we had as yet no postal relations with other countries, + and, as all our communication at home was by electricity, that we had no + letter-post of our own. The very fact that she belonged to a purer and + better age in America disqualified her to conceive of Altruria; her + daughter, who had lived into a full recognition of the terrible anarchy in + which the conditions have ultimated here, could far more vitally imagine + us, and to her, I believe, we were at once a living reality. Her + perception, her sympathy, her intelligence, became more and more to me, + and I escaped to them oftener and oftener, from a world where an Altrurian + must be so painfully at odds. In all companies here I am aware that I have + been regarded either as a good joke or a bad joke, according to the humor + of the listener, and it was grateful to be taken seriously. + </p> + <p> + From the first I was sensible of a charm in her, different from that I + felt in other American women, and impossible in our Altrurian women. She + had a deep and almost tragical seriousness, masked with a most winning + gayety, a light irony, a fine scorn that was rather for herself than for + others. She had thought herself out of all sympathy with her environment; + she knew its falsehood, its vacuity, its hopelessness; but she necessarily + remained in it and of it. She was as much at odds in it as I was, without + my poor privilege of criticism and protest, for, as she said, she could + not set herself up as a censor of things that she must keep on doing as + other people did. She could have renounced the world, as there are ways + and means of doing here; but she had no vocation to the religious life, + and she could not feign it without a sense of sacrilege. In fact, this + generous and magnanimous and gifted woman was without that faith, that + trust in God which comes to us from living His law, and which I wonder any + American can keep. She denied nothing; but she had lost the strength to + affirm anything. She no longer tried to do good from her heart, though she + kept on doing charity in what she said was a mere mechanical impulse from + the belief of other days, but always with the ironical doubt that she was + doing harm. Women are nothing by halves, as men can be, and she was in a + despair which no man can realize, for we have always some if or and which + a woman of the like mood casts from her in wild rejection. Where she could + not clearly see her way to a true life, it was the same to her as an + impenetrable darkness. + </p> + <p> + You will have inferred something of all this from what I have written of + her before, and from words of hers that I have reported to you. Do you + think it so wonderful, then, that in the joy I felt at the hope, the + solace, which my story of our life seemed to give her, she should become + more and more precious to me? It was not wonderful, either, I think, that + she should identify me with that hope, that solace, and should suffer + herself to lean upon me, in a reliance infinitely sweet and endearing. But + what a fantastic dream it now appears! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIII + </h2> + <p> + I can hardly tell you just how we came to own our love to each other; but + one day I found myself alone with her mother, with the sense that Eveleth + had suddenly withdrawn from the room at the knowledge of my approach. Mrs. + Gray was strongly moved by something; but she governed herself, and, after + giving me a tremulous hand, bade me sit. + </p> + <p> + “Will you excuse me, Mr. Homos,” she began, “if I ask you whether you + intend to make America your home after this?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no!” I answered, and I tried to keep out of my voice the despair with + which the notion filled me. I have sometimes had nightmares here, in which + I thought that I was an American by choice, and I can give you no + conception of the rapture of awakening to the fact that I could still go + back to Altruria, that I had not cast my lot with this wretched people. + “How could I do that?” I faltered; and I was glad to perceive that I had + imparted to her no hint of the misery which I had felt at such a notion. + “I mean, by getting naturalized, and becoming a citizen, and taking up + your residence among us.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I answered, as quietly as I could, “I had not thought of that.” + </p> + <p> + “And you still intend to go back to Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “I hope so; I ought to have gone back long ago, and if I had not met the + friends I have in this house—” I stopped, for I did not know how I + should end what I had begun to say. + </p> + <p> + “I am glad you think we are your friends,” said the lady, “for we have + tried to show ourselves your friends. I feel as if this had given me the + right to say something to you that you may think very odd.” + </p> + <p> + “Say anything to me, my dear lady,” I returned. “I shall not think it + unkind, no matter how odd it is.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it's nothing. It's merely that—that when you are not here with + us I lose my grasp on Altruria, and—and I begin to doubt—” + </p> + <p> + I smiled. “I know! People here have often hinted something of that kind to + me. Tell me, Mrs. Gray, do Americans generally take me for an impostor?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no!” she answered, fervently. “Everybody that I have heard speak of + you has the highest regard for you, and believes you perfectly sincere. + But—” + </p> + <p> + “But what?” I entreated. + </p> + <p> + “They think you may be mistaken.” + </p> + <p> + “Then they think I am out of my wits—that I am in an hallucination!” + </p> + <p> + “No, not that,” she returned. “But it is so very difficult for us to + conceive of a whole nation living, as you say you do, on the same terms as + one family, and no one trying to get ahead of another, or richer, and + having neither inferiors nor superiors, but just one dead level of + equality, where there is no distinction except by natural gifts and good + deeds or beautiful works. It seems impossible—it seems ridiculous.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I confessed, “I know that it seems so to the Americans.” + </p> + <p> + “And I must tell you something else, Mr. Homos, and I hope you won't take + it amiss. The first night when you talked about Altruria here, and showed + us how you had come, by way of England, and the place where Altruria ought + to be on our maps, I looked them over, after you were gone, and I could + make nothing of it. I have often looked at the map since, but I could + never find Altruria; it was no use.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” I said, “if you will let me have your atlas—” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. “It would be the same again as soon as you went away.” + I could not conceal my distress, and she went on: “Now, you mustn't mind + what I say. I'm nothing but a silly old woman, and Eveleth would never + forgive me if she could know what I've been saying.” + </p> + <p> + “Then Mrs. Strange isn't troubled, as you are, concerning me?” I asked, + and I confess my anxiety attenuated my voice almost to a whisper. + </p> + <p> + “She won't admit that she is. It might be better for her if she would. But + Eveleth is very true to her friends, and that—that makes me all the + more anxious that she should not deceive herself.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Mrs. Gray!” I could not keep a certain tone of reproach out of my + words. + </p> + <p> + She began to weep. “There! I knew I should hurt your feelings. But you + mustn't mind what I say. I beg your pardon! I take it all back—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, I don't want you to take it back! But what proof shall I give you + that there is such a land as Altruria? If the darkness implies the day, + America must imply Altruria. In what way do I seem false, or mad, except + that I claim to be the citizen of a country where people love one another + as the first Christians did?” + </p> + <p> + “That is just it,” she returned. “Nobody can imagine the first Christians, + and do you think we can imagine anything like them in our own day?” + </p> + <p> + “But Mrs. Strange—she imagines us, you say?” + </p> + <p> + “She thinks she does; but I am afraid she only thinks so, and I know her + better than you do, Mr. Homos. I know how enthusiastic she always was, and + how unhappy she has been since she has lost her hold on faith, and how + eagerly she has caught at the hope you have given her of a higher life on + earth than we live here. If she should ever find out that she was wrong, I + don't know what would become of her. You mustn't mind me; you mustn't let + me wound you by what I say.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't wound me, and I only thank you for what you say; but I entreat + you to believe in me. Mrs. Strange has not deceived herself, and I have + not deceived her. Shall I protest to you, by all I hold sacred, that I am + really what I told you I was; that I am not less, and that Altruria is + infinitely more, happier, better, gladder, than any words of mine can say? + Shall I not have the happiness to see your daughter to-day? I had + something to say to her—and now I have so much more! If she is in + the house, won't you send to her? I can make her understand—” + </p> + <p> + I stopped at a certain expression which I fancied I saw in Mrs. Gray's + face. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Homos,” she began, so very seriously that my heart trembled with a + vague misgiving, “sometimes I think you had better not see my daughter any + more.” + </p> + <p> + “Not see her any more?” I gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; I don't see what good can come of it, and it's all very strange and + uncanny. I don't know how to explain it; but, indeed, it isn't anything + personal. It's because you are of a state of things so utterly opposed to + human nature that I don't see how—I am afraid that—” + </p> + <p> + “But I am not uncanny to <i>her!</i>” I entreated. “I am not unnatural, + not incredible—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no; that is the worst of it. But I have said too much; I have said a + great deal more than I ought. But you must excuse it: I am an old woman. I + am not very well, and I suppose it's that that makes me talk so much.” + </p> + <p> + She rose from her chair, and I, perforce, rose from mine and made a + movement towards her. + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” she said, “I don't need any help. You must come again soon and + see us, and show that you've forgotten what I've said.” She gave me her + hand, and I could not help bending over it and kissing it. She gave a + little, pathetic whimper. “Oh, I <i>know</i> I've said the most dreadful + things to you.” + </p> + <p> + “You haven't said anything that takes your friendship from me, Mrs. Gray, + and that is what I care for.” My own eyes filled with tears—I do not + know why—and I groped my way from the room. Without seeing any one + in the obscurity of the hallway, where I found myself, I was aware of some + one there, by that sort of fine perception which makes us know the + presence of a spirit. + </p> + <p> + “You are going?” a whisper said. “Why are you going?” And Eveleth had me + by the hand and was drawing me gently into the dim drawing-room that + opened from the place. “I don't know all my mother has been saying to you. + I had to let her say something; she thought she ought. I knew you would + know how to excuse it.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my dearest!” I said, and why I said this I do not know, or how we + found ourselves in each other's arms. + </p> + <p> + “What are we doing?” she murmured. + </p> + <p> + “You don't believe I am an impostor, an illusion, a visionary?” I besought + her, straining her closer to my heart. + </p> + <p> + “I believe in you, with all my soul!” she answered. + </p> + <p> + We sat down, side by side, and talked long. I did not go away the whole + day. With a high disdain of convention, she made me stay. Her mother sent + word that she would not be able to come to dinner, and we were alone + together at table, in an image of what our united lives might be. We spent + the evening in that happy interchange of trivial confidences that lovers + use in symbol of the unutterable raptures that fill them. We were there in + what seemed an infinite present, without a past, without a future. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIV + </h2> + <p> + Society had to be taken into our confidence, and Mrs. Makely saw to it + that there were no reserves with society. Our engagement was not quite + like that of two young persons, but people found in our character and + circumstance an interest far transcending that felt in the engagement of + the most romantic lovers. Some note of the fact came to us by accident, as + one evening when we stood near a couple and heard them talking. “It must + be very weird,” the man said; “something like being engaged to a + materialization.” “Yes,” said the girl, “quite the Demon Lover business, I + should think.” She glanced round, as people do, in talking, and, at sight + of us, she involuntarily put her hand over her mouth. I looked at Eveleth; + there was nothing expressed in her face but a generous anxiety for me. But + so far as the open attitude of society towards us was concerned, nothing + could have been more flattering. We could hardly have been more asked to + meet each other than before; but now there were entertainments in special + recognition of our betrothal, which Eveleth said could not be altogether + refused, though she found the ordeal as irksome as I did. In America, + however, you get used to many things. I do not know why it should have + been done, but in the society columns of several of the great newspapers + our likenesses were printed, from photographs procured I cannot guess how, + with descriptions of our persons as to those points of coloring and + carriage and stature which the pictures could not give, and with + biographies such as could be ascertained in her case and imagined in mine. + In some of the society papers, paragraphs of a surprising scurrility + appeared, attacking me as an impostor, and aspersing the motives of + Eveleth in her former marriage, and treating her as a foolish crank or an + audacious flirt. The goodness of her life, her self-sacrifice and works of + benevolence, counted for no more against these wanton attacks than the + absolute inoffensiveness of my own; the writers knew no harm of her, and + they knew nothing at all of me; but they devoted us to the execration of + their readers simply because we formed apt and ready themes for + paragraphs. You may judge of how wild they were in their aim when some of + them denounced me as an Altrurian plutocrat! + </p> + <p> + We could not escape this storm of notoriety; we had simply to let it spend + its fury. When it began, several reporters of both sexes came to interview + me, and questioned me, not only as to all the facts of my past life, and + all my purposes in the future, but as to my opinion of hypnotism, eternal + punishment, the Ibsen drama, and the tariff reform. I did my best to + answer them seriously, and certainly I answered them civilly; but it + seemed from what they printed that the answers I gave did not concern + them, for they gave others for me. They appeared to me for the most part + kindly and well-meaning young people, though vastly ignorant of vital + things. They had apparently visited me with minds made up, or else their + reports were revised by some controlling hand, and a quality injected more + in the taste of the special journals they represented than in keeping with + the facts. When I realized this, I refused to see any more reporters, or + to answer them, and then they printed the questions they had prepared to + ask me, in such form that my silence was made of the same damaging effect + as a full confession of guilt upon the charges. + </p> + <p> + The experience was so strange and new to me that it affected me in a + degree I was unwilling to let Eveleth imagine. But she divined my + distress, and, when she divined that it was chiefly for her, she set + herself to console and reassure me. She told me that this was something + every one here expected, in coming willingly or unwillingly before the + public; and that I must not think of it at all, for certainly no one else + would think twice of it. This, I found, was really so, for when I ventured + to refer tentatively to some of these publications, I found that people, + if they had read them, had altogether forgotten them; and that they were, + with all the glare of print, of far less effect with our acquaintance than + something said under the breath in a corner. I found that some of our + friends had not known the effigies for ours which they had seen in the + papers; others made a joke of the whole affair, as the Americans do with + so many affairs, and said that they supposed the pictures were those of + people who had been cured by some patent medicine, they looked so strong + and handsome. This, I think, was a piece of Mr. Makely's humor in the + beginning; but it had a general vogue long after the interviews and the + illustrations were forgotten. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXV + </h2> + <p> + I linger a little upon these trivial matters because I shrink from what + must follow. They were scarcely blots upon our happiness; rather they were + motes in the sunshine which had no other cloud. It is true that I was + always somewhat puzzled by a certain manner in Mrs. Gray, which certainly + was from no unfriendliness for me; she could not have been more + affectionate to me, after our engagement, if I had been really her own + son; and it was not until after our common kindness had confirmed itself + upon the new footing that I felt this perplexing qualification on it. I + felt it first one day when I found her alone, and I talked long and freely + to her of Eveleth, and opened to her my whole heart of joy in our love. At + one point she casually asked me how soon we should expect to return from + Altruria after our visit; and at first I did not understand. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” she explained, “you will want to see all your old friends, + and so will Eveleth, for they will be her friends, too; but if you want me + to go with you, as you say, you must let me know when I shall see New York + again.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” I said, “you will always be with us.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then,” she pursued, with a smile, “when shall <i>you</i> come + back?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, never!” I answered. “No one ever leaves Altruria, if he can help it, + unless he is sent on a mission.” + </p> + <p> + She looked a little mystified, and I went on: “Of course, I was not + officially authorized to visit the world outside, but I was permitted to + do so, to satisfy a curiosity the priors thought useful; but I have now + had quite enough of it, and I shall never leave home again.” + </p> + <p> + “You won't come to live in America?” + </p> + <p> + “God forbid!” said I, and I am afraid I could not hide the horror that ran + through me at the thought. “And when you once see our happy country, you + could no more be persuaded to return to America than a disembodied spirit + could be persuaded to return to the earth.” + </p> + <p> + She was silent, and I asked: “But, surely, you understood this, Mrs. + Gray?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said, reluctantly. “Does Eveleth?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, certainly,” I said. “We have talked it over a hundred times. Hasn't + she—” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know,” she returned, with a vague trouble in her voice and eyes. + “Perhaps I haven't understood her exactly. Perhaps—but I shall be + ready to do whatever you and she think best. I am an old woman, you know; + and, you know, I was born here, and I should feel the change.” + </p> + <p> + Her words conveyed to me a delicate reproach; I felt for the first time + that, in my love of my own country, I had not considered her love of hers. + It is said that the Icelanders are homesick when they leave their world of + lava and snow; and I ought to have remembered that an American might have + some such tenderness for his atrocious conditions, if he were exiled from + them forever. I suppose it was the large and wide mind of Eveleth, with + its openness to a knowledge and appreciation of better things, that had + suffered me to forget this. She seemed always so eager to see Altruria, + she imagined it so fully, so lovingly, that I had ceased to think of her + as an alien; she seemed one of us, by birth as well as by affinity. + </p> + <p> + Yet now the words of her mother, and the light they threw upon the + situation, gave me pause. I began to ask myself questions I was impatient + to ask Eveleth, so that there should be no longer any shadow of misgiving + in my breast; and yet I found myself dreading to ask them, lest by some + perverse juggle I had mistaken our perfect sympathy for a perfect + understanding. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVI + </h2> + <p> + Like all cowards who wait a happy moment for the duty that should not be + suffered to wait at all, I was destined to have the affair challenge me, + instead of seizing the advantage of it that instant frankness would have + given me. Shall I confess that I let several days go by, and still had not + spoken to Eveleth, when, at the end of a long evening—the last long + evening we passed together—she said: + </p> + <p> + “What would you like to have me do with this house while we are gone?” + </p> + <p> + “Do with this house?” I echoed; and I felt as if I were standing on the + edge of an abyss. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; shall we let it, or sell it—or what? Or give it away?” I drew + a little breath at this; perhaps we had not misunderstood each other, + after all. She went on: “Of course, I have a peculiar feeling about it, so + that I wouldn't like to get it ready and let it furnished, in the ordinary + way. I would rather lend it to some one, if I could be sure of any one who + would appreciate it; but I can't. Not one. And it's very much the same + when one comes to think about selling it. Yes, I should like to give it + away for some good purpose, if there is any in this wretched state of + things. What do you say, Aristide?” + </p> + <p> + She always used the French form of my name, because she said it sounded + ridiculous in English, for a white man, though I told her that the English + was nearer the Greek in sound. + </p> + <p> + “By all means, give it away,” I said. “Give it for some public purpose. + That will at least be better than any private purpose, and put it somehow + in the control of the State, beyond the reach of individuals or + corporations. Why not make it the foundation of a free school for the + study of the Altrurian polity?” + </p> + <p> + She laughed at this, as if she thought I must be joking. “It would be + droll, wouldn't it, to have Tammany appointees teaching Altrurianism?” + Then she said, after a moment of reflection: “Why not? It needn't be in + the hands of Tammany. It could be in the hands of the United States; I + will ask my lawyer if it couldn't; and I will endow it with money enough + to support the school handsomely. Aristide, you have hit it!” + </p> + <p> + I began: “You can give <i>all</i> your money to it, my dear—” But I + stopped at the bewildered look she turned on me. + </p> + <p> + “All?” she repeated. “But what should we have to live on, then?” + </p> + <p> + “We shall need no money to live on in Altruria,” I answered. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, in Altruria! But when we come back to New York?” + </p> + <p> + It was an agonizing moment, and I felt that shutting of the heart which + blinds the eyes and makes the brain reel. “Eveleth,” I gasped, “did you + expect to return to New York?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, certainly!” she cried. “Not at once, of course. But after you had + seen your friends, and made a good, long visit—Why, surely, + Aristide, you don't understand that I—You didn't mean to <i>live</i> + in Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” I answered. “Where else could I live? Did you think for an instant + that I could live in such a land as this?” I saw that she was hurt, and I + hastened to say: “I know that it is the best part of the world outside of + Altruria, but, oh, my dear, you cannot imagine how horrible the notion of + living here seems to me. Forgive me. I am going from bad to worse. I don't + mean to wound you. After all, it is your country, and you must love it. + But, indeed, I could not think of living here. I could not take the burden + of its wilful misery on my soul. I must live in Altruria, and you, when + you have once seen my country, <i>our</i> country, will never consent to + live in any other.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said, “I know it must be very beautiful; but I hadn't supposed—and + yet I ought—” + </p> + <p> + “No, dearest, no! It was I who was to blame, for not being clearer from + the first. But that is the way with us. We can't imagine any people + willing to live anywhere else when once they have seen Altruria; and I + have told you so much of it, and we have talked of it together so often, + that I must have forgotten you had not actually known it. But listen, + Eveleth. We will agree to this: After we have been a year in Altruria, if + you wish to return to America I will come back and live with you here.” + </p> + <p> + “No, indeed!” she answered, generously. “If you are to be my husband,” and + here she began with the solemn words of the Bible, so beautiful in their + quaint English, “'whither thou goest, I will go, and I will not return + from following after thee. Thy country shall be my country, and thy God my + God.” + </p> + <p> + I caught her to my heart, in a rapture of tenderness, and the evening that + had begun for us so forbiddingly ended in a happiness such as not even our + love had known before. I insisted upon the conditions I had made, as to + our future home, and she agreed to them gayly at last, as a sort of + reparation which I might make my conscience, if I liked, for tearing her + from a country which she had willingly lived out of for the far greater + part of the last five years. + </p> + <p> + But when we met again I could see that she had been thinking seriously. + </p> + <p> + “I won't give the house absolutely away,” she said. “I will keep the deed + of it myself, but I will establish that sort of school of Altrurian + doctrine in it, and I will endow it, and when we come back here, for our + experimental sojourn, after we've been in Altruria a year, we'll take up + our quarters in it—I won't give the whole house to the school—and + we will lecture on the later phases of Altrurian life to the pupils. How + will that do?” + </p> + <p> + She put her arms around my neck, and I said that it would do admirably; + but I had a certain sinking of the heart, for I saw how hard it was even + for Eveleth to part with her property. + </p> + <p> + “I'll endow it,” she went on, “and I'll leave the rest of my money at + interest here; unless you think that some Altrurian securities—” + </p> + <p> + “No; there are no such things!” I cried. + </p> + <p> + “That was what I thought,” she returned; “and as it will cost us nothing + while we are in Altruria, the interest will be something very handsome by + the time we get back, even in United States bonds.” + </p> + <p> + “Something handsome!” I cried. “But, Eveleth, haven't I heard you say + yourself that the growth of interest from dead money was like—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes; that!” she returned. “But you know you have to take it. You can't + let the money lie idle: that would be ridiculous; and then, with the good + purpose we have in view, it is our <i>duty</i> to take the interest. How + should we keep up the school, and pay the teachers, and everything?” + </p> + <p> + I saw that she had forgotten the great sum of the principal, or that, + through lifelong training and association, it was so sacred to her that + she did not even dream of touching it. I was silent, and she thought that + I was persuaded. + </p> + <p> + “You are perfectly right in theory, dear, and I feel just as you do about + such things; I'm sure I've suffered enough from them; but if we didn't + take interest for your money, what should we have to live on?” + </p> + <p> + “Not <i>my</i> money, Eveleth!” I entreated. “Don't say <i>my</i> money!” + </p> + <p> + “But whatever is mine is yours,” she returned, with a wounded air. + </p> + <p> + “Not your money; but I hope you will soon have none. We should need no + money to live on in Altruria. Our share of the daily work of all will + amply suffice for our daily bread and shelter.” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria, yes. But how about America? And you have promised to come + back here in a year, you know. Ladies and gentlemen can't share in the + daily toil here, even if they could get the toil, and, where there are so + many out of work, it isn't probable they could.” + </p> + <p> + She dropped upon my knee as she spoke, laughing, and put her hand under my + chin, to lift my fallen face. + </p> + <p> + “Now you mustn't be a goose, Aristide, even if you <i>are</i> an angel! + Now listen. You <i>know</i>, don't you, that I hate money just as badly as + you?” + </p> + <p> + “You have made me think so, Eveleth,” I answered. + </p> + <p> + “I hate it and loathe it. I think it's the source of all the sin and + misery in the world; but you can't get rid of it at a blow. For if you + gave it away you might do more harm than good with it.” + </p> + <p> + “You could destroy it,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Not unless you were a crank,” she returned. “And that brings me just to + the point. I know that I'm doing a very queer thing to get married, when + we know so little, really, about you,” and she accented this confession + with a laugh that was also a kiss. “But I want to show people that we are + just as practical as anybody; and if they can know that I have left my + money in United States bonds, they'll respect us, no matter what I do with + the interest. Don't you see? We can come back, and preach and teach + Altrurianism, and as long as we pay our way nobody will have a right to + say a word. Why, Tolstoy himself doesn't destroy his money, though he + wants other people to do it. His wife keeps it, and supports the family. + You <i>have</i> to do it.” + </p> + <p> + “He doesn't do it willingly.” + </p> + <p> + “No. And <i>we</i> won't. And after a while—after we've got back, + and compared Altruria and America from practical experience, if we decide + to go and live there altogether, I will let you do what you please with + the hateful money. I suppose we couldn't take it there with us?” + </p> + <p> + “No more than you could take it to heaven with you,” I answered, solemnly; + but she would not let me be altogether serious about it. + </p> + <p> + “Well, in either case we could get on without it, though we certainly + could not get on without it here. Why, Aristide, it is essential to the + influence we shall try to exert for Altrurianism; for if we came back here + and preached the true life without any money to back us, no one would pay + any attention to us. But if we have a good house waiting for us, and are + able to entertain nicely, we can attract the best people, and—and—really + do some good.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVII + </h2> + <p> + I rose in a distress which I could not hide. “Oh, Eveleth, Eveleth!” I + cried. “You are like all the rest, poor child! You are the creature of + your environment, as we all are. You cannot escape what you have been. It + may be that I was wrong to wish or expect you to cast your lot with me in + Altruria, at once and forever. It may be that it is my duty to return here + with you after a time, not only to let you see that Altruria is best, but + to end my days in this unhappy land, preaching and teaching Altrurianism; + but we must not come as prophets to the comfortable people, and entertain + nicely. If we are to renew the evangel, it must be in the life and the + spirit of the First Altrurian: we must come poor to the poor; we must not + try to win any one, save through his heart and conscience; we must be as + simple and humble as the least of those that Christ bade follow Him. + Eveleth, perhaps you have made a mistake. I love you too much to wish you + to suffer even for your good. Yes, I am so weak as that. I did not think + that this would be the sacrifice for you that it seems, and I will not ask + it of you. I am sorry that we have not understood each other, as I + supposed we had. I could never become an American; perhaps you could never + become an Altrurian. Think of it, dearest. Think well of it, before you + take the step which you cannot recede from. I hold you to no promise; I + love you so dearly that I cannot let you hold yourself. But you must + choose between me and your money—no, not me—but between love + and your money. You cannot keep both.” + </p> + <p> + She had stood listening to me; now she cast herself on my heart and + stopped my words with an impassioned kiss. “Then there is no choice for + me. My choice is made, once for all.” She set her hands against my breast + and pushed me from her. “Go now; but come again to-morrow. I want to think + it all over again. Not that I have any doubt, but because you wish it—you + wish it, don't you?—and because I will not let you ever think I + acted upon an impulse, and that I regretted it.” + </p> + <p> + “That is right, Eveleth. That is like <i>you</i>” I said, and I took her + into my arms for good-night. + </p> + <p> + The next day I came for her decision, or rather for her confirmation of + it. The man who opened the door to me met me with a look of concern and + embarrassment. He said Mrs. Strange was not at all well, and had told him + he was to give me the letter he handed me. I asked, in taking it, if I + could see Mrs. Gray, and he answered that Mrs. Gray had not been down yet, + but he would go and see. I was impatient to read my letter, and I made I + know not what vague reply, and I found myself, I know not how, on the + pavement, with the letter open in my hand. It began abruptly without date + or address: + </p> + <p> + <i>“You will believe that I have not slept, when you read this. </i> + </p> + <p> + “I have thought it all over again, as you wished, and it is all over + between us. + </p> + <p> + “I am what you said, the creature of my environment. I cannot detach + myself from it; I cannot escape from what I have been. + </p> + <p> + “I am writing this with a strange coldness, like the chill of death, in my + very soul. I do not ask you to forgive me; I have your forgiveness + already. Do not forget me; that is what I ask. Remember me as the unhappy + woman who was not equal to her chance when heaven was opened to her, who + could not choose the best when the best came to her. + </p> + <p> + “There is no use writing; if I kept on forever, it would always be the + same cry of shame, of love. + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth Strange.” + </p> + <p> + I reeled as I read the lines. The street seemed to weave itself into a + circle around me. But I knew that I was not dreaming, that this was no + delirium of my sleep. + </p> + <p> + It was three days ago, and I have not tried to see her again. I have + written her a line, to say that I shall not forget her, and to take the + blame upon myself. I expected the impossible of her. + </p> + <p> + I have yet two days before me until the steamer sails; we were to have + sailed together, and now I shall sail alone. + </p> + <p> + I will try to leave it all behind me forever; but while I linger out these + last long hours here I must think and I must doubt. + </p> + <p> + Was she, then, the <i>poseuse</i> that they said? Had she really no hear + in our love? Was it only a pretty drama she was playing, and were those + generous motives, those lofty principles which seemed to actuate her, the + poetical qualities of the play, the graces of her pose? I cannot believe + it. I believe that she was truly what she seemed, for she had been that + even before she met me. I believe that she was pure and lofty in soul as + she appeared; but that her life was warped to such a form by the false + conditions of this sad world that, when she came to look at herself again, + after she had been confronted with the sacrifice before her, she feared + that she could not make it without in a manner ceasing to be. + </p> + <p> + She— + </p> + <p> + But I shall soon see you again; and, until then, farewell. + </p> + <h3> + END OF PART I + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PART SECOND + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + I could hardly have believed, my dear Dorothea, that I should be so late + in writing to you from Altruria, but you can easily believe that I am + thoroughly ashamed of myself for my neglect. It is not for want of + thinking of you, or talking of you, that I have seemed so much more + ungrateful than I am. My husband and I seldom have any serious talk which + doesn't somehow come round to you. He admires you and likes you as much as + I do, and he does his best, poor man, to understand you; but his not + understanding you is only a part of his general failure to understand how + any American can be kind and good in conditions which he considers so + abominable as those of the capitalistic world. He is not nearly so severe + on us as he used to be at times when he was among us. When the other + Altrurians are discussing us he often puts in a reason for us against + their logic; and I think he has really forgotten, a good deal, how bad + things are with us, or else finds his own memory of them incredible. But + his experience of the world outside his own country has taught him how to + temper the passion of the Altrurians for justice with a tolerance of the + unjust; and when they bring him to book on his own report of us he tries + to explain us away, and show how we are not so bad as we ought to be. + </p> + <p> + For weeks after we came to Altruria I was so unhistorically blest that if + I had been disposed to give you a full account of myself I should have had + no events to hang the narrative on. Life here is so subjective (if you + don't know what that is, you poor dear, you must get Mr. Twelvemough to + explain) that there is usually nothing like news in it, and I always feel + that the difference between Altruria and America is so immense that it is + altogether beyond me to describe it. But now we have had some occurrences + recently, quite in the American sense, and these have furnished me with an + incentive as well as opportunity to send you a letter. Do you remember + how, one evening after dinner, in New York, you and I besieged my husband + and tried to make him tell us why Altruria was so isolated from the rest + of the world, and why such a great and enlightened continent should keep + itself apart? I see still his look of horror when Mr. Makely suggested + that the United States should send an expedition and “open” Altruria, as + Commodore Perry “opened” Japan in 1850, and try to enter into commercial + relations with it. The best he could do was to say what always seemed so + incredible, and keep on assuring us that Altruria wished for no sort of + public relations with Europe or America, but was very willing to depend + for an indefinite time for its communication with those regions on vessels + putting into its ports from stress of one kind or other, or castaway on + its coasts. They are mostly trading-ships or whalers, and they come a + great deal oftener than you suppose; you do not hear of them afterwards, + because their crews are poor, ignorant people, whose stories of their + adventures are always distrusted, and who know they would be laughed at if + they told the stories they could of a country like Altruria. My husband + himself took one of their vessels on her home voyage when he came to us, + catching the Australasian steamer at New Zealand; and now I am writing you + by the same sort of opportunity. I shall have time enough to write you a + longer letter than you will care to read; the ship does not sail for a + week yet, because it is so hard to get her crew together. + </p> + <p> + Now that I have actually made a beginning, my mind goes back so strongly + to that terrible night when I came to you after Aristides (I always use + the English form of his name now) left New York that I seem to be living + the tragedy over again, and this happiness of mine here is like a dream + which I cannot trust. It was not all tragedy, though, and I remember how + funny Mr. Makely was, trying to keep his face straight when the whole + truth had to come out, and I confessed that I had expected, without really + knowing it myself, that Aristides would disregard that wicked note I had + written him and come and make me marry him, not against my will, but + against my word. Of course I didn't put it in just that way, but in a way + to let you both guess it. The first glimmering of hope that I had was when + Mr. Makely said, “Then, when a woman tells a man that all is over between + them forever, she means that she would like to discuss the business with + him?” I was old enough to be ashamed, but it seemed to me that you and I + had gone back in that awful moment and were two girls together, just as we + used to be at school. I was proud of the way you stood up for me, because + I thought that if you could tolerate me after what I had confessed I could + not be quite a fool. I knew that I deserved at least some pity, and though + I laughed with Mr. Makely, I was glad of your indignation with him, and of + your faith in Aristides. When it came to the question of what I should do, + I don't know which of you I owed the most to. It was a kind of comfort to + have Mr. Makely acknowledge that though he regarded Aristides as a myth, + still he believed that he was a thoroughly <i>good</i> myth, and couldn't + tell a lie if he wanted to; and I loved you, and shall love you more than + any one else but him, for saying that Aristides was the most real man you + had ever met, and that if everything he said was untrue you would trust + him to the end of the world. + </p> + <p> + But, Dolly, it wasn't all comedy, any more than it was all tragedy, and + when you and I had laughed and cried ourselves to the point where there + was nothing for me to do but to take the next boat for Liverpool, and Mr. + Makely had agreed to look after the tickets and cable Aristides that I was + coming, there was still my poor, dear mother to deal with. There is no use + trying to conceal from you that she was always opposed to my husband. She + thought there was something uncanny about him, though she felt as we did + that there was nothing uncanny <i>in</i> him; but a man who pretended to + come from a country where there was no riches and no poverty could not be + trusted with any woman's happiness; and though she could not help loving + him, she thought I ought to tear him out of my heart, and if I could not + do that I ought to have myself shut up in an asylum. We had a dreadful + time when I told her what I had decided to do, and I was almost frantic. + At last, when she saw that I was determined to follow him, she yielded, + not because she was convinced, but because she could not give me up; I + wouldn't have let her if she could. I believe that the only thing which + reconciled her was that you and Mr. Makely believed in him, and thought I + had better do what I wanted to, if nothing could keep me from it. I shall + never, never forget Mr. Makely's goodness in coming to talk with her, and + how skillfully he managed, without committing himself to Altruria, to + declare his faith in my Altrurian. Even then she was troubled about what + she thought the indelicacy of my behavior in following him across the sea, + and she had all sorts of doubts as to how he would receive me when we met + in Liverpool. It wasn't very reasonable of me to say that if he cast me + off I should still love him more than any other human being, and his + censure would be more precious to me than the praise of the rest of the + world. + </p> + <p> + I suppose I hardly knew what I was saying, but when once I had yielded to + my love for him there was nothing else in life. I could not have left my + mother behind, but in her opposition to me she seemed like an enemy, and I + should somehow have <i>forced</i> her to go if she had not yielded. When + she did yield, she yielded with her whole heart and soul, and so far from + hindering me in my preparations for the voyage, I do not believe I could + have got off without her. She thought about everything, and it was her + idea to leave my business affairs entirely in Mr. Makely's hands, and to + trust the future for the final disposition of my property. I did not care + for it myself; I hated it, because it was that which had stood between me + and Aristides; but she foresaw that if by any wild impossibility he should + reject me when we met, I should need it for the life I must go back to in + New York. She behaved like a martyr as well as a heroine, for till we + reached Altruria she was a continual sacrifice to me. She stubbornly + doubted the whole affair, but now I must do her the justice to say that + she has been convinced by the fact. The best she can say of it is that it + is like the world of her girlhood; and she has gone back to the simple + life here from the artificial life in New York, with the joy of a child. + She works the whole day, and she would play if she had ever learned how. + She is a better Altrurian than I am; if there could be a bigoted Altrurian + my mother would be one. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + I sent you a short letter from Liverpool, saying that by the unprecedented + delays of the <i>Urania</i>, which I had taken because it was the swiftest + boat of the Neptune line, we had failed to pass the old, ten-day, + single-screw Galaxy liner which Aristides had sailed in. I had only time + for a word to you; but a million words could not have told the agonies I + suffered, and when I overtook him on board the Orient Pacific steamer at + Plymouth, where she touched, I could just scribble off the cable sent Mr. + Makely before our steamer put off again. I am afraid you did not find my + cable very expressive, but I was glad that I did not try to say more, for + if I had tried I should simply have gibbered, at a shilling a gibber. I + expected to make amends by a whole volume of letters, and I did post a + dozen under one cover from Colombo. If they never reached you I am very + sorry, for now it is impossible to take up the threads of that time and + weave them into any sort of connected pattern. You will have to let me off + with saying that Aristides was everything that I believed he would be and + was never really afraid he might not be. From the moment we caught sight + of each other at Plymouth, he at the rail of the steamer and I on the deck + of the tender, we were as completely one as we are now. I never could tell + how I got aboard to him; whether he came down and brought me, or whether I + was simply rapt through the air to his side. It would have been + embarrassing if we had not treated the situation frankly; but such odd + things happen among the English going out to their different colonies that + our marriage, by a missionary returning to his station, was not even a + nine days' wonder with our fellow-passengers. + </p> + <p> + We were a good deal more than nine days on the steamer before we could get + a vessel that would take us on to Altruria; but we overhauled a ship going + there for provisions at last, and we were all put off on her, bag and + baggage, with three cheers from the friends we were leaving; I think they + thought we were going to some of the British islands that the Pacific is + full of. I had been thankful from the first that I had not brought a maid, + knowing the Altrurian prejudice against hireling service, but I never was + so glad as I was when we got aboard that vessel, for when the captain's + wife, who was with him, found that I had no one to look after me, she + looked after me herself, just for the fun of it, she said; but <i>I</i> + knew it was the love of it. It was a sort of general trading-ship, + stopping at the different islands in the South Seas, and had been a year + out from home, where the kind woman had left her little ones; she cried + over their photographs to me. Her husband had been in Altruria before, and + he and Aristides were old acquaintances and met like brothers; some of the + crew knew him, too, and the captain relaxed discipline so far as to let us + shake hands with the second-mate as the men's representative. + </p> + <p> + I needn't dwell on the incidents of our home-coming—for that was + what it seemed for my mother and me as well as for my husband—but I + must give you one detail of our reception, for I still think it almost the + prettiest thing that has happened to us among the millions of pretty + things. Aristides had written home of our engagement, and he was expected + with his American wife; and before we came to anchor the captain ran up + the Emissary's signal, which my husband gave him, and then three boats + left the shore and pulled rapidly out to us. As they came nearer I saw the + first Altrurian costumes in the lovely colors that the people wear here, + and that make a group of them look like a flower-bed; and then I saw that + the boats were banked with flowers along the gunwales from stem to stern, + and that they were each not <i>manned,</i> but <i>girled</i> by six + rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw in our boat-races. When + they caught sight of us, leaning over the side, and Aristides lifted his + hat and waved it to them, they all stood their oars upright, and burst + into a kind of welcome song: I had been dreading one of those stupid, + banging salutes of ten or twenty guns, and you can imagine what a relief + it was. They were great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' + tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl + athletes; and when we got down over the ship's side, and Aristides said a + few words of introduction for my mother and me, as we stepped into the + largest of the boats, I thought they would crush me, catching me in their + strong, brown arms, and kissing me on each cheek; they never kiss on the + mouth in Altruria. The girls in the other boats kissed their hands to + mother and me, and shouted to Aristides, and then, when our boat set out + for the shore, they got on each side of us and sang song after song as + they pulled even stroke with our crew. Half-way, we met three other boats, + really <i>manned,</i> these ones, and going out to get our baggage, and + then you ought to have heard the shouting and laughing, that ended in more + singing, when the young fellows' voices mixed with the girls, till they + were lost in the welcome that came off to us from the crowded quay, where + I should have thought half Altruria had gathered to receive us. + </p> + <p> + I was afraid it was going to be too much for my mother, but she stood it + bravely; and almost at a glance people began to take her into + consideration, and she was delivered over to two young married ladies, who + saw that she was made comfortable, the first of any, in the pretty + Regionic guest-house where they put us. + </p> + <p> + I wish I could give you a notion of that guest-house, with its cool, quiet + rooms, and its lawned and gardened enclosure, and a little fountain + purring away among the flowers! But what astonished me was that there were + no sort of carriages, or wheeled conveyances, which, after our escort from + the ship, I thought might very well have met the returning Emissary and + his wife. They made my mother get into a litter, with soft cushions and + with lilac curtains blowing round it, and six girls carried her up to the + house; but they seemed not to imagine my not walking, and, in fact, I + could hardly have imagined it myself, after the first moment of queerness. + That walk was full of such rich experience for every one of the senses + that I would not have missed a step of it; but as soon as I could get + Aristides alone I asked him about horses, and he said that though horses + were still used in farm work, not a horse was allowed in any city or + village of Altruria, because of their filthiness. As for public vehicles, + they used to have electric trolleys; in the year that he had been absent + they had substituted electric motors; but these were not running, because + it was a holiday on which we had happened to arrive. + </p> + <p> + There was another incident of my first day which I think will amuse you, + knowing how I have always shrunk from any sort of public appearances. When + Aristides went to make his report to the people assembled in a sort of + convention, I had to go too, and take part in the proceedings; for women + are on an entire equality with the men here, and people would be shocked + if husband and wife were separated in their public life. They did not + spare me a single thing. Where Aristides was not very clear, or rather not + full enough, in describing America, I was called on to supplement, and I + had to make several speeches. Of course, as I spoke in English, he had to + put it into Altrurian for me, and it made the greatest excitement. The + Altrurians are very lively people, and as full of the desire to hear some + new things as Paul said the men of Athens were. At times they were in a + perfect gale of laughter at what we told them about America. Afterwards + some of the women confessed to me that they liked to hear us speaking + English together; it sounded like the whistling of birds or the shrilling + of locusts. But they were perfectly kind, and though they laughed it was + clear that they laughed at what we were saying, and never at us, or at + least never at <i>me</i>. + </p> + <p> + Of course there was the greatest curiosity to know what Aristides' wife + looked like, as well as sounded like; he had written out about our + engagement before I broke it; and my clothes were of as much interest As + myself, or more. You know how I had purposely left my latest Paris things + behind, so as to come as simply as possible to the simple life of + Altruria, but still with my big leg-of-mutton sleeves, and my picture-hat, + and my pinched waist, I felt perfectly grotesque, and I have no doubt I + looked it. They had never seen a lady from the capitalistic world before, + but only now and then a whaling-captain's wife who had come ashore; and I + knew they were burning to examine my smart clothes down to the last button + and bit of braid. I had on the short skirts of last year, and I could feel + ten thousand eyes fastened on my high-heeled boots, which you know <i>I</i> + never went to extremes in. I confess my face burned a little, to realize + what a scarecrow I must look, when I glanced round at those Altrurian + women, whose pretty, classic fashions made the whole place like a field of + lilacs and irises, and knew that they were as comfortable as they were + beautiful. Do you remember some of the descriptions of the undergraduate + maidens in the “Princess”—I know you had it at school—where + they are sitting in the palace halls together? The effect was something + like that. + </p> + <p> + You may be sure that I got out of my things as soon as I could borrow an + Altrurian costume, and now my Paris confections are already hung up for + monuments, as Richard III. says, in the Capitalistic Museum, where people + from the outlying Regions may come and study them as object-lessons in + what not to wear. (You remember what you said Aristides told you, when he + spoke that day at the mountains, about the Regions that Altruria is + divided into? This is the Maritime Region, and the city where we are + living for the present is the capital.) You may think this was rather hard + on me, and at first it did seem pretty intimate, having my things in a + long glass case, and it gave me a shock to see them, as if it had been my + ghost, whenever I passed them. But the fact is I was more ashamed than + hurt—they were so ugly and stupid and useless. I could have borne my + Paris dress and my picture-hat if it had not been for those ridiculous + high-heeled, pointed-toe shoes, which the Curatress had stood at the + bottom of the skirts. They looked the most frantic things you can imagine, + and the mere sight of them made my poor feet <i>ache</i> in the beautiful + sandals I am wearing now; when once you have put on sandals you say + good-bye and good-riddance to shoes. In a single month my feet have grown + almost a tenth as large again as they were, and my friends here encourage + me to believe that they will yet measure nearly the classic size, though, + as you know, I am not in my first youth and can't expect them to do + miracles. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + I had to leave off abruptly at the last page because Aristides had come in + with a piece of news that took my mind off everything else. I am afraid + you are not going to get this letter even at the late date I had set for + its reaching you, my dear. It seems that there has been a sort of mutiny + among the crew of our trader, which was to sail next week, and now there + is no telling when she will sail. Ever since she came the men have been + allowed their liberty, as they call it, by watches, but the last watch + came ashore this week before another watch had returned to the ship, and + now not one of the sailors will go back. They had been exploring the + country by turns, at their leisure, it seems, and their excuse is that + they like Altruria better than America, which they say they wish never to + see again. + </p> + <p> + You know (though I didn't, till Aristides explained to me) that in any + European country the captain in such a case would go to his consul, and + the consul would go to the police, and the police would run the men down + and send them back to the ship in irons as deserters, or put them in jail + till the captain was ready to sail, and then deliver them up to him. But + it seems that there is no law in Altruria to do anything of the kind; the + only law here that would touch the case is one which obliges any citizen + to appear and answer the complaint of any other citizen before the + Justiciary Assembly. A citizen cannot be imprisoned for anything but the + rarest offence, like killing a person in a fit of passion; and as to + seizing upon men who are guilty of nothing worse than wanting to be left + to the pursuit of happiness, as all the Altrurians are, there is no + statute and no usage for it. Aristides says that the only thing which can + be done is to ask the captain and the men to come to the Assembly and each + state his case. The Altrurians are not anxious to have the men stay, not + merely because they are coarse, rude, or vicious, but because they think + they ought to go home and tell the Americans what they have seen and heard + here, and try and get them to found an Altrurian Commonwealth of their + own. Still they will not compel them to go, and the magistrates do not + wish to rouse any sort of sentiment against them. They feel that the men + are standing on their natural rights, which they could not abdicate if + they would. I know this will appear perfectly ridiculous to Mr. Makely, + and I confess myself that there seems something binding in a contract + which ought to act on the men's consciences, at least. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + Well, my dear Dorothea, the hearing before the Assembly is over, and it + has left us just where it found us, as far as the departure of our trader + is concerned. + </p> + <p> + How I wish you could have been there! The hearing lasted three days, and I + would not have missed a minute of it. As it was, I did not miss a + syllable, and it was so deeply printed on my mind that I believe I could + repeat it word for word if I had to. But, in the first place, I must try + and realize the scene to you. I was once summoned as a witness in one of + our courts, you remember, and I have never forgotten the horror of it: the + hot, dirty room, with its foul air, the brutal spectators, the policemen + stationed among them to keep them in order, the lawyers with the plaintiff + and defendant seated all at one table, the uncouth abruptness of the + clerks and janitors, or whatever, the undignified magistrate, who looked + as if his lunch had made him drowsy, and who seemed half asleep, as he + slouched in his arm-chair behind his desk. Instead of such a setting as + this, you must imagine a vast marble amphitheatre, larger than the + Metropolitan Opera, by three or four times, all the gradines overflowing + (that is the word for the “liquefaction of the clothes” which poured over + them), and looking like those Bermudan waters where the colors of the + rainbow seem dropped around the coast. On the platform, or stage, sat the + Presidents of the Assembly, and on a tier of seats behind and above them, + the national Magistrates, who, as this is the capital of the republic for + the time being, had decided to be present at the hearing, because they + thought the case so very important. In the hollow space, just below (like + that where you remember the Chorus stood in that Greek play which we saw + at Harvard ages ago), were the captain and the first-mate on one hand, and + the seamen on the other; the second-mate, our particular friend, was not + there because he never goes ashore anywhere, and had chosen to remain with + the black cook in charge of the ship. The captain's wife would rather have + stayed with them, but I persuaded her to come to us for the days of the + hearing, because the captain had somehow thought we were opposed to him, + and because I thought she ought to be there to encourage him by her + presence. She sat next to me, in a hat which I wish you could have seen, + Dolly, and a dress which would have set your teeth on edge; but inside of + them I knew she was one of the best souls in the world, and I loved her + the more for being the sight she was among those wonderful Altrurian + women. + </p> + <p> + The weather was perfect, as it nearly always is at this time of year—warm, + yet fresh, with a sky of that “bleu impossible” of the Riviera on the + clearest day. Some people had parasols, but they put them down as soon as + the hearing began, and everybody could see perfectly. You would have + thought they could not hear so well, but a sort of immense sounding-plane + was curved behind the stage, so that not a word of the testimony on either + side was lost to me in English. The Altrurian translation was given the + second day of the hearing through a megaphone, as different in tone from + the thing that the man in the Grand Central Station bellows the trains + through as the <i>vox-humana</i> stop of an organ is different from the + fog-horn of a light-house. The captain's wife was bashful, in her odd + American dress, but we had got seats near the tribune, rather out of + sight, and there was nothing to hinder our hearing, like the <i>frou-frou</i> + of stiff silks or starched skirts (which I am afraid we poor things in + America like to make when we move) from the soft, filmy tissues that the + Altrurian women wear; but I must confess that there was a good deal of + whispering while the captain and the men were telling their stories. But, + no one except the interpreters, who were taking their testimony down in + short-hand, to be translated into Altrurian and read at the subsequent + hearing, could understand what they were saying, and so nobody was + disturbed by the murmurs. The whispering was mostly near me, where I sat + with the captain's wife, for everybody I knew got as close as they could + and studied my face when they thought anything important or significant + had been said. They are very quick at reading faces here; in fact, a great + deal of the conversation is carried on in that way, or with the visible + speech; and my Altrurian friends knew almost as well as I did when the + speakers came to an interesting point. It was rather embarrassing for me, + though, with the poor captain's wife at my side, to tell them, in my + broken Altrurian, what the men were accusing the captain of. + </p> + <p> + I talk of the men, but it was really only one of them who at first, by + their common consent, spoke for the rest. He was a middle-aged Yankee, and + almost the only born American among them, for you know that our sailors, + nowadays, are of every nationality under the sun—Portuguese, + Norwegians, Greeks, Italians, Kanucks, and Kanakas, and even Cape Cod + Indians. He said he guessed his story was the story of most sailors, and + he had followed the sea his whole life. His story was dreadful, and I + tried to persuade the captain's wife not to come to the hearing the next + day, when it was to be read in Altrurian; but she would come. I was afraid + she would be overwhelmed by the public compassion, and would not know what + to do; for when something awful that the sailor had said against the + captain was translated the women, all about us cooed their sympathy with + her, and pressed her hand if they could, or patted her on the shoulder, to + show how much they pitied her. In Altruria they pity the friends of those + who have done wrong, and sometimes even the wrong-doers themselves; and it + is quite a luxury, for there is so little wrong-doing here: I tell them + that in America they would have as much pitying to do as they could + possibly ask. After the hearing that day my friends, who were of a good + many different Refectories, as we call them here, wanted her to go and + lunch with them; but I got her quietly home with me, and after she had had + something to eat I made her lie down awhile. + </p> + <p> + You won't care to have me go fully into the affair. The sailors' spokesman + told how he had been born on a farm, where he had shared the family + drudgery and poverty till he grew old enough to run away. He meant to go + to sea, but he went first to a factory town and worked three or four years + in the mills. He never went back to the farm, but he sent a little money + now and then to his mother; and he stayed on till he got into trouble. He + did not say just what kind of trouble, but I fancied it was some sort of + love-trouble; he blamed himself for it; and when he left that town to get + away from the thought of it, as much as anything, and went to work in + another town, he took to drink; then, once, in a drunken spree, he found + himself in New York without knowing how. But it was in what he called a + sailors' boarding-house, and one morning, after he had been drinking + overnight “with a very pleasant gentleman,” he found himself in the + forecastle of a ship bound for Holland, and when the mate came and cursed + him up and cursed him out he found himself in the foretop. I give it + partly in his own language, because I cannot help it; and I only wish I + could give it wholly in his language; it was so graphic and so full of + queer Yankee humor. From that time on, he said, he had followed the sea; + and at sea he was always a good temperance man, but Altruria was the only + place he had ever kept sober ashore. He guessed that was partly because + there was nothing to drink but unfermented grape-juice, and partly because + there was nobody to drink with; anyhow, he had not had a drop here. + Everywhere else, as soon as he left his ship, he made for a sailors' + boarding-house, and then he did not know much till he found himself aboard + ship and bound for somewhere that he did not know of. He was always, he + said, a stolen man, as much as a negro captured on the west coast of + Africa and sold to a slaver; and, he said, it was a slave's life he led + between drinks, whether it was a long time or short. He said he would ask + his mates if it was very different with them, and when he turned to them + they all shouted back, in their various kinds of foreign accents, No, it + was just the same with them, every one. Then he said that was how he came + to ship on our captain's vessel, and though they could not all say the + same, they nodded confirmation as far as he was concerned. + </p> + <p> + The captain looked sheepish enough at this, but he looked sorrowful, too, + as if he could have wished it had been different, and he asked the man if + he had been abused since he came on board. Well, the man said, not unless + you called tainted salt-horse and weevilly biscuit abuse; and then the + captain sat down again, and I could feel his poor wife shrinking beside + me. The man said that he was comparatively well off on the captain's ship, + and the life was not half such a dog's life as he had led on other + vessels; but it was such that when he got ashore here in Altruria, and saw + how <i>white</i> people lived, people that <i>used</i> each other white, + he made up his mind that he would never go hack to any ship alive. He + hated a ship so much that if he could go home to America as a first-class + passenger on a Cunard liner, John D. Rockefeller would not have money + enough to hire him to do it. He was going to stay in Altruria till he + died, if they would let him, and he guessed they would, if what he had + heard about them was true. He just wanted, he said, while we were about + it, to have a few of his mates tell their experience, not so much on board + the <i>Little Sally</i>, but on shore, and since they could remember; and + one after another did get up and tell their miserable stories. They were + like the stories you sometimes read in your paper over your coffee, or + that you can hear any time you go into the congested districts in New + York; but I assure you, my dear, they seemed to me perfectly incredible + here, though I had known hundreds of such stories at home. As I realized + their facts I forgot where I was; I felt that I was back again in that + horror, where it sometimes seemed to me I had no right to be fed or + clothed or warm or clean in the midst of the hunger and cold and nakedness + and dirt, and where I could only reconcile myself to my comfort because I + knew my discomfort would not help others' misery. + </p> + <p> + I can hardly tell how, but even the first day a sense of something + terrible spread through that multitude of people, to whom the words + themselves were mere empty sounds. The captain sat through it, with his + head drooping, till his face was out of sight, and the tears ran silently + down his wife's cheeks; and the women round me were somehow awed into + silence. When the men ended, and there seemed to be no one else to say + anything on that side, the captain jumped to his feet, with a sort of + ferocious energy, and shouted out, “Are you all through, men?” and their + spokesman answered, “Ay, ay, sir!” and then the captain flung back his + grizzled hair and shook his fist towards the sailors. “And do you think I + <i>wanted</i> to do it? Do you think I <i>liked</i> to do it? Do you think + that if I hadn't been <i>afraid</i> my whole life long I would have had + the <i>heart</i> to lead you the dog's life I know I've led you? I've been + as poor as the poorest of you, and as low down as the lowest; I was born + in the town poor-house, and I've been so afraid of the poor-house all my + days that I hain't had, as you may say, a minute's peace. Ask my wife, + there, what sort of a man I <i>am</i>, and whether I'm the man, <i>really</i> + the man that's been hard and mean to you the way I know I been. It was + because I was <i>afraid</i>, and because a coward is always hard and mean. + I been afraid, ever since I could remember anything, of coming to want, + and I was willing to see other men suffer so I could make sure that me and + mine shouldn't suffer. That's the way we do at home, ain't it? That's in + the day's work, ain't it? That's playing the game, ain't it, for + everybody? You can't say it ain't.” He stopped, and the men's spokesman + called back, “Ay, ay, sir,” as he had done before, and as I had often + heard the men do when given an order on the ship. + </p> + <p> + The captain gave a kind of sobbing laugh, and went on in a lower tone. + “Well, I know you ain't going back. I guess I didn't expect it much from + the start, and I guess I'm not surprised.” Then he lifted his head and + shouted, “And do you suppose <i>I</i> want to go back? Don't you suppose + <i>I</i> would like to spend the rest of my days, too, among <i>white</i> + people, people that <i>use</i> each other white, as you say, and where + there ain't any want or, what's worse, <i>fear</i> of want? Men! There + ain't a day, or an hour, or a minute, when I don't think how awful it is + over there, where I got to be either some man's slave or some man's + master, as much so as if it was down in the ship's articles. My wife ain't + so, because she ain't been ashore here. I wouldn't let her; I was afraid + to let her see what a white man's country really was, because I felt so + weak about it myself, and I didn't want to put the trial on her, too. And + do you know <i>why</i> we're going back, or want to go? I guess some of + you know, but I want to tell these folks here so they'll understand, and I + want you, Mr. Homos,” he called to my husband, “to get it down straight. + It's because we've got two little children over there, that we left with + their grandmother when my wife come with me this voyage because she had + lung difficulty and wanted to see whether she could get her health back. + Nothing else on God's green earth could take me back to America, and I + guess it couldn't my wife if she knew what Altruria was as well as I do. + But when I went around here and saw how everything was, and remembered how + it was at home, I just said, 'She'll stay on the ship.' Now, that's all I + got to say, though I thought I had a lot more. I guess it'll be enough for + these folks, and they can judge between us.” Then the captain sat down, + and to make a long story short, the facts of the hearing were repeated in + Altrurian the next day by megaphone, and when the translation was finished + there was a general rush for the captain. He plainly expected to be + lynched, and his wife screamed out, “Oh, don't hurt him! He isn't a bad + man!” But it was only the Altrurian way with a guilty person: they wanted + to let him know how sorry they were for him, and since his sin had found + him out how hopeful they were for his redemption. I had to explain it to + the sailors as well as to the captain and his wife, but I don't believe + any of them quite accepted the fact. + </p> + <p> + The third day of the hearing was for the rendering of the decision, first + in Altrurian, and then in English. The verdict of the magistrates had to + be confirmed by a standing vote of the people, and of course the women + voted as well as the men. The decision was that the sailors should be + absolutely free to go or stay, but they took into account the fact that it + would be cruel to keep the captain and his wife away from their little + ones, and the sailors might wish to consider this. If they still remained + true to their love of Altruria they could find some means of returning. + </p> + <p> + When the translator came to this point their spokesman jumped to his feet + and called out to the captain, “Will you <i>do</i> it?” “Do what?” he + asked, getting slowly to his own feet. “Come back with us after you have + seen the kids?” The captain shook his fist at the sailors; it seemed to be + the only gesture he had with them. “Give me the <i>chance!</i> All I want + is to see the children and bring them out with me to Altruria, and the old + folks with them.” “Will you <i>swear</i> it? Will you say, 'I hope I may + find the kids dead and buried when I get home if I don't do it'?” “I'll + take that oath, or any oath you want me to.” “Shake hands on it, then.” + </p> + <p> + The two men met in front of the tribunal and clasped hands there, and + their reconciliation did not need translation. Such a roar of cheers went + up! And then the whole assembly burst out in the national Altrurian + anthem, “Brothers All.” I wish you could have heard it! But when the terms + of the agreement were explained, the cheering that had gone before was a + mere whisper to what followed. One orator after another rose and praised + the self-sacrifice of the sailors. I was the proudest when the last of + them referred to Aristides and the reports which he had sent home from + America, and said that without some such study as he had made of the + American character they never could have understood such an act as they + were now witnessing. Illogical and insensate as their system was, their + character sometimes had a beauty, a sublimity which was not possible to + Altrurians even, for it was performed in the face of risks and chances + which their happy conditions relieved them from. At the same time, the + orator wished his hearers to consider the essential immorality of the act. + He said that civilized men had no right to take these risks and chances. + The sailors were perhaps justified, in so far as they were homeless, + wifeless, and childless men; but it must not be forgotten that their + heroism was like the reckless generosity of savages. + </p> + <p> + The men have gone back to the ship, and she sails this afternoon. I have + persuaded the captain to let his wife stay to lunch with me at our + Refectory, where the ladies wish to bid her good-bye, and I am hurrying + forward this letter so that she can take it on board with her this + afternoon. She has promised to post it on the first Pacific steamer they + meet, or if they do not meet any to send it forward to you with a + special-delivery stamp as soon as they reach Boston. She will also forward + by express an Altrurian costume, such as I am now wearing, sandals and + all! Do put it on, Dolly, dear, for my sake, and realize what it is for + once in your life to be a <i>free</i> woman. + </p> + <p> + Heaven knows when I shall have another chance of getting letters to you. + But I shall live in hopes, and I shall set down my experiences here for + your benefit, not perhaps as I meet them, but as I think of them, and you + must not mind having a rather cluttered narrative. To-morrow we are + setting off on our round of the capitals, where Aristides is to make a + sort of public report to the people of the different Regions on the + working of the capitalistic conditions as he observed them among us. But I + don't expect to send you a continuous narrative of our adventures. + Good-bye, dearest, with my mother's love, and my husband's as well as my + own, to both of you; think of me as needing nothing but a glimpse of you + to complete my happiness. How I should like to tell you fully about it! + You <i>must</i> come to Altruria! + </p> + <p> + I came near letting this go without telling you of one curious incident of + the affair between the captain and his men. Before the men returned to the + ship they came with their spokesman to say good-bye to Aristides and me, + and he remarked casually that it was just as well, maybe, to be going + back, because, for one thing, they would know then whether it was real or + not. I asked him what he meant, and he said, “Well, you know, some of the + mates think it's a dream here, or it's too good to be true. As far forth + as I go, I'd be willing to have it a dream that I didn't ever have to wake + up from. It ain't any too good to be true for me. Anyway, I'm going to get + back somehow, and give it another chance to be a fact.” Wasn't that + charming? It had a real touch of poetry in it, but it was prose that + followed. I couldn't help asking him whether there had been nothing to mar + the pleasure of their stay in Altruria, and he answered: “Well, I don't + know as you could rightly say <i>mar;</i> it hadn't ought to have. You + see, it was like this. You see, some of the mates wanted to lay off and + have a regular bange, but that don't seem to be the idea here. After we + had been ashore a day or two they set us to work at different jobs, or + wanted to. The mates didn't take hold very lively, and some of 'em didn't + take hold a bit. But after that went on a couple of days, there wa'n't any + breakfast one morning, and come noontime there wa'n't any dinner, and as + far forth as they could make out they had to go to bed without supper. + Then they called a halt, and tackled one of your head men here that could + speak some English. He didn't answer them right off the reel, but he got + out his English Testament and he read 'em a verse that said, 'For even + when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any one would not + work neither should he eat.' That kind of fetched 'em, and after that + there wa'n't any sojerin', well not to speak of. They saw he meant + business. I guess it did more than any one thing to make 'em think they + wa'n't dreamin'.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + You must not think, Dolly, from anything I have been telling you that the + Altrurians are ever harsh. Sometimes they cannot realize how things really + are with us, and how what seems grotesque and hideous to them seems + charming and beautiful, or at least <i>chic</i>, to us. But they are + wonderfully quick to see when they have hurt you the least, and in the + little sacrifices I have made of my wardrobe to the cause of general + knowledge there has not been the least urgence from them. When I now look + at the things I used to wear, where they have been finally placed in the + ethnological department of the Museum, along with the Esquiman kyaks and + the Thlinkeet totems, they seem like things I wore in some prehistoric age— + </p> + <p> + “When wild in woods the noble savage ran.” + </p> + <p> + Now, am I being unkind? Well, you mustn't mind me, Dolly. You must just + say, “She <i>has</i> got it bad,” and go on and learn as much about + Altruria as you can from me. Some of the things were hard to get used to, + and at first seemed quite impossible. For one thing, there was the matter + of service, which is dishonorable with us, and honorable with the + Altrurians: I was a long time getting to understand that, though I knew it + perfectly well from hearing my husband talk about it in New York. I + believe he once came pretty near offending you by asking why you did not + do your own work, or something like that; he has confessed as much, and I + could not wonder at you in your conditions. Why, when we first went to the + guest-house, and the pretty young girls who brought in lunch sat down at + table to eat it with us, I felt the indignation making me hot all over. + You know how democratic I am, and I did not mind those great, splendid + boat-girls hugging and kissing me, but I instinctively drew the line at + cooks and waitresses. In New York, you know, I always tried to be kind to + my servants, but as for letting one of them sit down in my presence, much + less sit down at table with me, I never dreamed of such a thing in my most + democratic moments. Luckily I drew the line subjectively here, and later I + found that these young ladies were daughters of some of the most + distinguished men and women on the continent, though you must not + understand distinction as giving any sort of social primacy; that sort of + thing is not allowed in Altruria. They had drawn lots with the girls in + the Regionic school here, and were proud of having won the honor of + waiting on us. Of course, I needn't say they were what we would have felt + to be ladies anywhere, and their manners were exquisite, even to leaving + us alone together as soon as we had finished luncheon. The meal itself was + something I shall always remember for its delicious cooking of the + different kinds of mushrooms which took the place of meat, and the + wonderful salads, and the temperate and tropical fruits which we had for + dessert. + </p> + <p> + They had to talk mostly with my husband, of course, and when they did talk + to me it was through him. They were very intelligent about our world, much + more than we are about Altruria, though, of course, it was by deduction + from premises rather than specific information, and they wanted to ask a + thousand questions; but they saw the joke of it, and laughed with us when + Aristides put them off with a promise that if they would have a public + meeting appointed we would appear and answer all the questions anybody + could think of; we were not going to waste our answers on them the first + day. He wanted them to let us go out and help wash the dishes, but they + would not hear of it. I confess I was rather glad of that, for it seemed a + lower depth to which I could not descend, even after eating with them. But + they invited us out to look at the kitchen, after they had got it in order + a little, and when we joined them there, whom should I see but my own dear + old mother, with an apron up to her chin, wiping the glass and watching + carefully through her dear old spectacles that she got everything bright! + You know she was of a simpler day than ours, and when she was young she + used to do her own work, and she and my father always washed the dishes + together after they had company. I merely said, “<i>Well</i>, mother!” and + she laughed and colored, and said she guessed she should like it in + Altruria, for it took her back to the America she used to know. + </p> + <p> + I must mention things as they come into my head, and not in any regular + order; there are too many of them. One thing is that I did not notice till + afterwards that we had had no meat that first day at luncheon—the + mushrooms were so delicious, and you know I never was much of a + meat-eater. It was not till we began to make our present tour of the + Regionic capitals, where Aristides has had to repeat his account of + American civilization until I am sick as well as ashamed of America, that + I first felt a kind of famine which I kept myself from recognizing as long + as I could. Then I had to own to myself, long before I owned it to him, + that I was hungry for <i>meat</i>—for roast, for broiled, for fried, + for hashed. I did not actually tell him, but he found it out, and I could + not deny it, though I felt such an ogre in it. He was terribly grieved, + and blamed himself for not having thought of it, and wished he had got + some canned meats from the trader before she left the port. He was really + in despair, for nobody since the old capitalistic times had thought of + killing sheep or cattle for food; they have them for wool and milk and + butter; and of course when I looked at them in the fields it did seem + rather formidable. You are so used to seeing them in the butchers' shops, + ready for the range, that you never think of what they have to <i>go + through</i> before that. But at last I managed to gasp out, one day, “If I + could only have a chicken!” and he seemed to think that it could be + managed. I don't know how he made interest with the authorities, or how + the authorities prevailed on a farmer to part with one of his precious + pullets; but the thing was done somehow, and two of the farmer's children + brought it to us at one of the guest-houses where we were staying, and + then fled howling. That was bad enough, but what followed was worse. I + went another day on mushrooms before I had the heart to say chicken again + and suggest that Aristides should get it killed and dressed. The poor + fellow did try, I believe, but we had to fall back upon ourselves for the + murderous deed, and—Did you ever see a chicken have its head cut + off, and how hideously it behaves? It made us both wish we were dead; and + the sacrifice of that one pullet was quite enough for me. We buried the + poor thing under the flowers of the guest-house garden, and I went back to + my mushrooms after a visit of contrition to the farmer and many attempts + to bring his children to forgiveness. After all, the Altrurian mushrooms + are wonderfully nourishing, and they are in such variety that, what with + other succulent vegetables and the endless range of fruits and nuts, one + does not wish for meat—meat that one has killed one's self! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + I wish you could be making tour of the Regionic capitals with us, Dolly! + There are swift little one-rail electric expresses running daily from one + capital to another, but these are used only when speed is required, and we + are confessedly in no hurry: Aristides wanted me to see as much of the + country as possible, and I am as eager as he. The old steam-roads of the + capitalistic epoch have been disused for generations, and their beds are + now the country roads, which are everywhere kept in beautiful repair. + There are no horse vehicles (the electric motors are employed in the + towns), though some people travel on horseback, but the favorite means of + conveyance is by electric van, which any citizen may have on proof of his + need of it; and it is comfortable beyond compare—mounted on easy + springs, and curtained and cushioned like those gypsy vans we see in the + country at home. Aristides drives himself, and sometimes we both get out + and walk, for there is plenty of time. + </p> + <p> + I don't know whether I can make you understand how everything has tended + to simplification here. They have disused the complicated facilities and + conveniences of the capitalistic epoch, which we are so proud of, and have + got back as close as possible to nature. People stay at home a great deal + more than with us, though if any one likes to make a journey or to visit + the capitals he is quite free to do it, and those who have some useful or + beautiful object in view make the sacrifice, as they feel it, to leave + their villages every day and go to the nearest capital to carry on their + studies or experiments. What we consider modern conveniences they would + consider a superfluity of naughtiness for the most part. As <i>work</i> is + the ideal, they do not believe in what we call labor-saving devices. + </p> + <p> + When we approach a village on our journey, one of the villagers, sometimes + a young man, and sometimes a girl, comes out to meet us, and when we pass + through they send some one with us on the way a little. The people have a + perfect inspiration for hospitality: they not only know when to do and how + much to do, but how little and when not at all. I can't remember that we + have ever once been bored by those nice young things that welcomed us or + speeded us on our way, and when we have stopped in a village they have + shown a genius for leaving us alone, after the first welcome, that is + beautiful. They are so regardful of our privacy, in fact, that if it had + not been for Aristides, who explained their ideal to me, I should have + felt neglected sometimes, and should have been shy of letting them know + that we would like their company. But he understood it, and I must say + that I have never enjoyed people and their ways so much. Their hospitality + is a sort of compromise between that of the English houses where you are + left free at certain houses to follow your own devices absolutely, and + that Spanish splendor which assures you that the host's house is yours + without meaning it. In fact, the guest-house, wherever we go, <i>is</i> + ours, for it belongs to the community, and it is absolutely a home to us + for the time being. It is usually the best house in the village, the + prettiest and cosiest, where all the houses are so pretty and cosey. There + is always another building for public meetings, called the temple, which + is the principal edifice, marble and classic and tasteful, which we see + almost as much of as the guest-house, for the news of the Emissary's + return has preceded him, and everybody is alive with curiosity, and he has + to stand and deliver in the village temples everywhere. Of course I am the + great attraction, and after being scared by it at first I have rather got + to like it; the people are so kind, and unaffected, and really delicate. + </p> + <p> + You mustn't get the notion that the Altrurians are a solemn people at all; + they are rather gay, and they like other people's jokes as well as their + own; I am sure Mr. Makely, with his sense of humor, would be at home with + them at once. The one thing that more than any other has helped them to + conceive of the American situation is its being the gigantic joke which we + often feel it to be; I don't know but it appears to them more grotesque + than it does to us even. At first, when Aristides would explain some + peculiarity of ours, they would receive him with a gale of laughing, but + this might change into cries of horror and pity later. One of the things + that amused and then revolted them most was our patriotism. They thought + it the drollest thing in the world that men should be willing to give + their own lives and take the lives of other men for the sake of a country + which assured them no safety from want, and did not even assure them work, + and in which they had no more logical interest than the country they were + going to fight. They could understand how a rich man might volunteer for + one of our wars, but when they were told that most of our volunteers were + poor men, who left their mothers and sisters, or their wives and children, + without any means of support, except their meagre pay, they were quite + bewildered and stopped laughing, as if the thing had passed a joke. They + asked, “How if one of these citizen soldiers was killed?” and they seemed + to suppose that in this case the country would provide for his family and + give them work, or if the children were too young would support them at + the public expense. It made me creep a little when my husband answered + that the family of a crippled or invalided soldier would have a pension of + eight or ten or fifteen dollars a month; and when they came back with the + question why the citizens of such a country should love it enough to die + for it, I could not have said why for the life of me. But Aristides, who + is so magnificently generous, tried to give them a notion of the sublimity + which is at the bottom of our illogicality and which adjusts so many + apparently hopeless points of our anomaly. They asked how this sublimity + differed from that of the savage who brings in his game and makes a feast + for the whole tribe, and leaves his wife and children without provision + against future want; but Aristides told them that there were essential + differences between the Americans and savages, which arose from the fact + that the savage condition was permanent and the American conditions were + unconsciously provisional. + </p> + <p> + They are quite well informed about our life in some respects, but they + wished to hear at first hand whether certain things were really so or not. + For instance, they wanted to know whether people were allowed to marry and + bring children into the world if they had no hopes of supporting them or + educating them, or whether diseased people were allowed to become parents. + In Altruria, you know, the families are generally small, only two or three + children at the most, so that the parents can devote themselves to them + the more fully; and as there is no fear of want here, the state interferes + only when the parents are manifestly unfit to bring the little ones up. + They imagined that there was something of that kind with us, but when they + heard that the state interfered in the family only when the children were + unruly, and then it punished the children by sending them to a reform + school and disgracing them for life, instead of holding the parents + accountable, they seemed to think that it was one of the most anomalous + features of our great anomaly. Here, when the father and mother are always + quarrelling, the children are taken from them, and the pair are separated, + at first for a time, but after several chances for reform they are parted + permanently. + </p> + <p> + But I must not give you the notion that all our conferences are so + serious. Many have merely the character of social entertainments, which + are not made here for invited guests, but for any who choose to come; all + are welcome. At these there are often plays given by amateurs, and + improvised from plots which supply the outline, while the performers + supply the dialogue and action, as in the old Italian comedies. The + Altrurians are so quick and fine, in fact, that they often remind me of + the Italians more than any other people. One night there was for my + benefit an American play, as the Altrurians imagined it from what they had + read about us, and they had costumed it from the pictures of us they had + seen in the newspapers Aristides had sent home while he was with us. The + effect was a good deal like that American play which the Japanese company + of Sada Yacco gave while it was in New York. It was all about a + millionaire's daughter, who was loved by a poor young man and escaped with + him to Altruria in an open boat from New York. The millionaire could be + distinctly recognized by the dollar-marks which covered him all over, as + they do in the caricatures of rich men in our yellow journals. It was + funny to the last degree. In the last act he was seen giving his millions + away to poor people, whose multitude was represented by the continually + coming and going of four or five performers in and out of the door, in + outrageously ragged clothes. The Altrurians have not yet imagined the nice + degrees of poverty which we have achieved, and they could not have + understood that a man with a hundred thousand dollars would have seemed + poor to that multi-millionaire. In fact, they do not grasp the idea of + money at all. I heard afterwards that in the usual version the millionaire + commits suicide in despair, but the piece had been given a happy ending + out of kindness to me. I must say that in spite of the monstrous + misconception the acting was extremely good, especially that of some comic + characters. + </p> + <p> + But dancing is the great national amusement in Altruria, where it has not + altogether lost its religious nature. A sort of march in the temples is as + much a part of the worship as singing, and so dancing has been preserved + from the disgrace which it used to be in with serious people among us. In + the lovely afternoons you see young people dancing in the meadows, and + hear them shouting in time to the music, while the older men and women + watch them from their seats in the shade. Every sort of pleasure here is + improvised, and as you pass through a village the first thing you know the + young girls and young men start up in a sort of <i>girandole</i>, and + linking hands in an endless chain stretch the figure along through the + street and out over the highway to the next village, and the next and the + next. The work has all been done in the forenoon, and every one who + chooses is at liberty to join in the fun. + </p> + <p> + The villages are a good deal alike to a stranger, and we knew what to + expect there after a while, but the country is perpetually varied, and the + unexpected is always happening in it. The old railroad-beds, on which we + travelled, are planted with fruit and nut trees and flowering shrubs, and + our progress is through a fragrant bower that is practically endless, + except where it takes the shape of a colonnade near the entrance of a + village, with vines trained about white pillars, and clusters of grapes + (which are ripening just now) hanging down. The change in the climate + created by cutting off the southeastern peninsula and letting in the + equatorial current, which was begun under the first Altrurian president, + with an unexpended war-appropriation, and finished for what one of the old + capitalistic wars used to cost, is something perfectly astonishing. + Aristides says he told you something about it in his speech at the White + Mountains, but you would never believe it without the evidence of your + senses. Whole regions to the southward, which were nearest the pole and + were sheeted with ice and snow, with the temperature and vegetation of + Labrador, now have the climate of Italy; and the mountains, which used to + bear nothing but glaciers, are covered with olive orchards and plantations + of the delicious coffee which they drink here. Aristides says you could + have the same results at home—no! <i>in the United States</i>—by + cutting off the western shore of Alaska and letting in the Japanese + current; and it could be done at the cost of any average war. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + But I must not get away from my personal experiences in these + international statistics. Sometimes, when night overtakes us, we stop and + camp beside the road, and set about getting our supper of eggs and bread + and butter and cheese, or the fruits that are ripening all round us. Since + my experience with that pullet I go meekly mushrooming in the fields and + pastures; and when I have set the mushrooms stewing over an open fire, + Aristides makes the coffee, and in a little while we have a banquet fit + for kings—or for the poor things in every grade below them that + serve kings, political or financial or industrial. There is always water, + for it is brought down from the snow-fields of the mountains—there + is not much rainfall—and carried in little concrete channels along + the road—side from village to village, something like those conduits + the Italian peasants use to bring down the water from the Maritime Alps to + their fields and orchards; and you hear the soft gurgle of it the whole + night long, and day long, too, whenever you stop. After supper we can read + awhile by our electric lamp (we tap the current in the telephone wires + anywhere), or Aristides sacrifices himself to me in a lesson of Altrurian + grammar. Then we creep back into our van and fall asleep with the Southern + Cross glittering over our heads. It is perfectly safe, though it was a + long time before I could imagine the perfect safety of it. In a country + where there are no thieves, because a thief here would not know what to do + with his booty, we are secure from human molestation, and the land has + long been cleared of all sorts of wild beasts, without being unpleasantly + tamed. It is like England in that, and yet it has a touch of the sylvan, + which you feel nowhere as you do in our dear New England hill country. + There was one night, however, when we were lured on and on, and did not + stop to camp till fairly in the dusk. Then we went to sleep without + supper, for we had had rather a late lunch and were not hungry, and about + one o'clock in the morning I was awakened by voices speaking Altrurian + together. I recognized my husband's voice, which is always so kind, but + which seemed to have a peculiarly tender and compassionate note in it now. + The other was lower and of a sadness which wrung my heart, though I did + not know in the least what the person was saying. The talk went on a long + time, at first about some matter of immediate interest, as I fancied, and + then apparently it branched off on some topic which seemed to concern the + stranger, whoever he was. Then it seemed to get more indistinct, as if the + stranger were leaving us and Aristides were going a little way with him. + Presently I heard him coming back, and he put his head in at the van + curtains, as if to see whether I was asleep. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” I said, and he said how sorry he was for having waked me. “Oh, I + don't mind,” I said. “Whom were you talking with? He had the saddest voice + I ever heard. What did he want?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it seems that we are not far from the ruins of one of the old + capitalistic cities, which have been left for a sort of warning against + the former conditions, and he wished to caution us against the malarial + influences from it. I think perhaps we had better push on a little way, if + you don't mind.” + </p> + <p> + The moon was shining clearly, and of course I did not mind, and Aristides + got his hand on the lever, and we were soon getting out of the dangerous + zone. “I think,” he said, “they ought to abolish that pest-hole. I doubt + if it serves any good purpose, now, though it has been useful in times + past as an object-lesson.” + </p> + <p> + “But who was your unknown friend?” I asked, a great deal more curious + about him than about the capitalistic ruin. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, just a poor murderer,” he answered easily, and I shuddered back: “A + murderer!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. He killed his friend some fifteen years ago in a jealous rage, and + he is pursued by remorse that gives him no peace.” + </p> + <p> + “And is the remorse his only punishment?” I asked, rather indignantly. + </p> + <p> + “Isn't that enough? God seemed to think it was, in the case of the first + murderer, who killed his brother. All that he did to Cain was to set a + mark on him. But we have not felt sure that we have the right to do this. + We let God mark him, and He has done it with this man in the sorrow of his + face. I was rather glad you, couldn't see him, my dear. It is an awful + face.” + </p> + <p> + I confess that this sounded like mere sentimentalism to me, and I said, + “Really, Aristides, I can't follow you. How are innocent people to be + protected against this wretch, if he wanders about among them at will?” + </p> + <p> + “They are as safe from him as from any other man in Altruria. His case was + carefully looked into by the medical authorities, and it was decided that + he was perfectly sane, so that he could be safely left at large, to + expiate his misdeed in the only possible way that such a misdeed can be + expiated—by doing good to others. What would you have had us do with + him?” + </p> + <p> + The question rather staggered me, but I said, “He ought to have been + imprisoned at least a year for manslaughter.” + </p> + <p> + “Cain was not imprisoned an hour.” + </p> + <p> + “That was a very different thing. But suppose you let a man go at large + who has killed his friend in a jealous rage, what do you do with other + murderers?” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria there can be no other murderers. People cannot kill here for + money, which prompts every other kind of murder in capitalistic countries, + as well as every other kind of crime. I know, my dear, that this seems + very strange to you, but you will accustom yourself to the idea, and then + you will see the reasonableness of the Altrurian plan. On the whole, I am + sorry you could not have seen that hapless man, and heard him. He had a + face like death—” + </p> + <p> + “And a voice like death, too!” I put in. + </p> + <p> + “You noticed that? He wanted to talk about his crime with me. He wants to + talk about it with any one who will listen to him. He is consumed with an + undying pity for the man he slew. That is the first thing, the only thing, + in his mind. If he could, I believe he would give his life for the life he + took at any moment. But you cannot recreate one life by destroying + another. There is no human means of ascertaining justice, but we can + always do mercy with divine omniscience.” As he spoke the sun pierced the + edge of the eastern horizon, and lit up the marble walls and roofs of the + Regionic capital which we were approaching. + </p> + <p> + At the meeting we had there in the afternoon, Aristides reported our + having been warned against our danger in the night by that murderer, and + public record of the fact was made. The Altrurians consider any sort of + punishment which is not expiation a far greater sin than the wrong it + visits, and altogether barren and useless. After the record in this case + had been made, the conference naturally turned upon what Aristides had + seen of the treatment of criminals in America, and when, he told of our + prisons, where people merely arrested and not yet openly accused are kept, + I did not know which way to look, for you know I am still an American at + heart, Dolly. Did you ever see the inside of one of our police-stations at + night? Or smell it? I did, once, when I went to give bail for a wretched + girl who had been my servant, and had gone wrong, but had been arrested + for theft, and I assure you that the sight and the smell woke me in the + night for a month afterwards, and I have never quite ceased to dream about + it. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurians listened in silence, and I hoped they could not realize the + facts, though the story was every word true; but what seemed to make them + the most indignant was the treatment of the families of the prisoners in + what we call our penitentiaries and reformatories. At first they did not + conceive of it, apparently, because it was so stupidly barbarous; they + have no patience with stupidity; and when Aristides had carefully + explained, it seemed as if they could not believe it. They thought it + right that the convicts should be made to work, but they could not + understand that the state really took away their wages, and left their + families to suffer for want of the support which it had deprived them of. + They said this was punishing the mothers and sisters, the wives and + children of the prisoners, and was like putting out the eyes of an + offender's innocent relatives as they had read was done in Oriental + countries. They asked if there was never any sort of protest against such + an atrocious perversion of justice, and when the question was put to me I + was obliged to own that I had never heard the system even criticised. + Perhaps it has been, but I spoke only from my own knowledge. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + Well, to get away from these dismal experiences, and come back to our + travels, with their perpetual novelty, and the constantly varying beauty + of the country! + </p> + <p> + The human interest of the landscape, that is always the great interest of + it, and I wish I could make you feel it as I have felt it in this + wonderful journey of ours. It is like the New England landscape at times, + in its kind of gentle wildness, but where it has been taken back into the + hand of man, how different the human interest is! Instead of a rheumatic + old farmer, in his clumsy clothes, with some of his gaunt girls to help + him, or perhaps his ageing wife, getting in the hay of one of those sweet + meadows, and looking like so many animated scarecrows at their work; or + instead of some young farmer, on the seat of his clattering mower, or + mounted high over his tedder, but as much alone as if there were no one + else in the neighborhood, silent and dull, or fierce or sullen, as the + case might be, the work is always going on with companies of mowers or + reapers, or planters, that chatter like birds or sing like them. + </p> + <p> + It is no use my explaining again and again that in a country like this, + where everybody works, nobody over works, and that when the few hours of + obligatory labor are passed in the mornings, people need not do anything + unless they choose. Their working-dresses are very simple, but in all + sorts of gay colors, like those you saw in the Greek play at Harvard, with + straw hats for the men, and fillets of ribbon for the girls, and sandals + for both. I speak of girls, for most of the married women are at home + gardening, or about the household work, but men of every age work in the + fields. The earth is dear to them because they get their life from it by + labor that is not slavery; they come to love it every acre, every foot, + because they have known it from childhood; and I have seen old men, very + old, pottering about the orchards and meadows during the hours of + voluntary work, and trimming them up here and there, simply because they + could not keep away from the place, or keep their hands off the trees and + bushes. Sometimes in the long, tender afternoons, we see far up on some + pasture slope, groups of girls scattered about on the grass, with their + sewing, or listening to some one reading. Other times they are giving a + little play, usually a comedy, for life is so happy here that tragedy + would not be true to it, with the characters coming and going in a grove + of small pines, for the <i>coulisses</i>, and using a level of grass for + the stage. If we stop, one of the audience comes down to us and invites us + to come up and see the play, which keeps on in spite of the sensation that + I can feel I make among them. + </p> + <p> + Everywhere the news of us has gone before us, and there is a universal + curiosity to get a look at Aristides' capitalistic wife, as they call me. + I made him translate it, and he explained that the word was merely + descriptive and not characteristic; some people distinguished and called + me American. There was one place where they were having a picnic in the + woods up a hillside, and they asked us to join them, so we turned our van + into the roadside and followed the procession. It was headed by two old + men playing on pipes, and after these came children singing, and then all + sorts of people, young and old. When we got to an open place in the woods, + where there was a spring, and smooth grass, they built fires, and began to + get ready for the feast, while some of them did things to amuse the rest. + Every one could do something; if you can imagine a party of artists, it + was something like that. I should say the Altrurians had artists' manners, + free, friendly, and easy, with a dash of humor in everything, and a + wonderful willingness to laugh and make laugh. Aristides is always + explaining that the artist is their ideal type; that is, some one who + works gladly, and plays as gladly as he works; no one here is asked to do + work that he hates, unless he seems to hate every kind of work. When this + happens, the authorities find out something for him that he had <i>better</i> + like, by letting him starve till he works. That picnic lasted the whole + afternoon and well into the night, and then the picnickers went home + through the starlight, leading the little ones, or carrying them when they + were too little or too tired. But first they came down to our van with us, + and sang us a serenade after we had disappeared into it, and then left us, + and sent their voices back to us out of the dark. + </p> + <p> + One morning at dawn, as we came into a village, we saw nearly the whole + population mounting the marble steps of the temple, all the holiday dress + of the Voluntaries, which they put on here every afternoon when the work + is done. Last of the throng came a procession of children, looking + something like a May-Day party, and midway of their line were a young man + and a young girl, hand in hand, who parted at the door of the temple, and + entered separately. Aristides called out, “Oh, it is a wedding! You are in + luck, Eveleth,” and then and there I saw my first Altrurian wedding. + </p> + <p> + Within, the pillars and the altar and the seats of the elders were + garlanded with flowers, so fresh and fragrant that they seemed to have + blossomed from the marble overnight, and there was a soft murmur of + Altrurian voices that might very well have seemed the hum of bees among + the blossoms. This subsided, as the young couple, who had paused just + inside the temple door, came up the middle side by side, and again + separated and took their places, the youth on the extreme right of the + elder, and the maiden on the extreme left of the eldresses, and stood + facing the congregation, which was also on foot, and joined in the hymn + which everybody sang. Then one of the eldresses rose and began a sort of + statement which Aristides translated to me afterwards. She said that the + young couple whom we saw there had for the third time asked to become man + and wife, after having believed for a year that they loved each other, and + having statedly come before the marriage authorities and been questioned + as to the continuance of their affection. She said that probably every one + present knew that they had been friends from childhood, and none would be + surprised that they now wished to be united for life. They had been + carefully instructed as to the serious nature of the marriage bond, and + admonished as to the duties they were entering into, not only to each + other, but to the community. At each successive visit to the authorities + they had been warned, separately and together, against the danger of + trusting to anything like a romantic impulse, and they had faithfully + endeavored to act upon this advice, as they testified. In order to prove + the reality of their affection, they had been parted every third month, + and had lived during that time in different Regions where it was meant + they should meet many other young people, so that if they felt any + swerving of the heart they might not persist in an intention which could + only bring them final unhappiness. It seems this is the rule in the case + of young lovers, and people usually marry very young here, but if they + wish to marry later in life the rule is not enforced so stringently, or + not at all. The bride and groom we saw had both stood these trials, and at + each return they had been more and more sure that they loved each other, + and loved no one else. Now they were here to unite their hands, and to + declare the union of their hearts before the people. + </p> + <p> + Then the eldress sat down and an elder arose, who bade the young people + come forward to the centre of the line, where the elders and eldresses + were sitting. He took his place behind them, and once more and for the + last time he conjured them not to persist if they felt any doubt of + themselves. He warned them that if they entered into the married state, + and afterwards repented to the point of seeking divorce, the divorce would + indeed be granted them, but on terms, as they must realize, of lasting + grief to themselves through the offence they would commit against the + commonwealth. They answered that they were sure of themselves, and ready + to exchange their troth for life and death. Then they joined hands, and + declared that they took each other for husband and wife. The congregation + broke into another hymn and slowly dispersed, leaving the bride and groom + with their families, who came up to them and embraced them, pressing their + cheeks against the cheeks of the young pair. + </p> + <p> + This ended the solemnity, and then the festivity began, as it ended, with + a wedding feast, where people sang and danced and made speeches and drank + toasts, and the fun was kept up till the hours of the Obligatories + approached; and then, what do you think? The married pair put off their + wedding garments with the rest and went to work in the fields! Later, I + understood, if they wished to take a wedding journey they could freely do + so; but the first thing in their married life they must honor the + Altrurian ideal of work, by which every one must live in order that every + other may live without overwork. I believe that the marriage ceremonial is + something like that of the Quakers, but I never saw a Quaker wedding, and + I could only compare this with the crazy romps with which our + house-weddings often end, with throwing of rice and old shoes, and tying + ribbons to the bridal carriage and baggage, and following the pair to the + train with outbreaks of tiresome hilarity, which make them conspicuous + before their fellow-travellers; or with some of our ghastly church + weddings, in which the religious ceremonial is lost in the social effect, + and ends with that everlasting thumping march from “Lohengrin,” and the + outsiders storming about the bridal pair and the guests with the rude + curiosity that the fattest policemen at the canopied and carpeted entrance + cannot check. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <p> + We have since been at other weddings and at christenings and at funerals. + The ceremonies are always held in the temples, and are always in the same + serious spirit. As the Altrurians are steadfast believers in immortality, + there is a kind of solemn elevation in the funeral ceremonies which I + cannot give you a real notion of. It is helped, I think, by the custom of + not performing the ceremony over the dead; a brief rite is reserved for + the cemetery, where it is wished that the kindred shall not be present, + lest they think always of the material body and not of the spiritual body + which shall be raised in incorruption. Religious service is held in the + temples every day at the end of the Obligatories, and whenever we are near + a village or in any of the capitals we always go. It is very simple. After + a hymn, to which the people sometimes march round the interior of the + temple, each lays on the altar an offering from the fields or woods where + they have been working, if it is nothing but a head of grain or a wild + flower or a leaf. Then any one is at liberty to speak, but any one else + may go out without offence. There is no ritual; sometimes they read a + chapter from the New Testament, preferably a part of the story of Christ + or a passage from His discourses. The idea of coming to the temple at the + end of the day's labor is to consecrate that day's work, and they do not + call anything work that is not work with the hands. When I explained, or + tried to explain, that among us a great many people worked with their + brains, to amuse others or to get handwork out of them, they were unable + to follow me. I asked if they did not consider composing music or poetry + or plays, or painting pictures work, and they said, No, that was pleasure, + and must be indulged only during the Voluntaries; it was never to be + honored like work with the hands, for it would not equalize the burden of + that, but might put an undue share of it on others. They said that lives + devoted to such pursuits must be very unwholesome, and they brought me to + book about the lives of most artists, literary men, and financiers in the + capitalistic world to prove what they said. They held that people must + work with their hands willingly, in the artistic spirit, but they could + only do that when they knew that others differently gifted were working in + like manner with their hands. + </p> + <p> + I couldn't begin to tell you all our queer experiences. As I have kept + saying, I am a great curiosity everywhere, and I could flatter myself that + people were more eager to see me than to hear Aristides. Sometimes I + couldn't help thinking that they expected to find me an awful warning, a + dreadful example of whatever a woman ought not to be, and a woman from + capitalistic conditions must be logically. But sometimes they were very + intelligent, even the simplest villagers, as we should call them, though + there is such an equality of education and opportunity here that no + simplicity of life has the effect of dulling people as it has with us. One + thing was quite American: they always wanted to know how I liked Altruria, + and when I told them, as I sincerely could, that I adored it, they were + quite affecting in their pleasure. They generally asked if I would like to + go back to America, and when I said No, they were delighted beyond + anything. They said I must become a citizen and vote and take part in the + government, for that was every woman's duty as well as right; it was wrong + to leave the whole responsibility to the men. They asked if American women + took no interest in the government, and when I told them there was a very + small number who wished to influence politics socially, as the + Englishwomen did, but without voting or taking any responsibility, they + were shocked. In one of the Regionic capitals they wanted me to speak + after Aristides, but I had nothing prepared; at the next I did get off a + little speech in English, which he translated after me. Later he put it + into Altrurian, and I memorized it, and made myself immensely popular by + parroting it. + </p> + <p> + The pronunciation of Altrurian is not difficult, for it is spelled + phonetically, and the sounds are very simple. Where they were once + difficult they have been simplified, for here the simplification of life + extends to everything; and the grammar has been reduced in its structure + till it is as elemental as English grammar or Norwegian. The language is + Greek in origin, but the intricate inflections and the declensions have + been thrown away, and it has kept only the simplest forms. You must get + Mr. Twelvemough to explain this to you, Dolly, for it would take me too + long, and I have so much else to tell you. A good many of the women have + taken up English, but they learn it as a dead language, and they give it a + comical effect by trying to pronounce it as it is spelled. + </p> + <p> + I suppose you are anxious, if these letters which are piling up and piling + up should ever reach you, or even start to do so, to know something about + the Altrurian cities, and what they are like. Well, in the first place, + you must cast all images of American cities out of your mind, or any + European cities, except, perhaps, the prettiest and stateliest parts of + Paris, where there is a regular sky-line, and the public buildings and + monuments are approached through shaded avenues. There are no private + houses here, in our sense—that is, houses which people have built + with their own money on their own land, and made as ugly outside and as + molestive to their neighbors and the passers-by as they chose. As the + buildings belong to the whole people, the first requirement is that they + shall be beautiful inside and out. There are a few grand edifices looking + like Greek temples, which are used for the government offices, and these + are, of course, the most dignified, but the dwellings are quite as + attractive and comfortable. They are built round courts, with gardens and + flowers in the courts, and wide grassy spaces round them. They are rather + tall, but never so tall as our great hotels or apartment-houses, and the + floors are brought to one level by elevators, which are used only in the + capitals; and, generally speaking, I should say the villages were + pleasanter than the cities. In fact, the village is the Altrurian ideal, + and there is an effort everywhere to reduce the size of the towns and + increase the number of the villages. The outlying farms have been gathered + into these, and now there is not one of those lonely places in the + country, like those where our farmers toil alone outdoors and their wives + alone indoors, and both go mad so often in the solitude. The villages are + almost in sight of each other, and the people go to their fields in + company, while the women carry on their house-keeping co-operatively, with + a large kitchen which they use in common; they have their meals apart or + together, as they like. If any one is sick or disabled the neighbors come + in and help do her work, as they used with us in the early times, and as + they still do in country places. Village life here is preferred, just as + country life is in England, and one thing that will amuse you, with your + American ideas, and your pride in the overgrowth of our cities: the + Altrurian papers solemnly announce from time to time that the population + of such or such a capital has been reduced so many hundreds or thousands + since the last census. That means that the villages in the neighborhood + have been increased in number and population. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, I must say the capitals are delightful: clean, airy, quiet, + with the most beautiful architecture, mostly classic and mostly marble, + with rivers running through them and round them, and every real + convenience, but not a clutter of artificial conveniences, as with us. In + the streets there are noiseless trolleys (where they have not been + replaced by public automobiles) which the long distances of the ample + ground-plan make rather necessary, and the rivers are shot over with swift + motor-boats; for the short distances you always expect to walk, or if you + don't expect it, you walk anyway. The car-lines and boat-lines are public, + and they are free, for the Altrurians think that the community owes + transportation to every one who lives beyond easy reach of the points + which their work calls them to. + </p> + <p> + Of course the great government stores are in the capitals, and practically + there are no stores in the villages, except for what you might call + emergency supplies. But you must not imagine, Dolly, that shopping, here, + is like shopping at home—or in America, as I am learning to say, for + Altruria is home now. That is, you don't fill your purse with bank-notes, + or have things charged. You get everything you want, within reason, and + certainly everything you need, for nothing. You have only to provide + yourself with a card, something like that you have to show at the Army and + Navy Stores in London, when you first go to buy there, which certifies + that you belong to this or that working-phalanx, and that you have not + failed in the Obligatories for such and such a length of time. If you are + not entitled to this card, you had better not go shopping, for there is no + possible equivalent for it which will enable you to carry anything away or + have it sent to your house. At first I could not help feeling rather + indignant when I was asked to show my work-card in the stores; I had + usually forgotten to bring it, or sometimes I had brought my husband's + card, which would not do at all, unless I could say that I had been ill or + disabled, for a woman is expected to work quite the same as a man. Of + course her housework counts, and as we are on a sort of public mission, + they count our hours of travel as working-hours, especially as Aristides + has made it a point of good citizenship for us to stop every now and then + and join in the Obligatories when the villagers were getting in the farm + crops or quarrying stone or putting up a house. I am never much use in + quarrying or building, but I come in strong in the hay-fields or the apple + orchards or the orange groves. + </p> + <p> + The shopping here is not so enslaving as it is with us—I mean, with + you—because the fashions do not change, and you get things only when + you need them, not when you want them, or when other people think you do. + The costume was fixed long ago, when the Altrurian era began, by a + commission of artists, and it would be considered very bad form as well as + bad morals to try changing it in the least. People are allowed to choose + their own colors, but if one goes very wrong, or so far wrong as to offend + the public taste, she is gently admonished by the local art commission. If + she insists, they let her have her own way, but she seldom wants it when + she knows that people think her a fright. Of course the costume is + modified somewhat for the age and shape of the wearer, but this is not so + often as you might think. There are no very lean or very stout people, + though there are old and young, just as there are with us. But the + Altrurians keep young very much longer than capitalistic peoples do, and + the life of work keeps down their weight. You know I used to incline a + little to over-plumpness, I really believe because I overate at times + simply to keep from thinking of the poor who had to undereat, but that is + quite past now; I have lost at least twenty-five pounds from working + out-doors and travelling so much and living very, very simply. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <p> + I have to jot things down as they come into my mind, and I am afraid I + forget some of the most important. Everybody is so novel on this famous + tour of ours that I am continually interested, but one has one's + preferences even in Altruria, and I believe I like best the wives of the + artists and literary men whom one finds working in the galleries and + libraries of the capitals everywhere. They are not more intelligent than + other women, perhaps, but they are more sympathetic; and one sees so + little of those people in New York, for all they abound there. + </p> + <p> + The galleries are not only for the exhibition of pictures, but each has + numbers of ateliers, where the artists work and teach. The libraries are + the most wonderfully imagined things. You do not have to come and study in + them, but if you are working up any particular subject, the books relating + to it are sent to your dwelling every morning and brought away every noon, + so that during the obligatory hours you have them completely at your + disposition, and during the Voluntaries you can consult them with the rest + of the public in the library; it is not thought best that study should be + carried on throughout the day, and the results seem to justify this + theory. If you want to read a book merely for pleasure, you are allowed to + take it out and live with it as long as you like; the copy you have is + immediately replaced with another, so that you do not feel hurried and are + not obliged to ramp through it in a week or a fortnight. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurian books are still rather sealed books to me, but they are + delightful to the eye, all in large print on wide margins, with flexible + bindings, and such light paper that you can hold them in one hand + indefinitely without tiring. I must send you some with this, if I ever get + my bundle of letters off to you. You will see by the dates that I am + writing you one every day; I had thought of keeping a journal for you, but + then I should have had left out a good many things that happened during + our first days, when the impressions were so vivid, and I should have got + to addressing my records to myself, and I think I had better keep to the + form of letters. If they reach you, and you read them at random, why that + is very much the way I write them. + </p> + <p> + I despair of giving you any real notion of the capitals, but if you + remember the White City at the Columbian Fair at Chicago in 1893, you can + have some idea of the general effect of one; only there is nothing + heterogeneous in their beauty. There is one classic rule in the + architecture, but each of the different architects may characterize an + edifice from himself, just as different authors writing the same language + characterize it by the diction natural to him. There are suggestions of + the capitals in some of our cities, and if you remember Commonwealth + Avenue in Boston, you can imagine something like the union of street and + garden which every street of them is. The trolleys run under the + overarching trees between the lawns, flanked by gravelled footpaths + between flower-beds, and you take the cars or not as you like. As there is + no hurry, they go about as fast as English trams, and the clanger from + them is practically reduced to nothing by the crossings dipping under them + at the street corners. The centre of the capital is approached by + colonnades, which at night bear groups of great bulbous lamps, and by day + flutter with the Altrurian and Regionic flags. Around this centre are the + stores and restaurants and theatres, and galleries and libraries, with + arcades over the sidewalks, like those in Bologna; sometimes the arcades + are in two stories, as they are in Chester. People are constantly coming + and going in an easy way during the afternoon, though in the morning the + streets are rather deserted. + </p> + <p> + But what is the use? I could go on describing and describing, and never + get in half the differences from American cities, with their hideous + uproar, and their mud in the wet, and their clouds of swirling dust in the + wind. But there is one feature which I must mention, because you can fancy + it from the fond dream of a great national highway which some of our + architects projected while they were still in the fervor of excitement + from the beauty of the Peristyle, and other features of the White City. + They really have such a highway here, crossing the whole Altrurian + continent, and uniting the circle of the Regionic capitals. As we + travelled for a long time by the country roads on the beds of the old + railways, I had no idea of this magnificent avenue, till one day my + husband suddenly ran our van into the one leading up to the first capital + we were to visit. Then I found myself between miles and miles of stately + white pillars, rising and sinking as the road found its natural levels, + and growing in the perspective before us and dwindling behind us. I could + not keep out of my mind a colonnade of palm-trees, only the fronds were + lacking, and there were never palms so beautiful. Each pillar was + inscribed with the name of some Altrurian who had done something for his + country, written some beautiful poem or story, or history, made some + scientific discovery, composed an opera, invented a universal convenience, + performed a wonderful cure, or been a delightful singer, or orator, or + gardener, or farmer. Not one soldier, general or admiral, among them! That + seemed very strange to me, and I asked Aristides how it was. Like + everything else in Altruria, it was very simple; there had been no war for + so long that there were no famous soldiers to commemorate. But he stopped + our van when he came to the first of the many arches which spanned the + highway, and read out to me in English the Altrurian record that it was + erected in honor of the first President of the Altrurian Commonwealth, who + managed the negotiations when the capitalistic oligarchies to the north + and south were peacefully annexed, and the descendants of the three + nations joined in the commemoration of an event that abolished war forever + on the Altrurian continent. + </p> + <p> + Here I can imagine Mr. Makely asking who footed the bills for this beauty + and magnificence, and whether these works were constructed at the cost of + the nation, or the different Regions, or the abuttors on the different + highways. But the fact is, you poor, capitalistic dears, they cost nobody + a dollar, for there is not a dollar in Altruria. You must worry into the + idea somehow that in Altruria you cannot buy anything except by working, + and that work is the current coin of the republic: you pay for everything + by drops of sweat, and off your own brow, not somebody else's brow. The + people built these monuments and colonnades, and aqueducts and highways + and byways, and sweet villages and palatial cities with their own hands, + after the designs of artists, who also took part in the labor. But it was + a labor that they delighted in so much that they chose to perform it + during the Voluntaries, when they might have been resting, and not during + the Obligatories, when they were required to work. So it was all joy and + all glory. They say there never was such happiness in any country since + the world began. While the work went on it was like a perpetual Fourth of + July or an everlasting picnic. + </p> + <p> + But I know you hate this sort of economical stuff, Dolly, and I will make + haste to get down to business, as Mr. Makely would say, for I am really + coming to something that you will think worth while. One morning, when we + had made half the circle of the capitals, and were on the homestretch to + the one where we had left our dear mother—for Aristides claims her, + too—and I was letting that dull nether anxiety for her come to the + top, though we had had the fullest telephonic talks with her every day, + and knew she was well and happy, we came round the shoulder of a wooded + cliff and found ourselves on an open stretch of the northern coast. At + first I could only exclaim at the beauty of the sea, lying blue and still + beyond a long beach closed by another headland, and I did not realize that + a large yacht which I saw close to land had gone ashore. The beach was + crowded with Altrurians, who seemed to have come to the rescue, for they + were putting off to the yacht in boats and returning with passengers, and + jumping out, and pulling their boats with them up on to the sand. + </p> + <p> + I was quite bewildered, and I don't know what to say I was the next thing, + when I saw that the stranded yacht was flying the American flag from her + peak. I supposed she must be one of our cruisers, she was so large, and + the first thing that flashed into my mind was a kind of amused wonder what + those poor Altrurians would do with a ship-of-war and her marines and + crew. I couldn't ask any coherent questions, and luckily Aristides was + answering my incoherent ones in the best possible way by wheeling our van + down on the beach and making for the point nearest the yacht. He had time + to say he did not believe she was a government vessel, and, in fact, I + remembered that once I had seen a boat in the North River getting up steam + to go to Europe which was much larger, and had her decks covered with + sailors that I took for bluejackets; but she was only the private yacht of + some people I knew. These stupid things kept going and coming in my mind + while my husband was talking with some of the Altrurian girls who were + there helping with the men. They said that the yacht had gone ashore the + night before last in one of the sudden fogs that come up on that coast, + and that some people whom the sailors seemed to obey were camping on the + edge of the upland above the beach, under a large tent they had brought + from the yacht. They had refused to go to the guest-house in the nearest + village, and as nearly as the girls could make out they expected the yacht + to get afloat from tide to tide, and then intended to re-embark on her. In + the mean time they had provisioned themselves from the ship, and were + living in a strange way of their own. Some of them seemed to serve the + others, but these appeared to be used with a very ungrateful indifference, + as if they were of a different race. There was one who wore a white apron + and white cap who directed the cooking for the rest, and had several + assistants; and from time to time very disagreeable odors came from the + camp, like burning flesh. The Altrurians had carried them fruits and + vegetables, but the men-assistants had refused them contemptuously and + seemed suspicious of the variety of mushrooms they offered them. They + called out, “To-stoo!” and I understood that the strangers were afraid + they were bringing toad-stools. One of the Altrurian girls had been + studying English in the nearest capital, and she had tried to talk with + these people, pronouncing it in the Altrurian way, but they could make + nothing of one another; then she wrote down what she wanted to say, but as + she spelled it phonetically they were not able to read her English. She + asked us if I was the American Altrurian she had heard of, and when I said + yes she lost no time in showing us to the camp of the castaways. + </p> + <p> + As soon as we saw their tents we went forward till we were met at the + largest by a sort of marine footman, who bowed slightly and said to me, + “What name shall I say, ma'am?” and I answered distinctly, so that he + might get the name right, “Mr. and Mrs. Homos.” Then he held back the flap + of the marquee, which seemed to serve these people as a drawing-room, and + called out, standing very rigidly upright, to let us pass, in the way that + I remembered so well, “Mr. And Mrs. 'Omos!” and a severe-looking, rather + elderly lady rose to meet us with an air that was both anxious and + forbidding, and before she said anything else she burst out, “You don't + mean to say you speak English?” + </p> + <p> + I said that I spoke English, and had not spoken anything else but rather + poor French until six months before, and then she demanded, “Have you been + cast away on this outlandish place, too?” + </p> + <p> + I laughed and said I lived here, and I introduced my husband as well as I + could without knowing her name. He explained with his pretty Altrurian + accent, which you used to like so much, that we had ventured to come in + the hope of being of use to them, and added some regrets for their + misfortune so sweetly that I wondered she could help responding in kind. + But she merely said, “Oh!” and then she seemed to recollect herself, and + frowning to a very gentle-looking old man to come forward, she ignored my + husband in presenting me. “Mr. Thrall, Mrs. ——” + </p> + <p> + She hesitated for my name, and I supplied it, “Homos,” and as the old man + had put out his hand in a kindly way I took it. + </p> + <p> + “And this is my husband, Aristides Homos, an Altrurian,” I said, and then, + as the lady had not asked us to sit down, or shown the least sign of + liking our being there, the natural woman flamed up in me as she hadn't in + all the time I have been away from New York. “I am glad you are so + comfortable here, Mr. Thrall. You won't need us, I see. The people about + will do anything in their power for you. Come, my dear,” and I was + sweeping out of that tent in a manner calculated to give the eminent + millionaire's wife a notion of Altrurian hauteur which I must own would + have been altogether mistaken. + </p> + <p> + I knew who they were perfectly. Even if I had not once met them I should + have known that they were the ultra-rich Thralls, from the multitudinous + pictures of them that I had seen in the papers at home, not long after + they came on to New York. + </p> + <p> + He was beginning, “Oh no, oh no,” but I cut in. “My husband and I are on + our way to the next Regionic capital, and we are somewhat hurried. You + will be quite well looked after by the neighbors here, and I see that we + are rather in your housekeeper's way.” + </p> + <p> + It <i>was</i> nasty, Dolly, and I won't deny it; it was <i>vulgar</i>. But + what would <i>you</i> have done? I could feel Aristides' mild eye sadly on + me, and I was sorry for him, but I assure him I was not sorry for them, + till that old man spoke again, so timidly: “It isn't my—it's my + wife, Mrs. Homos. Let me introduce her. But haven't we met before?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps during my first husband's lifetime. I was Mrs. Bellington + Strange.” + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. P. Bellington Strange? Your husband was a dear friend of mine when + we were both young—a good man, if ever there was one; the best in + the world! I am so glad to see you again. Ah—my dear, you remember + my speaking of Mrs. Strange?” + </p> + <p> + He took my hand again and held it in his soft old hands, as if hesitating + whether to transfer it to her, and my heart melted towards him. You may + think it very odd, Dolly, but it was what he said of my dear, dead husband + that softened me. It made him seem very fatherly, and I felt the affection + for him that I felt for my husband, when he seemed more like a father. + Aristides and I often talk of it, and he has no wish that I should forget + him. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Thrall made no motion to take my hand from him, but she said, “I + think I have met Mr. Strange,” and now I saw in the background, sitting on + a camp-stool near a long, lank young man stretched in a hammock, a very + handsome girl, who hastily ran through a book, and then dropped it at the + third mention of my name. I suspected that the book was the Social + Register, and that the girl's search for me had been satisfactory, for she + rose and came vaguely towards us, while the young man unfolded himself + from the hammock, and stood hesitating, but looking as if he rather liked + what had happened. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall bustled about for camp-stools, and said, “Do stop and have some + breakfast with us, it's just coming in. May I introduce my daughter, Lady + Moors and—and Lord Moors?” The girl took my hand, and the young man + bowed from his place; but if that poor old man had known, peace was not to + be made so easily between two such bad-tempered women as Mrs. Thrall and + myself. We expressed some very stiff sentiments in regard to the weather, + and the prospect of the yacht getting off with the next tide, and my + husband joined in with that manly gentleness of his, but we did not sit + down, much less offer to stay to breakfast. We had got to the door of the + tent, the family following us, even to the noble son-in-law, and as she + now realized that we are actually going, Mrs. Thrall gasped out, “But you + are not <i>leaving</i> us? What shall we <i>do</i> with all these + natives?” + </p> + <p> + This was again too much, and I flamed out at her. “<i>Natives</i>! They + are cultivated and refined people, for they are Altrurians, and I assure + you you will be in much better hands than mine with them, for I am only + Altrurian by marriage!” + </p> + <p> + She was one of those leathery egotists that nothing will make a dint in, + and she came back with, “But we don't speak the language, and they don't + speak English, and how are we to manage if the yacht doesn't get afloat?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no doubt you will be looked after from the capital we have just left. + But I will venture to make a little suggestion with regard to the natives + in the mean time. They are not proud, but they are very sensitive, and if + you fail in any point of consideration, they will understand that you do + not want their hospitality.” + </p> + <p> + “I imagine our own people will be able to look after us,” she answered + quite as nastily. “We do not propose to be dependent on them. We can pay + our way here as we do elsewhere.” + </p> + <p> + “The experiment will be worth trying,” I said. “Come, Aristides!” and I + took the poor fellow away with me to our van. Mr. Thrall made some + hopeless little movements towards us, but I would not stop or even look + back. When we got into the van, I made Aristides put on the full power, + and fell back into my seat and cried a while, and then I scolded him + because he would not scold me, and went on in a really scandalous way. It + must have been a revelation to him, but he only smoothed me on the + shoulder and said, “Poor Eveleth, poor Eveleth,” till I thought I should + scream; but it ended in my falling on his neck, and saying I knew I was + horrid, and what did he want me to do? + </p> + <p> + After I calmed down into something like rationality, he said he thought we + had perhaps done the best thing we could for those people in leaving them + to themselves, for they could come to no possible harm among the + neighbors. He did not believe from what he had seen of the yacht from the + shore, and from what the Altrurians had told him, that there was one + chance in a thousand of her ever getting afloat. But those people would + have to convince themselves of the fact, and of several other facts in + their situation. I asked him what he meant, and he said he could tell me, + but that as yet it was a public affair, and he would rather not anticipate + the private interest I would feel in it. I did not insist; in fact, I + wanted to get that odious woman out of my mind as soon as I could, for the + thought of her threatened to poison the pleasure of the rest of our tour. + </p> + <p> + I believe my husband hurried it a little, though he did not shorten it, + and we got back to the Maritime Region almost a week sooner than we had + first intended. I found my dear mother well, and still serenely happy in + her Altrurian surroundings. She had begun to learn the language, and she + had a larger acquaintance in the capital, I believe, than any other one + person. She said everybody had called on her, and they were the kindest + people she had ever dreamed of. She had exchanged cooking-lessons with one + lady who, they told her, was a distinguished scientist, and she had taught + another, who was a great painter, a peculiar embroidery stitch which she + had learned from my grandmother, and which everybody admired. These two + ladies had given her most of her grammatical instruction in Altrurian, but + there was a bright little girl who had enlarged her vocabulary more than + either, in helping her about her housework, the mother having lent her for + the purpose. My mother said she was not ashamed to make blunders before a + child, and the little witch had taken the greatest delight in telling her + the names of things in the house and the streets and the fields outside + the town, where they went long walks together. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <p> + Well, my dear Dorothea, I had been hoping to go more into detail about my + mother and about our life in the Maritime Capital, which is to be our home + for a year, but I had hardly got down the last words when Aristides came + in with a despatch from the Seventh Regionic, summoning us there on + important public business: I haven't got over the feeling yet of being + especially distinguished and flattered at sharing in public business; but + the Altrurian women are so used to it that they do not think anything of + it. The despatch was signed by an old friend of my husband's, Cyril + Chrysostom, who had once been Emissary in England, and to whom my husband + wrote his letters when he was in America. I hated to leave my mother so + soon, but it could not be helped, and we took the first electric express + for the Seventh Regionic, where we arrived in about an hour and forty + minutes, making the three hundred miles in that time easily. I couldn't + help regretting our comfortable van, but there was evidently haste in the + summons, and I confess that I was curious to know what the matter was, + though I had made a shrewd guess the first instant, and it turned out that + I was not mistaken. + </p> + <p> + The long and the short of it was that there was trouble with the people + who had come ashore in that yacht, and were destined never to go to sea in + her. She was hopelessly bedded in the sand, and the waves that were + breaking over her were burying her deeper and deeper. The owners were + living in their tent as we had left them, and her crew were camped in + smaller tents and any shelter they could get, along the beach. They had + brought her stores away, but many of the provisions had been damaged, and + it had become a pressing question what should be done about the people. We + had been asked to consult with Cyril and his wife, and the other Regionic + chiefs and their wives, and we threshed the question out nearly the whole + night. + </p> + <p> + I am afraid it will appear rather comical in some aspects to you and Mr. + Makely, but I can assure you that it was a very serious matter with the + Altrurian authorities. If there had been any hope of a vessel from the + capitalistic world touching at Altruria within a definite time, they could + have managed, for they would have gladly kept the yacht's people and + owners till they could embark them for Australia or New Zealand, and would + have made as little of the trouble they were giving as they could. But + until the trader that brought us should return with the crew, as the + captain had promised, there was no ship expected, and any other wreck in + the mean time would only add to their difficulty. You may be surprised, + though I was not, that the difficulty was mostly with the yacht-owners, + and above all with Mrs. Thrall, who had baffled every effort of the + authorities to reduce what they considered the disorder of their life. + </p> + <p> + With the crew it was a different matter. As soon as they had got drunk on + the wines and spirits they had brought from the wreck, and then had got + sober because they had drunk all the liquors up, they began to be more + manageable; when their provisions ran short, and they were made to + understand that they would not be allowed to plunder the fields and woods, + or loot the villages for something to eat, they became almost exemplarily + docile. At first they were disposed to show fight, and the principles of + the Altrurians did not allow them to use violence in bringing them to + subjection; but the men had counted without their hosts in supposing that + they could therefore do as they pleased, unless they pleased to do right. + After they had made their first foray they were warned by Cyril, who came + from the capital to speak English with them, that another raid would not + be suffered. They therefore attempted it by night, but the Altrurians were + prepared for them with the flexible steel nets which are their only means + of defence, and half a dozen sailors were taken in one. When they + attempted to break out, and their shipmates attempted to break in to free + them, a light current of electricity was sent through the wires and the + thing was done. Those who were rescued—the Altrurians will not say + captured—had hoes put into their hands the next morning, and were + led into the fields and set to work, after a generous breakfast of coffee, + bread, and mushrooms. The chickens they had killed in their midnight + expedition were buried, and those which they had not killed lost no time + in beginning to lay eggs for the sustenance of the reformed castaways. As + an extra precaution with the “rescued,” when they were put to work, each + of them with a kind of shirt of mail, worn over his coat, which could + easily be electrized by a metallic filament connecting with the communal + dynamo, and under these conditions they each did a full day's work during + the Obligatories. + </p> + <p> + As the short commons grew shorter and shorter, both meat and drink, at + Camp Famine, and the campers found it was useless to attempt thieving from + the Altrurians, they had tried begging from the owners in their large + tent, but they were told that the provisions were giving out there, too, + and there was nothing for them. When they insisted the servants of the + owners had threatened them with revolvers, and the sailors, who had + nothing but their knives, preferred to attempt living on the country. + Within a week the whole crew had been put to work in the woods and fields + and quarries, or wherever they could make themselves useful. They were, on + the whole, so well fed and sheltered that they were perfectly satisfied, + and went down with the Altrurians on the beach during the Voluntaries and + helped secure the yacht's boats and pieces of wreckage that came ashore. + Until they became accustomed or resigned to the Altrurian diet, they were + allowed to catch shell-fish and the crabs that swarmed along the sand and + cook them, but on condition that they built their fires on the beach, and + cooked only during an offshore wind, so that the fumes of the roasting + should not offend the villagers. + </p> + <p> + Cyril acknowledged, therefore, that the question of the crew was for the + present practically settled, but Mr. and Mrs. Thrall, and their daughter + and son-in-law, with their servants, still presented a formidable problem. + As yet, their provisions had not run out, and they were living in their + marquee as we had seen them three weeks earlier, just after their yacht + went ashore. It could not be said that they were molestive in the same + sense as the sailors, but they were even more demoralizing in the + spectacle they offered the neighborhood of people dependent on hired + service, and in their endeavors to supply themselves in perishable + provisions, like milk and eggs, by means of money. Cyril had held several + interviews with them, in which he had at first delicately intimated, and + then explicitly declared, that the situation could not be prolonged. The + two men had been able to get the Altrurian point of view in some measure, + and so had Lady Moors, but Mrs. Thrall had remained stiffly obtuse and + obstinate, and it was in despair of bringing her to terms without + resorting to rescue that he had summoned us to help him. + </p> + <p> + It was not a pleasant job, but of course we could not refuse, and we + agreed that as soon as we had caught a nap, and had a bite of breakfast we + would go over to their camp with Cyril and his wife, and see what we could + do with the obnoxious woman. I confess that I had some little consolation + in the hope that I should see her properly humbled. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors must have seen us coming, for they met us at the + door of the tent without the intervention of the footman, and gave us + quite as much welcome as we could expect in our mission, so disagreeable + all round. Mr. Thrall was as fatherly with me as before, and Lord Moors + was as polite to Cyril and Mrs. Chrysostom as could have been wished. In + fact he and Cyril were a sort of acquaintances from the time of Cyril's + visit to England where he met the late Earl Moors, the father of the + present peer, in some of his visits to Toynbee Hall, and the Whitechapel + Settlements. The earl was very much interested in the slums, perhaps + because he was rather poor himself, if not quite slummy. The son was then + at the university, and when he came out and into his title he so far + shared his father's tastes that he came to America; it was not slumming, + exactly, but a nobleman no doubt feels it to be something like it. After a + little while in New York he went out to Colorado, where so many needy + noblemen bring up, and there he met the Thralls, and fell in love with the + girl. Cyril had understood—or rather Mrs. Cyril,—that it was a + love-match on both sides, but on Mrs. Thrall's side it was business. He + did not even speak of settlements—the English are so romantic when + they <i>are</i> romantic!—but Mr. Thrall saw to all that, and the + young people were married after a very short courtship. They spent their + honeymoon partly in Colorado Springs and partly in San Francisco, where + the Thralls' yacht was lying, and then they set out on a voyage round the + world, making stops at the interesting places, and bringing up on the + beach of the Seventh Region of Altruria, on route for the eastern coast of + South America. From that time on, Cyril said, we knew their history. + </p> + <p> + After Mr. Thrall had shaken hands tenderly with me, and cordially with + Aristides, he said, “Won't you all come inside and have breakfast with us? + My wife and daughter”— + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, Mr. Thrall,” Cyril answered for us, “we will sit down here, if + you please; and as your ladies are not used to business, we will not ask + you to disturb them.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sure Lady Moors,” the young nobleman began, but Cyril waved him + silent. + </p> + <p> + “We shall be glad later, but not now! Gentlemen, I have asked my friends + Aristides Homos and Eveleth Homos to accompany my wife and me this morning + because Eveleth is an American, and will understand your position, and he + has lately been in America and will be able to clarify the situation from + both sides. We wish you to believe that we are approaching you in the + friendliest spirit, and that nothing could be more painful to us than to + seem inhospitable.” + </p> + <p> + “Then why,” the old man asked, with business-like promptness, “do you + object to our presence here? I don't believe I get your idea.” + </p> + <p> + “Because the spectacle which your life offers is contrary to good morals, + and as faithful citizens we cannot countenance it.” + </p> + <p> + “But in what way is our life immoral? I have always thought that I was a + good citizen at home; at least I can't remember having been arrested for + disorderly conduct.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled at me, as if I should appreciate the joke, and it hurt me to + keep grave, but suspecting what a bad time he was going to have, I thought + I had better not join him in any levity. + </p> + <p> + “I quite conceive you,” Cyril replied. “But you present to our people, who + are offended by it, the spectacle of dependence upon hireling service for + your daily comfort and convenience.” + </p> + <p> + “But, my dear sir,” Mr. Thrall returned, “don't we <i>pay</i> for it? Do + our servants object to rendering us this service?” + </p> + <p> + “That has nothing to do with the case; or, rather, it makes it worse. The + fact that your servants do not object shows how completely they are + depraved by usage. We should not object if they served you from affection, + and if you repaid them in kindness; but the fact that you think you have + made them a due return by giving them money shows how far from the right + ideal in such a matter the whole capitalistic world is.” + </p> + <p> + Here, to my great delight, Aristides spoke up: + </p> + <p> + “If the American practice were half as depraving as it ought logically to + be in their conditions, their social system would drop to pieces. It was + always astonishing to me that a people with their facilities for evil, + their difficulties for good, should remain so kind and just and pure.” + </p> + <p> + “That is what I understood from your letters to me, my dear Aristides. I + am willing to leave the general argument for the present. But I should + like to ask Mr. Thrall a question, and I hope it won't be offensive.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall smiled. “At any rate I promise not to be offended.” + </p> + <p> + “You are a very rich man?” + </p> + <p> + “Much richer than I would like to be.” + </p> + <p> + “How rich?” + </p> + <p> + “Seventy millions; eighty; a hundred; three hundred; I don't just know.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't suppose you've always felt your great wealth a great blessing?” + </p> + <p> + “A blessing? There have been times when I felt it a millstone hanged about + my neck, and could have wished nothing so much as that I were thrown into + the sea. Man, you don't <i>know</i> what a curse I have felt my money to + be at such times. When I have given it away, as I have by millions at a + time, I have never been sure that I was not doing more harm than good with + it. I have hired men to seek out good objects for me, and I have tried my + best to find for myself causes and institutions and persons who might be + helped without hindering others as worthy, but sometimes it seems as if + every dollar of my money carried a blight with it, and infected whoever + touched it with a moral pestilence. It has reached a sum where the wildest + profligate couldn't spend it, and it grows and grows. It's as if it were a + rising flood that had touched my lips, and would go over my head before I + could reach the shore. I believe I got it honestly, and I have tried to + share it with those whose labor earned it for me. I have founded schools + and hospitals and homes for old men and old women, and asylums for + children, and the blind, and deaf, and dumb, and halt, and mad. Wherever I + have found one of my old workmen in need, and I have looked personally + into the matter, I have provided for him fully, short of pauperization. + Where I have heard of some gifted youth, I have had him educated in the + line of his gift. I have collected a gallery of works of art, and opened + it on Sundays as well as week-days to the public free. If there is a story + of famine, far or near, I send food by the shipload. If there is any great + public calamity, my agents have instructions to come to the rescue without + referring the case to me. But it is all useless! The money grows and + grows, and I begin to feel that my efforts to employ it wisely and + wholesomely are making me a public laughing-stock as well as an easy mark + for every swindler with a job or a scheme.” He turned abruptly to me. “But + you must often have heard the same from my old friend Strange. We used to + talk these things over together, when our money was not the heap that mine + is now; and it seems to me I can hear his voice saying the very words I + have been using.” + </p> + <p> + I, too, seemed to hear his voice in the words, and it was as if speaking + from his grave. + </p> + <p> + I looked at Aristides, and read compassion in his dear face; but the face + of Cyril remained severe and judicial. He said: “Then, if what you say is + true, you cannot think it a hardship if we remove your burden for the time + you remain with us. I have consulted with the National and Regional as + well as the Communal authorities, and we cannot let you continue to live + in the manner you are living here. You must pay your way.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall be only too glad to do that,” Mr. Thrall returned, more + cheerfully. “We have not a great deal of cash in hand, but I can give you + my check on London or Paris or New York.” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria,” Cyril returned, “we have no use for money. You must <i>pay</i> + your way as soon as your present provision from your yacht is exhausted.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall turned a dazed look on the young lord, who suggested: “I don't + think we follow you. How can Mr. Thrall pay his way except with money?” + </p> + <p> + “He must pay with <i>work</i>. As soon as you come upon the neighbors here + for the necessities of life you must all work. To-morrow or the next day + or next week at the furthest you must go to work, or you must starve.” + </p> + <p> + Then he came out with that text of Scripture which had been so efficient + with the crew of the <i>Little Sally</i>: “For even when we were with you + this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat.” + </p> + <p> + Lord Moors seemed very interested, and not so much surprised as I had + expected. “Yes, I have often thought of that passage and of its + susceptibility to a simpler interpretation than we usually give it. But—” + </p> + <p> + “There is but one interpretation of which it is susceptible,” Cyril + interrupted. “The apostle gives that interpretation when he prefaces the + text with the words, 'For yourselves know how you ought to follow us; for + we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any + man's bread for nought; but <i>wrought with travail</i> night and day, + that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not + power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.' The whole + economy of Altruria is founded on these passages.” + </p> + <p> + “Literally?” + </p> + <p> + “Literally.” + </p> + <p> + “But, my dear sir,” the young lord reasoned, “you surely do not wrench the + text from some such meaning as that if a man has money, he may pay his way + without working?” + </p> + <p> + “No, certainly not. But here you have no money, and as we cannot suffer + any to 'walk among us disorderly, working not at all,' we must not exempt + you from our rule.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII + </h2> + <p> + At this point there came a sound from within the marquee as of skirts + sweeping forward sharply, imperiously, followed by a softer <i>frou-frou</i>, + and Mrs. Thrall put aside the curtain of the tent with one hand, and stood + challenging our little Altrurian group, while Lady Moors peered timidly at + us from over her mother's shoulder. I felt a lust of battle rising in me + at sight of that woman, and it was as much as I could do to control + myself; but in view of the bad time I knew she was going to have, I + managed to hold in, though I joined very scantly in the polite greetings + of the Chrysostoms and Aristides, which she ignored as if they had been + the salutations of savages. She glared at her husband for explanation, and + he said, gently, “This is a delegation from the Altrurian capital, my + dear, and we have been talking over the situation together.” + </p> + <p> + “But what is this,” she demanded, “that I have heard about our not paying? + Do they accuse us of not paying? You could buy and sell the whole + country.” + </p> + <p> + I never imagined so much mildness could be put into such offensive words + as Cyril managed to get into his answer. “We accuse you of not paying, and + we do not mean that you shall become chargeable to us. The men and women + who served you on shipboard have been put to work, and you must go to + work, too.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall—Lord Moors—have you allowed these people to treat + you as if you were part of the ship's crew? Why don't you give them what + they want and let them go? Of course it's some sort of blackmailing + scheme. But you ought to get rid of them at any cost. Then you can appeal + to the authorities, and tell them that you will bring the matter to the + notice of the government at Washington. They must be taught that they + cannot insult American citizens with impunity.” No one spoke, and she + added, “What do they really want?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, my dear,” her husband hesitated, “I hardly know how to explain. But + it seems that they think our living here in the way we do is orderly, and—and + they want us to go to work, in short.” + </p> + <p> + “To <i>work!</i>” she shouted. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, all of us. That is, so I understand.” + </p> + <p> + “What nonsense!” + </p> + <p> + She looked at us one after another, and when her eye rested on me, I began + to suspect that insolent as she was she was even duller; in fact, that she + was so sodden in her conceit of wealth that she was plain stupid. So when + she said to me, “You are an American by birth, I believe. Can you tell me + the meaning of this?” I answered: + </p> + <p> + “Cyril Chrysostom represents the authorities. If <i>he</i> asks me to + speak, I will speak.” Cyril nodded at me with a smile, and I went on. “It + is a very simple matter. In Altruria everybody works with his hands three + hours a day. After that he works or not, as he likes.” + </p> + <p> + “What have we to do with that?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “The rule has no exceptions.” + </p> + <p> + “But we are not Altrurians; we are Americans.” + </p> + <p> + “I am an American, too, and I work three hours every day, unless I am + passing from one point to another on public business with my husband. Even + then we prefer to stop during the work-hours, and help in the fields, or + in the shops, or wherever we are needed. I left my own mother at home + doing her kitchen work yesterday afternoon, though it was out of hours, + and she need not have worked.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, then, we will do nothing of the kind, neither I, nor my + daughter, nor my husband. He has worked hard all his life, and he has come + away for a much-needed rest. I am not going to have him breaking himself + down.” + </p> + <p> + I could not help suggesting, “I suppose the men at work in his mines, and + mills, and on his railroads and steamship lines are taking a much-needed + rest, too. I hope you are not going to let them break themselves down, + either.” + </p> + <p> + Aristides gave me a pained glance, and Cyril and his wife looked grave, + but she not quite so grave as he. Lord Moors said, “We don't seem to be + getting on. What Mrs. Thrall fails to see, and I confess I don't quite see + it myself, is that if we are not here <i>in forma pauperis</i>—” + </p> + <p> + “But you <i>are</i> here <i>in forma pauperis</i>,” Cyril interposed, + smilingly. + </p> + <p> + “How is that? If we are willing to pay—if Mr. Thrall's credit is + undeniably good—” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall's credit is not good in Altruria; you can pay here only in one + currency, in the sweat of your faces.” + </p> + <p> + “You want us to be Tolstoys, I suppose,” Mrs. Thrall said, contemptuously. + </p> + <p> + Cyril replied, gently, “The endeavor of Tolstoy, in capitalistic + conditions, is necessarily dramatic. Your labor here will be for your + daily bread, and it will be real.” The inner dullness of the woman came + into her eyes again, and he addressed himself to Lord Moors in continuing: + “If a company of indigent people were cast away on an English coast, after + you had rendered them the first aid, what should you do?” + </p> + <p> + The young man reflected. “I suppose we should put them in the way of + earning a living until some ship arrived to take them home.” + </p> + <p> + “That is merely what we propose to do in your case here,” Cyril said. + </p> + <p> + “But we are not indigent—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you are absolutely destitute. You have money and credit, but neither + has any value in Altruria. Nothing but work or love has any value in + Altruria. You cannot realize too clearly that you stand before us <i>in + forma pauperis</i>. But we require of you nothing that we do not require + of ourselves. In Altruria every one is poor till he pays with work; then, + for that time, he is rich; and he cannot otherwise lift himself above + charity, which, except in the case of the helpless, we consider immoral. + Your life here offers a very corrupting spectacle. You are manifestly + living without work, and you are served by people whose hire you are not + able to pay.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear sir,” Mr. Thrall said at this point, with a gentle smile, “I + think they are willing to take the chances of being paid.” + </p> + <p> + “We cannot suffer them to do so. At present we know of no means of your + getting away from Altruria. We have disused our custom of annually + connecting with the Australasian steamers, and it may be years before a + vessel touches on our coast. A ship sailed for Boston some months ago, + with the promise of returning in order that the crew may cast in their lot + with us permanently. We do not confide in that promise, and you must + therefore conform to our rule of life. Understand clearly that the + willingness of your servants to serve you has nothing to do with the + matter. That is part of the falsity in which the whole capitalistic world + lives. As the matter stands with you, here, there is as much reason why + you should serve them as they should serve you. If on their side they + should elect to serve you from love, they will be allowed to do so. + Otherwise, you and they must go to work with the neighbors at the tasks + they will assign you.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean at once?” Lord Moors asked. + </p> + <p> + “The hours of the obligatory labors are nearly past for the day. But if + you are interested in learning what you will be set to doing to-morrow, + the Communal authorities will be pleased to instruct you during the + Voluntaries this afternoon. You may be sure that in no case will your + weakness or inexperience be overtasked. Your histories will be studied, + and appropriate work will be assigned to each of you.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Thrall burst out, “If you think I am going into my kitchen—” + </p> + <p> + Then I burst in, “I left my mother in <i>her</i> kitchen!” + </p> + <p> + “And a very fit place for her, I dare say,” she retorted, but Lady Moors + caught her mother's arm and murmured, in much the same distress as showed + in my husband's mild eyes, “Mother! Mother!” and drew her within. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII + </h2> + <p> + Well, Dolly, I suppose you will think it was pretty hard for those people, + and when I got over my temper I confess that I felt sorry for the two men, + and for the young girl whom the Altrurians would not call Lady Moors, but + addressed by her Christian name, as they did each of the American party in + his or her turn; even Mrs. Thrall had to answer to Rebecca. They were all + rather bewildered, and so were the butler and the footmen, and the <i>chef</i> + and his helpers, and the ladies' maids. These were even more shocked than + those they considered their betters, and I quite took to my affections + Lord Moors' man Robert, who was in an awe-stricken way trying to get some + light from me on the situation. He contributed as much as any one to bring + about a peaceful submission to the inevitable, for he had been a near + witness of what had happened to the crew when they attempted their + rebellion to the authorities; but he did not profess to understand the + matter, and from time to time he seemed to question the reality of it. + </p> + <p> + The two masters, as you would call Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors, both took an + attitude of amiable curiosity towards their fate, and accepted it with + interest when they had partly chosen and partly been chosen by it. Mr. + Thrall had been brought up on a farm till his ambition carried him into + the world; and he found the light gardening assigned him for his first + task by no means a hardship. He was rather critical of the Altrurian style + of hoe at first, but after he got the hang of it, as he said, he liked it + better, and during the three hours of the first morning's Obligatoires, + his ardor to cut all the weeds out at once had to be restrained rather + than prompted. He could not be persuaded to take five minutes for rest out + of every twenty, and he could not get over his life-long habit of working + against time. The Altrurians tried to make him understand that here people + must not work <i>against</i> time, but must always work <i>with</i> it, so + as to have enough work to do each day; otherwise they must remain idle + during the Obligatoires and tend to demoralize the workers. It seemed that + Lady Moors had a passion for gardening, and she was set to work with her + father on the border of flowers surrounding the vegetable patch he was + hoeing. She knew about flowers, and from her childhood had amused herself + by growing them, and so far from thinking it a hardship or disgrace to + dig, she was delighted to get at them. It was easy to see that she and her + father were cronies, and when I went round in the morning with Aristides + to ask if we could do anything for them, we heard them laughing and + talking gayly together before we reached them. They said they had looked + their job (as Mr. Thrall called it) over the afternoon before during the + Voluntaries, and had decided how they would manage, and they had set to + work that morning as soon as they had breakfast. Lady Moors had helped her + mother get the breakfast, and she seemed to regard the whole affair as a + picnic, though from the look of Mrs. Thrall's back, as she turned it on + me, when I saw her coming to the door of the marquee with a coffee-pot in + her hand, I decided that she was not yet resigned to her new lot in life. + </p> + <p> + Lord Moors was nowhere to be seen, and I felt some little curiosity about + him which was not quite anxiety. Later, as we were going back to our + quarters in the village, we saw him working on the road with a party of + Altrurians who were repairing a washout from an overnight rain. They were + having all kinds of a time, except a bad time, trying to understand each + other in their want of a common language. It appeared that the Altrurians + were impressed with his knowledge of road-making, and were doing something + which he had indicated to them by signs. We offered our services as + interpreters, and then he modestly owned in defence of his suggestions + that when he was at Oxford he had been one of the band of enthusiastic + undergraduates who had built a piece of highway under Mr. Ruskin's + direction. The Altrurians regarded his suggestions as rather amateurish, + but they were glad to act upon them, when they could, out of pure good + feeling and liking for him; and from time to time they rushed upon him and + shook hands with him; their affection did not go further, and he was able + to stand the handshaking, though he told us he hoped they would not feel + it necessary to keep it up, for it was really only a very simple matter + like putting a culvert in place of a sluice which they had been using to + carry the water off. They understood what he was saying, from his + gestures, and they crowded round us to ask whether he would like to join + them during the Voluntaries that afternoon, in getting the stone out of a + neighboring quarry, and putting in the culvert at once. We explained to + him, and he said he should be very happy. All the time he was looking at + them admirably, and he said, “It's really very good,” and we understood + that he meant their classic working-dress, and when he added, “I should + really fancy trying it myself one day,” and we told them they wanted to go + and bring him an Altrurian costume at once. But we persuaded them not to + urge him, and in fact he looked very fit for his work in his yachting + flannels. + </p> + <p> + I talked him over a long time with Aristides, and tried to get his point + of view. I decided finally that an Englishman of his ancient lineage and + high breeding, having voluntarily come down to the level of an American + millionaire by marriage, could not feel that he was lowering himself any + further by working with his hands. In fact, he probably felt that his + merely undertaking a thing dignified the thing; but of course this was + only speculation on my part, and he may have been resigned to working for + a living because like poor people elsewhere he was obliged to do it. + Aristides thought there was a good deal in that idea, but it is hard for + an Altrurian to conceive of being ashamed of work, for they regard + idleness as pauperism, and they would look upon our leisure classes, so + far as we have them, very much as we look upon tramps, only they would + make the excuse for our tramps that they often cannot get work. + </p> + <p> + We had far more trouble with the servants than we had with the masters in + making them understand that they were to go to work in the fields and + shops, quite as the crew of the yacht had done. Some of them refused + outright, and stuck to their refusal until the village electrician rescued + them with the sort of net and electric filament which had been employed + with the recalcitrant sailors; others were brought to a better mind by + withholding food from them till they were willing to pay for it by + working. You will be sorry to learn, Dolly, that the worst of the rebels + were the ladies' maids, who, for the honor of our sex, ought not to have + required the application of the net and filament; but they had not such + appetites as the men-servants, and did not mind starving so much. However, + in a very short time they were at work, too, and more or less resigned, + though they did not profess to understand it. + </p> + <p> + You will think me rather fickle, I am afraid, but after I made the + personal acquaintance of Mr. Thrall's <i>chef,</i> Anatole, I found my + affections dividing themselves between him and his lordship's man Robert, + my first love. But Anatole was magnificent, a gaunt, little, aquiline man, + with a branching mustache and gallant goatee, and having held an exalted + position at a salary of ten thousand a year from Mr. Thrall, he could + easily stoop from it, while poor Robert was tormented with misgivings, not + for himself, but for Lord and Lady Moors and Mr. Thrall. It became my + pleasing office to explain the situation to Monsieur Anatole, who, when he + imagined it, gave a cry of joy, and confessed, what he had never liked to + tell Mr. Thrall, knowing the misconceptions of Americans on the subject, + that he had belonged in France to a party of which the political and + social ideal was almost identical with that of the Altrurians. He asked + for an early opportunity of addressing the village Assembly and explaining + this delightful circumstance in public, and he profited by the occasion to + embrace the first Altrurian we met and kiss him on both cheeks. + </p> + <p> + His victim was a messenger from the Commune, who had been sent to inquire + whether Anatole had a preference as to the employment which should be + assigned to him, and I had to reply for him that he was a man of science; + that he would be happy to serve the republic in whatever capacity his + concitizens chose, but that he thought he could be most useful in studying + the comestible vegetation of the neighborhood, and the substitution of the + more succulent herbs for the flesh-meats to the use of which, he + understood from me, the Altrurians were opposed. In the course of his + preparation for the rôle of <i>chef</i>, which he had played both in + France and America, he had made a specialty of edible fungi; and the + result was that Anatole was set to mushrooming, and up to this moment he + has discovered no less than six species hitherto unknown to the Altrurian + table. This has added to their dietary in several important particulars, + the fungi he has discovered being among those highly decorative and + extremely poisonous-looking sorts which flourish in the deep woods and + offer themselves almost inexhaustibly in places near the ruins of the old + capitalistic cities, where hardly any other foods will grow. Anatole is + very proud of his success, and at more than one Communal Assembly has + lectured upon his discoveries and treated of their preparation for the + table, with sketches of them as he found them growing, colored after + nature by his own hand. He has himself become a fanatical vegetarian, + having, he confesses, always had a secret loathing for the meats he + stooped to direct the cooking of among the French and American bourgeoisie + in the days which he already looks back upon as among the most benighted + of his history. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV + </h2> + <p> + The scene has changed again, Dolly, and six months have elapsed without + your knowing it. Aristides and I long ago completed the tour of the + capitals which the Thrall incident interrupted, and we have been settled + for many months in the Maritime Capital, where it has been decided we had + better fill out the first two years of my husband's repatriation. I have + become more and more thoroughly naturalized, and if I am not yet a perfect + Altrurian, it is not for not loving better and better the best Altrurian + of them all, and not for not admiring and revering this wonderful + civilization. + </p> + <p> + During the Obligatories of the forenoons I do my housework with my own + hands, and as my mother lives with us we have long talks together, and try + to make each other believe that the American conditions were a sort of + nightmare from which we have happily awakened. You see how terribly frank + I am, my dear, but if I were not, I could not make you understand how I + feel. My heart aches for you, there, and the more because I know that you + do not want to live differently, that you are proud of your economic and + social illogicality, and that you think America is the best country under + the sun! I can never persuade you, but if you could only come here, once, + and see for yourselves! Seeing would be believing, and believing would be + the wish never to go away, but to be at home here always. + </p> + <p> + I can imagine your laughing at me and asking Mr. Makely whether the <i>Little + Sally</i> has ever returned to Altruria, and how I can account for the + captain's failure to keep his word. I confess that is a sore point with + me. It is now more than a year since she sailed, and, of course, we have + not had a sign or whisper from her. I could almost wish that the crew were + willing to stay away, but I am afraid it is the captain who is keeping + them. It has become almost a mania with me, and every morning, the first + thing when I wake, I go for my before-breakfast walk along the marble + terrace that overlooks the sea, and scan the empty rounding for the + recreant ship. I do not want to think so badly of human nature, as I must + if the <i>Little Sally</i> never comes back, and I am sure you will not + blame me if I should like her to bring me some word from you. I know that + if she ever reached Boston you got my letters and presents, and that you + have been writing me as faithfully as I have been writing you, and what a + sheaf of letters from you there will be if her masts ever pierce the + horizon! To tell the truth, I do long for a little American news! Do you + still keep on murdering and divorcing, and drowning, and burning, and + mommicking, and maiming people by sea and land? Has there been any war + since I left? Is the financial panic as great as ever, and is there as + much hunger and cold? I know that whatever your crimes and calamities are, + your heroism and martyrdom, your wild generosity and self-devotion, are + equal to them. + </p> + <p> + It is no use to pretend that in little over a year I can have become + accustomed to the eventlessness of life in Altruria. I go on for a good + many days together and do not miss the exciting incidents you have in + America, and then suddenly I am wolfishly hungry for the old sensations, + just as now and then I <i>want meat</i>, though I know I should loathe the + sight and smell of it if I came within reach of it. You would laugh, I + dare say, at the Altrurian papers, and what they print for news. Most of + the space is taken up with poetry, and character study in the form of + fiction, and scientific inquiry of every kind. But now and then there is a + report of the production of a new play in one of the capitals; or an + account of an open-air pastoral in one of the communes; or the progress of + some public work, like the extension of the National Colonnade; or the + wonderful liberation of some section from malaria; or the story of some + good man or woman's life, ended at the patriarchal age they reach here. + They also print selected passages of capitalistic history, from the + earliest to the latest times, showing how in war and pestilence and + needless disaster the world outside Altruria remains essentially the same + that it was at the beginning of civilization, with some slight changes + through the changes of human nature for the better in its slow approaches + to the Altrurian ideal. In noting these changes the writers get some sad + amusement out of the fact that the capitalistic world believes human + nature cannot be changed, though cannibalism and slavery and polygamy have + all been extirpated in the so-called Christian countries, and these things + were once human nature, which is always changing, while brute nature + remains the same. Now and then they touch very guardedly on that slavery, + worse than war, worse than any sin or shame conceivable to the Altrurians, + in which uncounted myriads of women are held and bought and sold, and they + have to note that in this the capitalistic world is without the hope of + better things. You know what I mean, Dolly; every good woman knows the + little she cannot help knowing; but if you had ever inquired into that + horror, as I once felt obliged to do, you would think it the blackest + horror of the state of things where it must always exist as long as there + are riches and poverty. Now, when so many things in America seem bad + dreams, I cannot take refuge in thinking that a bad dream; the reality was + so deeply burnt into my brain by the words of some of the slaves; and when + I think of it I want to grovel on the ground with my mouth in the dust. + But I know this can only distress you, for you cannot get away from the + fact as I have got away from it; that there it is in the next street, + perhaps in the next house, and that any night when you leave your home + with your husband, you may meet it at the first step from your door. + </p> + <p> + You can very well imagine what a godsend the reports of Aristides and the + discussions of them have been to our papers. They were always taken down + stenographically, and they were printed like dialogue, so that at a little + distance you would take them at first for murder trials or divorce cases, + but when you look closer, you find them questions and answers about the + state of things in America. There are often humorous passages, for the + Altrurians are inextinguishably amused by our illogicality, and what they + call the perpetual <i>non sequiturs</i> of our lives and laws. In the + discussions they frequently burlesque these, but as they present them they + seem really beyond the wildest burlesque. Perhaps you will be surprised to + know that a nation of working-people like these feel more compassion than + admiration for our working-people. They pity them, but they blame them + more than they blame the idle rich for the existing condition of things in + America. They ask why, if the American workmen are in the immense + majority, they do not vote a true and just state, and why they go on + striking and starving their families instead; they cannot distinguish in + principle between the confederations of labor and the combinations of + capital, between the trusts and the trades-unions, and they condemn even + more severely the oppressions and abuses of the unions. My husband tries + to explain that the unions are merely provisional, and are a temporary + means of enabling the employees to stand up against the tyranny of the + employers, but they always come back and ask him if the workmen have not + most of the votes, and if they have, why they do not protect themselves + peacefully instead of organizing themselves in fighting shape, and making + a warfare of industry. + </p> + <p> + There is not often anything so much like news in the Altrurian papers as + the grounding of the Thrall yacht on the coast of the Seventh Region, and + the incident has been treated and discussed in every possible phase by the + editors and their correspondents. They have been very frank about it, as + they are about everything in Altruria, and they have not concealed their + anxieties about their unwelcome guests. They got on without much trouble + in the case of the few sailors of the <i>Little Sally</i>, but the crew of + the <i>Saraband</i> is so large that it is a different matter. In the + first place, they do not like the application of force, even in the mild + electrical form in which they employ it, and they fear that the effect + with themselves will be bad, however good it is for their guests. Besides, + they dread the influence which a number of people, invested with the charm + of strangeness, may have with the young men and especially the young girls + of the neighborhood. The hardest thing the Altrurians have to grapple with + is feminine curiosity, and the play of this about the strangers is what + they seek the most anxiously to control. Of course, you will think it + funny, and I must say that it seemed so to me at first, but I have come to + think it is serious. The Altrurian girls are cultivated and refined, but + as they have worked all their lives with their hands they cannot imagine + the difference that work makes in Americans; that it coarsens and classes + them, especially if they have been in immediate contact with rich people, + and been degraded or brutalized by the knowledge of the contempt in which + labor is held among us by those who are not compelled to it. Some of my + Altrurian friends have talked it over with me, and I could take their + point of view, though secretly I could not keep my poor American feelings + from being hurt when they said that to have a large number of people from + the capitalistic world thrown upon their hands was very much as it would + be with us if we had the same number of Indians, with all their tribal + customs and ideals, thrown upon our hands. They say they will not shirk + their duty in the matter, and will study it carefully; but all the same, + they wish the incident had not happened. + </p> + <h3> + XV + </h3> + <p> + I am glad that I was called away from the disagreeable point I left in my + last, and that I have got back temporarily to the scene of the + Altrurianization of Mr. Thrall and his family. So far as it has gone it is + perfect, if I may speak from the witness of happiness in those concerned, + except perhaps Mrs. Thrall; she is as yet only partially reconstructed, + but even she has moments of forgetting her lost grandeur and of really + enjoying herself in her work. She is an excellent housekeeper, and she has + become so much interested in making the marquee a simple home for her + family that she is rather proud of showing it off as the effect of her + unaided efforts. She was allowed to cater to them from the canned meats + brought ashore from the yacht as long as they would stand it, but the + wholesome open-air conditions have worked a wonderful change in them, and + neither Mr. Thrall nor Lord and Lady Moors now have any taste for such + dishes. Here Mrs. Thrall's old-time skill as an excellent vegetable cook, + when she was the wife of a young mechanic, has come into play, and she + believes that she sets the best table in the whole neighborhood, with + fruits and many sorts of succulents and the everlasting and ever-pervading + mushrooms. + </p> + <p> + As the Altrurians do not wish to annoy their involuntary guests, or to + interfere with their way of life where they do not consider it immoral, + their control has ended with setting them to work for a living. They have + not asked them to the communal refectory, but, as long as they have been + content to serve each other, have allowed them their private table. Of + course, their adaptation to their new way of life has proceeded more + slowly than it otherwise would, but with the exception of Mrs. Thrall they + are very intelligent people, and I have been charmed in talking the + situation over with them. The trouble has not been so great with the + ship's people, as was feared. Such of these as have imagined their stay + here permanent, or wished it to be so, have been received into the + neighboring communes, and have taken the first steps towards + naturalization; those who look forward to getting away some time, or + express the wish for it, are allowed to live in a community of their own, + where they are not molested as long as they work in the three hours of the + Obligatoires. Naturally, they are kept out of mischief, but after their + first instruction in the ideas of public property and the impossibility of + enriching themselves at the expense of any one else, they have behaved + very well. The greatest trouble they ever gave was in trapping and killing + the wild things for food; but when they were told that this must not be + done, and taught to recognize the vast range of edible fungi, they took + not unwillingly to mushrooms and the ranker tubers and roots, from which, + with unlimited eggs, cheese, milk, and shell-fish, they have constructed a + diet of which they do not complain. + </p> + <p> + This brings me rather tangentially to Monsieur Anatole, who has become a + fanatical Altrurian, and has even had to be restrained in some of his + enthusiastic plans for the compulsory naturalization of his fellow + castaways. His value as a scientist has been cordially recognized, and his + gifts as an artist in the exquisite water-color studies of edible fungi + has won his notice in the capital of the Seventh Regional where they have + been shown at the spring water-color exhibition. He has printed several + poems in the <i>Regional Gazette</i>, villanelles, rondeaux, and triolets, + with accompanying versions of the French, into Altrurian by one of the + first Altrurian poets. This is a widow of about Monsieur Anatole's own + age; and the literary friendship between them has ripened into something + much more serious. In fact they are engaged to be married. I suppose you + will laugh at this, Dolly, and at first I confess that there was enough of + the old American in me to be shocked at the idea of a French <i>chef</i> + marrying an Altrurian lady who could trace her descent to the first + Altrurian president of the Commonwealth, and who is universally loved and + honored. I could not help letting something of the kind escape me by + accident, to a friend, and presently Mrs. Chrysostom was sent to interview + me on the subject, and to learn just how the case appeared to me. This put + me on my honor, and I was obliged to say how it would appear in America, + though every moment I grew more and more ashamed of myself and my native + country, where we pretend that labor is honorable, and are always heaping + dishonor on it. I told how certain of our girls and matrons had married + their coachmen and riding-masters and put themselves at odds with society, + and I confessed that marrying a cook would be regarded as worse, if + possible. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Chrysostom was accompanied by a lady in her second youth, very + graceful, very charmingly dressed, and with an expression of winning + intelligence, whom she named to me simply as Cecilia, in the Altrurian + fashion. She apparently knew no English, and at first Mrs. Chrysostom + translated each of her questions and my answers. When I had got through, + this lady began to question me herself in Altrurian, which I owned to + understanding a little. She said: + </p> + <p> + “You know Anatole?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, certainly, and I like him, as I think every one must who knows him.” + </p> + <p> + “He is a skillful <i>chef</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall would not have paid him ten thousand dollars a year if he had + not been.” + </p> + <p> + “You have seen some of his water-colors?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. They are exquisite. He is unquestionably an artist of rare talent.” + </p> + <p> + “And it is known to you that he is a man of scientific attainments?” + </p> + <p> + “That is something I cannot judge of so well as Aristides; but <i>he</i> + says M. Anatole is learned beyond any man he knows in edible fungi.” + </p> + <p> + “As an adoptive Altrurian, and knowing the American ideas from our point + of view, should you respect their ideas of social inequality?” + </p> + <p> + “Not the least in the world. I understand as well as you do that their + ideas must prevail wherever one works for a living and another does not. + hose ideas are practically as much accepted in America as they are in + Europe, but I have fully renounced them.” + </p> + <p> + You see, Dolly, how far I have gone! + </p> + <p> + The unknown, who could be pretty easily imagined, rose up and gave me her + hand. “If you are in the Region on the third of May you must come to our + wedding.” + </p> + <p> + The same afternoon I had a long talk with Mr. Thrall, whom I found at work + replanting a strawberry-patch during the Voluntaries. He rose up at the + sound of my voice, and after an old man's dim moment for getting me + mentally in focus, he brightened into a genial smile, and said, “Oh, Mrs. + Homos! I am glad to see you.” + </p> + <p> + I told him to go on with his planting, and I offered to get down on my + knees beside him and help, but he gallantly handed me to a seat in the + shade beside his daughter's flower-bed, and it was there that we had a + long talk about conditions in America and Altruria, and how he felt about + the great change in his life. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I can truly say,” he answered much more at length than I shall + report, “that I have never been so happy since the first days of my + boyhood. All care has dropped from me; I don't feel myself rich, and I + don't feel myself poor in this perfect safety from want. The only thing + that gives me any regret is that my present state has not been the effect + of my own will and deed. If I am now following the greatest and truest of + all counsels it has not been because I have sold all and given to the + poor, but because my money has been mercifully taken from me, and I have + been released from its responsibilities in a state of things where there + is no money.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Mr. Thrall,” I said, “don't you ever feel that you have a duty to + the immense fortune which you have left in America, and which must be + disposed of somehow when people are satisfied that you are not going to + return and dispose of it yourself?” + </p> + <p> + “No, none. I was long ago satisfied that I could really do no good with + it. Perhaps if I had had more faith in it I might have done some good with + it, but I believe that I never did anything but harm, even when I seemed + to be helping the most, for I was aiding in the perpetuation of a state of + things essentially wrong. Now, if I never go back—and I never wish + to go back—let the law dispose of it as seems best to the + authorities. I have no kith or kin, and my wife has none, so there is no + one to feel aggrieved by its application to public objects.” + </p> + <p> + “And how do you imagine it will be disposed of?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I suppose for charitable and educational purposes. Of course a good + deal of it will go in graft; but that cannot be helped.” + </p> + <p> + “But if you could now dispose of it according to your clearest ideas of + justice, and if you were forced to make the disposition yourself, what + would you do with it?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that is something I have been thinking of, and as nearly as I can + make out, I ought to go into the records of my prosperity and ascertain + just how and when I made my money. Then I ought to seek out as fully as + possible the workmen who helped me make it by their labor. Their wages, + which, were always the highest, were never a fair share, though I forced + myself to think differently, and it should be my duty to inquire for them + and pay them each a fair share, or, if they are dead, then their children + or their next of kin. But even when I had done this I should not be sure + that I had not done them more harm than good.” + </p> + <p> + How often I had heard poor Mr. Strange say things like this, and heard of + other rich men saying them, after lives of what is called beneficence! Mr. + Thrall drew a deep sigh, and cast a longing look at his strawberry-bed. I + laughed, and said, “You are anxious to get back to your plants, and I + won't keep you. I wonder if Mrs. Thrall could see me if I called; or Lady + Moors?” + </p> + <p> + He said he was sure they would, and I took my way over to the marquee. I + was a little surprised to be met at the door by Lord Moors' man Robert. He + told me he was very sorry, but her ladyship was helping his lordship at a + little job on the roads, which they were doing quite in the Voluntaries, + with the hope of having the National Colonnade extended to a given point; + the ladies were helping the gentlemen get the place in shape. He was still + sorrier, but I not so much, that Mrs. Thrall was lying down and would like + to be excused; she was rather tired from putting away the luncheon things. + </p> + <p> + He asked me if I would not sit down, and he offered me one of the + camp-stools at the door of the marquee, and I did sit down for a moment, + while he flitted about the interior doing various little things. At last I + said, “How is this, Robert? I thought you had been assigned to a place in + the communal refectory. You're not here on the old terms?” + </p> + <p> + He came out and stood respectfully holding a dusting-cloth in his hand. + “Thank you, not exactly, ma'am. But the fact is, ma'am, that the communal + monitors have allowed me to come back here a few hours in the afternoon, + on what I may call terms of my own.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't understand. But won't you sit down, Robert?” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, if it is the same to you, ma'am, I would rather stand while + I'm here. In the refectory, of course, it's different.” + </p> + <p> + “But about your own terms?” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks. You see, ma'am, I've thought all along it was a bit awkward for + them here, they not being so much used to looking after things, and I + asked leave to come and help now and then. Of course, they said that I + could not be allowed to serve for hire in Altruria; and one thing led to + another, and I said it would really be a favor to me, and I didn't expect + money for my work, for I did not suppose I should ever be where I could + use it again, but if they would let me come here and do it for—” + </p> + <p> + Robert stopped and blushed and looked down, and I took the word, “For + love?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma'am, that's what they called it.” + </p> + <p> + Dolly, it made the tears come into my eyes, and I said very solemnly, + “Robert, do you know, I believe you are the sweetest soul even in this and + flowing with milk and honey?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you mustn't say that, ma'am. There's Mr. Thrall and his lordship and + her ladyship. I'm sure they would do the like for me if I needed their + help. And there are the Altrurians, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “But they are used to it, Robert, and—Robert! Be frank with me! What + do you think of Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite frank, ma'am, as if you were not connected with it, as you are?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite frank.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma'am, if you are sure you wouldn't mind it, or consider it out of + the way for me, I should say it was—rum.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Rum</i>? Don't you think it is beautiful here, to see people living + for each other instead of living <i>on</i> each other, and the whole + nation like one family, and the country a paradise?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that's just it, ma'am, if you won't mind my saying so. That's what + I mean by rum.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you explain?” + </p> + <p> + “It doesn't seem <i>real</i>. Every night when I go to sleep, and think + that there isn't a thief or a policeman on the whole continent, and only a + few harmless homicides, as you call them, that wouldn't hurt a fly, and + not a person hungry or cold, and no poor and no rich, and no servants and + no masters, and no soldiers, and no—disreputable characters, it + seems as if I was going to wake up in the morning and find myself on the + <i>Saraband</i> and it all a dream here.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Robert,” I had to own, “that was the way with me, too, for a long + while. And even now I have dreams about America and the way matters are + there, and I wake myself weeping for fear Altruria <i>isn't</i> true. + Robert! You must be honest with me! When you are awake, and it's broad + day, and you see how happy every one is here, either working or playing, + and the whole land without an ugly place in it, and the lovely villages + and the magnificent towns, and everything, does it still seem—rum?” + </p> + <p> + “It's like that, ma'am, at times. I don't say at all times.” + </p> + <p> + “And you don't believe that the rest of the world—England and + America—will ever be rum, too?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't see how they can. You see the poor are against it as well as the + rich. Everybody wants to have something of his own, and the trouble seems + to come from that. I don't suppose it was brought about in a day, Altruria + wasn't, ma'am?” + </p> + <p> + “No, it was whole centuries coming.” + </p> + <p> + “That was what I understood from that Mr. Chrysostom—Cyril, he wants + me to call him, but I can't quite make up my mouth to it—who speaks + English, and says he has been in England. He was telling me about it, one + day when we were drying the dishes at the refectory together. He says they + used to have wars and trusts and trades-unions here in the old days, just + as we do now in civilized countries.” + </p> + <p> + “And you don't consider Altruria civilized?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, not in just that sense of the word, ma'am. You wouldn't call heaven + civilized?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, not in just that sense of the word. Robert.” + </p> + <p> + “You see, it's rum here, because, though everything seems to go so right, + it's against human nature.” + </p> + <p> + “The Altrurians say it isn't.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope I don't differ from you, ma'am, but what would people—the + best people—at home say? They would say it wasn't reasonable; they + would say it wasn't even possible. That's what makes me think it's a dream—that + it's rum. Begging your pardon, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I quite understand, Robert. Then you don't believe a camel can ever + go through the eye of a needle?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't quite see how, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + “But you are proof of as great a miracle, Robert.” + </p> + <p> + “Beg your pardon, ma'am?” + </p> + <p> + “Some day I will explain. But is there nothing that can make you believe + Altruria is true here, and that it can be true anywhere?” + </p> + <p> + “I have been thinking a good deal about that, ma'am. One doesn't quite + like to go about in a dream, or think one is dreaming, and I have got to + saying to myself that if some ship was to come here from England or + America, or even from Germany, and we could compare our feelings with the + feelings of people who were fresh to it, we might somehow get to believe + that it was real.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I had to own. “We need fresh proofs from time to time. There was a + ship that sailed from here something over a year ago, and the captain + promised his crew to let them bring her back, but at times I am afraid + that was part of the dream, too, and that we're all something I am + dreaming about.” + </p> + <p> + “Just so, ma'am,” Robert said, and I came away downhearted enough, though + he called after me, “Mrs. Thrall will be very sorry, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + Back in the Maritime Capital, and oh, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! They have + sighted the <i>Little Sally</i> from the terrace! How happy I am! There + will be letters from you, and I shall hear all that has happened in + America, and I shall never again doubt that Altruria is real! I don't know + how I shall get these letters of mine back to you, but somehow it can be + managed. Perhaps the <i>Saraband's</i> crew will like to take the <i>Little + Sally</i> home again; perhaps when Mr. Thrall knows the ship is here he + will want to buy it and go back to his money in America and the misery of + it! Do you believe he will? Should I like to remind my husband of his + promise to take me home on a visit? Oh, my heart misgives me! I wonder if + the captain of the <i>Little Sally</i> has brought his wife and children + with him, and is going to settle among us, or whether he has just let his + men have the vessel, and they have come to Altruria without him? I dare + not ask anything, I dare not think anything! + </p> + <h3> + THE END + </h3> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Eye of the Needle, by +William Dean Howells + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 8295-h.htm or 8295-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/9/8295/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through the Eye of the Needle + A Romance + +Author: William Dean Howells + + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8295] +This file was first posted on July 26, 2003 +Last Updated: February 25, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + </h1> + <h3> + A Romance + </h3> + <h4> + With An Introduction + </h4> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Dean Howells + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + 1907 + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PART"> <b>PART FIRST</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> XIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> XV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XVII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XVIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> XIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> XX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> XXI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> XXII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> XXIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> XXIV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> XXV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> XXVI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> XXVII </a><br /> + </p> + + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PART2"> <b>PART SECOND</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0033"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0036"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0038"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> X </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0041"> XI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> XII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> XIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> XIV </a> + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + Aristides Homos, an Emissary of the Altrurian Commonwealth, visited the + United States during the summer of 1893 and the fall and winter following. + For some weeks or months he was the guest of a well-known man of letters + at a hotel in one of our mountain resorts; in the early autumn he spent + several days at the great Columbian Exhibition in Chicago; and later he + came to New York, where he remained until he sailed, rather suddenly, for + Altruria, taking the circuitous route by which he came. He seems to have + written pretty constantly throughout his sojourn with us to an intimate + friend in his own country, giving freely his impressions of our + civilization. His letters from New York appear to have been especially + full, and, in offering the present synopsis of these to the American + reader, it will not be impertinent to note certain peculiarities of the + Altrurian attitude which the temperament of the writer has somewhat + modified. He is entangled in his social sophistries regarding all the + competitive civilizations; he cannot apparently do full justice to the + superior heroism of charity and self-sacrifice as practised in countries + where people live <i>upon</i> each other as the Americans do, instead of + <i>for</i> each other as the Altrurians do; but he has some glimmerings of + the beauty of our living, and he has undoubtedly the wish to be fair to + our ideals. He is unable to value our devotion to the spirit of + Christianity amid the practices which seem to deny it; but he evidently + wishes to recognize the possibility of such a thing. He at least accords + us the virtues of our defects, and, among the many visitors who have + censured us, he has not seen us with his censures prepared to fit the + instances; in fact, the very reverse has been his method. + </p> + <p> + Many of the instances which he fits with his censures are such as he could + no longer note, if he came among us again. That habit of celebrating the + munificence of the charitable rich, on which he spends his sarcasm, has + fallen from us through the mere superabundance of occasion. Our rich + people give so continuously for all manner of good objects that it would + be impossible for our press, however vigilant, to note the successive + benefactions, and millions are now daily bestowed upon needy educational + institutions, of which no mention whatever is made in the newspapers. If a + millionaire is now and then surprised in a good action by a reporter of + uncommon diligence, he is able by an appeal to their common humanity to + prevail with the witness to spare him the revolting publicity which it + must be confessed would once have followed his discovery; the right hand + which is full to overflowing is now as skilled as the empty right hand in + keeping the left hand ignorant of its doings. This has happened through + the general decay of snobbishness among us, perhaps. It is certain that + there is no longer the passion for a knowledge of the rich, and the smart, + which made us ridiculous to Mr. Homos. Ten or twelve years ago, our + newspapers abounded in intelligence of the coming and going of social + leaders, of their dinners and lunches and teas, of their receptions and + balls, and the guests who were bidden to them. But this sort of + unwholesome and exciting gossip, which was formerly devoured by their + readers with inappeasable voracity, is no longer supplied, simply because + the taste for it has wholly passed away. + </p> + <p> + Much the same might be said of the social hospitalities which raised our + visitor's surprise. For example, many people are now asked to dinner who + really need a dinner, and not merely those who revolt from the notion of + dinner with loathing, and go to it with abhorrence. At the tables of our + highest social leaders one now meets on a perfect equality persons of + interesting minds and uncommon gifts who would once have been excluded + because they were hungry, or were not in the hostess's set, or had not a + new gown or a dress-suit. This contributes greatly to the pleasure of the + time, and promotes the increasing kindliness between the rich and poor for + which our status is above all things notable. + </p> + <p> + The accusation which our critic brings that the American spirit has been + almost Europeanized away, in its social forms, would be less grounded in + the observance of a later visitor. The customs of good society must be the + same everywhere in some measure, but the student of the competitive world + would now find European hospitality Americanized, rather than American + hospitality Europeanized. The careful research which has been made into + our social origins has resulted in bringing back many of the aboriginal + usages; and, with the return of the old American spirit of fraternity, + many of the earlier dishes as well as amenities have been restored. A + Thanksgiving dinner in the year 1906 would have been found more like a + Thanksgiving dinner in 1806 than the dinner to which Mr. Homos was asked + in 1893, and which he has studied so interestingly, though not quite + without some faults of taste and discretion. The prodigious change for the + better in some material aspects of our status which has taken place in the + last twelve years could nowhere be so well noted as in the picture he + gives us of the housing of our people in 1893. His study of the evolution + of the apartment-house from the old flat-house, and the still older single + dwelling, is very curious, and, upon the whole, not incorrect. But neither + of these last differed so much from the first as the apartment-house now + differs from the apartment-house of his day. There are now no dark rooms + opening on airless pits for the family, or black closets and dismal + basements for the servants. Every room has abundant light and perfect + ventilation, and as nearly a southern exposure as possible. The + appointments of the houses are no longer in the spirit of profuse and + vulgar luxury which it must be allowed once characterized them. They are + simply but tastefully finished, they are absolutely fireproof, and, with + their less expensive decoration, the rents have been so far lowered that + in any good position a quarter of nine or ten rooms, with as many baths, + can be had for from three thousand to fifteen thousand dollars. This fact + alone must attract to our metropolis the best of our population, the bone + and sinew which have no longer any use for themselves where they have been + expended in rearing colossal fortunes, and now demand a metropolitan + repose. + </p> + <p> + The apartments are much better fitted for a family of generous size than + those which Mr. Homos observed. Children, who were once almost unheard of, + and quite unheard, in apartment-houses, increasingly abound under favor of + the gospel of race preservation. The elevators are full of them, and in + the grassy courts round which the houses are built, the little ones play + all day long, or paddle in the fountains, warmed with steam-pipes in the + winter, and cooled to an agreeable temperature in a summer which has + almost lost its terrors for the stay-at-home New-Yorker. Each child has + his or her little plot of ground in the roof-garden, where they are taught + the once wellnigh forgotten art of agriculture. + </p> + <p> + The improvement of the tenement-house has gone hand in hand with that of + the apartment-house. As nearly as the rate of interest on the landlord's + investment will allow, the housing of the poor approaches in comfort that + of the rich. Their children are still more numerous, and the playgrounds + supplied them in every open space and on every pier are visited constantly + by the better-to-do children, who exchange with them lessons of form and + fashion for the scarcely less valuable instruction in practical life which + the poorer little ones are able to give. The rents in the tenement houses + are reduced even more notably than those in the apartment-houses, so that + now, with the constant increase in wages, the tenants are able to pay + their rents promptly. The evictions once so common are very rare; it is + doubtful whether a nightly or daily walk in the poorer quarters of the + town would develop, in the coldest weather, half a dozen cases of families + set out on the sidewalk with their household goods about them. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurian Emissary visited this country when it was on the verge of + the period of great economic depression extending from 1894 to 1898, but, + after the Spanish War, Providence marked the divine approval of our + victory in that contest by renewing in unexampled measure the prosperity + of the Republic. With the downfall of the trusts, and the release of our + industrial and commercial forces to unrestricted activity, the condition + of every form of labor has been immeasurably improved, and it is now + united with capital in bonds of the closest affection. But in no phase has + its fate been so brightened as in that of domestic service. This has + occurred not merely through the rise of wages, but through a greater + knowledge between the employing and employed. When, a few years since, it + became practically impossible for mothers of families to get help from the + intelligence-offices, and ladies were obliged through lack of cooks and + chambermaids to do the work of the kitchen and the chamber and parlor, + they learned to realize what such work was, how poorly paid, how badly + lodged, how meanly fed. From this practical knowledge it was impossible + for them to retreat to their old supremacy and indifference as mistresses. + The servant problem was solved, once for all, by humanity, and it is + doubtful whether, if Mr. Homos returned to us now, he would give offence + by preaching the example of the Altrurian ladies, or would be shocked by + the contempt and ignorance of American women where other women who did + their household drudgery were concerned. + </p> + <p> + As women from having no help have learned how to use their helpers, + certain other hardships have been the means of good. The flattened wheel + of the trolley, banging the track day and night, and tormenting the waking + and sleeping ear, was, oddly enough, the inspiration of reforms which have + made our city the quietest in the world. The trolleys now pass unheard; + the elevated train glides by overhead with only a modulated murmur; the + subway is a retreat fit for meditation and prayer, where the passenger can + possess his soul in a peace to be found nowhere else; the automobile, + which was unknown in the day of the Altrurian Emissary, whirs softly + through the most crowded thoroughfare, far below the speed limit, with a + sigh of gentle satisfaction in its own harmlessness, and, “like the sweet + South, taking and giving odor.” The streets that he saw so filthy and + unkempt in 1893 are now at least as clean as they are quiet. Asphalt has + universally replaced the cobble-stones and Belgian blocks of his day, and, + though it is everywhere full of holes, it is still asphalt, and may some + time be put in repair. + </p> + <p> + There is a note of exaggeration in his characterization of our men which + the reader must regret. They are not now the intellectual inferior of our + women, or at least not so much the inferiors. Since his day they have made + a vast advance in the knowledge and love of literature. With the multitude + of our periodicals, and the swarm of our fictions selling from a hundred + thousand to half a million each, even our business-men cannot wholly + escape culture, and they have become more and more cultured, so that now + you frequently hear them asking what this or that book is all about. With + the mention of them, the reader will naturally recur to the work of their + useful and devoted lives—the accumulation of money. It is this + accumulation, this heaping-up of riches, which the Altrurian Emissary + accuses in the love-story closing his study of our conditions, but which + he might not now so totally condemn. + </p> + <p> + As we have intimated, he has more than once guarded against a rash + conclusion, to which the logical habit of the Altrurian mind might have + betrayed him. If he could revisit us we are sure that he would have still + greater reason to congratulate himself on his forbearance, and would + doubtless profit by the lesson which events must teach all but the most + hopeless doctrinaires. The evil of even a small war (and soldiers + themselves do not deny that wars, large or small, are evil) has, as we + have noted, been overruled for good in the sort of Golden Age, or Age on a + Gold Basis, which we have long been enjoying. If our good-fortune should + be continued to us in reward of our public and private virtue, the fact + would suggest to so candid an observer that in economics, as in other + things, the rule proves the exception, and that as good times have + hitherto always been succeeded by bad times, it stands to reason that our + present period of prosperity will never be followed by a period of + adversity. + </p> + <p> + It would seem from the story continued by another hand in the second part + of this work, that Altruria itself is not absolutely logical in its + events, which are subject to some of the anomalies governing in our own + affairs. A people living in conditions which some of our dreamers would + consider ideal, are forced to discourage foreign emigration, against their + rule of universal hospitality, and in at least one notable instance are + obliged to protect themselves against what they believe an evil example by + using compulsion with the wrongdoers, though the theory of their life is + entirely opposed to anything of the kind. Perhaps, however, we are not to + trust to this other hand at all times, since it is a woman's hand, and is + not to be credited with the firm and unerring touch of a man's. The story, + as she completes it, is the story of the Altrurian's love for an American + woman, and will be primarily interesting for that reason. Like the + Altrurian's narrative, it is here compiled from a succession of letters, + which in her case were written to a friend in America, as his were written + to a friend in Altruria. But it can by no means have the sociological + value which the record of his observations among ourselves will have for + the thoughtful reader. It is at best the record of desultory and imperfect + glimpses of a civilization fundamentally alien to her own, such as would + attract an enthusiastic nature, but would leave it finally in a sort of + misgiving as to the reality of the things seen and heard. Some such + misgiving attended the inquiries of those who met the Altrurian during his + sojourn with us, but it is a pity that a more absolute conclusion should + not have been the effect of this lively lady's knowledge of the ideal + country of her adoption. It is, however, an interesting psychological + result, and it continues the tradition of all the observers of ideal + conditions from Sir Thomas More down to William Morris. Either we have no + terms for conditions so unlike our own that they cannot be reported to us + with absolute intelligence, or else there is in every experience of them + an essential vagueness and uncertainty. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART" id="link2H_PART"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PART FIRST + </h2> + <h3> + THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + If I spoke with Altrurian breadth of the way New-Yorkers live, my dear + Cyril, I should begin by saying that the New-Yorkers did not live at all. + But outside of our happy country one learns to distinguish, and to allow + that there are several degrees of living, all indeed hateful to us, if we + knew them, and yet none without some saving grace in it. You would say + that in conditions where men were embattled against one another by the + greed and the envy and the ambition which these conditions perpetually + appeal to here, there could be no grace in life; but we must remember that + men have always been better than their conditions, and that otherwise they + would have remained savages without the instinct or the wish to advance. + Indeed, our own state is testimony of a potential civility in all states, + which we must keep in mind when we judge the peoples of the plutocratic + world, and especially the American people, who are above all others the + devotees and exemplars of the plutocratic ideal, without limitation by any + aristocracy, theocracy, or monarchy. They are purely commercial, and the + thing that cannot be bought and sold has logically no place in their life. + But life is not logical outside of Altruria; we are the only people in the + world, my dear Cyril, who are privileged to live reasonably; and again I + say we must put by our own criterions if we wish to understand the + Americans, or to recognize that measure of loveliness which their warped + and stunted and perverted lives certainly show, in spite of theory and in + spite of conscience, even. I can make this clear to you, I think, by a + single instance, say that of the American who sees a case of distress, and + longs to relieve it. If he is rich, he can give relief with a good + conscience, except for the harm that may come to his beneficiary from + being helped; but if he is not rich, or not finally rich, and especially + if he has a family dependent upon him, he cannot give in anything like the + measure Christ bade us give without wronging those dear to him, + immediately or remotely. That is to say, in conditions which oblige every + man to look out for himself, a man cannot be a Christian without remorse; + he cannot do a generous action without self-reproach; he cannot be nobly + unselfish without the fear of being a fool. You would think that this + predicament must deprave, and so without doubt it does; and yet it is not + wholly depraving. It often has its effect in character of a rare and + pathetic sublimity; and many Americans take all the cruel risks of doing + good, reckless of the evil that may befall them, and defiant of the + upbraidings of their own hearts. This is something that we Altrurians can + scarcely understand: it is like the munificence of a savage who has killed + a deer and shares it with his starving tribesmen, forgetful of the + hungering little ones who wait his return from the chase with food; for + life in plutocratic countries is still a chase, and the game is wary and + sparse, as the terrible average of failures witnesses. + </p> + <p> + Of course, I do not mean that Americans may not give at all without + sensible risk, or that giving among them is always followed by a logical + regret; but, as I said, life with them is in no wise logical. They even + applaud one another for their charities, which they measure by the amount + given, rather than by the love that goes with the giving. The widow's mite + has little credit with them, but the rich man's million has an acclaim + that reverberates through their newspapers long after his gift is made. It + is only the poor in America who do charity as we do, by giving help where + it is needed; the Americans are mostly too busy, if they are at all + prosperous, to give anything but money; and the more money they give, the + more charitable they esteem themselves. From time to time some man with + twenty or thirty millions gives one of them away, usually to a public + institution of some sort, where it will have no effect with the people who + are underpaid for their work or cannot get work; and then his deed is + famed throughout the continent as a thing really beyond praise. Yet any + one who thinks about it must know that he never earned the millions he + kept, or the millions he gave, but somehow made them from the labor of + others; that, with all the wealth left him, he cannot miss the fortune he + lavishes, any more than if the check which conveyed it were a withered + leaf, and not in any wise so much as an ordinary working-man might feel + the bestowal of a postage-stamp. + </p> + <p> + But in this study of the plutocratic mind, always so fascinating to me, I + am getting altogether away from what I meant to tell you. I meant to tell + you not how Americans live in the spirit, illogically, blindly, and + blunderingly, but how they live in the body, and more especially how they + house themselves in this city of New York. A great many of them do not + house themselves at all, but that is a class which we cannot now consider, + and I will speak only of those who have some sort of a roof over their + heads. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + Formerly the New-Yorker lived in one of three different ways: in private + houses, or boarding-houses, or hotels; there were few restaurants or + public tables outside of the hotels, and those who had lodgings and took + their meals at eating-houses were but a small proportion of the whole + number. The old classification still holds in a measure, but within the + last thirty years, or ever since the Civil War, when the enormous + commercial expansion of the country began, several different ways of + living have been opened. The first and most noticeable of these is + housekeeping in flats, or apartments of three or four rooms or more, on + the same floor, as in all the countries of Europe except England; though + the flat is now making itself known in London, too. Before the war, the + New-Yorker who kept house did so in a separate house, three or four + stories in height, with a street door of its own. Its pattern within was + fixed by long usage, and seldom varied; without, it was of brown-stone + before, and brick behind, with an open space there for drying clothes, + which was sometimes gardened or planted with trees and vines. The rear of + the city blocks which these houses formed was more attractive than the + front, as you may still see in the vast succession of monotonous + cross-streets not yet invaded by poverty or business; and often the + perspective of these rears is picturesque and pleasing. But with the + sudden growth of the population when peace came, and through the + acquaintance the hordes of American tourists had made with European + fashions of living, it became easy, or at least simple, to divide the + floors of many of these private dwellings into apartments, each with its + own kitchen and all the apparatus of housekeeping. The apartments then had + the street entrance and the stairways in common, and they had in common + the cellar and the furnace for heating; they had in common the + disadvantage of being badly aired and badly lighted. They were dark, + cramped, and uncomfortable, but they were cheaper than separate houses, + and they were more homelike than boarding-houses or hotels. Large numbers + of them still remain in use, and when people began to live in flats, in + conformity with the law of evolution, many buildings were put up and + subdivided into apartments in imitation of the old dwellings which had + been changed. + </p> + <p> + But the apartment as the New-Yorkers now mostly have it, was at the same + time evolving from another direction. The poorer class of New York + work-people had for a long period before the war lived, as they still + live, in vast edifices, once thought prodigiously tall, which were called + tenement-houses. In these a family of five or ten persons is commonly + packed in two or three rooms, and even in one room, where they eat and + sleep, without the amenities and often without the decencies of life, and + of course without light and air. The buildings in case of fire are + death-traps; but the law obliges the owners to provide some apparent means + of escape, which they do in the form of iron balconies and ladders, giving + that festive air to their façades which I have already noted. The bare and + dirty entries and staircases are really ramifications of the filthy + streets without, and each tenement opens upon a landing as if it opened + upon a public thoroughfare. The rents extorted from the inmates is + sometimes a hundred per cent., and is nearly always cruelly out of + proportion to the value of the houses, not to speak of the wretched + shelter afforded; and when the rent is not paid the family in arrears is + set with all its poor household gear upon the sidewalk, in a pitiless + indifference to the season and the weather, which you could not realize + without seeing it, and which is incredible even of plutocratic nature. Of + course, landlordism, which you have read so much of, is at its worst in + the case of the tenement-houses. But you must understand that + comparatively few people in New York own the roofs that shelter them. By + far the greater number live, however they live, in houses owned by others, + by a class who prosper and grow rich, or richer, simply by owning the + roofs over other men's heads. The landlords have, of course, no human + relation with their tenants, and really no business relations, for all the + affairs between them are transacted by agents. Some have the reputation of + being better than others; but they all live, or expect to live, without + work, on their rents. They are very much respected for it; the rents are + considered a just return from the money invested. You must try to conceive + of this as an actual fact, and not merely as a statistical statement. I + know it will not be easy for you; it is not easy for me, though I have it + constantly before my face. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + The tenement-house, such as it is, is the original of the apartment-house, + which perpetuates some of its most characteristic features on a scale and + in material undreamed of in the simple philosophy of the inventor of the + tenement-house. The worst of these features is the want of light and air, + but as much more space and as many more rooms are conceded as the tenant + will pay for. The apartment-house, however, soars to heights that the + tenement-house never half reached, and is sometimes ten stories high. It + is built fireproof, very often, and is generally equipped with an + elevator, which runs night and day, and makes one level of all the floors. + The cheaper sort, or those which have departed less from the + tenement-house original, have no elevators, but the street door in all is + kept shut and locked, and is opened only by the tenant's latch-key or by + the janitor having charge of the whole building. In the finer houses there + is a page whose sole duty it is to open and shut this door, and who is + usually brass-buttoned to one blinding effect of livery with the + elevator-boy. Where this page or hall-boy is found, the elevator carries + you to the door of any apartment you seek; where he is not found, there is + a bell and a speaking-tube in the lower entry, for each apartment, and you + ring up the occupant and talk to him as many stories off as he happens to + be. But people who can afford to indulge their pride will not live in this + sort of apartment-house, and the rents in them are much lower than in the + finer sort. The finer sort are vulgarly fine for the most part, with a + gaudy splendor of mosaic pavement, marble stairs, frescoed ceilings, + painted walls, and cabinet wood-work. But there are many that are fine in + a good taste, in the things that are common to the inmates. Their fittings + for housekeeping are of all degrees of perfection, and, except for the + want of light and air, life in them has a high degree of gross luxury. + They are heated throughout with pipes of steam or hot water, and they are + sometimes lighted with both gas and electricity, which the inmate uses at + will, though of course at his own cost. Outside, they are the despair of + architecture, for no style has yet been invented which enables the artist + to characterize them with beauty, and wherever they lift their vast bulks + they deform the whole neighborhood, throwing the other buildings out of + scale, and making it impossible for future edifices to assimilate + themselves to the intruder. + </p> + <p> + There is no end to the apartment-houses for multitude, and there is no + street or avenue free from them. Of course, the better sort are to be + found on the fashionable avenues and the finer cross-streets, but others + follow the course of the horse-car lines on the eastern and western + avenues, and the elevated roads on the avenues which these have invaded. + In such places they are shops below and apartments above, and I cannot see + that the inmates seem at all sensible that they are unfitly housed in + them. People are born and married, and live and die in the midst of an + uproar so frantic that you would think they would go mad of it; and I + believe the physicians really attribute something of the growing + prevalence of neurotic disorders to the wear and tear of the nerves from + the rush of the trains passing almost momently, and the perpetual jarring + of the earth and air from their swift transit. I once spent an evening in + one of these apartments, which a friend had taken for a few weeks last + spring (you can get them out of season for any length of time), and as the + weather had begun to be warm, we had the windows open, and so we had the + full effect of the railroad operated under them. My friend had become + accustomed to it, but for me it was an affliction which I cannot give you + any notion of. The trains seemed to be in the room with us, and I sat as + if I had a locomotive in my lap. Their shrieks and groans burst every + sentence I began, and if I had not been master of that visible speech + which we use so much at home I never should have known what my friend was + saying. I cannot tell you how this brutal clamor insulted me, and made the + mere exchange of thought a part of the squalid struggle which is the + plutocratic conception of life; I came away after a few hours of it, + bewildered and bruised, as if I had been beaten upon with hammers. + </p> + <p> + Some of the apartments on the elevated lines are very good, as such things + go; they are certainly costly enough to be good; and they are inhabited by + people who can afford to leave them during the hot season when the noise + is at its worst; but most of them belong to people who must dwell in them + summer and winter, for want of money and leisure to get out of them, and + who must suffer incessantly from the noise I could not endure for a few + hours. In health it is bad enough, but in sickness it must be horrible + beyond all parallel. Imagine a mother with a dying child in such a place; + or a wife bending over the pillow of her husband to catch the last faint + whisper of farewell, as a train of five or six cars goes roaring by the + open window! What horror! What profanation! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + The noise is bad everywhere in New York, but in some of the finer + apartment-houses on the better streets you are as well out of it as you + can be anywhere in the city. I have been a guest in these at different + times, and in one of them I am such a frequent guest that I may be said to + know its life intimately. In fact, my hostess (women transact society so + exclusively in America that you seldom think of your host) in the + apartment I mean to speak of, invited me to explore it one night when I + dined with her, so that I might, as she said, tell my friends when I got + back to Altruria how people lived in America; and I cannot feel that I am + violating her hospitality in telling you now. She is that Mrs. Makely whom + I met last summer in the mountains, and whom you thought so strange a type + from the account of her I gave you, but who is not altogether uncommon + here. I confess that, with all her faults, I like her, and I like to go to + her house. She is, in fact, a very good woman, perfectly selfish by + tradition, as the American women must be, and wildly generous by nature, + as they nearly always are; and infinitely superior to her husband in + cultivation, as is commonly the case with them. As he knows nothing but + business, he thinks it is the only thing worth knowing, and he looks down + on the tastes and interests of her more intellectual life with amiable + contempt, as something almost comic. She respects business, too, and so + she does not despise his ignorance as you would suppose; it is at least + the ignorance of a business-man, who must have something in him beyond her + ken, or else he would not be able to make money as he does. + </p> + <p> + With your greater sense of humor, I think you would be amused if you could + see his smile of placid self-satisfaction as he listens to our discussion + of questions and problems which no more enter his daily life than they + enter the daily life of an Eskimo; but I do not find it altogether amusing + myself, and I could not well forgive it, if I did not know that he was at + heart so simple and good, in spite of his commerciality. But he is sweet + and kind, as the American men so often are, and he thinks his wife is the + delightfulest creature in the world, as the American husband nearly always + does. They have several times asked me to dine with them <i>en famille;</i> + and, as a matter of form, he keeps me a little while with him after + dinner, when she has left the table, and smokes his cigar, after wondering + why we do not smoke in Altruria; but I can see that he is impatient to get + to her in their drawing-room, where we find her reading a book in the + crimson light of the canopied lamp, and where he presently falls silent, + perfectly happy to be near her. The drawing-room is of a good size itself, + and it has a room opening out of it called the library, with a case of + books in it, and Mrs. Makely's piano-forte. The place is rather too richly + and densely rugged, and there is rather more curtaining and shading of the + windows than we should like; but Mrs. Makely is too well up-to-date, as + she would say, to have much of the bric-à-brac about which she tells me + used to clutter people's houses here. There are some pretty good pictures + on the walls, and a few vases and bronzes, and she says she has produced a + greater effect of space by quelling the furniture—she means, having + few pieces and having them as small as possible. There is a little stand + with her afternoon tea-set in one corner, and there is a pretty + writing-desk in the library; I remember a sofa and some easy-chairs, but + not too many of them. She has a table near one of the windows, with books + and papers on it. She tells me that she sees herself that the place is + kept just as she wishes it, for she has rather a passion for neatness, and + you never can trust servants not to stand the books on their heads or + study a vulgar symmetry in the arrangements. She never allows them in + there, she says, except when they are at work under her eye; and she never + allows anybody there except her guests, and her husband after he has + smoked. Of course, her dog must be there; and one evening after her + husband fell asleep in the arm-chair near her, the dog fell asleep on the + fleece at her feet, and we heard them softly breathing in unison. She made + a pretty little mocking mouth when the sound first became audible, and + said that she ought really to have sent Mr. Makely out with the dog, for + the dog ought to have the air every day, and she had been kept indoors; + but sometimes Mr. Makely came home from business so tired that she hated + to send him out, even for the dog's sake, though he was so apt to become + dyspeptic. “They won't let you have dogs in some of the apartment-houses, + but I tore up the first lease that had that clause in it, and I told Mr. + Makely that I would rather live in a house all my days than any flat where + my dog wasn't as welcome as I was. Of course, they're rather troublesome.” + </p> + <p> + The Makelys had no children, but it is seldom that the occupants of + apartment-houses of a good class have children, though there is no clause + in the lease against them. I verified this fact from Mrs. Makely herself, + by actual inquiry, for in all the times that I had gone up and down in the + elevator to her apartment I had never seen any children. She seemed at + first to think I was joking, and not to like it, but when she found that I + was in earnest she said that she did not suppose all the families living + under that roof had more than four or five children among them. She said + that it would be inconvenient; and I could not allege the tenement-houses + in the poor quarters of the city, where children seemed to swarm, for it + is but too probable that they do not regard convenience in such places, + and that neither parents nor children are more comfortable for their + presence. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + Comfort is the American ideal, in a certain way, and comfort is certainly + what is studied in such an apartment as the Makelys inhabit. We got to + talking about it, and the ease of life in such conditions, and it was then + she made me that offer to show me her flat, and let me report to the + Altrurians concerning it. She is all impulse, and she asked, How would I + like to see it <i>now?</i> and when I said I should be delighted, she + spoke to her husband, and told him that she was going to show me through + the flat. He roused himself promptly, and went before us, at her bidding, + to turn up the electrics in the passages and rooms, and then she led the + way out through the dining-room. + </p> + <p> + “This and the parlors count three, and the kitchen here is the fourth room + of the eight,” she said, and as she spoke she pushed open the door of a + small room, blazing with light and dense with the fumes of the dinner and + the dish-washing which was now going on in a closet opening out of the + kitchen. + </p> + <p> + She showed me the set range, at one side, and the refrigerator in an + alcove, which she said went with the flat, and, “Lena,” she said to the + cook, “this is the Altrurian gentleman I was telling you about, and I want + him to see your kitchen. Can I take him into your room?” + </p> + <p> + The cook said, “Oh yes, ma'am,” and she gave me a good stare, while Mrs. + Makely went to the kitchen window and made me observe that it let in the + outside air, though the court that it opened into was so dark that one had + to keep the electrics going in the kitchen night and day. “Of course, it's + an expense,” she said, as she closed the kitchen door after us. She added, + in a low, rapid tone, “You must excuse my introducing the cook. She has + read all about you in the papers—you didn't know, I suppose, that + there were reporters that day of your delightful talk in the mountains, + but I had them—and she was wild, when she heard you were coming, and + made me promise to let her have a sight of you somehow. She says she wants + to go and live in Altruria, and if you would like to take home a cook, or + a servant of any kind, you wouldn't have much trouble. Now here,” she ran + on, without a moment's pause, while she flung open another door, “is what + you won't find in every apartment-house, even very good ones, and that's a + back elevator. Sometimes there are only stairs, and they make the poor + things climb the whole way up from the basement, when they come in, and + all your marketing has to be brought up that way, too; sometimes they send + it up on a kind of dumb-waiter, in the cheap places, and you give your + orders to the market-men down below through a speaking-tube. But here we + have none of that bother, and this elevator is for the kitchen and + housekeeping part of the flat. The grocer's and the butcher's man, and + anybody who has packages for you, or trunks, or that sort of thing, use + it, and, of course, it's for the servants, and they appreciate not having + to walk up as much as anybody.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes,” I said, and she shut the elevator door and opened another a + little beyond it. + </p> + <p> + “This is our guest chamber,” she continued, as she ushered me into a very + pretty room, charmingly furnished. “It isn't very light by day, for it + opens on a court, like the kitchen and the servants' room here,” and with + that she whipped out of the guest chamber and into another doorway across + the corridor. This room was very much narrower, but there were two small + beds in it, very neat and clean, with some furnishings that were in + keeping, and a good carpet under foot. Mrs. Makely was clearly proud of + it, and expected me to applaud it; but I waited for her to speak, which + upon the whole she probably liked as well. + </p> + <p> + “I only keep two servants, because in a flat there isn't really room for + more, and I put out the wash and get in cleaning-women when it's needed. I + like to use my servants well, because it pays, and I hate to see anybody + imposed upon. Some people put in a double-decker, as they call it—a + bedstead with two tiers, like the berths on a ship; but I think that's a + shame, and I give them two regular beds, even if it does crowd them a + little more and the beds have to be rather narrow. This room has outside + air, from the court, and, though it's always dark, it's very pleasant, as + you see.” I did not say that I did not see, and this sufficed Mrs. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” she said, “I'll show you <i>our</i> rooms,” and she flew down the + corridor towards two doors that stood open side by side and flashed into + them before me. Her husband was already in the first she entered, smiling + in supreme content with his wife, his belongings, and himself. + </p> + <p> + “This is a southern exposure, and it has a perfect gush of sun from + morning till night. Some of the flats have the kitchen at the end, and + that's stupid; you can have a kitchen in any sort of hole, for you can + keep on the electrics, and with them the air is perfectly good. As soon as + I saw these chambers, and found out that they would let you keep a dog, I + told Mr. Makely to sign the lease instantly, and I would see to the rest.” + </p> + <p> + She looked at me, and I praised the room and its dainty tastefulness to + her heart's content, so that she said: “Well, it's some satisfaction to + show you anything, Mr. Homos, you are so appreciative. I'm sure you'll + give a good account of us to the Altrurians. Well, now we'll go back to + the pa—drawing-room. This is the end of the story.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said her husband, with a wink at me, “I thought it was to be + continued in our next,” and he nodded towards the door that opened from + his wife's bower into the room adjoining. + </p> + <p> + “Why, you poor old fellow!” she shouted. “I forgot all about <i>your</i> + room,” and she dashed into it before us and began to show it off. It was + equipped with every bachelor luxury, and with every appliance for health + and comfort. “And here,” she said, “he can smoke, or anything, as long as + he keeps the door shut. Oh, good gracious! I forgot the bath-room,” and + they both united in showing me this, with its tiled floor and walls and + its porcelain tub; and then Mrs. Makely flew up the corridor before us. + “Put out the electrics, Dick!” she called back over her shoulder. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + When we were again seated in the drawing-room, which she had been so near + calling a parlor, she continued to bubble over with delight in herself and + her apartment. “Now, isn't it about perfect?” she urged, and I had to own + that it was indeed very convenient and very charming; and in the rapture + of the moment she invited me to criticise it. + </p> + <p> + “I see very little to criticise,” I said, “from your point of view; but I + hope you won't think it indiscreet if I ask a few questions?” + </p> + <p> + She laughed. “Ask anything, Mr. Homos! I hope I got hardened to your + questions in the mountains.” + </p> + <p> + “She said you used to get off some pretty tough ones,” said her husband, + helpless to take his eyes from her, although he spoke to me. + </p> + <p> + “It is about your servants,” I began. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, of course! Perfectly characteristic! Go on.” + </p> + <p> + “You told me that they had no natural light either in the kitchen or their + bedroom. Do they never see the light of day?” + </p> + <p> + The lady laughed heartily. “The waitress is in the front of the house + several hours every morning at her work, and they both have an afternoon + off once a week. Some people only let them go once a fortnight; but I + think they are human beings as well as we are, and I let them go every + week.” + </p> + <p> + “But, except for that afternoon once a week, your cook lives in + electric-light perpetually?” + </p> + <p> + “Electric-light is very healthy, and it doesn't heat the air!” the lady + triumphed, “I can assure you that she thinks she's very well off; and so + she is.” I felt a little temper in her voice, and I was silent, until she + asked me, rather stiffly, “Is there any <i>other</i> inquiry you would + like to make?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I said, “but I do not think you would like it.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, I assure you, Mr. Homos, you were never more mistaken in your life. + I perfectly delight in your naïveté. I know that the Altrurians don't + think as we do about some things, and I don't expect it. What is it you + would like to ask?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, why should you require your servants to go down on a different + elevator from yourselves?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, good gracious!” cried the lady.—“aren't they different from us + in <i>every</i> way? To be sure, they dress up in their ridiculous best + when they go out, but you couldn't expect us to let them use the <i>front</i> + elevator? I don't want to go up and down with my own cook, and I certainly + don't with my neighbor's cook!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I suppose you would feel that an infringement of your social + dignity. But if you found yourself beside a cook in a horse-car or other + public conveyance, you would not feel personally affronted?” + </p> + <p> + “No, that is a very different thing. That is something we cannot control. + But, thank goodness, we can control our elevator, and if I were in a house + where I had to ride up and down with the servants I would no more stay in + it than I would in one where I couldn't keep a dog. I should consider it a + perfect outrage. I cannot understand you, Mr. Homos! You are a gentleman, + and you must have the traditions of a gentleman, and yet you ask me such a + thing as that!” + </p> + <p> + I saw a cast in her husband's eye which I took for a hint not to press the + matter, and so I thought I had better say, “It is only that in Altruria we + hold serving in peculiar honor.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the lady, scornfully, “if you went and got your servants from + an intelligence-office, and had to look up their references, you wouldn't + hold them in very much honor. I tell you they look out for their interests + as sharply as we do for ours, and it's nothing between us but a question + of—” + </p> + <p> + “Business,” suggested her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she assented, as if this clinched the matter. + </p> + <p> + “That's what I'm always telling you, Dolly, and yet you <i>will</i> try to + make them your friends, as soon as you get them into your house. You want + them to love you, and you know that sentiment hasn't got anything to do + with it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I can't help it, Dick. I can't live with a person without trying to + like them and wanting them to like me. And then, when the ungrateful + things are saucy, or leave me in the lurch as they do half the time, it + almost breaks my heart. But I'm thankful to say that in these hard times + they won't be apt to leave a good place without a good reason.” + </p> + <p> + “Are there many seeking employment?” I asked this because I thought it was + safe ground. + </p> + <p> + “Well, they just stand around in the office as <i>thick!</i>” said the + lady. “And the Americans are trying to get places as well as the + foreigners. But I won't have Americans. They are too uppish, and they are + never half so well trained as the Swedes or the Irish. They still expect + to be treated as one of the family. I suppose,” she continued, with a + lingering ire in her voice, “that in Altruria you do treat them as one of + the family?” + </p> + <p> + “We have no servants, in the American sense,” I answered, as inoffensively + as I could. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely irrelevantly returned to the question that had first provoked + her indignation. “And I should like to know how much worse it is to have a + back elevator for the servants than it is to have the basement door for + the servants, as you always do when you live in a separate house?” + </p> + <p> + “I should think it was no worse,” I admitted, and I thought this a good + chance to turn the talk from the dangerous channel it had taken. “I wish, + Mrs. Makely, you would tell me something about the way people live in + separate houses in New York.” + </p> + <p> + She was instantly pacified. “Why, I should be delighted. I only wish my + friend Mrs. Bellington Strange was back from Europe; then I could show you + a model house. I mean to take you there, as soon as she gets home. She's a + kind of Altrurian herself, you know. She was my dearest friend at school, + and it almost broke my heart when she married Mr. Strange, so much older, + and her inferior in every way. But she's got his money now, and oh, the + good she does do with it! I know you'll like each other, Mr. Homos. I do + wish Eva was at home!” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should be very glad to meet an American Altrurian, but that + now I wished she would tell me about the normal New York house, and what + was its animating principle, beginning with the basement door. + </p> + <p> + She laughed and said, “Why, it's just like any other house!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + I can never insist enough, my dear Cyril, upon the illogicality of + American life. You know what the plutocratic principle is, and what the + plutocratic civilization should logically be. But the plutocratic + civilization is much better than it should logically be, bad as it is; for + the personal equation constantly modifies it, and renders it far less + dreadful than you would reasonably expect. That is, the potentialities of + goodness implanted in the human heart by the Creator forbid the + plutocratic man to be what the plutocratic scheme of life implies. He is + often merciful, kindly, and generous, as I have told you already, in spite + of conditions absolutely egotistical. You would think that the Americans + would be abashed in view of the fact that their morality is often in + contravention of their economic principles, but apparently they are not + so, and I believe that for the most part they are not aware of the fact. + Nevertheless, the fact is there, and you must keep it in mind, if you + would conceive of them rightly. You can in no other way account for the + contradictions which you will find in my experiences among them; and these + are often so bewildering that I have to take myself in hand, from time to + time, and ask myself what mad world I have fallen into, and whether, after + all, it is not a ridiculous nightmare. I am not sure that, when I return + and we talk these things over together, I shall be able to overcome your + doubts of my honesty, and I think that when I no longer have them before + my eyes I shall begin to doubt my own memory. But for the present I can + only set down what I at least seem to see, and trust you to accept it, if + you cannot understand it. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps I can aid you by suggesting that, logically, the Americans should + be what the Altrurians are, since their polity embodies our belief that + all men are born equal, with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit + of happiness; but that illogically they are what the Europeans are, since + they still cling to the economical ideals of Europe, and hold that men are + born socially unequal, and deny them the liberty and happiness which can + come from equality alone. It is in their public life and civic life that + Altruria prevails; it is in their social and domestic life that Europe + prevails; and here, I think, is the severest penalty they must pay for + excluding women from political affairs; for women are at once the best and + the worst Americans: the best because their hearts are the purest, the + worst because their heads are the idlest. “Another contradiction!” you + will say, and I cannot deny it; for, with all their cultivation, the + American women have no real intellectual interests, but only intellectual + fads; and while they certainly think a great deal, they reflect little, or + not at all. The inventions and improvements which have made their + household work easy, the wealth that has released them in such vast + numbers from work altogether, has not enlarged them to the sphere of + duties which our Altrurian women share with us, but has left them, with + their quickened intelligences, the prey of the trivialities which engross + the European women, and which have formed the life of the sex hitherto in + every country where women have an economical and social freedom without + the political freedom that can alone give it dignity and import. They have + a great deal of beauty, and they are inconsequently charming; I need not + tell you that they are romantic and heroic, or that they would go to the + stake for a principle, if they could find one, as willingly as any martyr + of the past; but they have not much more perspective than children, and + their reading and their talk about reading seem not to have broadened + their mental horizons beyond the old sunrise and the old sunset of the + kitchen and the parlor. + </p> + <p> + In fine, the American house as it is, the American household, is what the + American woman makes it and wills it to be, whether she wishes it to be so + or not; for I often find that the American woman wills things that she in + no wise wishes. What the normal New York house is, however, I had great + difficulty in getting Mrs. Makely to tell me, for, as she said quite + frankly, she could not imagine my not knowing. She asked me if I really + wanted her to begin at the beginning, and, when I said that I did, she + took a little more time to laugh at the idea, and then she said, “I + suppose you mean a brown-stone, four-story house in the middle of a + block?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I think that is what I mean,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” she began, “those high steps that they all have, unless they're + English-basement houses, really give them another story, for people used + to dine in the front room of their basements. You've noticed the little + front yard, about as big as a handkerchief, generally, and the steps + leading down to the iron gate, which is kept locked, and the basement door + inside the gate? Well, that's what you might call the back elevator of a + house, for it serves the same purpose: the supplies are brought in there, + and market-men go in and out, and the ashes, and the swill, and the + servants—that you object to so much. We have no alleys in New York, + the blocks are so narrow, north and south; and, of course, we have no back + doors; so we have to put the garbage out on the sidewalk—and it's + nasty enough, goodness knows. Underneath the sidewalk there are bins where + people keep their coal and kindling. You've noticed the gratings in the + pavements?” + </p> + <p> + I said yes, and I was ashamed to own that at first I had thought them some + sort of registers for tempering the cold in winter; this would have + appeared ridiculous in the last degree to my hostess, for the Americans + have as yet no conception of publicly modifying the climate, as we do. + </p> + <p> + “Back of what used to be the dining-room, and what is now used for a + laundry, generally, is the kitchen, with closets between, of course, and + then the back yard, which some people make very pleasant with shrubs and + vines; the kitchen is usually dark and close, and the girls can only get a + breath of fresh air in the yard; I like to see them; but generally it's + taken up with clothes-lines, for people in houses nearly all have their + washing done at home. Over the kitchen is the dining-room, which takes up + the whole of the first floor, with the pantry, and it almost always has a + bay-window out of it; of course, that overhangs the kitchen, and darkens + it a little more, but it makes the dining-room so pleasant. I tell my + husband that I should be almost willing to live in a house again, just on + account of the dining-room bay-window. I had it full of flowers in pots, + for the southern sun came in; and then the yard was so nice for the dog; + you didn't have to take him out for exercise, yourself; he chased the cats + there and got plenty of it. I must say that the cats on the back fences + were a drawback at night; to be sure, we have them here, too; it's seven + stories down, but you do hear them, along in the spring. The parlor, or + drawing-room, is usually rather long, and runs from the dining-room to the + front of the house, though where the house is very deep they have a sort + of middle room, or back parlor. Dick, get some paper and draw it. Wouldn't + you like to see a plan of the floor?” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should, and she bade her husband make it like their old + house in West Thirty-third Street. We all looked at it together. + </p> + <p> + “This is the front door,” Mrs. Makely explained, “where people come in, + and then begins the misery of a house—stairs! They mostly go up + straight, but sometimes they have them curve a little, and in the new + houses the architects have all sorts of little dodges for squaring them + and putting landings. Then, on the second floor—draw it, Dick—you + have two nice, large chambers, with plenty of light and air, before and + behind. I do miss the light and air in a flat, there's no denying it.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll go back to a house yet, Dolly,” said her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Never!” she almost shrieked, and he winked at me, as if it were the best + joke in the world. “Never, as long as houses have stairs!” + </p> + <p> + “Put in an elevator,” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + “Well, that is what Eveleth Strange has, and she lets the servants use it, + too,” and Mrs. Makely said, with a look at me: “I suppose that would + please you, Mr. Homos. Well, there's a nice side-room over the front door + here, and a bath-room at the rear. Then you have more stairs, and large + chambers, and two side-rooms. That makes plenty of chambers for a small + family. I used to give two of the third-story rooms to my two girls. I + ought really to have made them sleep in one; it seemed such a shame to let + the cook have a whole large room to herself; but I had nothing else to do + with it, and she did take such comfort in it, poor old thing! You see, the + rooms came wrong in our house, for it fronted north, and I had to give the + girls sunny rooms or else give them front rooms, so that it was as broad + as it was long. I declare, I was perplexed about it the whole time we + lived there, it seemed so perfectly anomalous.” + </p> + <p> + “And what is an English-basement house like?” I ventured to ask, in + interruption of the retrospective melancholy she had fallen into. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, <i>never</i> live in an English-basement house, if you value your + spine!” cried the lady. “An English-basement house is nothing <i>but</i> + stairs. In the first place, it's only one room wide, and it's a story + higher than the high-stoop house. It's one room forward and one back, the + whole way up; and in an English-basement it's always <i>up</i>, and <i>never</i> + down. If I had my way, there wouldn't one stone be left upon another in + the English-basements in New York.” + </p> + <p> + I have suffered Mrs. Makely to be nearly as explicit to you as she was to + me; for the kind of house she described is of the form ordinarily + prevailing in all American cities, and you can form some idea from it how + city people live here. I ought perhaps to tell you that such a house is + fitted with every housekeeping convenience, and that there is hot and cold + water throughout, and gas everywhere. It has fireplaces in all the rooms, + where fires are often kept burning for pleasure; but it is really heated + from a furnace in the basement, through large pipes carried to the + different stories, and opening into them by some such registers as we use. + The separate houses sometimes have steam-heating, but not often. They each + have their drainage into the sewer of the street, and this is trapped and + trapped again, as in the houses of our old plutocratic cities, to keep the + poison of the sewer from getting into the houses. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <p> + You will be curious to know something concerning the cost of living in + such a house, and you may be sure that I did not fail to question Mrs. + Makely on this point. She was at once very volubly communicative; she told + me all she knew, and, as her husband said, a great deal more. + </p> + <p> + “Why, of course,” she began, “you can spend all you have in New York, if + you like, and people do spend fortunes every year. But I suppose you mean + the average cost of living in a brown-stone house, in a good block, that + rents for $1800 or $2000 a year, with a family of three or four children, + and two servants. Well, what should you say, Dick?” + </p> + <p> + “Ten or twelve thousand a year—fifteen,” answered her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, fully that,” she answered, with an effect of disappointment in his + figures. “We had just ourselves, and we never spent less than seven, and + we didn't dress, and we didn't entertain, either, to speak of. But you + have to live on a certain scale, and generally you live up to your + income.” + </p> + <p> + “Quite,” said Mr. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “I don't know what makes it cost so. Provisions are cheap enough, and they + say people live in as good style for a third less in London. There used to + be a superstition that you could live for less in a flat, and they always + talk to you about the cost of a furnace, and a man to tend it and keep the + snow shovelled off your sidewalk, but that is all stuff. Five hundred + dollars will make up the whole difference, and more. You pay quite as much + rent for a decent flat, and then you don't get half the room. No, if it + wasn't for the stairs, I wouldn't live in a flat for an instant. But that + makes all the difference.” + </p> + <p> + “And the young people,” I urged—“those who are just starting in life—how + do they manage? Say when the husband has $1500 or $2000 a year?” + </p> + <p> + “Poor things!” she returned. “I don't know how they manage. They board + till they go distracted, or they dry up and blow away; or else the wife + has a little money, too, and they take a small flat and ruin themselves. + Of course, they want to live nicely and like other people.” + </p> + <p> + “But if they didn't?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, then they could live delightfully. My husband says he often wishes + he was a master-mechanic in New York, with a thousand a year, and a flat + for twelve dollars a month; he would have the best time in the world.” + </p> + <p> + Her husband nodded his acquiescence. “Fighting-cock wouldn't be in it,” he + said. “Trouble is, we all want to do the swell thing.” + </p> + <p> + “But you can't all do it,” I ventured, “and, from what I see of the + simple, out-of-the-way neighborhoods in my walks, you don't all try.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, no,” he said. “Some of us were talking about that the other night at + the club, and one of the fellows was saying that he believed there was as + much old-fashioned, quiet, almost countrified life in New York, among the + great mass of the people, as you'd find in any city in the world. Said you + met old codgers that took care of their own furnaces, just as you would in + a town of five thousand inhabitants.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that's all very well,” said his wife; “but they wouldn't be nice + people. Nice people want to live nicely. And so they live beyond their + means or else they scrimp and suffer. I don't know which is worst.” + </p> + <p> + “But there is no obligation to do either?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, there is,” she returned. “If you've been born in a certain way, + and brought up in a certain way, you can't get out of it. You simply + can't. You have got to keep in it till you drop. Or a woman has.” + </p> + <p> + “That means the woman's husband, too,” said Mr. Makely, with his wink for + me. “Always die together.” + </p> + <p> + In fact, there is the same competition in the social world as in the + business world; and it is the ambition of every American to live in some + such house as the New York house; and as soon as a village begins to grow + into a town, such houses are built. Still, the immensely greater number of + the Americans necessarily live so simply and cheaply that such a house + would be almost as strange to them as to an Altrurian. But while we should + regard its furnishings as vulgar and unwholesome, most Americans would + admire and covet its rich rugs or carpets, its papered walls, and thickly + curtained windows, and all its foolish ornamentation, and most American + women would long to have a house like the ordinary high-stoop New York + house, that they might break their backs over its stairs, and become + invalids, and have servants about them to harass them and hate them. + </p> + <p> + Of course, I put it too strongly, for there is often, illogically, a great + deal of love between the American women and their domestics, though why + there should be any at all I cannot explain, except by reference to that + mysterious personal equation which modifies all conditions here. You will + have made your reflection that the servants, as they are cruelly called (I + have heard them called so in their hearing, and wondered they did not fly + tooth and nail at the throat that uttered the insult), form really no part + of the house, but are aliens in the household and the family life. In + spite of this fact, much kindness grows up between them and the family, + and they do not always slight the work that I cannot understand their ever + having any heart in. Often they do slight it, and they insist unsparingly + upon the scanty privileges which their mistresses seem to think a + monstrous invasion of their own rights. The habit of oppression grows upon + the oppressor, and you would find tender-hearted women here, gentle + friends, devoted wives, loving mothers, who would be willing that their + domestics should remain indoors, week in and week out, and, where they are + confined in the ridiculous American flat, never see the light of day. In + fact, though the Americans do not know it, and would be shocked to be told + it, their servants are really slaves, who are none the less slaves because + they cannot be beaten, or bought and sold except by the week or month, and + for the price which they fix themselves, and themselves receive in the + form of wages. They are social outlaws, so far as the society of the + family they serve is concerned, and they are restricted in the visits they + receive and pay among themselves. They are given the worst rooms in the + house, and they are fed with the food that they have prepared, only when + it comes cold from the family table; in the wealthier houses, where many + of them are kept, they are supplied with a coarser and cheaper victual + bought and cooked for them apart from that provided for the family. They + are subject, at all hours, to the pleasure or caprice of the master or + mistress. Every circumstance of their life is an affront to that just + self-respect which even Americans allow is the right of every human being. + With the rich, they are said to be sometimes indolent, dishonest, + mendacious, and all that Plato long ago explained that slaves must be; but + in the middle-class families they are mostly faithful, diligent, and + reliable in a degree that would put to shame most men who hold positions + of trust, and would leave many ladies whom they relieve of work without + ground for comparison. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <p> + After Mrs. Makely had told me about the New York house, we began to talk + of the domestic service, and I ventured to hint some of the things that I + have so plainly said to you. She frankly consented to my whole view of the + matter, for if she wishes to make an effect or gain a point she has a + magnanimity that stops at nothing short of self-devotion. “I know it,” she + said. “You are perfectly right; but here we are, and what are we to do? + What do you do in Altruria, I should like to know?” + </p> + <p> + I said that in Altruria we all worked, and that personal service was + honored among us like medical attendance in America; I did not know what + other comparison to make; but I said that any one in health would think it + as unwholesome and as immoral to let another serve him as to let a doctor + physic him. At this Mrs. Makely and her husband laughed so that I found + myself unable to go on for some moments, till Mrs. Makely, with a final + shriek, shouted to him: “Dick, do stop, or I shall die! Excuse me, Mr. + Homos, but you are so deliciously funny, and I know you're just joking. + You <i>won't</i> mind my laughing? Do go on.” + </p> + <p> + I tried to give her some notion as to how we manage, in our common life, + which we have simplified so much beyond anything that this barbarous + people dream of; and she grew a little soberer as I went on, and seemed at + least to believe that I was not, as her husband said, stuffing them; but + she ended, as they always do here, by saying that it might be all very + well in Altruria, but it would never do in America, and that it was + contrary to human nature to have so many things done in common. “Now, I'll + tell you,” she said. “After we broke up housekeeping in Thirty-third + Street, we stored our furniture—” + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me,” I said. “How—stored?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I dare say you never store your furniture in Altruria. But here we + have hundreds of storage warehouses of all sorts and sizes, packed with + furniture that people put into them when they go to Europe, or get sick to + death of servants and the whole bother of house-keeping; and that's what + we did; and then, as my husband says, we browsed about for a year or two. + First, we tried hotelling it, and we took a hotel apartment furnished, and + dined at the hotel table, until I certainly thought I should go off, I got + so tired of it. Then we hired a suite in one of the family hotels that + there are so many of, and got out enough of our things to furnish it, and + had our meals in our rooms; they let you do that for the same price, often + they are <i>glad</i> to have you, for the dining-room is so packed. But + everything got to tasting just the same as everything else, and my husband + had the dyspepsia so bad he couldn't half attend to business, and I + suffered from indigestion myself, cooped up in a few small rooms, that + way; and the dog almost died; and finally we gave that up, and took an + apartment, and got out our things—the storage cost as much as the + rent of a small house—and put them into it, and had a caterer send + in the meals as they do in Europe. But it isn't the same here as it is in + Europe, and we got so sick of it in a month that I thought I should scream + when I saw the same old dishes coming on the table, day after day. We had + to keep one servant—excuse me, Mr. Homos: <i>domestic</i>—anyway, + to look after the table and the parlor and chamber work, and my husband + said we might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, and so we got in a + cook; and, bad as it is, it's twenty million times better than anything + else you can do. Servants are a plague, but you have got to have them, and + so I have resigned myself to the will of Providence. If they don't like + it, neither do I, and so I fancy it's about as broad as it's long.” I have + found this is a favorite phrase of Mrs. Makely's, and that it seems to + give her a great deal of comfort. + </p> + <p> + “And you don't feel that there's any harm in it?” I ventured to ask. + </p> + <p> + “Harm in it?” she repeated. “Why, aren't the poor things glad to get the + work? What would they do without it?” + </p> + <p> + “From what I see of your conditions I should be afraid that they would + starve,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, they can't all get places in shops or restaurants, and they have to + do something, or starve, as you say,” she said; and she seemed to think + what I had said was a concession to her position. + </p> + <p> + “But if it were your own case?” I suggested. “If you had no alternatives + but starvation and domestic service, you would think there was harm in it, + even although you were glad to take a servant's place?” + </p> + <p> + I saw her flush, and she answered, haughtily, “You must excuse me if I + refuse to imagine myself taking a servant's place, even for the sake of + argument.” + </p> + <p> + “And you are quite right,” I said. “Your American instinct is too strong + to brook even in imagination the indignities which seem daily, hourly, and + momently inflicted upon servants in your system.” + </p> + <p> + To my great astonishment she seemed delighted by this conclusion. “Yes,” + she said, and she smiled radiantly, “and now you understand how it is that + American girls won't go out to service, though the pay is so much better + and they are so much better housed and fed—and everything. Besides,” + she added, with an irrelevance which always amuses her husband, though I + should be alarmed by it for her sanity if I did not find it so + characteristic of women here, who seem to be mentally characterized by the + illogicality of the civilization, “they're not half so good as the foreign + servants. They've been brought up in homes of their own, and they're + uppish, and they have no idea of anything but third-rate boarding-house + cooking, and they're always hoping to get married, so that, really, you + have no peace of your life with them.” + </p> + <p> + “And it never seems to you that the whole relation is wrong?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “What relation?” + </p> + <p> + “That between maid and mistress, the hirer and the hireling.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, good gracious!” she burst out. “Didn't Christ himself say that the + laborer was worthy of his hire? And how would you get your work done, if + you didn't pay for it?” + </p> + <p> + “It might be done for you, when you could not do it yourself, from + affection.” + </p> + <p> + “From affection!” she returned, with the deepest derision. “Well, I rather + think I <i>shall</i> have to do it myself if I want it done from + affection! But I suppose you think I <i>ought</i> to do it myself, as the + Altrurian ladies do! I can tell you that in America it would be impossible + for a lady to do her own work, and there are no intelligence-offices where + you can find girls that want to work for love. It's as broad as it's + long.” + </p> + <p> + “It's simply business,” her husband said. + </p> + <p> + They were right, my dear friend, and I was wrong, strange as it must + appear to you. The tie of service, which we think as sacred as the tie of + blood, can be here only a business relation, and in these conditions + service must forever be grudgingly given and grudgingly paid. There is + something in it, I do not quite know what, for I can never place myself + precisely in an American's place, that degrades the poor creatures who + serve, so that they must not only be social outcasts, but must leave such + a taint of dishonor on their work that one cannot even do it for one's + self without a sense of outraged dignity. You might account for this in + Europe, where ages of prescriptive wrong have distorted the relation out + of all human wholesomeness and Christian loveliness; but in America, where + many, and perhaps most, of those who keep servants and call them so are + but a single generation from fathers who earned their bread by the sweat + of their brows, and from mothers who nobly served in all household + offices, it is in the last degree bewildering. I can only account for it + by that bedevilment of the entire American ideal through the retention of + the English economy when the English polity was rejected. But at the heart + of America there is this ridiculous contradiction, and it must remain + there until the whole country is Altrurianized. There is no other hope; + but I did not now urge this point, and we turned to talk of other things, + related to the matters we had been discussing. + </p> + <p> + “The men,” said Mrs. Makely, “get out of the whole bother very nicely, as + long as they are single, and even when they're married they are apt to run + off to the club when there's a prolonged upheaval in the kitchen.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>I</i> don't, Dolly,” suggested her husband. + </p> + <p> + “No, <i>you</i> don't, Dick,” she returned, fondly. “But there are not + many like you.” + </p> + <p> + He went on, with a wink at me, “I never live at the club, except in + summer, when you go away to the mountains.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you know I can't very well take you with me,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I couldn't leave my business, anyway,” he said, and he laughed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <p> + I had noticed the vast and splendid club-houses in the best places in the + city, and I had often wondered about their life, which seemed to me a + blind groping towards our own, though only upon terms that forbade it to + those who most needed it. The clubs here are not like our groups, the free + association of sympathetic people, though one is a little more literary, + or commercial, or scientific, or political than another; but the entrance + to each is more or less jealously guarded; there is an initiation-fee, and + there are annual dues, which are usually heavy enough to exclude all but + the professional and business classes, though there are, of course, + successful artists and authors in them. During the past winter I visited + some of the most characteristic, where I dined and supped with the + members, or came alone when one of these put me down, for a fortnight or a + month. + </p> + <p> + They are equipped with kitchens and cellars, and their wines and dishes + are of the best. Each is, in fact, like a luxurious private house on a + large scale; outwardly they are palaces, and inwardly they have every + feature and function of a princely residence complete, even to a certain + number of guest-chambers, where members may pass the night, or stay + indefinitely in some cases, and actually live at the club. The club, + however, is known only to the cities and larger towns, in this highly + developed form; to the ordinary, simple American of the country, or of the + country town of five or ten thousand people, a New York club would be as + strange as it would be to any Altrurian. + </p> + <p> + “Do many of the husbands left behind in the summer live at the club?” I + asked. + </p> + <p> + “All that <i>have</i> a club do,” he said. “Often there's a very good + table d'hôte dinner that you couldn't begin to get for the same price + anywhere else; and there are a lot of good fellows there, and you can come + pretty near forgetting that you're homeless, or even that you're married.” + </p> + <p> + He laughed, and his wife said: “You ought to be ashamed, Dick; and me + worrying about you all the time I'm away, and wondering what the cook + gives you here. Yes,” she continued, addressing me, “that's the worst + thing about the clubs. They make the men so comfortable that they say it's + one of the principal obstacles to early marriages. The young men try to + get lodgings near them, so that they can take their meals there, and they + know they get much better things to eat than they could have in a house of + their own at a great deal more expense, and so they simply don't think of + getting married. Of course,” she said, with that wonderful, unintentional, + or at least unconscious, frankness of hers, “I don't blame the clubs + altogether. There's no use denying that girls are expensively brought up, + and that a young man has to think twice before taking one of them out of + the kind of home she's used to and putting her into the kind of home he + can give her. If the clubs have killed early marriages, the women have + created the clubs.” + </p> + <p> + “Do women go much to them?” I asked, choosing this question as a safe one. + </p> + <p> + “<i>Much</i>!” she screamed. “They don't go at all! They <i>can't</i>! + They won't <i>let</i> us! To be sure, there are some that have rooms where + ladies can go with their friends who are members, and have lunch or + dinner; but as for seeing the inside of the club-house proper, where these + great creatures”—she indicated her husband—“are sitting up, + smoking and telling stories, it isn't to be dreamed of.” + </p> + <p> + Her husband laughed. “You wouldn't like the smoking, Dolly.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor the stories, some of them,” she retorted. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, the stories are always first-rate,” he said, and he laughed more than + before. + </p> + <p> + “And they never gossip at the clubs, Mr. Homos—never!” she added. + </p> + <p> + “Well, hardly ever,” said her husband, with an intonation that I did not + understand. It seemed to be some sort of catch-phrase. + </p> + <p> + “All I know,” said Mrs. Makely, “is that I like to have my husband belong + to his club. It's a nice place for him in summer; and very often in + winter, when I'm dull, or going out somewhere that he hates, he can go + down to his club and smoke a cigar, and come home just about the time I + get in, and it's much better than worrying through the evening with a + book. He hates books, poor Dick!” She looked fondly at him, as if this + were one of the greatest merits in the world. “But I confess I shouldn't + like him to be a mere club man, like some of them.” + </p> + <p> + “But how?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Why, belonging to five or six, or more, even; and spending their whole + time at them, when they're not at business.” + </p> + <p> + There was a pause, and Mr. Makely put on an air of modest worth, which he + carried off with his usual wink towards me. I said, finally, “And if the + ladies are not admitted to the men's clubs, why don't they have clubs of + their own?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, they have—several, I believe. But who wants to go and meet a + lot of women? You meet enough of them in society, goodness knows. You + hardly meet any one else, especially at afternoon teas. They bore you to + death.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely's nerves seemed to lie in the direction of a prolongation of + this subject, and I asked my next question a little away from it. “I wish + you would tell me, Mrs. Makely, something about your way of provisioning + your household. You said that the grocer's and butcher's man came up to + the kitchen with your supplies—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and the milkman and the iceman; the iceman always puts the ice into + the refrigerator; it's very convenient, and quite like your own house.” + </p> + <p> + “But you go out and select the things yourself the day before, or in the + morning?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, not at all! The men come and the cook gives the order; she knows + pretty well what we want on the different days, and I never meddle with it + from one week's end to the other, unless we have friends. The tradespeople + send in their bills at the end of the month, and that's all there is of + it.” Her husband gave me one of his queer looks, and she went on: “When we + were younger, and just beginning housekeeping, I used to go out and order + the things myself; I used even to go to the big markets, and half kill + myself trying to get things a little cheaper at one place and another, and + waste more car-fare and lay up more doctor's bills than it would all come + to, ten times over. I used to fret my life out, remembering the prices; + but now, thank goodness, that's all over. I don't know any more what beef + is a pound than my husband does; if a thing isn't good, I send it straight + back, and that puts them on their honor, you know, and they have to give + me the best of everything. The bills average about the same, from month to + month; a little more if we have company but if they're too outrageous, I + make a fuss with the cook, and she scolds the men, and then it goes better + for a while. Still, it's a great bother.” + </p> + <p> + I confess that I did not see what the bother was, but I had not the + courage to ask, for I had already conceived a wholesome dread of the + mystery of an American lady's nerves. So I merely suggested, “And that is + the way that people usually manage?” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” she said, “I suppose that some old-fashioned people still do their + marketing, and people that have to look to their outgoes, and know what + every mouthful costs them. But their lives are not worth having. Eveleth + Strange does it—or she did do it when she was in the country; I dare + say she won't when she gets back—just from a sense of duty, and + because she says that a housekeeper ought to know about her expenses. But + I ask her who will care whether she knows or not; and as for giving the + money to the poor that she saves by spending economically, I tell her that + the butchers and the grocers have to live, too, as well as the poor, and + so it's as broad as it's long.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI + </h2> + <p> + I could not make out whether Mr. Makely approved of his wife's philosophy + or not; I do not believe he thought much about it. The money probably came + easily with him, and he let it go easily, as an American likes to do. + There is nothing penurious or sordid about this curious people, so fierce + in the pursuit of riches. When these are once gained, they seem to have no + value to the man who has won them, and he has generally no object in life + but to see his womankind spend them. + </p> + <p> + This is the season of the famous Thanksgiving, which has now become the + national holiday, but has no longer any savor in it of the grim Puritanism + it sprang from. It is now appointed by the president and the governors of + the several states, in proclamations enjoining a pious gratitude upon the + people for their continued prosperity as a nation, and a public + acknowledgment of the divine blessings. The blessings are supposed to be + of the material sort, grouped in the popular imagination as good times, + and it is hard to see what they are when hordes of men and women of every + occupation are feeling the pinch of poverty in their different degrees. It + is not merely those who have always the wolf at their doors who are now + suffering, but those whom the wolf never threatened before; those who + amuse as well as those who serve the rich are alike anxious and fearful, + where they are not already in actual want; thousands of poor players, as + well as hundreds of thousands of poor laborers, are out of employment, and + the winter threatens to be one of dire misery. Yet you would not imagine + from the smiling face of things, as you would see it in the better parts + of this great city, that there was a heavy heart or an empty stomach + anywhere below it. In fact, people here are so used to seeing other people + in want that it no longer affects them as reality; it is merely dramatic, + or hardly so lifelike as that—it is merely histrionic. It is + rendered still more spectacular to the imaginations of the fortunate by + the melodrama of charity they are invited to take part in by endless + appeals, and their fancy is flattered by the notion that they are curing + the distress they are only slightly relieving by a gift from their + superfluity. The charity, of course, is better than nothing, but it is a + fleeting mockery of the trouble, at the best. If it were proposed that the + city should subsidize a theatre a which the idle players could get + employment in producing good plays at a moderate cost to the people, the + notion would not be considered more ridiculous than that of founding + municipal works for the different sorts of idle workers; and it would not + be thought half so nefarious, for the proposition to give work by the + collectivity is supposed to be in contravention of the sacred principle of + monopolistic competition so dear to the American economist, and it would + be denounced as an approximation to the surrender of the city to anarchism + and destruction by dynamite. + </p> + <p> + But as I have so often said, the American life is in no wise logical, and + you will not be surprised, though you may be shocked or amused, to learn + that the festival of Thanksgiving is now so generally devoted to + witnessing a game of football between the elevens of two great + universities that the services at the churches are very scantily attended. + The Americans are practical, if they are not logical, and this preference + of football to prayer and praise on Thanksgiving-day has gone so far that + now a principal church in the city holds its services on Thanksgiving-eve, + so that the worshippers may not be tempted to keep away from their + favorite game. + </p> + <p> + There is always a heavy dinner at home after the game, to console the + friends of those who have lost and to heighten the joy of the winning + side, among the comfortable people. The poor recognize the day largely as + a sort of carnival. They go about in masquerade on the eastern avenues, + and the children of the foreign races who populate that quarter penetrate + the better streets, blowing horns and begging of the passers. They have + probably no more sense of its difference from the old carnival of Catholic + Europe than from the still older Saturnalia of pagan times. Perhaps you + will say that a masquerade is no more pagan than a football game; and I + confess that I have a pleasure in that innocent misapprehension of the + holiday on the East Side. I am not more censorious of it than I am of the + displays of festival cheer at the provision-stores or green-groceries + throughout the city at this time. They are almost as numerous on the + avenues as the drinking-saloons, and, thanks to them, the tasteful + housekeeping is at least convenient in a high degree. The waste is + inevitable with the system of separate kitchens, and it is not in + provisions alone, but in labor and in time, a hundred cooks doing the work + of one; but the Americans have no conception of our co-operative + housekeeping, and so the folly goes on. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the provision-stores add much to their effect of crazy gayety on + the avenues. The variety and harmony of colors is very great, and this + morning I stood so long admiring the arrangement in one of them that I am + afraid I rendered myself a little suspicious to the policeman guarding the + liquor-store on the nearest corner; there seems always to be a policeman + assigned to this duty. The display was on either side of the provisioner's + door, and began, on one hand, with a basal line of pumpkins well out on + the sidewalk. Then it was built up with the soft white and cool green of + cauliflowers and open boxes of red and white grapes, to the window that + flourished in banks of celery and rosy apples. On the other side, + gray-green squashes formed the foundation, and the wall was sloped upward + with the delicious salads you can find here, the dark red of beets, the + yellow of carrots, and the blue of cabbages. The association of colors was + very artistic, and even the line of mutton carcasses overhead, with each a + brace of grouse or half a dozen quail in its embrace, and flanked with + long sides of beef at the four ends of the line, was picturesque, though + the sight of the carnage at the provision-stores here would always be + dreadful to an Altrurian; in the great markets it is intolerable. This + sort of business is mostly in the hands of the Germans, who have a good + eye for such effects as may be studied in it; but the fruiterers are + nearly all Italians, and their stalls are charming. I always like, too, + the cheeriness of the chestnut and peanut ovens of the Italians; the + pleasant smell and friendly smoke that rise from them suggest a simple and + homelike life which there are so any things in this great, weary, heedless + city to make one forget. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII + </h2> + <p> + But I am allowing myself to wander too far from Mrs. Makely and her + letter, which reached me only two days before Thanksgiving. + </p> + <p> + “MY DEAR MR. HOMOS,—Will you give me the pleasure of your company at + dinner, on Thanksgiving-day, at eight o'clock, very informally. My friend, + Mrs. Bellington Strange, has unexpectedly returned from Europe within the + week, and I am asking a few friends, whom I can trust to excuse this very + short notice, to meet her. + </p> + <p> + “With Mr. Makely's best regards, + </p> + <p> + “Yours cordially, + </p> + <h3> + “DOROTHEA MAKELY. + </h3> + <p> + “The Sphinx, + </p> + <p> + “November the twenty sixth, + </p> + <p> + “Eighteen hundred and Ninety-three.” + </p> + <p> + I must tell you that it has been a fad with the ladies here to spell out + their dates, and, though the fashion is waning, Mrs. Makely is a woman who + would remain in such an absurdity among the very last. I will let you make + your own conclusions concerning this, for though, as an Altrurian, I + cannot respect her, I like her so much, and have so often enjoyed her + generous hospitality, that I cannot bring myself to criticise her except + by the implication of the facts. She is anomalous, but, to our way of + thinking, all the Americans I have met are anomalous, and she has the + merits that you would not logically attribute to her character. Of course, + I cannot feel that her evident regard for me is the least of these, though + I like to think that it is founded on more reason than the rest. + </p> + <p> + I have by this time become far too well versed in the polite insincerities + of the plutocratic world to imagine that, because she asked me to come to + her dinner very informally, I was not to come in all the state I could put + into my dress. You know what the evening dress of men is here, from the + costumes in our museum, and you can well believe that I never put on those + ridiculous black trousers without a sense of their grotesqueness—that + scrap of waistcoat reduced to a mere rim, so as to show the whole white + breadth of the starched shirt-bosom, and that coat chopped away till it + seems nothing but tails and lapels. It is true that I might go out to + dinner in our national costume; in fact, Mrs. Makely has often begged me + to wear it, for she says the Chinese wear theirs; but I have not cared to + make the sensation which I must if I wore it; my outlandish views of life + and my frank study of their customs signalize me quite sufficiently among + the Americans. + </p> + <p> + At the hour named I appeared in Mrs. Makely's drawing-room in all the + formality that I knew her invitation, to come very informally, really + meant. I found myself the first, as I nearly always do, but I had only + time for a word or two with my hostess before the others began to come. + She hastily explained that as soon as she knew Mrs. Strange was in New + York she had despatched a note telling her that I was still here; and that + as she could not get settled in time to dine at home, she must come and + take Thanksgiving dinner with her. “She will have to go out with Mr. + Makely; but I am going to put you next to her at table, for I want you + both to have a good time. But don't you forget that you are going to take + <i>me</i> out.” + </p> + <p> + I said that I should certainly not forget it, and I showed her the + envelope with my name on the outside, and hers on a card inside, which the + serving-man at the door had given me in the hall, as the first token that + the dinner was to be unceremonious. + </p> + <p> + She laughed, and said: “I've had the luck to pick up two or three other + agreeable people that I know will be glad to meet you. Usually it's such a + scratch lot at Thanksgiving, for everybody dines at home that can, and you + have to trust to the highways and the byways for your guests, if you give + a dinner. But I did want to bring Mrs. Strange and you together, and so I + chanced it. Of course, it's a sent-in dinner, as you must have inferred + from the man at the door; I've given my servants a holiday, and had + Claret's people do the whole thing. It's as broad as it's long, and, as my + husband says, you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; and it + saves bother. Everybody will know it's sent in, so that nobody will be + deceived. There'll be a turkey in it somewhere, and cranberry sauce; I've + insisted on that; but it won't be a regular American Thanksgiving dinner, + and I'm rather sorry, on your account, for I wanted you to see one, and I + meant to have had you here, just with ourselves; but Eveleth Strange's + coming back put a new face on things, and so I've gone in for this affair, + which isn't at all what you would like. That's the reason I tell you at + once it's sent in.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII + </h2> + <p> + I am so often at a loss for the connection in Mrs. Makely's ideas that I + am more patient with her incoherent jargon than you will be, I am afraid. + It went on to much the effect that I have tried to report until the moment + she took the hand of the guest who came next. They arrived, until there + were eight of us in all, Mrs. Strange coming last, with excuses for being + late. I had somehow figured her as a person rather mystical and recluse in + appearance, perhaps on account of her name, and I had imagined her tall + and superb. But she was, really, rather small, though not below the + woman's average, and she had a face more round than otherwise, with a sort + of business-like earnestness, but a very charming smile, and presently, as + I saw, an American sense of humor. She had brown hair and gray eyes, and + teeth not too regular to be monotonous; her mouth was very sweet, whether + she laughed or sat gravely silent. She at once affected me like a person + who had been sobered beyond her nature by responsibilities, and had + steadily strengthened under the experiences of life. She was dressed with + a sort of personal taste, in a rich gown of black lace, which came up to + her throat; and she did not subject me to that embarrassment I always feel + in the presence of a lady who is much décolletée, when I sit next her or + face to face with her: I cannot always look at her without a sense of + taking an immodest advantage. Sometimes I find a kind of pathos in this + sacrifice of fashion, which affects me as if the poor lady were wearing + that sort of gown because she thought she really ought, and then I keep my + eyes firmly on hers, or avert them altogether; but there are other cases + which have not this appealing quality. Yet in the very worst of the cases + it would be a mistake to suppose that there was a display personally meant + of the display personally made. Even then it would be found that the gown + was worn so because the dressmaker had made it so, and, whether she had + made it in this country or in Europe, that she had made it in compliance + with a European custom. In fact, all the society customs of the Americans + follow some European original, and usually some English original; and it + is only fair to say that in this particular custom they do not go to the + English extreme. + </p> + <p> + We did not go out to dinner at Mrs. Makely's by the rules of English + precedence, because there are nominally no ranks here, and we could not; + but I am sure it will not be long before the Americans will begin playing + at precedence just as they now play at the other forms of aristocratic + society. For the present, however, there was nothing for us to do but to + proceed, when dinner was served, in such order as offered itself, after + Mr. Makely gave his arm to Mrs. Strange; though, of course, the white + shoulders of the other ladies went gleaming out before the white shoulders + of Mrs. Makely shone beside my black ones. I have now become so used to + these observances that they no longer affect me as they once did, and as I + suppose my account of them must affect you, painfully, comically. But I + have always the sense of having a part in amateur theatricals, and I do + not see how the Americans can fail to have the same sense, for there is + nothing spontaneous in them, and nothing that has grown even dramatically + out of their own life. + </p> + <p> + Often when I admire the perfection of the stage-setting, it is with a + vague feeling that I am derelict in not offering it an explicit applause. + In fact, this is permitted in some sort and measure, as now when we sat + down at Mrs. Makely's exquisite table, and the ladies frankly recognized + her touch in it. One of them found a phrase for it at once, and pronounced + it a symphony in chrysanthemums; for the color and the character of these + flowers played through all the appointments of the table, and rose to a + magnificent finale in the vast group in the middle of the board, infinite + in their caprices of tint and design. Another lady said that it was a + dream, and then Mrs. Makely said, “No, a memory,” and confessed that she + had studied the effect from her recollection of some tables at a + chrysanthemum show held here year before last, which seemed failures + because they were so simply and crudely adapted in the china and napery to + merely one kind and color of the flower. + </p> + <p> + “Then,” she added, “I wanted to do something very chrysanthemummy, because + it seems to me the Thanksgiving flower, and belongs to Thanksgiving quite + as much as holly belongs to Christmas.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody applauded her intention, and they hungrily fell to upon the + excellent oysters, with her warning that we had better make the most of + everything in its turn, for she had conformed her dinner to the brevity of + the notice she had given her guests. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV + </h2> + <p> + Just what the dinner was I will try to tell you, for I think that it will + interest you to know what people here think a very simple dinner. That is, + people of any degree of fashion; for the unfashionable Americans, who are + innumerably in the majority, have, no more than the Altrurians, seen such + a dinner as Mrs. Makely's. This sort generally sit down to a single dish + of meat, with two or three vegetables, and they drink tea or coffee, or + water only, with their dinner. Even when they have company, as they say, + the things are all put on the table at once; and the average of Americans + who have seen a dinner served in courses, after the Russian manner, + invariable in the fine world here, is not greater than those who have seen + a serving-man in livery. Among these the host piles up his guest's plate + with meat and vegetables, and it is passed from hand to hand till it + reaches him; his drink arrives from the hostess by the same means. One + maid serves the table in a better class, and two maids in a class still + better; it is only when you reach people of very decided form that you + find a man in a black coat behind your chair; Mrs. Makely, mindful of the + informality of her dinner in everything, had two men. + </p> + <p> + I should say the difference between the Altrurians and the unfashionable + Americans, in view of such a dinner as she gave us, would be that, while + it would seem to us abominable for its extravagance, and revolting in its + appeals to appetite, it would seem to most of such Americans altogether + admirable and enviable, and would appeal to their ambition to give such a + dinner themselves as soon as ever they could. + </p> + <p> + Well, with our oysters we had a delicate French wine, though I am told + that formerly Spanish wines were served. A delicious soup followed the + oysters, and then we had fish with sliced cucumbers dressed with oil and + vinegar, like a salad; and I suppose you will ask what we could possibly + have eaten more. But this was only the beginning, and next there came a + course of sweetbreads with green peas. With this the champagne began at + once to flow, for Mrs. Makely was nothing if not original, and she had + champagne very promptly. One of the gentlemen praised her for it, and said + you could not have it too soon, and he had secretly hoped it would have + begun with the oysters. Next, we had a remove—a tenderloin of beef, + with mushrooms, fresh, and not of the canned sort which it is usually + accompanied with. This fact won our hostess more compliments from the + gentlemen, which could not have gratified her more if she had dressed and + cooked the dish herself. She insisted upon our trying the stewed terrapin, + for, if it did come in a little by the neck and shoulders, it was still in + place at a Thanksgiving dinner, because it was so American; and the + stuffed peppers, which, if they were not American, were at least Mexican, + and originated in the kitchen of a sister republic. There were one or two + other side-dishes, and, with all, the burgundy began to be poured out. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Makely said that claret all came now from California, no matter what + French château they named it after, but burgundy you could not err in. His + guests were now drinking the different wines, and to much the same effect, + I should think, as if they had mixed them all in one cup; though I ought + to say that several of the ladies took no wine, and kept me in countenance + after the first taste I was obliged to take of each, in order to pacify my + host. + </p> + <p> + You must know that all the time there were plates of radishes, olives, + celery, and roasted almonds set about that every one ate of without much + reference to the courses. The talking and the feasting were at their + height, but there was a little flagging of the appetite, perhaps, when it + received the stimulus of a water-ice flavored with rum. After eating it I + immediately experienced an extraordinary revival of my hunger (I am + ashamed to confess that I was gorging myself like the rest), but I quailed + inwardly when one of the men-servants set down before Mr. Makely a roast + turkey that looked as large as an ostrich. It was received with cries of + joy, and one of the gentlemen said, “Ah, Mrs. Makely, I was waiting to see + how you would interpolate the turkey, but you never fail. I knew you would + get it in somewhere. But where,” he added, in a burlesque whisper, behind + his hand, “are the—” + </p> + <p> + “Canvasback duck?” she asked, and at that moment the servant set before + the anxious inquirer a platter of these renowned birds, which you know + something of already from the report our emissaries have given of their + cult among the Americans. + </p> + <p> + Every one laughed, and after the gentleman had made a despairing flourish + over them with a carving-knife in emulation of Mr. Makely's emblematic + attempt upon the turkey, both were taken away and carved at a sideboard. + They were then served in slices, the turkey with cranberry sauce, and the + ducks with currant jelly; and I noticed that no one took so much of the + turkey that he could not suffer himself to be helped also to the duck. I + must tell you that there a salad with the duck, and after that there was + an ice-cream, with fruit and all manner of candied fruits, and candies, + different kinds of cheese, coffee, and liqueurs to drink after the coffee. + </p> + <p> + “Well, now,” Mrs. Makely proclaimed, in high delight with her triumph, “I + must let you imagine the pumpkin-pie. I meant to have it, because it isn't + really Thanksgiving without it. But I couldn't, for the life of me, see + where it would come in.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XV + </h2> + <p> + The sally of the hostess made them all laugh, and they began to talk about + the genuine American character of the holiday, and what a fine thing it + was to have something truly national. They praised Mrs. Makely for + thinking of so many American dishes, and the facetious gentleman said that + she rendered no greater tribute than was due to the overruling Providence + which had so abundantly bestowed them upon the Americans as a people. “You + must have been glad, Mrs. Strange,” he said to the lady at my side, “to + get back to our American oysters. There seems nothing else so potent to + bring us home from Europe.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid,” she answered, “that I don't care so much for the American + oyster as I should. But I am certainly glad to get back.” + </p> + <p> + “In time for the turkey, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I care no more for the turkey than for the oyster of my native land,” + said the lady. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, well, say the canvasback duck, then? The canvasback duck is no alien. + He is as thoroughly American as the turkey, or as any of us.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I should not have missed him, either,” persisted the lady. + </p> + <p> + “What could one have missed,” the gentleman said, with a bow to the + hostess, “in the dinner Mrs. Makely has given us? If there had been + nothing, I should not have missed it,” and when the laugh at his drolling + had subsided he asked Mrs. Strange: “Then, if it is not too indiscreet, + might I inquire what in the world has lured you again to our shores, if it + was not the oyster, nor the turkey, nor yet the canvasback?” + </p> + <p> + “The American dinner-party,” said the lady, with the same burlesque. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he consented, “I think I understand you. It is different from the + English dinner-party in being a festivity rather than a solemnity; though, + after all, the American dinner is only a condition of the English dinner. + Do you find us much changed, Mrs. Strange?” + </p> + <p> + “I think we are every year a little more European,” said the lady. “One + notices it on getting home.” + </p> + <p> + “I supposed we were so European already,” returned the gentleman, “that a + European landing among us would think he had got back to his + starting-point in a sort of vicious circle. I am myself so thoroughly + Europeanized in all my feelings and instincts that, do you know, Mrs. + Makely, if I may confess it without offence—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, by all means!” cried the hostess. + </p> + <p> + “When that vast bird which we have been praising, that colossal roast + turkey, appeared, I felt a shudder go through my delicate substance, such + as a refined Englishman might have experienced at the sight, and I said to + myself, quite as if I were not one of you, 'Good Heavens! now they will + begin talking through their noses and eating with their knives.' It's what + I might have expected!” + </p> + <p> + It was impossible not to feel that this gentleman was talking at me; if + the Americans have a foreign guest, they always talk at him more or less; + and I was not surprised when he said, “I think our friend, Mr. Homos, will + conceive my fine revolt from the crude period of our existence which the + roast turkey marks as distinctly as the graffiti of the cave-dweller + proclaim his epoch.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I protested, “I am afraid that I have not the documents for the + interpretation of your emotion. I hope you will take pity on my ignorance + and tell me just what you mean.” + </p> + <p> + The others said they none of them knew, either, and would like to know, + and the gentleman began by saying that he had been going over the matter + in his mind on his way to dinner, and he had really been trying to lead up + to it ever since we sat down. “I've been struck, first of all, by the + fact, in our evolution, that we haven't socially evolved from ourselves; + we've evolved from the Europeans, from the English. I don't think you'll + find a single society rite with us now that had its origin in our peculiar + national life, if we have a peculiar national life; I doubt it, sometimes. + If you begin with the earliest thing in the day, if you begin with + breakfast, as society gives breakfasts, you have an English breakfast, + though American people and provisions.” + </p> + <p> + “I must say, I think they're both much nicer,” said Mrs. Makely. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, there I am with you! We borrow the form, but we infuse the spirit. I + am talking about the form, though. Then, if you come to the society lunch, + which is almost indistinguishable from the society breakfast, you have the + English lunch, which is really an undersized English dinner. The afternoon + tea is English again, with its troops of eager females and stray, + reluctant males; though I believe there are rather more men at the English + teas, owing to the larger leisure class in England. The afternoon tea and + the 'at home' are as nearly alike as the breakfast and the lunch. Then, in + the course of time, we arrive at the great society function, the dinner; + and what is the dinner with us but the dinner of our mother-country?” + </p> + <p> + “It is livelier,” suggested Mrs. Makely, again. + </p> + <p> + “Livelier, I grant you, but I am still speaking of the form, and not of + the spirit. The evening reception, which is gradually fading away, as a + separate rite, with its supper and its dance, we now have as the English + have it, for the people who have not been asked to dinner. The ball, which + brings us round to breakfast again, is again the ball of our Anglo-Saxon + kin beyond the seas. In short, from the society point of view we are in + everything their mere rinsings.” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing of the kind!” cried Mrs. Makely. “I won't let you say such a + thing! On Thanksgiving-day, too! Why, there is the Thanksgiving dinner + itself! If that isn't purely American, I should like to know what is.” + </p> + <p> + “It is purely American, but it is strictly domestic; it is not society. + Nobody but some great soul like you, Mrs. Makely, would have the courage + to ask anybody to a Thanksgiving dinner, and even you ask only such + easy-going house-friends as we are proud to be. You wouldn't think of + giving a dinner-party on Thanksgiving?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I certainly shouldn't. I should think it was very presuming; and you + are all as nice as you can be to have come to-day; I am not the only great + soul at the table. But that is neither here nor there. Thanksgiving is a + purely American thing, and it's more popular than ever. A few years ago + you never heard of it outside of New England.” + </p> + <p> + The gentleman laughed. “You are perfectly right, Mrs. Makely, as you + always are. Thanksgiving is purely American. So is the corn-husking, so is + the apple-bee, so is the sugar-party, so is the spelling-match, so is the + church-sociable; but none of these have had their evolution in our society + entertainments. The New Year's call was also purely American, but that is + now as extinct as the dodo, though I believe the other American + festivities are still known in the rural districts.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Mrs. Makely, “and I think it's a great shame that we can't + have some of them in a refined form in society. I once went to a + sugar-party up in New Hampshire when I was a girl, and I never enjoyed + myself so much in my life. I should like to make up a party to go to one + somewhere in the Catskills in March. Will you all go? It would be + something to show Mr. Homos. I should like to show him something really + American before he goes home. There's nothing American left in society!” + </p> + <p> + “You forget the American woman,” suggested the gentleman. “She is always + American, and she is always in society.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” returned our hostess, with a thoughtful air, “you're quite right in + that. One always meets more women than men in society. But it's because + the men are so lazy, and so comfortable at their clubs, they won't go. + They enjoy themselves well enough in society after they get there, as I + tell my husband when he grumbles over having to dress.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the gentleman, “a great many things, the day-time things, we + really can't come to, because we don't belong to the aristocratic class, + as you ladies do, and we are busy down-town. But I don't think we are + reluctant about dinner; and the young fellows are nearly always willing to + go to a ball, if the supper's good and it's a house where they don't feel + obliged to dance. But what do <i>you</i> think, Mr. Homos?” he asked. “How + does your observation coincide with my experience?” + </p> + <p> + I answered that I hardly felt myself qualified to speak, for though I had + assisted at the different kinds of society rites he had mentioned, thanks + to the hospitality of my friends in New York, I knew the English functions + only from a very brief stay in England on my way here, and from what I had + read of them in English fiction and in the relations of our emissaries. He + inquired into our emissary system, and the company appeared greatly + interested in such account of it as I could briefly give. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he said, “that would do while you kept it to yourselves; but now + that your country is known to the plutocratic world, your public documents + will be apt to come back to the countries your emissaries have visited, + and make trouble. The first thing you know some of our bright reporters + will get on to one of your emissaries, and interview him, and then we + shall get what you think of us at first hands. By-the-by, have you seen + any of those primitive social delights which Mrs. Makely regrets so much?” + </p> + <p> + “I!” our hostess protested. But then she perceived that he was joking, and + she let me answer. + </p> + <p> + I said that I had seen them nearly all, during the past year, in New + England and in the West, but they appeared to me inalienable of the + simpler life of the country, and that I was not surprised they should not + have found an evolution in the more artificial society of the cities. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” he returned, “that you reserve your <i>opinion</i> of our more + artificial society; but you may be sure that our reporters will get it out + of you yet before you leave us.” + </p> + <p> + “Those horrid reporters!” one of the ladies irrelevantly sighed. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman resumed: “In the mean time, I don't mind saying how it + strikes me. I think you are quite right about the indigenous American + things being adapted only to the simpler life of the country and the + smaller towns. It is so everywhere. As soon as people become at all + refined they look down upon what is their own as something vulgar. But it + is peculiarly so with us. We have nothing national that is not connected + with the life of work, and when we begin to live the life of pleasure we + must borrow from the people abroad, who have always lived the life of + pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Homos, you know,” Mrs. Makely explained for me, as if this were the + aptest moment, “thinks we all ought to work. He thinks we oughtn't to have + any servants.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no, my dear lady,” I put in. “I don't think that of you as you <i>are</i>. + None of you could see more plainly than I do that in your conditions you + <i>must</i> have servants, and that you cannot possibly work unless + poverty obliges you.” + </p> + <p> + The other ladies had turned upon me with surprise and horror at Mrs. + Makely's words, but they now apparently relented, as if I had fully + redeemed myself from the charge made against me. Mrs. Strange alone seemed + to have found nothing monstrous in my supposed position. “Sometimes,” she + said, “I wish we had to work, all of us, and that we could be freed from + our servile bondage to servants.” + </p> + <p> + Several of the ladies admitted that it was the greatest slavery in the + world, and that it would be comparative luxury to do one's own work. But + they all asked, in one form or another, what were they to do, and Mrs. + Strange owned that she did not know. The facetious gentleman asked me how + the ladies did in Altruria, and when I told them, as well as I could, they + were, of course, very civil about it, but I could see that they all + thought it impossible, or, if not impossible, then ridiculous. I did not + feel bound to defend our customs, and I knew very well that each woman + there was imagining herself in our conditions with the curse of her + plutocratic tradition still upon her. They could not do otherwise, any of + them, and they seemed to get tired of such effort as they did make. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely rose, and the other ladies rose with her, for the Americans + follow the English custom in letting the men remain at table after the + women have left. But on this occasion I found it varied by a pretty touch + from the French custom, and the men, instead of merely standing up while + the women filed out, gave each his arm, as far as the drawing-room, to the + lady he had brought in to dinner. Then we went back, and what is the + pleasantest part of the dinner to most men began for us. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVI + </h2> + <p> + I must say, to the credit of the Americans, that although the eating and + drinking among them appear gross enough to an Altrurian, you are not + revolted by the coarse stories which the English sometimes tell as soon as + the ladies have left them. If it is a men's dinner, or more especially a + men's supper, these stories are pretty sure to follow the coffee; but when + there have been women at the board, some sense of their presence seems to + linger in the more delicate American nerves, and the indulgence is limited + to two or three things off color, as the phrase is here, told with anxious + glances at the drawing-room doors, to see if they are fast shut. + </p> + <p> + I do not remember just what brought the talk back from these primrose + paths to that question of American society forms, but presently some one + said he believed the church-sociable was the thing in most towns beyond + the apple-bee and sugar-party stage, and this opened the inquiry as to how + far the church still formed the social life of the people in cities. Some + one suggested that in Brooklyn it formed it altogether, and then they + laughed, for Brooklyn is always a joke with the New-Yorkers; I do not know + exactly why, except that this vast city is so largely a suburb, and that + it has a great number of churches and is comparatively cheap. Then another + told of a lady who had come to New York (he admitted, twenty years ago), + and was very lonely, as she had no letters until she joined a church. This + at once brought her a general acquaintance, and she began to find herself + in society; but as soon as she did so she joined a more exclusive church, + where they took no notice of strangers. They all laughed at that bit of + human nature, as they called it, and they philosophized the relation of + women to society as a purely business relation. The talk ranged to the + mutable character of society, and how people got into it, or were of it, + and how it was very different from what it once was, except that with + women it was always business. They spoke of certain new rich people with + affected contempt; but I could see that they were each proud of knowing + such millionaires as they could claim for acquaintance, though they + pretended to make fun of the number of men-servants you had to run the + gantlet of in their houses before you could get to your hostess. + </p> + <p> + One of my commensals said he had noticed that I took little or no wine, + and, when I said that we seldom drank it in Altruria, he answered that he + did not think I could make that go in America, if I meant to dine much. + “Dining, you know, means overeating,” he explained, “and if you wish to + overeat you must overdrink. I venture to say that you will pass a worse + night than any of us, Mr. Homos, and that you will be sorrier to-morrow + than I shall.” They were all smoking, and I confess that their tobacco was + secretly such an affliction to me that I was at one moment in doubt + whether I should take a cigar myself or ask leave to join the ladies. + </p> + <p> + The gentleman who had talked so much already said: “Well, I don't mind + dining, a great deal, especially with Makely, here, but I do object to + supping, as I have to do now and then, in the way of pleasure. Last + Saturday night I sat down at eleven o'clock to blue-point oysters, + consommé, stewed terrapin—yours was very good, Makely; I wish I had + taken more of it—lamb chops with peas, redhead duck with celery + mayonnaise, Nesselrode pudding, fruit, cheese, and coffee, with sausages, + caviare, radishes, celery, and olives interspersed wildly, and drinkables + and smokables <i>ad libitum</i>; and I can assure you that I felt very + devout when I woke up after church-time in the morning. It is this turning + night into day that is killing us. We men, who have to go to business the + next morning, ought to strike, and say that we won't go to anything later + than eight-o'clock dinner.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, then the women would insist upon our making it four-o'clock tea,” + said another. + </p> + <p> + Our host seemed to be reminded of something by the mention of the women, + and he said, after a glance at the state of the cigars, “Shall we join the + ladies?” + </p> + <p> + One of the men-servants had evidently been waiting for this question. He + held the door open, and we all filed into the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Makely hailed me with, “Ah, Mr. Homos, I'm so glad you've come! We + poor women have been having a most dismal time!” + </p> + <p> + “Honestly,” asked the funny gentleman, “don't you always, without us?” + “Yes, but this has been worse than usual. Mrs. Strange has been asking us + how many people we supposed there were in this city, within five minutes' + walk of us, who had no dinner to-day. Do you call that kind?” + </p> + <p> + “A little more than kin and less than kind, perhaps,” the gentleman + suggested. “But what does she propose to do about it?” + </p> + <p> + He turned towards Mrs. Strange, who answered, “Nothing. What does any one + propose to do about it?” + </p> + <p> + “Then, why do you think about it?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't. It thinks about itself. Do you know that poem of Longfellow's, + 'The Challenge'?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I never heard of it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it begins in his sweet old way, about some Spanish king who was + killed before a city he was besieging, and one of his knights sallies out + of the camp and challenges the people of the city, the living and the + dead, as traitors. Then the poet breaks off, <i>apropos de rien:</i> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'There is a greater army + That besets us round with strife, + A numberless, starving army, + At all the gates of life. + The poverty-stricken millions + Who challenge our wine and bread + And impeach us all for traitors, + Both the living and the dead. + And whenever I sit at the banquet, + Where the feast and song are high, + Amid the mirth and the music + I can hear that fearful cry. + + And hollow and haggard faces + Look into the lighted hall, + And wasted hands are extended + To catch the crumbs that fall. + For within there is light and plenty, + And odors fill the air; + But without there is cold and darkness, + And hunger and despair. + And there, in the camp of famine, + In wind and cold and rain, + Christ, the great Lord of the Army, + Lies dead upon the plain.'” + </pre> + <p> + “Ah,” said the facetious gentleman, “that is fine! We really forget how + fine Longfellow was. It is so pleasant to hear you quoting poetry, Mrs. + Strange! That sort of thing has almost gone out; and it's a pity.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVII + </h2> + <p> + Our fashion of offering hospitality on the impulse would be as strange + here as offering it without some special inducement for its acceptance. + The inducement is, as often as can be, a celebrity or eccentricity of some + sort, or some visiting foreigner; and I suppose that I have been a good + deal used myself in one quality or the other. But when the thing has been + done, fully and guardedly at all points, it does not seem to have been + done for pleasure, either by the host or the guest. The dinner is given in + payment of another dinner; or out of ambition by people who are striving + to get forward in society; or by great social figures who give regularly a + certain number of dinners every season. In either case it is eaten from + motives at once impersonal and selfish. I do not mean to say that I have + not been at many dinners where I felt nothing perfunctory either in host + or guest, and where as sweet and gay a spirit ruled as at any of our own + simple feasts. Still, I think our main impression of American hospitality + would be that it was thoroughly infused with the plutocratic principle, + and that it meant business. + </p> + <p> + I am speaking now of the hospitality of society people, who number, after + all, but a few thousands out of the many millions of American people. + These millions are so far from being in society, even when they are very + comfortable, and on the way to great prosperity, if they are not already + greatly prosperous, that if they were suddenly confronted with the best + society of the great Eastern cities they would find it almost as strange + as so many Altrurians. A great part of them have no conception of + entertaining except upon an Altrurian scale of simplicity, and they know + nothing and care less for the forms that society people value themselves + upon. When they begin, in the ascent of the social scale, to adopt forms, + it is still to wear them lightly and with an individual freedom and + indifference; it is long before anxiety concerning the social law renders + them vulgar. + </p> + <p> + Yet from highest to lowest, from first to last, one invariable fact + characterizes them all, and it may be laid down as an axiom that in a + plutocracy the man who needs a dinner is the man who is never asked to + dine. I do not say that he is not given a dinner. He is very often given a + dinner, and for the most part he is kept from starving to death; but he is + not suffered to sit at meat with his host, if the person who gives him a + meal can be called his host. His need of the meal stamps him with a + hopeless inferiority, and relegates him morally to the company of the + swine at their husks, and of Lazarus, whose sores the dogs licked. + Usually, of course, he is not physically of such a presence as to fit him + for any place in good society short of Abraham's bosom; but even if he + were entirely decent, or of an inoffensive shabbiness, it would not be + possible for his benefactors, in any grade of society, to ask him to their + tables. He is sometimes fed in the kitchen; where the people of the house + feed in the kitchen themselves, he is fed at the back door. + </p> + <p> + We were talking of this the other night at the house of that lady whom + Mrs. Makely invited me specially to meet on Thanksgiving-day. It happened + then, as it often happens here, that although I was asked to meet her, I + saw very little of her. It was not so bad as it sometimes is, for I have + been asked to meet people, very informally, and passed the whole evening + with them, and yet not exchanged a word with them. Mrs. Makely really gave + me a seat next Mrs. Strange at table, and we had some unimportant + conversation; but there was a lively little creature vis-à-vis of me, who + had a fancy of addressing me so much of her talk that my acquaintance + with. Mrs. Strange rather languished through the dinner, and she went away + so soon after the men rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room that I did + not speak to her there. I was rather surprised, then, to receive a note + from her a few days later, asking me to dinner; and I finally went, I am + ashamed to own, more from curiosity than from any other motive. I had + been, in the mean time, thoroughly coached concerning her by Mrs. Makely, + whom I told of my invitation, and who said, quite frankly, that she wished + Mrs. Strange had asked her, too. “But Eveleth Strange wouldn't do that,” + she explained, “because it would have the effect of paying me back. I'm so + glad, on your account, that you're going, for I do want you to know at + least one American woman that you can unreservedly approve of; I know you + don't <i>begin</i> to approve of <i>me;</i> and I was so vexed that you + really had no chance to talk with her that night you met her here; it + seemed to me as if she ran away early just to provoke me; and, to tell you + the truth, I thought she had taken a dislike to you. I wish I could tell + you just what sort of a person she is, but it would be perfectly hopeless, + for you haven't got the documents, and you never could get them. I used to + be at school with her, and even then she wasn't like any of the other + girls. She was always so original, and did things from such a high motive, + that afterwards, when we were all settled, I was perfectly thunderstruck + at her marrying old Bellington Strange, who was twice her age and had + nothing but his money; he was not related to the New York Bellingtons at + all, and nobody knows how he got the name; nobody ever heard of the + Stranges. In fact, people say that he used to be plain Peter B. Strange + till he married Eveleth, and she made him drop the Peter and blossom out + in the Bellington, so that he could seem to have a social as well as a + financial history. People who dislike her insisted that they were not in + the least surprised at her marrying him; that the high-motive business was + just her pose; and that she had jumped at the chance of getting him. But I + always stuck up for her—and I know that she did it for the sake of + her family, who were all as poor as poor, and were dependent on her after + her father went to smash in his business. She was always as high-strung + and romantic as she could be, but I don't believe that even then she would + have taken Mr. Strange if there had been anybody else. I don't suppose any + one else ever looked at her, for the young men are pretty sharp nowadays, + and are not going to marry girls without a cent, when there are so many + rich girls, just as charming every way; you can't expect them to. At any + rate, whatever her motive was, she had her reward, for Mr. Strange died + within a year of their marriage, and she got all his money. There was no + attempt to break the will, for Mr. Strange seemed to be literally of no + family; and she's lived quietly on in the house he bought her ever since, + except when she's in Europe, and that's about two-thirds of the time. She + has her mother with her, and I suppose that her sisters and her cousins + and her aunts come in for outdoor aid. She's always helping somebody. They + say that's her pose, now; but, if it is, I don't think it's a bad one; and + certainly, if she wanted to get married again, there would be no trouble, + with her three millions. I advise you to go to her dinner, by all means, + Mr. Homos. It will be something worth while, in every way, and perhaps + you'll convert her to Altrurianism; she's as hopeful a subject as <i>I</i> + know.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XVIII + </h2> + <p> + I was one of the earliest of the guests, for I cannot yet believe that + people do not want me to come exactly when they say they do. I perceived, + however, that one other gentleman had come before me, and I was both + surprised and delighted to find that this was my acquaintance Mr. Bullion, + the Boston banker. He professed as much pleasure at our meeting as I + certainly felt; but after a few words he went on talking with Mrs. + Strange, while I was left to her mother, an elderly woman of quiet and + even timid bearing, who affected me at once as born and bred in a wholly + different environment. In fact, every American of the former generation is + almost as strange to it in tradition, though not in principle, as I am; + and I found myself singularly at home with this sweet lady, who seemed + glad of my interest in her. I was taken from her side to be introduced to + a lady, on the opposite side of the room, who said she had been promised + my acquaintance by a friend of hers, whom I had met in the mountains—Mr. + Twelvemough; did I remember him? She gave a little cry while still + speaking, and dramatically stretched her hand towards a gentleman who + entered at the moment, and whom I saw to be no other than Mr. Twelvemough + himself. As soon as he had greeted our hostess he hastened up to us, and, + barely giving himself time to press the still outstretched hand of my + companion, shook mine warmly, and expressed the greatest joy at seeing me. + He said that he had just got back to town, in a manner, and had not known + I was here, till Mrs. Strange had asked him to meet me. There were not a + great many other guests, when they all arrived, and we sat down, a party + not much larger than at Mrs. Makely's. + </p> + <p> + I found that I was again to take out my hostess, but I was put next the + lady with whom I had been talking; she had come without her husband, who + was, apparently, of a different social taste from herself, and had an + engagement of his own; there was an artist and his wife, whose looks I + liked; some others whom I need not specify were there, I fancied, because + they had heard of Altruria and were curious to see me. As Mr. Twelvemough + sat quite at the other end of the table, the lady on my right could easily + ask me whether I liked his books. She said, tentatively, people liked them + because they felt sure when they took up one of his novels they had not + got hold of a tract on political economy in disguise. + </p> + <p> + It was this complimentary close of a remark, which scarcely began with + praise, that made itself heard across the table, and was echoed with a + heartfelt sigh from the lips of another lady. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said, “that is what I find such a comfort in Mr. Twelvemough's + books.” + </p> + <p> + “We were speaking of Mr. Twelvemough's books,” the first lady triumphed, + and several began to extol them for being fiction pure and simple, and not + dealing with anything but loves of young people. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Twelvemough sat looking as modest as he could under the praise, and + one of the ladies said that in a novel she had lately read there was a + description of a surgical operation that made her feel as if she had been + present at a clinic. Then the author said that he had read that passage, + too, and found it extremely well done. It was fascinating, but it was not + art. + </p> + <p> + The painter asked, Why was it not art? + </p> + <p> + The author answered, Well, if such a thing as that was art, then anything + that a man chose to do in a work of imagination was art. + </p> + <p> + “Precisely,” said the painter—“art <i>is</i> choice.” + </p> + <p> + “On that ground,” the banker interposed, “you could say that political + economy was a fit subject for art, if an artist chose to treat it.” + </p> + <p> + “It would have its difficulties,” the painter admitted, “but there are + certain phases of political economy, dramatic moments, human moments, + which might be very fitly treated in art. For instance, who would object + to Mr. Twelvemough's describing an eviction from an East Side + tenement-house on a cold winter night, with the mother and her children + huddled about the fire the father had kindled with pieces of the household + furniture?” + </p> + <p> + “<i>I</i> should object very much, for one,” said the lady who had + objected to the account of the surgical operation. “It would be too + creepy. Art should give pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you think a tragedy is not art?” asked the painter. + </p> + <p> + “I think that these harrowing subjects are brought in altogether too + much,” said the lady. “There are enough of them in real life, without + filling all the novels with them. It's terrible the number of beggars you + meet on the street, this winter. Do you want to meet them in Mr. + Twelvemough's novels, too?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it wouldn't cost me any money there. I shouldn't have to give.” + </p> + <p> + “You oughtn't to give money in real life,” said the lady. “You ought to + give charity tickets. If the beggars refuse them, it shows they are + impostors.” + </p> + <p> + “It's some comfort to know that the charities are so active,” said the + elderly young lady, “even if half the letters one gets <i>do</i> turn out + to be appeals from them.” + </p> + <p> + “It's very disappointing to have them do it, though,” said the artist, + lightly. “I thought there was a society to abolish poverty. That doesn't + seem to be so active as the charities this winter. Is it possible they've + found it a failure?” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Mr. Bullion, “perhaps they have suspended during the hard + times.” + </p> + <p> + They tossed the ball back and forth with a lightness the Americans have, + and I could not have believed, if I had not known how hardened people + become to such things here, that they were almost in the actual presence + of hunger and cold. It was within five minutes' walk of their warmth and + surfeit; and if they had lifted the window and called, “Who goes there?” + the houselessness that prowls the night could have answered them from the + street below, “Despair!” + </p> + <p> + “I had an amusing experience,” Mr. Twelvemough began, “when I was doing a + little visiting for the charities in our ward, the other winter.” + </p> + <p> + “For the sake of the literary material?” the artist suggested. + </p> + <p> + “Partly for the sake of the literary material; you know we have to look + for our own everywhere. But we had a case of an old actor's son, who had + got out of all the places he had filled, on account of rheumatism, and + could not go to sea, or drive a truck, or even wrap gas-fixtures in paper + any more.” + </p> + <p> + “A checkered employ,” the banker mused aloud. + </p> + <p> + “It was not of a simultaneous nature,” the novelist explained. “So he came + on the charities, and, as I knew the theatrical profession a little, and + how generous it was with all related to it, I said that I would undertake + to look after his case. You know the theory is that we get work for our + patients, or clients, or whatever they are, and I went to a manager whom I + knew to be a good fellow, and I asked him for some sort of work. He said, + Yes, send the man round, and he would give him a job copying parts for a + new play he had written.” + </p> + <p> + The novelist paused, and nobody laughed. + </p> + <p> + “It seems to me that your experience is instructive, rather than amusing,” + said the banker. “It shows that something can be done, if you try.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Mr. Twelvemough, “I thought that was the moral, myself, till + the fellow came afterwards to thank me. He said that he considered himself + very lucky, for the manager had told him that there were six other men had + wanted that job.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody laughed now, and I looked at my hostess in a little + bewilderment. She murmured, “I suppose the joke is that he had befriended + one man at the expense of six others.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” I returned, “is that a joke?” + </p> + <p> + No one answered, but the lady at my right asked, “How do you manage with + poverty in Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + I saw the banker fix a laughing eye on me, but I answered, “In Altruria we + have no poverty.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, I knew you would say that!” he cried out. “That's what he always + does,” he explained to the lady. “Bring up any one of our little + difficulties, and ask how they get over it in Altruria, and he says they + have nothing like it. It's very simple.” + </p> + <p> + They all began to ask me questions, but with a courteous incredulity which + I could feel well enough, and some of my answers made them laugh, all but + my hostess, who received them with a gravity that finally prevailed. But I + was not disposed to go on talking of Altruria then, though they all + protested a real interest, and murmured against the hardship of being cut + off with so brief an account of our country as I had given them. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the banker at last, “if there is no cure for our poverty, we + might as well go on and enjoy ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said our hostess, with a sad little smile, “we might as well enjoy + ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIX + </h2> + <p> + The talk at Mrs. Strange's table took a far wider range than my meagre + notes would intimate, and we sat so long that it was almost eleven before + the men joined the ladies in the drawing-room. You will hardly conceive of + remaining two, three, or four hours at dinner, as one often does here, in + society; out of society the meals are despatched with a rapidity unknown + to the Altrurians. Our habit of listening to lectors, especially at the + evening repast, and then of reasoning upon what we have heard, prolongs + our stay at the board; but the fondest listener, the greatest talker among + us, would be impatient of the delay eked out here by the great number and + the slow procession of the courses served. Yet the poorest American would + find his ideal realized rather in the long-drawn-out gluttony of the + society dinner here than in our temperate simplicity. + </p> + <p> + At such a dinner it is very hard to avoid a surfeit, and I have to guard + myself very carefully, lest, in the excitement of the talk, I gorge myself + with everything, in its turn. Even at the best, my overloaded stomach + often joins with my conscience in reproaching me for what you would think + a shameful excess at table. Yet, wicked as my riot is, my waste is worse, + and I have to think, with contrition, not only of what I have eaten, but + of what I have left uneaten, in a city where so many wake and sleep in + hunger. + </p> + <p> + The ladies made a show of lingering after we joined them in the + drawing-room; but there were furtive glances at the clock, and presently + her guests began to bid Mrs. Strange good-night. When I came up and + offered her my hand, she would not take it, but murmured, with a kind of + passion: “Don't go! I mean it! Stay, and tell us about Altruria—my + mother and me!” + </p> + <p> + I was by no means loath, for I must confess that all I had seen and heard + of this lady interested me in her more and more. I felt at home with her, + too, as with no other society woman I have met; she seemed to me not only + good, but very sincere, and very good-hearted, in spite of the world she + lived in. Yet I have met so many disappointments here, of the kind that + our civilization wholly fails to prepare us for, that I should not have + been surprised to find that Mrs. Strange had wished me to stay, not that + she might hear me talk about Altruria, but that I might hear her talk + about herself. You must understand that the essential vice of a system + which concentres a human being's thoughts upon his own interests, from the + first moment of responsibility, colors and qualifies every motive with + egotism. All egotists are unconscious, for otherwise they would be + intolerable to themselves; but some are subtler than others; and as most + women have finer natures than most men everywhere, and in America most + women have finer minds than most men, their egotism usually takes the form + of pose. This is usually obvious, but in some cases it is so delicately + managed that you do not suspect it, unless some other woman gives you a + hint of it, and even then you cannot be sure of it, seeing the + self-sacrifice, almost to martyrdom, which the <i>poseuse</i> makes for + it. If Mrs. Makely had not suggested that some people attributed a pose to + Mrs. Strange, I should certainly never have dreamed of looking for it, and + I should have been only intensely interested, when she began, as soon as I + was left alone with her and her mother: + </p> + <p> + “You may not know how unusual I am in asking this favor of you, Mr. Homos; + but you might as well learn from me as from others that I am rather + unusual in everything. In fact, you can report in Altruria, when you get + home, that you found at least one woman in America whom fortune had smiled + upon in every way, and who hated her smiling fortune almost as much as she + hated herself. I'm quite satisfied,” she went on, with a sad mockery, + “that fortune is a man, and an American; when he has given you all the + materials for having a good time, he believes that you must be happy, + because there is nothing to hinder. It isn't that I want to be happy in + the greedy way that men think we do, for then I could easily be happy. If + you have a soul which is not above buttons, buttons are enough. But if you + expect to be of real use, to help on, and to help out, you will be + disappointed. I have not the faith that they say upholds you Altrurians in + trying to help out, if I don't see my way out. It seems to me that my + reason has some right to satisfaction, and that, if I am a woman grown, I + can't be satisfied with the assurances they would give to little girls—that + everything is going on well. Any one can see that things are not going on + well. There is more and more wretchedness of every kind, not hunger of + body alone, but hunger of soul. If you escape one, you suffer the other, + because, if you <i>have</i> a soul, you must long to help, not for a time, + but for all time. I suppose,” she asked, abruptly, “that Mrs. Makely has + told you something about me?” + </p> + <p> + “Something,” I admitted. + </p> + <p> + “I ask,” she went on, “because I don't want to bore you with a statement + of my case, if you know it already. Ever since I heard you were in New + York I have wished to see you, and to talk with you about Altruria; I did + not suppose that there would be any chance at Mrs. Makely's, and there + wasn't; and I did not suppose there would be any chance here, unless I + could take courage to do what I have done now. You must excuse it, if it + seems as extraordinary a proceeding to you as it really is; I wouldn't at + all have you think it is usual for a lady to ask one of her guests to stay + after the rest, in order, if you please, to confess herself to him. It's a + crime without a name.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, not gayly, but humorously, and then went on, speaking always + with a feverish eagerness which I find it hard to give you a sense of, for + the women here have an intensity quite beyond our experience of the sex at + home. + </p> + <p> + “But you are a foreigner, and you come from an order of things so utterly + unlike ours that perhaps you will be able to condone my offence. At any + rate, I have risked it.” She laughed again, more gayly, and recovered + herself in a cheerfuller and easier mood. “Well, the long and the short of + it is that I have come to the end of my tether. I have tried, as truly as + I believe any woman ever did, to do my share, with money and with work, to + help make life better for those whose life is bad; and though one mustn't + boast of good works, I may say that I have been pretty thorough, and, if + I've given up, it's because I see, in our state of things, <i>no</i> hope + of curing the evil. It's like trying to soak up the drops of a rainstorm. + You do dry up a drop here and there; but the clouds are full of them, and, + the first thing you know, you stand, with your blotting-paper in your + hand, in a puddle over your shoe-tops. There is nothing but charity, and + charity is a failure, except for the moment. If you think of the misery + around you, that must remain around you for ever and ever, as long as you + live, you have your choice—to go mad and be put into an asylum, or + go mad and devote yourself to society.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XX + </h2> + <p> + While Mrs. Strange talked on, her mother listened quietly, with a dim, + submissive smile and her hands placidly crossed in her lap. She now said: + “It seems to be very different now from what it was in my time. There are + certainly a great many beggars, and we used never to have one. Children + grew up, and people lived and died, in large towns, without ever seeing + one. I remember, when my husband first took me abroad, how astonished we + were at the beggars. Now I meet as many in New York as I met in London or + in Rome. But if you don't do charity, what can you do? Christ enjoined it, + and Paul says—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, people <i>never</i> do the charity that Christ meant,” said Mrs. + Strange; “and, as things are now, how <i>could</i> they? Who would dream + of dividing half her frocks and wraps with poor women, or selling <i>all</i> + and giving to the poor? That is what makes it so hopeless. We <i>know</i> + that Christ was perfectly right, and that He was perfectly sincere in what + He said to the good young millionaire; but we all go away exceeding + sorrowful, just as the good young millionaire did. We have to, if we don't + want to come on charity ourselves. How do <i>you</i> manage about that?” + she asked me; and then she added, “But, of course, I forgot that you have + no need of charity.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, we have,” I returned; and I tried, once more, as I have tried so + often with Americans, to explain how the heavenly need of giving the self + continues with us, but on terms that do not harrow the conscience of the + giver, as self-sacrifice always must here, at its purest and noblest. I + sought to make her conceive of our nation as a family, where every one was + secured against want by the common provision, and against the degrading + and depraving inequality which comes from want. The “dead-level of + equality” is what the Americans call the condition in which all would be + as the angels of God, and they blasphemously deny that He ever meant His + creatures to be alike happy, because some, through a long succession of + unfair advantages, have inherited more brain or brawn or beauty than + others. I found that this gross and impious notion of God darkened even + the clear intelligence of a woman like Mrs. Strange; and, indeed, it + prevails here so commonly that it is one of the first things advanced as + an argument against the Altrurianization of America. + </p> + <p> + I believe I did, at last, succeed in showing her how charity still + continues among us, but in forms that bring neither a sense of inferiority + to him who takes nor anxiety to him who gives. I said that benevolence + here often seemed to involve, essentially, some such risk as a man should + run if he parted with a portion of the vital air which belonged to himself + and his family, in succoring a fellow-being from suffocation; but that + with us, where it was no more possible for one to deprive himself of his + share of the common food, shelter, and clothing, than of the air he + breathed, one could devote one's self utterly to others without that foul + alloy of fear which I thought must basely qualify every good deed in + plutocratic conditions. + </p> + <p> + She said that she knew what I meant, and that I was quite right in my + conjecture, as regarded men, at least; a man who did not stop to think + what the effect, upon himself and his own, his giving must have, would be + a fool or a madman; but women could often give as recklessly as they + spent, without any thought of consequences, for they did not know how + money came. + </p> + <p> + “Women,” I said, “are exterior to your conditions, and they can sacrifice + themselves without wronging any one.” + </p> + <p> + “Or, rather,” she continued, “without the sense of wronging any one. Our + men like to keep us in that innocence or ignorance; they think it is + pretty, or they think it is funny; and as long as a girl is in her + father's house, or a wife is in her husband's, she knows no more of + money-earning or money-making than a child. Most grown women among us, if + they had a sum of money in the bank, would not know how to get it out. + They would not know how to indorse a check, much less draw one. But there + are plenty of women who are inside the conditions, as much as men are—poor + women who have to earn their bread, and rich-women who have to manage + their property. I can't speak for the poor women; but I can speak for the + rich, and I can confess for them that what you imagine is true. The taint + of unfaith and distrust is on every dollar that you dole out, so that, as + far as the charity of the rich is concerned, I would read Shakespeare: + </p> + <p> + 'It curseth him that gives, and him that takes.'” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps that is why the rich give comparatively so little. The poor can + never understand how much the rich value their money, how much the owner + of a great fortune dreads to see it less. If it were not so, they would + surely give more than they do; for a man who has ten millions could give + eight of them without feeling the loss; the man with a hundred could give + ninety and be no nearer want. Ah, it's a strange mystery! My poor husband + and I used to talk of it a great deal, in the long year that he lay dying; + and I think I hate my superfluity the more because I know he hated it so + much.” + </p> + <p> + A little trouble had stolen into her impassioned tones, and there was a + gleam, as of tears, in the eyes she dropped for a moment. They were + shining still when she lifted them again to mine. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose,” she said, “that Mrs. Makely told you something of my + marriage?” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth!” her mother protested, with a gentle murmur. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I think I can be frank with Mr. Homos. He is not an American, and he + will understand, or, at least, he will not misunderstand. Besides, I dare + say I shall not say anything worse than Mrs. Makely has said already. My + husband was much older than I, and I ought not to have married him; a + young girl ought never to marry an old man, or even a man who is only a + good many years her senior. But we both faithfully tried to make the best + of our mistake, not the worst, and I think this effort helped us to + respect each other, when there couldn't be any question of more. He was a + rich man, and he had made his money out of nothing, or, at least, from a + beginning of utter poverty. But in his last years he came to a sense of + its worthlessness, such as few men who have made their money ever have. He + was a common man, in a great many ways; he was imperfectly educated, and + he was ungrammatical, and he never was at home in society; but he had a + tender heart and an honest nature, and I revere his memory, as no one + would believe I could without knowing him as I did. His money became a + burden and a terror to him; he did not know what to do with it, and he was + always morbidly afraid of doing harm with it; he got to thinking that + money was an evil in itself.” + </p> + <p> + “That is what we think,” I ventured. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I know. But he had thought this out for himself, and yet he had + times when his thinking about it seemed to him a kind of craze, and, at + any rate, he distrusted himself so much that he died leaving it all to me. + I suppose he thought that perhaps I could learn how to give it without + hurting; and then he knew that, in our state of things, I must have some + money to keep the wolf from the door. And I am afraid to part with it, + too. I have given and given; but there seems some evil spell on the + principal that guards it from encroachment, so that it remains the same, + and, if I do not watch, the interest grows in the bank, with that + frightful life dead money seems endowed with, as the hair of dead, people + grows in the grave.” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth!” her mother murmured again. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes,” she answered, “I dare say my words are wild. I dare say they + only mean that I loathe my luxury from the bottom of my soul, and long to + be rid of it, if I only could, without harm to others and with safety to + myself.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXI + </h2> + <p> + It seemed to me that I became suddenly sensible of this luxury for the + first time. I had certainly been aware that I was in a large and stately + house, and that I had been served and banqueted with a princely pride and + profusion. But there had, somehow, been through all a sort of simplicity, + a sort of quiet, so that I had not thought of the establishment and its + operation, even so much as I had thought of Mrs. Makely's far inferior + scale of living; or else, what with my going about so much in society, I + was ceasing to be so keenly observant of the material facts as I had been + at first. But I was better qualified to judge of what I saw, and I had now + a vivid sense of the costliness of Mrs. Strange's environment. There were + thousands of dollars in the carpets underfoot; there were tens of + thousands in the pictures on the walls. In a bronze group that withdrew + itself into a certain niche, with a faint reluctance, there was the value + of a skilled artisan's wage for five years of hard work; in the bindings + of the books that showed from the library shelves there was almost as much + money as most of the authors had got for writing them. Every fixture, + every movable, was an artistic masterpiece; a fortune, as fortunes used to + be counted even in this land of affluence, had been lavished in the mere + furnishing of a house which the palaces of nobles and princes of other + times had contributed to embellish. + </p> + <p> + “My husband,” Mrs. Strange went on, “bought this house for me, and let me + furnish it after my own fancy. After it was all done we neither of us + liked it, and when he died I felt as if he had left me in a tomb here.” + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth,” said her mother, “you ought not to speak so before Mr. Homos. + He will not know what to think of you, and he will go back to Altruria + with a very wrong idea of American women.” + </p> + <p> + At this protest, Mrs. Strange seemed to recover herself a little. “Yes,” + she said, “you must excuse me. I have no right to speak so. But one is + often much franker with foreigners than with one's own kind, and, besides, + there is something—I don't know what—that will not let me keep + the truth from you.” + </p> + <p> + She gazed at me entreatingly, and then, as if some strong emotion swept + her from her own hold, she broke out: + </p> + <p> + “He thought he would make some sort of atonement to me, as if I owed none + to him! His money was all he had to do it with, and he spent that upon me + in every way he could think of, though he knew that money could not buy + anything that was really good, and that, if it bought anything beautiful, + it uglified it with the sense of cost to every one who could value it in + dollars and cents. He was a good man, far better than people ever + imagined, and very simple-hearted and honest, like a child, in his + contrition for his wealth, which he did not dare to get rid of; and though + I know that, if he were to come back, it would be just as it was, his + memory is as dear to me as if—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, and pressed in her lip with her teeth, to stay its tremor. I + was painfully affected. I knew that she had never meant to be so open with + me, and was shocked and frightened at herself. I was sorry for her, and + yet I was glad, for it seemed to me that she had given me a glimpse, not + only of the truth in her own heart, but of the truth in the hearts of a + whole order of prosperous people in these lamentable conditions, whom I + shall hereafter be able to judge more leniently, more justly. + </p> + <p> + I began to speak of Altruria, as if that were what our talk had been + leading up to, and she showed herself more intelligently interested + concerning us than any one I have yet seen in this country. We appeared, I + found, neither incredible nor preposterous to her; our life, in her eyes, + had that beauty of right living which the Americans so feebly imagine or + imagine not at all. She asked what route I had come by to America, and she + seemed disappointed and aggrieved that we placed the restrictions we have + felt necessary upon visitors from the plutocratic world. Were we afraid, + she asked, that they would corrupt our citizens or mar our content with + our institutions? She seemed scarcely satisfied when I explained, as I + have explained so often here, that the measures we had taken were rather + in the interest of the plutocratic world than of the Altrurians; and + alleged the fact that no visitor from the outside had ever been willing to + go home again, as sufficient proof that we had nothing to fear from the + spread of plutocratic ideals among us. I assured her, and this she easily + imagined, that, the better known these became, the worse they appeared to + us; and that the only concern our priors felt, in regard to them, was that + our youth could not conceive of them in their enormity, but, in seeing how + estimable plutocratic people often were, they would attribute to their + conditions the inherent good of human nature. I said our own life was so + directly reasoned from its economic premises that they could hardly + believe the plutocratic life was often an absolute non sequitur of the + plutocratic premises. I confessed that this error was at the bottom of my + own wish to visit America and study those premises. + </p> + <p> + “And what has your conclusion been?” she said, leaning eagerly towards me, + across the table between us, laden with the maps and charts we had been + examining for the verification of the position of Altruria, and my own + course here, by way of England. + </p> + <p> + A slight sigh escaped Mrs. Gray, which I interpreted as an expression of + fatigue; it was already past twelve o'clock, and I made it the pretext for + escape. + </p> + <p> + “You have seen the meaning and purport of Altruria so clearly,” I said, + “that I think I can safely leave you to guess the answer to that + question.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, and did not try to detain me now when I offered my hand for + good-night. I fancied her mother took leave of me coldly, and with a + certain effect of inculpation. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXII + </h2> + <p> + It is long since I wrote you, and you have had reason enough to be + impatient of my silence. I submit to the reproaches of your letter, with a + due sense of my blame; whether I am altogether to blame, you shall say + after you have read this. + </p> + <p> + I cannot yet decide whether I have lost a great happiness, the greatest + that could come to any man, or escaped the worst misfortune that could + befall me. But, such as it is, I will try to set the fact honestly down. + </p> + <p> + I do not know whether you had any conjecture, from my repeated mention of + a lady whose character greatly interested me, that I was in the way of + feeling any other interest in her than my letters expressed. I am no + longer young, though at thirty-five an Altrurian is by no means so old as + an American at the same age. The romantic ideals of the American women + which I had formed from the American novels had been dissipated; if I had + any sentiment towards them, as a type, it was one of distrust, which my + very sense of the charm in their inconsequence, their beauty, their + brilliancy, served rather to intensify. I thought myself doubly defended + by that difference between their civilization and ours which forbade + reasonable hope of happiness in any sentiment for them tenderer than that + of the student of strange effects in human nature. But we have not yet, my + dear Cyril, reasoned the passions, even in Altruria. + </p> + <p> + After I last wrote you, a series of accidents, or what appeared so, threw + me more and more constantly into the society of Mrs. Strange. We began to + laugh at the fatality with which we met everywhere—at teas, at + lunches, at dinners, at evening receptions, and even at balls, where I + have been a great deal, because, with all my thirty-five years, I have not + yet outlived that fondness for dancing which has so often amused you in + me. Wherever my acquaintance widened among cultivated people, they had no + inspiration but to ask us to meet each other, as if there were really no + other woman in New York who could be expected to understand me. “You must + come to lunch (or tea, or dinner, whichever it might be), and we will have + her. She will be so much interested to meet you.” + </p> + <p> + But perhaps we should have needed none of these accidents to bring us + together. I, at least, can look back and see that, when none of them + happened, I sought occasions for seeing her, and made excuses of our + common interest in this matter and in that to go to her. As for her, I can + only say that I seldom failed to find her at home, whether I called upon + her nominal day or not, and more than once the man who let me in said he + had been charged by Mrs. Strange to say that, if I called, she was to be + back very soon; or else he made free to suggest that, though Mrs. Strange + was not at home, Mrs. Gray was; and then I found it easy to stay until + Mrs. Strange returned. The good old lady had an insatiable curiosity about + Altruria, and, though I do not think she ever quite believed in our + reality, she at least always treated me kindly, as if I were the victim of + an illusion that was thoroughly benign. + </p> + <p> + I think she had some notion that your letters, which I used often to take + with me and read to Mrs. Strange and herself, were inventions of mine; and + the fact that they bore only an English postmark confirmed her in this + notion, though I explained that in our present passive attitude towards + the world outside we had as yet no postal relations with other countries, + and, as all our communication at home was by electricity, that we had no + letter-post of our own. The very fact that she belonged to a purer and + better age in America disqualified her to conceive of Altruria; her + daughter, who had lived into a full recognition of the terrible anarchy in + which the conditions have ultimated here, could far more vitally imagine + us, and to her, I believe, we were at once a living reality. Her + perception, her sympathy, her intelligence, became more and more to me, + and I escaped to them oftener and oftener, from a world where an Altrurian + must be so painfully at odds. In all companies here I am aware that I have + been regarded either as a good joke or a bad joke, according to the humor + of the listener, and it was grateful to be taken seriously. + </p> + <p> + From the first I was sensible of a charm in her, different from that I + felt in other American women, and impossible in our Altrurian women. She + had a deep and almost tragical seriousness, masked with a most winning + gayety, a light irony, a fine scorn that was rather for herself than for + others. She had thought herself out of all sympathy with her environment; + she knew its falsehood, its vacuity, its hopelessness; but she necessarily + remained in it and of it. She was as much at odds in it as I was, without + my poor privilege of criticism and protest, for, as she said, she could + not set herself up as a censor of things that she must keep on doing as + other people did. She could have renounced the world, as there are ways + and means of doing here; but she had no vocation to the religious life, + and she could not feign it without a sense of sacrilege. In fact, this + generous and magnanimous and gifted woman was without that faith, that + trust in God which comes to us from living His law, and which I wonder any + American can keep. She denied nothing; but she had lost the strength to + affirm anything. She no longer tried to do good from her heart, though she + kept on doing charity in what she said was a mere mechanical impulse from + the belief of other days, but always with the ironical doubt that she was + doing harm. Women are nothing by halves, as men can be, and she was in a + despair which no man can realize, for we have always some if or and which + a woman of the like mood casts from her in wild rejection. Where she could + not clearly see her way to a true life, it was the same to her as an + impenetrable darkness. + </p> + <p> + You will have inferred something of all this from what I have written of + her before, and from words of hers that I have reported to you. Do you + think it so wonderful, then, that in the joy I felt at the hope, the + solace, which my story of our life seemed to give her, she should become + more and more precious to me? It was not wonderful, either, I think, that + she should identify me with that hope, that solace, and should suffer + herself to lean upon me, in a reliance infinitely sweet and endearing. But + what a fantastic dream it now appears! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIII + </h2> + <p> + I can hardly tell you just how we came to own our love to each other; but + one day I found myself alone with her mother, with the sense that Eveleth + had suddenly withdrawn from the room at the knowledge of my approach. Mrs. + Gray was strongly moved by something; but she governed herself, and, after + giving me a tremulous hand, bade me sit. + </p> + <p> + “Will you excuse me, Mr. Homos,” she began, “if I ask you whether you + intend to make America your home after this?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no!” I answered, and I tried to keep out of my voice the despair with + which the notion filled me. I have sometimes had nightmares here, in which + I thought that I was an American by choice, and I can give you no + conception of the rapture of awakening to the fact that I could still go + back to Altruria, that I had not cast my lot with this wretched people. + “How could I do that?” I faltered; and I was glad to perceive that I had + imparted to her no hint of the misery which I had felt at such a notion. + “I mean, by getting naturalized, and becoming a citizen, and taking up + your residence among us.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I answered, as quietly as I could, “I had not thought of that.” + </p> + <p> + “And you still intend to go back to Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “I hope so; I ought to have gone back long ago, and if I had not met the + friends I have in this house—” I stopped, for I did not know how I + should end what I had begun to say. + </p> + <p> + “I am glad you think we are your friends,” said the lady, “for we have + tried to show ourselves your friends. I feel as if this had given me the + right to say something to you that you may think very odd.” + </p> + <p> + “Say anything to me, my dear lady,” I returned. “I shall not think it + unkind, no matter how odd it is.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it's nothing. It's merely that—that when you are not here with + us I lose my grasp on Altruria, and—and I begin to doubt—” + </p> + <p> + I smiled. “I know! People here have often hinted something of that kind to + me. Tell me, Mrs. Gray, do Americans generally take me for an impostor?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no!” she answered, fervently. “Everybody that I have heard speak of + you has the highest regard for you, and believes you perfectly sincere. + But—” + </p> + <p> + “But what?” I entreated. + </p> + <p> + “They think you may be mistaken.” + </p> + <p> + “Then they think I am out of my wits—that I am in an hallucination!” + </p> + <p> + “No, not that,” she returned. “But it is so very difficult for us to + conceive of a whole nation living, as you say you do, on the same terms as + one family, and no one trying to get ahead of another, or richer, and + having neither inferiors nor superiors, but just one dead level of + equality, where there is no distinction except by natural gifts and good + deeds or beautiful works. It seems impossible—it seems ridiculous.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I confessed, “I know that it seems so to the Americans.” + </p> + <p> + “And I must tell you something else, Mr. Homos, and I hope you won't take + it amiss. The first night when you talked about Altruria here, and showed + us how you had come, by way of England, and the place where Altruria ought + to be on our maps, I looked them over, after you were gone, and I could + make nothing of it. I have often looked at the map since, but I could + never find Altruria; it was no use.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” I said, “if you will let me have your atlas—” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. “It would be the same again as soon as you went away.” + I could not conceal my distress, and she went on: “Now, you mustn't mind + what I say. I'm nothing but a silly old woman, and Eveleth would never + forgive me if she could know what I've been saying.” + </p> + <p> + “Then Mrs. Strange isn't troubled, as you are, concerning me?” I asked, + and I confess my anxiety attenuated my voice almost to a whisper. + </p> + <p> + “She won't admit that she is. It might be better for her if she would. But + Eveleth is very true to her friends, and that—that makes me all the + more anxious that she should not deceive herself.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Mrs. Gray!” I could not keep a certain tone of reproach out of my + words. + </p> + <p> + She began to weep. “There! I knew I should hurt your feelings. But you + mustn't mind what I say. I beg your pardon! I take it all back—” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, I don't want you to take it back! But what proof shall I give you + that there is such a land as Altruria? If the darkness implies the day, + America must imply Altruria. In what way do I seem false, or mad, except + that I claim to be the citizen of a country where people love one another + as the first Christians did?” + </p> + <p> + “That is just it,” she returned. “Nobody can imagine the first Christians, + and do you think we can imagine anything like them in our own day?” + </p> + <p> + “But Mrs. Strange—she imagines us, you say?” + </p> + <p> + “She thinks she does; but I am afraid she only thinks so, and I know her + better than you do, Mr. Homos. I know how enthusiastic she always was, and + how unhappy she has been since she has lost her hold on faith, and how + eagerly she has caught at the hope you have given her of a higher life on + earth than we live here. If she should ever find out that she was wrong, I + don't know what would become of her. You mustn't mind me; you mustn't let + me wound you by what I say.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't wound me, and I only thank you for what you say; but I entreat + you to believe in me. Mrs. Strange has not deceived herself, and I have + not deceived her. Shall I protest to you, by all I hold sacred, that I am + really what I told you I was; that I am not less, and that Altruria is + infinitely more, happier, better, gladder, than any words of mine can say? + Shall I not have the happiness to see your daughter to-day? I had + something to say to her—and now I have so much more! If she is in + the house, won't you send to her? I can make her understand—” + </p> + <p> + I stopped at a certain expression which I fancied I saw in Mrs. Gray's + face. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Homos,” she began, so very seriously that my heart trembled with a + vague misgiving, “sometimes I think you had better not see my daughter any + more.” + </p> + <p> + “Not see her any more?” I gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; I don't see what good can come of it, and it's all very strange and + uncanny. I don't know how to explain it; but, indeed, it isn't anything + personal. It's because you are of a state of things so utterly opposed to + human nature that I don't see how—I am afraid that—” + </p> + <p> + “But I am not uncanny to <i>her!</i>” I entreated. “I am not unnatural, + not incredible—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no; that is the worst of it. But I have said too much; I have said a + great deal more than I ought. But you must excuse it: I am an old woman. I + am not very well, and I suppose it's that that makes me talk so much.” + </p> + <p> + She rose from her chair, and I, perforce, rose from mine and made a + movement towards her. + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” she said, “I don't need any help. You must come again soon and + see us, and show that you've forgotten what I've said.” She gave me her + hand, and I could not help bending over it and kissing it. She gave a + little, pathetic whimper. “Oh, I <i>know</i> I've said the most dreadful + things to you.” + </p> + <p> + “You haven't said anything that takes your friendship from me, Mrs. Gray, + and that is what I care for.” My own eyes filled with tears—I do not + know why—and I groped my way from the room. Without seeing any one + in the obscurity of the hallway, where I found myself, I was aware of some + one there, by that sort of fine perception which makes us know the + presence of a spirit. + </p> + <p> + “You are going?” a whisper said. “Why are you going?” And Eveleth had me + by the hand and was drawing me gently into the dim drawing-room that + opened from the place. “I don't know all my mother has been saying to you. + I had to let her say something; she thought she ought. I knew you would + know how to excuse it.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my dearest!” I said, and why I said this I do not know, or how we + found ourselves in each other's arms. + </p> + <p> + “What are we doing?” she murmured. + </p> + <p> + “You don't believe I am an impostor, an illusion, a visionary?” I besought + her, straining her closer to my heart. + </p> + <p> + “I believe in you, with all my soul!” she answered. + </p> + <p> + We sat down, side by side, and talked long. I did not go away the whole + day. With a high disdain of convention, she made me stay. Her mother sent + word that she would not be able to come to dinner, and we were alone + together at table, in an image of what our united lives might be. We spent + the evening in that happy interchange of trivial confidences that lovers + use in symbol of the unutterable raptures that fill them. We were there in + what seemed an infinite present, without a past, without a future. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXIV + </h2> + <p> + Society had to be taken into our confidence, and Mrs. Makely saw to it + that there were no reserves with society. Our engagement was not quite + like that of two young persons, but people found in our character and + circumstance an interest far transcending that felt in the engagement of + the most romantic lovers. Some note of the fact came to us by accident, as + one evening when we stood near a couple and heard them talking. “It must + be very weird,” the man said; “something like being engaged to a + materialization.” “Yes,” said the girl, “quite the Demon Lover business, I + should think.” She glanced round, as people do, in talking, and, at sight + of us, she involuntarily put her hand over her mouth. I looked at Eveleth; + there was nothing expressed in her face but a generous anxiety for me. But + so far as the open attitude of society towards us was concerned, nothing + could have been more flattering. We could hardly have been more asked to + meet each other than before; but now there were entertainments in special + recognition of our betrothal, which Eveleth said could not be altogether + refused, though she found the ordeal as irksome as I did. In America, + however, you get used to many things. I do not know why it should have + been done, but in the society columns of several of the great newspapers + our likenesses were printed, from photographs procured I cannot guess how, + with descriptions of our persons as to those points of coloring and + carriage and stature which the pictures could not give, and with + biographies such as could be ascertained in her case and imagined in mine. + In some of the society papers, paragraphs of a surprising scurrility + appeared, attacking me as an impostor, and aspersing the motives of + Eveleth in her former marriage, and treating her as a foolish crank or an + audacious flirt. The goodness of her life, her self-sacrifice and works of + benevolence, counted for no more against these wanton attacks than the + absolute inoffensiveness of my own; the writers knew no harm of her, and + they knew nothing at all of me; but they devoted us to the execration of + their readers simply because we formed apt and ready themes for + paragraphs. You may judge of how wild they were in their aim when some of + them denounced me as an Altrurian plutocrat! + </p> + <p> + We could not escape this storm of notoriety; we had simply to let it spend + its fury. When it began, several reporters of both sexes came to interview + me, and questioned me, not only as to all the facts of my past life, and + all my purposes in the future, but as to my opinion of hypnotism, eternal + punishment, the Ibsen drama, and the tariff reform. I did my best to + answer them seriously, and certainly I answered them civilly; but it + seemed from what they printed that the answers I gave did not concern + them, for they gave others for me. They appeared to me for the most part + kindly and well-meaning young people, though vastly ignorant of vital + things. They had apparently visited me with minds made up, or else their + reports were revised by some controlling hand, and a quality injected more + in the taste of the special journals they represented than in keeping with + the facts. When I realized this, I refused to see any more reporters, or + to answer them, and then they printed the questions they had prepared to + ask me, in such form that my silence was made of the same damaging effect + as a full confession of guilt upon the charges. + </p> + <p> + The experience was so strange and new to me that it affected me in a + degree I was unwilling to let Eveleth imagine. But she divined my + distress, and, when she divined that it was chiefly for her, she set + herself to console and reassure me. She told me that this was something + every one here expected, in coming willingly or unwillingly before the + public; and that I must not think of it at all, for certainly no one else + would think twice of it. This, I found, was really so, for when I ventured + to refer tentatively to some of these publications, I found that people, + if they had read them, had altogether forgotten them; and that they were, + with all the glare of print, of far less effect with our acquaintance than + something said under the breath in a corner. I found that some of our + friends had not known the effigies for ours which they had seen in the + papers; others made a joke of the whole affair, as the Americans do with + so many affairs, and said that they supposed the pictures were those of + people who had been cured by some patent medicine, they looked so strong + and handsome. This, I think, was a piece of Mr. Makely's humor in the + beginning; but it had a general vogue long after the interviews and the + illustrations were forgotten. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXV + </h2> + <p> + I linger a little upon these trivial matters because I shrink from what + must follow. They were scarcely blots upon our happiness; rather they were + motes in the sunshine which had no other cloud. It is true that I was + always somewhat puzzled by a certain manner in Mrs. Gray, which certainly + was from no unfriendliness for me; she could not have been more + affectionate to me, after our engagement, if I had been really her own + son; and it was not until after our common kindness had confirmed itself + upon the new footing that I felt this perplexing qualification on it. I + felt it first one day when I found her alone, and I talked long and freely + to her of Eveleth, and opened to her my whole heart of joy in our love. At + one point she casually asked me how soon we should expect to return from + Altruria after our visit; and at first I did not understand. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” she explained, “you will want to see all your old friends, + and so will Eveleth, for they will be her friends, too; but if you want me + to go with you, as you say, you must let me know when I shall see New York + again.” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” I said, “you will always be with us.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then,” she pursued, with a smile, “when shall <i>you</i> come + back?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, never!” I answered. “No one ever leaves Altruria, if he can help it, + unless he is sent on a mission.” + </p> + <p> + She looked a little mystified, and I went on: “Of course, I was not + officially authorized to visit the world outside, but I was permitted to + do so, to satisfy a curiosity the priors thought useful; but I have now + had quite enough of it, and I shall never leave home again.” + </p> + <p> + “You won't come to live in America?” + </p> + <p> + “God forbid!” said I, and I am afraid I could not hide the horror that ran + through me at the thought. “And when you once see our happy country, you + could no more be persuaded to return to America than a disembodied spirit + could be persuaded to return to the earth.” + </p> + <p> + She was silent, and I asked: “But, surely, you understood this, Mrs. + Gray?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said, reluctantly. “Does Eveleth?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, certainly,” I said. “We have talked it over a hundred times. Hasn't + she—” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know,” she returned, with a vague trouble in her voice and eyes. + “Perhaps I haven't understood her exactly. Perhaps—but I shall be + ready to do whatever you and she think best. I am an old woman, you know; + and, you know, I was born here, and I should feel the change.” + </p> + <p> + Her words conveyed to me a delicate reproach; I felt for the first time + that, in my love of my own country, I had not considered her love of hers. + It is said that the Icelanders are homesick when they leave their world of + lava and snow; and I ought to have remembered that an American might have + some such tenderness for his atrocious conditions, if he were exiled from + them forever. I suppose it was the large and wide mind of Eveleth, with + its openness to a knowledge and appreciation of better things, that had + suffered me to forget this. She seemed always so eager to see Altruria, + she imagined it so fully, so lovingly, that I had ceased to think of her + as an alien; she seemed one of us, by birth as well as by affinity. + </p> + <p> + Yet now the words of her mother, and the light they threw upon the + situation, gave me pause. I began to ask myself questions I was impatient + to ask Eveleth, so that there should be no longer any shadow of misgiving + in my breast; and yet I found myself dreading to ask them, lest by some + perverse juggle I had mistaken our perfect sympathy for a perfect + understanding. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVI + </h2> + <p> + Like all cowards who wait a happy moment for the duty that should not be + suffered to wait at all, I was destined to have the affair challenge me, + instead of seizing the advantage of it that instant frankness would have + given me. Shall I confess that I let several days go by, and still had not + spoken to Eveleth, when, at the end of a long evening—the last long + evening we passed together—she said: + </p> + <p> + “What would you like to have me do with this house while we are gone?” + </p> + <p> + “Do with this house?” I echoed; and I felt as if I were standing on the + edge of an abyss. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; shall we let it, or sell it—or what? Or give it away?” I drew + a little breath at this; perhaps we had not misunderstood each other, + after all. She went on: “Of course, I have a peculiar feeling about it, so + that I wouldn't like to get it ready and let it furnished, in the ordinary + way. I would rather lend it to some one, if I could be sure of any one who + would appreciate it; but I can't. Not one. And it's very much the same + when one comes to think about selling it. Yes, I should like to give it + away for some good purpose, if there is any in this wretched state of + things. What do you say, Aristide?” + </p> + <p> + She always used the French form of my name, because she said it sounded + ridiculous in English, for a white man, though I told her that the English + was nearer the Greek in sound. + </p> + <p> + “By all means, give it away,” I said. “Give it for some public purpose. + That will at least be better than any private purpose, and put it somehow + in the control of the State, beyond the reach of individuals or + corporations. Why not make it the foundation of a free school for the + study of the Altrurian polity?” + </p> + <p> + She laughed at this, as if she thought I must be joking. “It would be + droll, wouldn't it, to have Tammany appointees teaching Altrurianism?” + Then she said, after a moment of reflection: “Why not? It needn't be in + the hands of Tammany. It could be in the hands of the United States; I + will ask my lawyer if it couldn't; and I will endow it with money enough + to support the school handsomely. Aristide, you have hit it!” + </p> + <p> + I began: “You can give <i>all</i> your money to it, my dear—” But I + stopped at the bewildered look she turned on me. + </p> + <p> + “All?” she repeated. “But what should we have to live on, then?” + </p> + <p> + “We shall need no money to live on in Altruria,” I answered. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, in Altruria! But when we come back to New York?” + </p> + <p> + It was an agonizing moment, and I felt that shutting of the heart which + blinds the eyes and makes the brain reel. “Eveleth,” I gasped, “did you + expect to return to New York?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, certainly!” she cried. “Not at once, of course. But after you had + seen your friends, and made a good, long visit—Why, surely, + Aristide, you don't understand that I—You didn't mean to <i>live</i> + in Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” I answered. “Where else could I live? Did you think for an instant + that I could live in such a land as this?” I saw that she was hurt, and I + hastened to say: “I know that it is the best part of the world outside of + Altruria, but, oh, my dear, you cannot imagine how horrible the notion of + living here seems to me. Forgive me. I am going from bad to worse. I don't + mean to wound you. After all, it is your country, and you must love it. + But, indeed, I could not think of living here. I could not take the burden + of its wilful misery on my soul. I must live in Altruria, and you, when + you have once seen my country, <i>our</i> country, will never consent to + live in any other.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said, “I know it must be very beautiful; but I hadn't supposed—and + yet I ought—” + </p> + <p> + “No, dearest, no! It was I who was to blame, for not being clearer from + the first. But that is the way with us. We can't imagine any people + willing to live anywhere else when once they have seen Altruria; and I + have told you so much of it, and we have talked of it together so often, + that I must have forgotten you had not actually known it. But listen, + Eveleth. We will agree to this: After we have been a year in Altruria, if + you wish to return to America I will come back and live with you here.” + </p> + <p> + “No, indeed!” she answered, generously. “If you are to be my husband,” and + here she began with the solemn words of the Bible, so beautiful in their + quaint English, “'whither thou goest, I will go, and I will not return + from following after thee. Thy country shall be my country, and thy God my + God.” + </p> + <p> + I caught her to my heart, in a rapture of tenderness, and the evening that + had begun for us so forbiddingly ended in a happiness such as not even our + love had known before. I insisted upon the conditions I had made, as to + our future home, and she agreed to them gayly at last, as a sort of + reparation which I might make my conscience, if I liked, for tearing her + from a country which she had willingly lived out of for the far greater + part of the last five years. + </p> + <p> + But when we met again I could see that she had been thinking seriously. + </p> + <p> + “I won't give the house absolutely away,” she said. “I will keep the deed + of it myself, but I will establish that sort of school of Altrurian + doctrine in it, and I will endow it, and when we come back here, for our + experimental sojourn, after we've been in Altruria a year, we'll take up + our quarters in it—I won't give the whole house to the school—and + we will lecture on the later phases of Altrurian life to the pupils. How + will that do?” + </p> + <p> + She put her arms around my neck, and I said that it would do admirably; + but I had a certain sinking of the heart, for I saw how hard it was even + for Eveleth to part with her property. + </p> + <p> + “I'll endow it,” she went on, “and I'll leave the rest of my money at + interest here; unless you think that some Altrurian securities—” + </p> + <p> + “No; there are no such things!” I cried. + </p> + <p> + “That was what I thought,” she returned; “and as it will cost us nothing + while we are in Altruria, the interest will be something very handsome by + the time we get back, even in United States bonds.” + </p> + <p> + “Something handsome!” I cried. “But, Eveleth, haven't I heard you say + yourself that the growth of interest from dead money was like—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes; that!” she returned. “But you know you have to take it. You can't + let the money lie idle: that would be ridiculous; and then, with the good + purpose we have in view, it is our <i>duty</i> to take the interest. How + should we keep up the school, and pay the teachers, and everything?” + </p> + <p> + I saw that she had forgotten the great sum of the principal, or that, + through lifelong training and association, it was so sacred to her that + she did not even dream of touching it. I was silent, and she thought that + I was persuaded. + </p> + <p> + “You are perfectly right in theory, dear, and I feel just as you do about + such things; I'm sure I've suffered enough from them; but if we didn't + take interest for your money, what should we have to live on?” + </p> + <p> + “Not <i>my</i> money, Eveleth!” I entreated. “Don't say <i>my</i> money!” + </p> + <p> + “But whatever is mine is yours,” she returned, with a wounded air. + </p> + <p> + “Not your money; but I hope you will soon have none. We should need no + money to live on in Altruria. Our share of the daily work of all will + amply suffice for our daily bread and shelter.” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria, yes. But how about America? And you have promised to come + back here in a year, you know. Ladies and gentlemen can't share in the + daily toil here, even if they could get the toil, and, where there are so + many out of work, it isn't probable they could.” + </p> + <p> + She dropped upon my knee as she spoke, laughing, and put her hand under my + chin, to lift my fallen face. + </p> + <p> + “Now you mustn't be a goose, Aristide, even if you <i>are</i> an angel! + Now listen. You <i>know</i>, don't you, that I hate money just as badly as + you?” + </p> + <p> + “You have made me think so, Eveleth,” I answered. + </p> + <p> + “I hate it and loathe it. I think it's the source of all the sin and + misery in the world; but you can't get rid of it at a blow. For if you + gave it away you might do more harm than good with it.” + </p> + <p> + “You could destroy it,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Not unless you were a crank,” she returned. “And that brings me just to + the point. I know that I'm doing a very queer thing to get married, when + we know so little, really, about you,” and she accented this confession + with a laugh that was also a kiss. “But I want to show people that we are + just as practical as anybody; and if they can know that I have left my + money in United States bonds, they'll respect us, no matter what I do with + the interest. Don't you see? We can come back, and preach and teach + Altrurianism, and as long as we pay our way nobody will have a right to + say a word. Why, Tolstoy himself doesn't destroy his money, though he + wants other people to do it. His wife keeps it, and supports the family. + You <i>have</i> to do it.” + </p> + <p> + “He doesn't do it willingly.” + </p> + <p> + “No. And <i>we</i> won't. And after a while—after we've got back, + and compared Altruria and America from practical experience, if we decide + to go and live there altogether, I will let you do what you please with + the hateful money. I suppose we couldn't take it there with us?” + </p> + <p> + “No more than you could take it to heaven with you,” I answered, solemnly; + but she would not let me be altogether serious about it. + </p> + <p> + “Well, in either case we could get on without it, though we certainly + could not get on without it here. Why, Aristide, it is essential to the + influence we shall try to exert for Altrurianism; for if we came back here + and preached the true life without any money to back us, no one would pay + any attention to us. But if we have a good house waiting for us, and are + able to entertain nicely, we can attract the best people, and—and—really + do some good.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XXVII + </h2> + <p> + I rose in a distress which I could not hide. “Oh, Eveleth, Eveleth!” I + cried. “You are like all the rest, poor child! You are the creature of + your environment, as we all are. You cannot escape what you have been. It + may be that I was wrong to wish or expect you to cast your lot with me in + Altruria, at once and forever. It may be that it is my duty to return here + with you after a time, not only to let you see that Altruria is best, but + to end my days in this unhappy land, preaching and teaching Altrurianism; + but we must not come as prophets to the comfortable people, and entertain + nicely. If we are to renew the evangel, it must be in the life and the + spirit of the First Altrurian: we must come poor to the poor; we must not + try to win any one, save through his heart and conscience; we must be as + simple and humble as the least of those that Christ bade follow Him. + Eveleth, perhaps you have made a mistake. I love you too much to wish you + to suffer even for your good. Yes, I am so weak as that. I did not think + that this would be the sacrifice for you that it seems, and I will not ask + it of you. I am sorry that we have not understood each other, as I + supposed we had. I could never become an American; perhaps you could never + become an Altrurian. Think of it, dearest. Think well of it, before you + take the step which you cannot recede from. I hold you to no promise; I + love you so dearly that I cannot let you hold yourself. But you must + choose between me and your money—no, not me—but between love + and your money. You cannot keep both.” + </p> + <p> + She had stood listening to me; now she cast herself on my heart and + stopped my words with an impassioned kiss. “Then there is no choice for + me. My choice is made, once for all.” She set her hands against my breast + and pushed me from her. “Go now; but come again to-morrow. I want to think + it all over again. Not that I have any doubt, but because you wish it—you + wish it, don't you?—and because I will not let you ever think I + acted upon an impulse, and that I regretted it.” + </p> + <p> + “That is right, Eveleth. That is like <i>you</i>” I said, and I took her + into my arms for good-night. + </p> + <p> + The next day I came for her decision, or rather for her confirmation of + it. The man who opened the door to me met me with a look of concern and + embarrassment. He said Mrs. Strange was not at all well, and had told him + he was to give me the letter he handed me. I asked, in taking it, if I + could see Mrs. Gray, and he answered that Mrs. Gray had not been down yet, + but he would go and see. I was impatient to read my letter, and I made I + know not what vague reply, and I found myself, I know not how, on the + pavement, with the letter open in my hand. It began abruptly without date + or address: + </p> + <p> + <i>“You will believe that I have not slept, when you read this. </i> + </p> + <p> + “I have thought it all over again, as you wished, and it is all over + between us. + </p> + <p> + “I am what you said, the creature of my environment. I cannot detach + myself from it; I cannot escape from what I have been. + </p> + <p> + “I am writing this with a strange coldness, like the chill of death, in my + very soul. I do not ask you to forgive me; I have your forgiveness + already. Do not forget me; that is what I ask. Remember me as the unhappy + woman who was not equal to her chance when heaven was opened to her, who + could not choose the best when the best came to her. + </p> + <p> + “There is no use writing; if I kept on forever, it would always be the + same cry of shame, of love. + </p> + <p> + “Eveleth Strange.” + </p> + <p> + I reeled as I read the lines. The street seemed to weave itself into a + circle around me. But I knew that I was not dreaming, that this was no + delirium of my sleep. + </p> + <p> + It was three days ago, and I have not tried to see her again. I have + written her a line, to say that I shall not forget her, and to take the + blame upon myself. I expected the impossible of her. + </p> + <p> + I have yet two days before me until the steamer sails; we were to have + sailed together, and now I shall sail alone. + </p> + <p> + I will try to leave it all behind me forever; but while I linger out these + last long hours here I must think and I must doubt. + </p> + <p> + Was she, then, the <i>poseuse</i> that they said? Had she really no hear + in our love? Was it only a pretty drama she was playing, and were those + generous motives, those lofty principles which seemed to actuate her, the + poetical qualities of the play, the graces of her pose? I cannot believe + it. I believe that she was truly what she seemed, for she had been that + even before she met me. I believe that she was pure and lofty in soul as + she appeared; but that her life was warped to such a form by the false + conditions of this sad world that, when she came to look at herself again, + after she had been confronted with the sacrifice before her, she feared + that she could not make it without in a manner ceasing to be. + </p> + <p> + She— + </p> + <p> + But I shall soon see you again; and, until then, farewell. + </p> + <h3> + END OF PART I + </h3> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PART SECOND + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + I could hardly have believed, my dear Dorothea, that I should be so late + in writing to you from Altruria, but you can easily believe that I am + thoroughly ashamed of myself for my neglect. It is not for want of + thinking of you, or talking of you, that I have seemed so much more + ungrateful than I am. My husband and I seldom have any serious talk which + doesn't somehow come round to you. He admires you and likes you as much as + I do, and he does his best, poor man, to understand you; but his not + understanding you is only a part of his general failure to understand how + any American can be kind and good in conditions which he considers so + abominable as those of the capitalistic world. He is not nearly so severe + on us as he used to be at times when he was among us. When the other + Altrurians are discussing us he often puts in a reason for us against + their logic; and I think he has really forgotten, a good deal, how bad + things are with us, or else finds his own memory of them incredible. But + his experience of the world outside his own country has taught him how to + temper the passion of the Altrurians for justice with a tolerance of the + unjust; and when they bring him to book on his own report of us he tries + to explain us away, and show how we are not so bad as we ought to be. + </p> + <p> + For weeks after we came to Altruria I was so unhistorically blest that if + I had been disposed to give you a full account of myself I should have had + no events to hang the narrative on. Life here is so subjective (if you + don't know what that is, you poor dear, you must get Mr. Twelvemough to + explain) that there is usually nothing like news in it, and I always feel + that the difference between Altruria and America is so immense that it is + altogether beyond me to describe it. But now we have had some occurrences + recently, quite in the American sense, and these have furnished me with an + incentive as well as opportunity to send you a letter. Do you remember + how, one evening after dinner, in New York, you and I besieged my husband + and tried to make him tell us why Altruria was so isolated from the rest + of the world, and why such a great and enlightened continent should keep + itself apart? I see still his look of horror when Mr. Makely suggested + that the United States should send an expedition and “open” Altruria, as + Commodore Perry “opened” Japan in 1850, and try to enter into commercial + relations with it. The best he could do was to say what always seemed so + incredible, and keep on assuring us that Altruria wished for no sort of + public relations with Europe or America, but was very willing to depend + for an indefinite time for its communication with those regions on vessels + putting into its ports from stress of one kind or other, or castaway on + its coasts. They are mostly trading-ships or whalers, and they come a + great deal oftener than you suppose; you do not hear of them afterwards, + because their crews are poor, ignorant people, whose stories of their + adventures are always distrusted, and who know they would be laughed at if + they told the stories they could of a country like Altruria. My husband + himself took one of their vessels on her home voyage when he came to us, + catching the Australasian steamer at New Zealand; and now I am writing you + by the same sort of opportunity. I shall have time enough to write you a + longer letter than you will care to read; the ship does not sail for a + week yet, because it is so hard to get her crew together. + </p> + <p> + Now that I have actually made a beginning, my mind goes back so strongly + to that terrible night when I came to you after Aristides (I always use + the English form of his name now) left New York that I seem to be living + the tragedy over again, and this happiness of mine here is like a dream + which I cannot trust. It was not all tragedy, though, and I remember how + funny Mr. Makely was, trying to keep his face straight when the whole + truth had to come out, and I confessed that I had expected, without really + knowing it myself, that Aristides would disregard that wicked note I had + written him and come and make me marry him, not against my will, but + against my word. Of course I didn't put it in just that way, but in a way + to let you both guess it. The first glimmering of hope that I had was when + Mr. Makely said, “Then, when a woman tells a man that all is over between + them forever, she means that she would like to discuss the business with + him?” I was old enough to be ashamed, but it seemed to me that you and I + had gone back in that awful moment and were two girls together, just as we + used to be at school. I was proud of the way you stood up for me, because + I thought that if you could tolerate me after what I had confessed I could + not be quite a fool. I knew that I deserved at least some pity, and though + I laughed with Mr. Makely, I was glad of your indignation with him, and of + your faith in Aristides. When it came to the question of what I should do, + I don't know which of you I owed the most to. It was a kind of comfort to + have Mr. Makely acknowledge that though he regarded Aristides as a myth, + still he believed that he was a thoroughly <i>good</i> myth, and couldn't + tell a lie if he wanted to; and I loved you, and shall love you more than + any one else but him, for saying that Aristides was the most real man you + had ever met, and that if everything he said was untrue you would trust + him to the end of the world. + </p> + <p> + But, Dolly, it wasn't all comedy, any more than it was all tragedy, and + when you and I had laughed and cried ourselves to the point where there + was nothing for me to do but to take the next boat for Liverpool, and Mr. + Makely had agreed to look after the tickets and cable Aristides that I was + coming, there was still my poor, dear mother to deal with. There is no use + trying to conceal from you that she was always opposed to my husband. She + thought there was something uncanny about him, though she felt as we did + that there was nothing uncanny <i>in</i> him; but a man who pretended to + come from a country where there was no riches and no poverty could not be + trusted with any woman's happiness; and though she could not help loving + him, she thought I ought to tear him out of my heart, and if I could not + do that I ought to have myself shut up in an asylum. We had a dreadful + time when I told her what I had decided to do, and I was almost frantic. + At last, when she saw that I was determined to follow him, she yielded, + not because she was convinced, but because she could not give me up; I + wouldn't have let her if she could. I believe that the only thing which + reconciled her was that you and Mr. Makely believed in him, and thought I + had better do what I wanted to, if nothing could keep me from it. I shall + never, never forget Mr. Makely's goodness in coming to talk with her, and + how skillfully he managed, without committing himself to Altruria, to + declare his faith in my Altrurian. Even then she was troubled about what + she thought the indelicacy of my behavior in following him across the sea, + and she had all sorts of doubts as to how he would receive me when we met + in Liverpool. It wasn't very reasonable of me to say that if he cast me + off I should still love him more than any other human being, and his + censure would be more precious to me than the praise of the rest of the + world. + </p> + <p> + I suppose I hardly knew what I was saying, but when once I had yielded to + my love for him there was nothing else in life. I could not have left my + mother behind, but in her opposition to me she seemed like an enemy, and I + should somehow have <i>forced</i> her to go if she had not yielded. When + she did yield, she yielded with her whole heart and soul, and so far from + hindering me in my preparations for the voyage, I do not believe I could + have got off without her. She thought about everything, and it was her + idea to leave my business affairs entirely in Mr. Makely's hands, and to + trust the future for the final disposition of my property. I did not care + for it myself; I hated it, because it was that which had stood between me + and Aristides; but she foresaw that if by any wild impossibility he should + reject me when we met, I should need it for the life I must go back to in + New York. She behaved like a martyr as well as a heroine, for till we + reached Altruria she was a continual sacrifice to me. She stubbornly + doubted the whole affair, but now I must do her the justice to say that + she has been convinced by the fact. The best she can say of it is that it + is like the world of her girlhood; and she has gone back to the simple + life here from the artificial life in New York, with the joy of a child. + She works the whole day, and she would play if she had ever learned how. + She is a better Altrurian than I am; if there could be a bigoted Altrurian + my mother would be one. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + I sent you a short letter from Liverpool, saying that by the unprecedented + delays of the <i>Urania</i>, which I had taken because it was the swiftest + boat of the Neptune line, we had failed to pass the old, ten-day, + single-screw Galaxy liner which Aristides had sailed in. I had only time + for a word to you; but a million words could not have told the agonies I + suffered, and when I overtook him on board the Orient Pacific steamer at + Plymouth, where she touched, I could just scribble off the cable sent Mr. + Makely before our steamer put off again. I am afraid you did not find my + cable very expressive, but I was glad that I did not try to say more, for + if I had tried I should simply have gibbered, at a shilling a gibber. I + expected to make amends by a whole volume of letters, and I did post a + dozen under one cover from Colombo. If they never reached you I am very + sorry, for now it is impossible to take up the threads of that time and + weave them into any sort of connected pattern. You will have to let me off + with saying that Aristides was everything that I believed he would be and + was never really afraid he might not be. From the moment we caught sight + of each other at Plymouth, he at the rail of the steamer and I on the deck + of the tender, we were as completely one as we are now. I never could tell + how I got aboard to him; whether he came down and brought me, or whether I + was simply rapt through the air to his side. It would have been + embarrassing if we had not treated the situation frankly; but such odd + things happen among the English going out to their different colonies that + our marriage, by a missionary returning to his station, was not even a + nine days' wonder with our fellow-passengers. + </p> + <p> + We were a good deal more than nine days on the steamer before we could get + a vessel that would take us on to Altruria; but we overhauled a ship going + there for provisions at last, and we were all put off on her, bag and + baggage, with three cheers from the friends we were leaving; I think they + thought we were going to some of the British islands that the Pacific is + full of. I had been thankful from the first that I had not brought a maid, + knowing the Altrurian prejudice against hireling service, but I never was + so glad as I was when we got aboard that vessel, for when the captain's + wife, who was with him, found that I had no one to look after me, she + looked after me herself, just for the fun of it, she said; but <i>I</i> + knew it was the love of it. It was a sort of general trading-ship, + stopping at the different islands in the South Seas, and had been a year + out from home, where the kind woman had left her little ones; she cried + over their photographs to me. Her husband had been in Altruria before, and + he and Aristides were old acquaintances and met like brothers; some of the + crew knew him, too, and the captain relaxed discipline so far as to let us + shake hands with the second-mate as the men's representative. + </p> + <p> + I needn't dwell on the incidents of our home-coming—for that was + what it seemed for my mother and me as well as for my husband—but I + must give you one detail of our reception, for I still think it almost the + prettiest thing that has happened to us among the millions of pretty + things. Aristides had written home of our engagement, and he was expected + with his American wife; and before we came to anchor the captain ran up + the Emissary's signal, which my husband gave him, and then three boats + left the shore and pulled rapidly out to us. As they came nearer I saw the + first Altrurian costumes in the lovely colors that the people wear here, + and that make a group of them look like a flower-bed; and then I saw that + the boats were banked with flowers along the gunwales from stem to stern, + and that they were each not <i>manned,</i> but <i>girled</i> by six + rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw in our boat-races. When + they caught sight of us, leaning over the side, and Aristides lifted his + hat and waved it to them, they all stood their oars upright, and burst + into a kind of welcome song: I had been dreading one of those stupid, + banging salutes of ten or twenty guns, and you can imagine what a relief + it was. They were great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' + tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl + athletes; and when we got down over the ship's side, and Aristides said a + few words of introduction for my mother and me, as we stepped into the + largest of the boats, I thought they would crush me, catching me in their + strong, brown arms, and kissing me on each cheek; they never kiss on the + mouth in Altruria. The girls in the other boats kissed their hands to + mother and me, and shouted to Aristides, and then, when our boat set out + for the shore, they got on each side of us and sang song after song as + they pulled even stroke with our crew. Half-way, we met three other boats, + really <i>manned,</i> these ones, and going out to get our baggage, and + then you ought to have heard the shouting and laughing, that ended in more + singing, when the young fellows' voices mixed with the girls, till they + were lost in the welcome that came off to us from the crowded quay, where + I should have thought half Altruria had gathered to receive us. + </p> + <p> + I was afraid it was going to be too much for my mother, but she stood it + bravely; and almost at a glance people began to take her into + consideration, and she was delivered over to two young married ladies, who + saw that she was made comfortable, the first of any, in the pretty + Regionic guest-house where they put us. + </p> + <p> + I wish I could give you a notion of that guest-house, with its cool, quiet + rooms, and its lawned and gardened enclosure, and a little fountain + purring away among the flowers! But what astonished me was that there were + no sort of carriages, or wheeled conveyances, which, after our escort from + the ship, I thought might very well have met the returning Emissary and + his wife. They made my mother get into a litter, with soft cushions and + with lilac curtains blowing round it, and six girls carried her up to the + house; but they seemed not to imagine my not walking, and, in fact, I + could hardly have imagined it myself, after the first moment of queerness. + That walk was full of such rich experience for every one of the senses + that I would not have missed a step of it; but as soon as I could get + Aristides alone I asked him about horses, and he said that though horses + were still used in farm work, not a horse was allowed in any city or + village of Altruria, because of their filthiness. As for public vehicles, + they used to have electric trolleys; in the year that he had been absent + they had substituted electric motors; but these were not running, because + it was a holiday on which we had happened to arrive. + </p> + <p> + There was another incident of my first day which I think will amuse you, + knowing how I have always shrunk from any sort of public appearances. When + Aristides went to make his report to the people assembled in a sort of + convention, I had to go too, and take part in the proceedings; for women + are on an entire equality with the men here, and people would be shocked + if husband and wife were separated in their public life. They did not + spare me a single thing. Where Aristides was not very clear, or rather not + full enough, in describing America, I was called on to supplement, and I + had to make several speeches. Of course, as I spoke in English, he had to + put it into Altrurian for me, and it made the greatest excitement. The + Altrurians are very lively people, and as full of the desire to hear some + new things as Paul said the men of Athens were. At times they were in a + perfect gale of laughter at what we told them about America. Afterwards + some of the women confessed to me that they liked to hear us speaking + English together; it sounded like the whistling of birds or the shrilling + of locusts. But they were perfectly kind, and though they laughed it was + clear that they laughed at what we were saying, and never at us, or at + least never at <i>me</i>. + </p> + <p> + Of course there was the greatest curiosity to know what Aristides' wife + looked like, as well as sounded like; he had written out about our + engagement before I broke it; and my clothes were of as much interest As + myself, or more. You know how I had purposely left my latest Paris things + behind, so as to come as simply as possible to the simple life of + Altruria, but still with my big leg-of-mutton sleeves, and my picture-hat, + and my pinched waist, I felt perfectly grotesque, and I have no doubt I + looked it. They had never seen a lady from the capitalistic world before, + but only now and then a whaling-captain's wife who had come ashore; and I + knew they were burning to examine my smart clothes down to the last button + and bit of braid. I had on the short skirts of last year, and I could feel + ten thousand eyes fastened on my high-heeled boots, which you know <i>I</i> + never went to extremes in. I confess my face burned a little, to realize + what a scarecrow I must look, when I glanced round at those Altrurian + women, whose pretty, classic fashions made the whole place like a field of + lilacs and irises, and knew that they were as comfortable as they were + beautiful. Do you remember some of the descriptions of the undergraduate + maidens in the “Princess”—I know you had it at school—where + they are sitting in the palace halls together? The effect was something + like that. + </p> + <p> + You may be sure that I got out of my things as soon as I could borrow an + Altrurian costume, and now my Paris confections are already hung up for + monuments, as Richard III. says, in the Capitalistic Museum, where people + from the outlying Regions may come and study them as object-lessons in + what not to wear. (You remember what you said Aristides told you, when he + spoke that day at the mountains, about the Regions that Altruria is + divided into? This is the Maritime Region, and the city where we are + living for the present is the capital.) You may think this was rather hard + on me, and at first it did seem pretty intimate, having my things in a + long glass case, and it gave me a shock to see them, as if it had been my + ghost, whenever I passed them. But the fact is I was more ashamed than + hurt—they were so ugly and stupid and useless. I could have borne my + Paris dress and my picture-hat if it had not been for those ridiculous + high-heeled, pointed-toe shoes, which the Curatress had stood at the + bottom of the skirts. They looked the most frantic things you can imagine, + and the mere sight of them made my poor feet <i>ache</i> in the beautiful + sandals I am wearing now; when once you have put on sandals you say + good-bye and good-riddance to shoes. In a single month my feet have grown + almost a tenth as large again as they were, and my friends here encourage + me to believe that they will yet measure nearly the classic size, though, + as you know, I am not in my first youth and can't expect them to do + miracles. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + I had to leave off abruptly at the last page because Aristides had come in + with a piece of news that took my mind off everything else. I am afraid + you are not going to get this letter even at the late date I had set for + its reaching you, my dear. It seems that there has been a sort of mutiny + among the crew of our trader, which was to sail next week, and now there + is no telling when she will sail. Ever since she came the men have been + allowed their liberty, as they call it, by watches, but the last watch + came ashore this week before another watch had returned to the ship, and + now not one of the sailors will go back. They had been exploring the + country by turns, at their leisure, it seems, and their excuse is that + they like Altruria better than America, which they say they wish never to + see again. + </p> + <p> + You know (though I didn't, till Aristides explained to me) that in any + European country the captain in such a case would go to his consul, and + the consul would go to the police, and the police would run the men down + and send them back to the ship in irons as deserters, or put them in jail + till the captain was ready to sail, and then deliver them up to him. But + it seems that there is no law in Altruria to do anything of the kind; the + only law here that would touch the case is one which obliges any citizen + to appear and answer the complaint of any other citizen before the + Justiciary Assembly. A citizen cannot be imprisoned for anything but the + rarest offence, like killing a person in a fit of passion; and as to + seizing upon men who are guilty of nothing worse than wanting to be left + to the pursuit of happiness, as all the Altrurians are, there is no + statute and no usage for it. Aristides says that the only thing which can + be done is to ask the captain and the men to come to the Assembly and each + state his case. The Altrurians are not anxious to have the men stay, not + merely because they are coarse, rude, or vicious, but because they think + they ought to go home and tell the Americans what they have seen and heard + here, and try and get them to found an Altrurian Commonwealth of their + own. Still they will not compel them to go, and the magistrates do not + wish to rouse any sort of sentiment against them. They feel that the men + are standing on their natural rights, which they could not abdicate if + they would. I know this will appear perfectly ridiculous to Mr. Makely, + and I confess myself that there seems something binding in a contract + which ought to act on the men's consciences, at least. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + Well, my dear Dorothea, the hearing before the Assembly is over, and it + has left us just where it found us, as far as the departure of our trader + is concerned. + </p> + <p> + How I wish you could have been there! The hearing lasted three days, and I + would not have missed a minute of it. As it was, I did not miss a + syllable, and it was so deeply printed on my mind that I believe I could + repeat it word for word if I had to. But, in the first place, I must try + and realize the scene to you. I was once summoned as a witness in one of + our courts, you remember, and I have never forgotten the horror of it: the + hot, dirty room, with its foul air, the brutal spectators, the policemen + stationed among them to keep them in order, the lawyers with the plaintiff + and defendant seated all at one table, the uncouth abruptness of the + clerks and janitors, or whatever, the undignified magistrate, who looked + as if his lunch had made him drowsy, and who seemed half asleep, as he + slouched in his arm-chair behind his desk. Instead of such a setting as + this, you must imagine a vast marble amphitheatre, larger than the + Metropolitan Opera, by three or four times, all the gradines overflowing + (that is the word for the “liquefaction of the clothes” which poured over + them), and looking like those Bermudan waters where the colors of the + rainbow seem dropped around the coast. On the platform, or stage, sat the + Presidents of the Assembly, and on a tier of seats behind and above them, + the national Magistrates, who, as this is the capital of the republic for + the time being, had decided to be present at the hearing, because they + thought the case so very important. In the hollow space, just below (like + that where you remember the Chorus stood in that Greek play which we saw + at Harvard ages ago), were the captain and the first-mate on one hand, and + the seamen on the other; the second-mate, our particular friend, was not + there because he never goes ashore anywhere, and had chosen to remain with + the black cook in charge of the ship. The captain's wife would rather have + stayed with them, but I persuaded her to come to us for the days of the + hearing, because the captain had somehow thought we were opposed to him, + and because I thought she ought to be there to encourage him by her + presence. She sat next to me, in a hat which I wish you could have seen, + Dolly, and a dress which would have set your teeth on edge; but inside of + them I knew she was one of the best souls in the world, and I loved her + the more for being the sight she was among those wonderful Altrurian + women. + </p> + <p> + The weather was perfect, as it nearly always is at this time of year—warm, + yet fresh, with a sky of that “bleu impossible” of the Riviera on the + clearest day. Some people had parasols, but they put them down as soon as + the hearing began, and everybody could see perfectly. You would have + thought they could not hear so well, but a sort of immense sounding-plane + was curved behind the stage, so that not a word of the testimony on either + side was lost to me in English. The Altrurian translation was given the + second day of the hearing through a megaphone, as different in tone from + the thing that the man in the Grand Central Station bellows the trains + through as the <i>vox-humana</i> stop of an organ is different from the + fog-horn of a light-house. The captain's wife was bashful, in her odd + American dress, but we had got seats near the tribune, rather out of + sight, and there was nothing to hinder our hearing, like the <i>frou-frou</i> + of stiff silks or starched skirts (which I am afraid we poor things in + America like to make when we move) from the soft, filmy tissues that the + Altrurian women wear; but I must confess that there was a good deal of + whispering while the captain and the men were telling their stories. But, + no one except the interpreters, who were taking their testimony down in + short-hand, to be translated into Altrurian and read at the subsequent + hearing, could understand what they were saying, and so nobody was + disturbed by the murmurs. The whispering was mostly near me, where I sat + with the captain's wife, for everybody I knew got as close as they could + and studied my face when they thought anything important or significant + had been said. They are very quick at reading faces here; in fact, a great + deal of the conversation is carried on in that way, or with the visible + speech; and my Altrurian friends knew almost as well as I did when the + speakers came to an interesting point. It was rather embarrassing for me, + though, with the poor captain's wife at my side, to tell them, in my + broken Altrurian, what the men were accusing the captain of. + </p> + <p> + I talk of the men, but it was really only one of them who at first, by + their common consent, spoke for the rest. He was a middle-aged Yankee, and + almost the only born American among them, for you know that our sailors, + nowadays, are of every nationality under the sun—Portuguese, + Norwegians, Greeks, Italians, Kanucks, and Kanakas, and even Cape Cod + Indians. He said he guessed his story was the story of most sailors, and + he had followed the sea his whole life. His story was dreadful, and I + tried to persuade the captain's wife not to come to the hearing the next + day, when it was to be read in Altrurian; but she would come. I was afraid + she would be overwhelmed by the public compassion, and would not know what + to do; for when something awful that the sailor had said against the + captain was translated the women, all about us cooed their sympathy with + her, and pressed her hand if they could, or patted her on the shoulder, to + show how much they pitied her. In Altruria they pity the friends of those + who have done wrong, and sometimes even the wrong-doers themselves; and it + is quite a luxury, for there is so little wrong-doing here: I tell them + that in America they would have as much pitying to do as they could + possibly ask. After the hearing that day my friends, who were of a good + many different Refectories, as we call them here, wanted her to go and + lunch with them; but I got her quietly home with me, and after she had had + something to eat I made her lie down awhile. + </p> + <p> + You won't care to have me go fully into the affair. The sailors' spokesman + told how he had been born on a farm, where he had shared the family + drudgery and poverty till he grew old enough to run away. He meant to go + to sea, but he went first to a factory town and worked three or four years + in the mills. He never went back to the farm, but he sent a little money + now and then to his mother; and he stayed on till he got into trouble. He + did not say just what kind of trouble, but I fancied it was some sort of + love-trouble; he blamed himself for it; and when he left that town to get + away from the thought of it, as much as anything, and went to work in + another town, he took to drink; then, once, in a drunken spree, he found + himself in New York without knowing how. But it was in what he called a + sailors' boarding-house, and one morning, after he had been drinking + overnight “with a very pleasant gentleman,” he found himself in the + forecastle of a ship bound for Holland, and when the mate came and cursed + him up and cursed him out he found himself in the foretop. I give it + partly in his own language, because I cannot help it; and I only wish I + could give it wholly in his language; it was so graphic and so full of + queer Yankee humor. From that time on, he said, he had followed the sea; + and at sea he was always a good temperance man, but Altruria was the only + place he had ever kept sober ashore. He guessed that was partly because + there was nothing to drink but unfermented grape-juice, and partly because + there was nobody to drink with; anyhow, he had not had a drop here. + Everywhere else, as soon as he left his ship, he made for a sailors' + boarding-house, and then he did not know much till he found himself aboard + ship and bound for somewhere that he did not know of. He was always, he + said, a stolen man, as much as a negro captured on the west coast of + Africa and sold to a slaver; and, he said, it was a slave's life he led + between drinks, whether it was a long time or short. He said he would ask + his mates if it was very different with them, and when he turned to them + they all shouted back, in their various kinds of foreign accents, No, it + was just the same with them, every one. Then he said that was how he came + to ship on our captain's vessel, and though they could not all say the + same, they nodded confirmation as far as he was concerned. + </p> + <p> + The captain looked sheepish enough at this, but he looked sorrowful, too, + as if he could have wished it had been different, and he asked the man if + he had been abused since he came on board. Well, the man said, not unless + you called tainted salt-horse and weevilly biscuit abuse; and then the + captain sat down again, and I could feel his poor wife shrinking beside + me. The man said that he was comparatively well off on the captain's ship, + and the life was not half such a dog's life as he had led on other + vessels; but it was such that when he got ashore here in Altruria, and saw + how <i>white</i> people lived, people that <i>used</i> each other white, + he made up his mind that he would never go hack to any ship alive. He + hated a ship so much that if he could go home to America as a first-class + passenger on a Cunard liner, John D. Rockefeller would not have money + enough to hire him to do it. He was going to stay in Altruria till he + died, if they would let him, and he guessed they would, if what he had + heard about them was true. He just wanted, he said, while we were about + it, to have a few of his mates tell their experience, not so much on board + the <i>Little Sally</i>, but on shore, and since they could remember; and + one after another did get up and tell their miserable stories. They were + like the stories you sometimes read in your paper over your coffee, or + that you can hear any time you go into the congested districts in New + York; but I assure you, my dear, they seemed to me perfectly incredible + here, though I had known hundreds of such stories at home. As I realized + their facts I forgot where I was; I felt that I was back again in that + horror, where it sometimes seemed to me I had no right to be fed or + clothed or warm or clean in the midst of the hunger and cold and nakedness + and dirt, and where I could only reconcile myself to my comfort because I + knew my discomfort would not help others' misery. + </p> + <p> + I can hardly tell how, but even the first day a sense of something + terrible spread through that multitude of people, to whom the words + themselves were mere empty sounds. The captain sat through it, with his + head drooping, till his face was out of sight, and the tears ran silently + down his wife's cheeks; and the women round me were somehow awed into + silence. When the men ended, and there seemed to be no one else to say + anything on that side, the captain jumped to his feet, with a sort of + ferocious energy, and shouted out, “Are you all through, men?” and their + spokesman answered, “Ay, ay, sir!” and then the captain flung back his + grizzled hair and shook his fist towards the sailors. “And do you think I + <i>wanted</i> to do it? Do you think I <i>liked</i> to do it? Do you think + that if I hadn't been <i>afraid</i> my whole life long I would have had + the <i>heart</i> to lead you the dog's life I know I've led you? I've been + as poor as the poorest of you, and as low down as the lowest; I was born + in the town poor-house, and I've been so afraid of the poor-house all my + days that I hain't had, as you may say, a minute's peace. Ask my wife, + there, what sort of a man I <i>am</i>, and whether I'm the man, <i>really</i> + the man that's been hard and mean to you the way I know I been. It was + because I was <i>afraid</i>, and because a coward is always hard and mean. + I been afraid, ever since I could remember anything, of coming to want, + and I was willing to see other men suffer so I could make sure that me and + mine shouldn't suffer. That's the way we do at home, ain't it? That's in + the day's work, ain't it? That's playing the game, ain't it, for + everybody? You can't say it ain't.” He stopped, and the men's spokesman + called back, “Ay, ay, sir,” as he had done before, and as I had often + heard the men do when given an order on the ship. + </p> + <p> + The captain gave a kind of sobbing laugh, and went on in a lower tone. + “Well, I know you ain't going back. I guess I didn't expect it much from + the start, and I guess I'm not surprised.” Then he lifted his head and + shouted, “And do you suppose <i>I</i> want to go back? Don't you suppose + <i>I</i> would like to spend the rest of my days, too, among <i>white</i> + people, people that <i>use</i> each other white, as you say, and where + there ain't any want or, what's worse, <i>fear</i> of want? Men! There + ain't a day, or an hour, or a minute, when I don't think how awful it is + over there, where I got to be either some man's slave or some man's + master, as much so as if it was down in the ship's articles. My wife ain't + so, because she ain't been ashore here. I wouldn't let her; I was afraid + to let her see what a white man's country really was, because I felt so + weak about it myself, and I didn't want to put the trial on her, too. And + do you know <i>why</i> we're going back, or want to go? I guess some of + you know, but I want to tell these folks here so they'll understand, and I + want you, Mr. Homos,” he called to my husband, “to get it down straight. + It's because we've got two little children over there, that we left with + their grandmother when my wife come with me this voyage because she had + lung difficulty and wanted to see whether she could get her health back. + Nothing else on God's green earth could take me back to America, and I + guess it couldn't my wife if she knew what Altruria was as well as I do. + But when I went around here and saw how everything was, and remembered how + it was at home, I just said, 'She'll stay on the ship.' Now, that's all I + got to say, though I thought I had a lot more. I guess it'll be enough for + these folks, and they can judge between us.” Then the captain sat down, + and to make a long story short, the facts of the hearing were repeated in + Altrurian the next day by megaphone, and when the translation was finished + there was a general rush for the captain. He plainly expected to be + lynched, and his wife screamed out, “Oh, don't hurt him! He isn't a bad + man!” But it was only the Altrurian way with a guilty person: they wanted + to let him know how sorry they were for him, and since his sin had found + him out how hopeful they were for his redemption. I had to explain it to + the sailors as well as to the captain and his wife, but I don't believe + any of them quite accepted the fact. + </p> + <p> + The third day of the hearing was for the rendering of the decision, first + in Altrurian, and then in English. The verdict of the magistrates had to + be confirmed by a standing vote of the people, and of course the women + voted as well as the men. The decision was that the sailors should be + absolutely free to go or stay, but they took into account the fact that it + would be cruel to keep the captain and his wife away from their little + ones, and the sailors might wish to consider this. If they still remained + true to their love of Altruria they could find some means of returning. + </p> + <p> + When the translator came to this point their spokesman jumped to his feet + and called out to the captain, “Will you <i>do</i> it?” “Do what?” he + asked, getting slowly to his own feet. “Come back with us after you have + seen the kids?” The captain shook his fist at the sailors; it seemed to be + the only gesture he had with them. “Give me the <i>chance!</i> All I want + is to see the children and bring them out with me to Altruria, and the old + folks with them.” “Will you <i>swear</i> it? Will you say, 'I hope I may + find the kids dead and buried when I get home if I don't do it'?” “I'll + take that oath, or any oath you want me to.” “Shake hands on it, then.” + </p> + <p> + The two men met in front of the tribunal and clasped hands there, and + their reconciliation did not need translation. Such a roar of cheers went + up! And then the whole assembly burst out in the national Altrurian + anthem, “Brothers All.” I wish you could have heard it! But when the terms + of the agreement were explained, the cheering that had gone before was a + mere whisper to what followed. One orator after another rose and praised + the self-sacrifice of the sailors. I was the proudest when the last of + them referred to Aristides and the reports which he had sent home from + America, and said that without some such study as he had made of the + American character they never could have understood such an act as they + were now witnessing. Illogical and insensate as their system was, their + character sometimes had a beauty, a sublimity which was not possible to + Altrurians even, for it was performed in the face of risks and chances + which their happy conditions relieved them from. At the same time, the + orator wished his hearers to consider the essential immorality of the act. + He said that civilized men had no right to take these risks and chances. + The sailors were perhaps justified, in so far as they were homeless, + wifeless, and childless men; but it must not be forgotten that their + heroism was like the reckless generosity of savages. + </p> + <p> + The men have gone back to the ship, and she sails this afternoon. I have + persuaded the captain to let his wife stay to lunch with me at our + Refectory, where the ladies wish to bid her good-bye, and I am hurrying + forward this letter so that she can take it on board with her this + afternoon. She has promised to post it on the first Pacific steamer they + meet, or if they do not meet any to send it forward to you with a + special-delivery stamp as soon as they reach Boston. She will also forward + by express an Altrurian costume, such as I am now wearing, sandals and + all! Do put it on, Dolly, dear, for my sake, and realize what it is for + once in your life to be a <i>free</i> woman. + </p> + <p> + Heaven knows when I shall have another chance of getting letters to you. + But I shall live in hopes, and I shall set down my experiences here for + your benefit, not perhaps as I meet them, but as I think of them, and you + must not mind having a rather cluttered narrative. To-morrow we are + setting off on our round of the capitals, where Aristides is to make a + sort of public report to the people of the different Regions on the + working of the capitalistic conditions as he observed them among us. But I + don't expect to send you a continuous narrative of our adventures. + Good-bye, dearest, with my mother's love, and my husband's as well as my + own, to both of you; think of me as needing nothing but a glimpse of you + to complete my happiness. How I should like to tell you fully about it! + You <i>must</i> come to Altruria! + </p> + <p> + I came near letting this go without telling you of one curious incident of + the affair between the captain and his men. Before the men returned to the + ship they came with their spokesman to say good-bye to Aristides and me, + and he remarked casually that it was just as well, maybe, to be going + back, because, for one thing, they would know then whether it was real or + not. I asked him what he meant, and he said, “Well, you know, some of the + mates think it's a dream here, or it's too good to be true. As far forth + as I go, I'd be willing to have it a dream that I didn't ever have to wake + up from. It ain't any too good to be true for me. Anyway, I'm going to get + back somehow, and give it another chance to be a fact.” Wasn't that + charming? It had a real touch of poetry in it, but it was prose that + followed. I couldn't help asking him whether there had been nothing to mar + the pleasure of their stay in Altruria, and he answered: “Well, I don't + know as you could rightly say <i>mar;</i> it hadn't ought to have. You + see, it was like this. You see, some of the mates wanted to lay off and + have a regular bange, but that don't seem to be the idea here. After we + had been ashore a day or two they set us to work at different jobs, or + wanted to. The mates didn't take hold very lively, and some of 'em didn't + take hold a bit. But after that went on a couple of days, there wa'n't any + breakfast one morning, and come noontime there wa'n't any dinner, and as + far forth as they could make out they had to go to bed without supper. + Then they called a halt, and tackled one of your head men here that could + speak some English. He didn't answer them right off the reel, but he got + out his English Testament and he read 'em a verse that said, 'For even + when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any one would not + work neither should he eat.' That kind of fetched 'em, and after that + there wa'n't any sojerin', well not to speak of. They saw he meant + business. I guess it did more than any one thing to make 'em think they + wa'n't dreamin'.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + You must not think, Dolly, from anything I have been telling you that the + Altrurians are ever harsh. Sometimes they cannot realize how things really + are with us, and how what seems grotesque and hideous to them seems + charming and beautiful, or at least <i>chic</i>, to us. But they are + wonderfully quick to see when they have hurt you the least, and in the + little sacrifices I have made of my wardrobe to the cause of general + knowledge there has not been the least urgence from them. When I now look + at the things I used to wear, where they have been finally placed in the + ethnological department of the Museum, along with the Esquiman kyaks and + the Thlinkeet totems, they seem like things I wore in some prehistoric age— + </p> + <p> + “When wild in woods the noble savage ran.” + </p> + <p> + Now, am I being unkind? Well, you mustn't mind me, Dolly. You must just + say, “She <i>has</i> got it bad,” and go on and learn as much about + Altruria as you can from me. Some of the things were hard to get used to, + and at first seemed quite impossible. For one thing, there was the matter + of service, which is dishonorable with us, and honorable with the + Altrurians: I was a long time getting to understand that, though I knew it + perfectly well from hearing my husband talk about it in New York. I + believe he once came pretty near offending you by asking why you did not + do your own work, or something like that; he has confessed as much, and I + could not wonder at you in your conditions. Why, when we first went to the + guest-house, and the pretty young girls who brought in lunch sat down at + table to eat it with us, I felt the indignation making me hot all over. + You know how democratic I am, and I did not mind those great, splendid + boat-girls hugging and kissing me, but I instinctively drew the line at + cooks and waitresses. In New York, you know, I always tried to be kind to + my servants, but as for letting one of them sit down in my presence, much + less sit down at table with me, I never dreamed of such a thing in my most + democratic moments. Luckily I drew the line subjectively here, and later I + found that these young ladies were daughters of some of the most + distinguished men and women on the continent, though you must not + understand distinction as giving any sort of social primacy; that sort of + thing is not allowed in Altruria. They had drawn lots with the girls in + the Regionic school here, and were proud of having won the honor of + waiting on us. Of course, I needn't say they were what we would have felt + to be ladies anywhere, and their manners were exquisite, even to leaving + us alone together as soon as we had finished luncheon. The meal itself was + something I shall always remember for its delicious cooking of the + different kinds of mushrooms which took the place of meat, and the + wonderful salads, and the temperate and tropical fruits which we had for + dessert. + </p> + <p> + They had to talk mostly with my husband, of course, and when they did talk + to me it was through him. They were very intelligent about our world, much + more than we are about Altruria, though, of course, it was by deduction + from premises rather than specific information, and they wanted to ask a + thousand questions; but they saw the joke of it, and laughed with us when + Aristides put them off with a promise that if they would have a public + meeting appointed we would appear and answer all the questions anybody + could think of; we were not going to waste our answers on them the first + day. He wanted them to let us go out and help wash the dishes, but they + would not hear of it. I confess I was rather glad of that, for it seemed a + lower depth to which I could not descend, even after eating with them. But + they invited us out to look at the kitchen, after they had got it in order + a little, and when we joined them there, whom should I see but my own dear + old mother, with an apron up to her chin, wiping the glass and watching + carefully through her dear old spectacles that she got everything bright! + You know she was of a simpler day than ours, and when she was young she + used to do her own work, and she and my father always washed the dishes + together after they had company. I merely said, “<i>Well</i>, mother!” and + she laughed and colored, and said she guessed she should like it in + Altruria, for it took her back to the America she used to know. + </p> + <p> + I must mention things as they come into my head, and not in any regular + order; there are too many of them. One thing is that I did not notice till + afterwards that we had had no meat that first day at luncheon—the + mushrooms were so delicious, and you know I never was much of a + meat-eater. It was not till we began to make our present tour of the + Regionic capitals, where Aristides has had to repeat his account of + American civilization until I am sick as well as ashamed of America, that + I first felt a kind of famine which I kept myself from recognizing as long + as I could. Then I had to own to myself, long before I owned it to him, + that I was hungry for <i>meat</i>—for roast, for broiled, for fried, + for hashed. I did not actually tell him, but he found it out, and I could + not deny it, though I felt such an ogre in it. He was terribly grieved, + and blamed himself for not having thought of it, and wished he had got + some canned meats from the trader before she left the port. He was really + in despair, for nobody since the old capitalistic times had thought of + killing sheep or cattle for food; they have them for wool and milk and + butter; and of course when I looked at them in the fields it did seem + rather formidable. You are so used to seeing them in the butchers' shops, + ready for the range, that you never think of what they have to <i>go + through</i> before that. But at last I managed to gasp out, one day, “If I + could only have a chicken!” and he seemed to think that it could be + managed. I don't know how he made interest with the authorities, or how + the authorities prevailed on a farmer to part with one of his precious + pullets; but the thing was done somehow, and two of the farmer's children + brought it to us at one of the guest-houses where we were staying, and + then fled howling. That was bad enough, but what followed was worse. I + went another day on mushrooms before I had the heart to say chicken again + and suggest that Aristides should get it killed and dressed. The poor + fellow did try, I believe, but we had to fall back upon ourselves for the + murderous deed, and—Did you ever see a chicken have its head cut + off, and how hideously it behaves? It made us both wish we were dead; and + the sacrifice of that one pullet was quite enough for me. We buried the + poor thing under the flowers of the guest-house garden, and I went back to + my mushrooms after a visit of contrition to the farmer and many attempts + to bring his children to forgiveness. After all, the Altrurian mushrooms + are wonderfully nourishing, and they are in such variety that, what with + other succulent vegetables and the endless range of fruits and nuts, one + does not wish for meat—meat that one has killed one's self! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + I wish you could be making tour of the Regionic capitals with us, Dolly! + There are swift little one-rail electric expresses running daily from one + capital to another, but these are used only when speed is required, and we + are confessedly in no hurry: Aristides wanted me to see as much of the + country as possible, and I am as eager as he. The old steam-roads of the + capitalistic epoch have been disused for generations, and their beds are + now the country roads, which are everywhere kept in beautiful repair. + There are no horse vehicles (the electric motors are employed in the + towns), though some people travel on horseback, but the favorite means of + conveyance is by electric van, which any citizen may have on proof of his + need of it; and it is comfortable beyond compare—mounted on easy + springs, and curtained and cushioned like those gypsy vans we see in the + country at home. Aristides drives himself, and sometimes we both get out + and walk, for there is plenty of time. + </p> + <p> + I don't know whether I can make you understand how everything has tended + to simplification here. They have disused the complicated facilities and + conveniences of the capitalistic epoch, which we are so proud of, and have + got back as close as possible to nature. People stay at home a great deal + more than with us, though if any one likes to make a journey or to visit + the capitals he is quite free to do it, and those who have some useful or + beautiful object in view make the sacrifice, as they feel it, to leave + their villages every day and go to the nearest capital to carry on their + studies or experiments. What we consider modern conveniences they would + consider a superfluity of naughtiness for the most part. As <i>work</i> is + the ideal, they do not believe in what we call labor-saving devices. + </p> + <p> + When we approach a village on our journey, one of the villagers, sometimes + a young man, and sometimes a girl, comes out to meet us, and when we pass + through they send some one with us on the way a little. The people have a + perfect inspiration for hospitality: they not only know when to do and how + much to do, but how little and when not at all. I can't remember that we + have ever once been bored by those nice young things that welcomed us or + speeded us on our way, and when we have stopped in a village they have + shown a genius for leaving us alone, after the first welcome, that is + beautiful. They are so regardful of our privacy, in fact, that if it had + not been for Aristides, who explained their ideal to me, I should have + felt neglected sometimes, and should have been shy of letting them know + that we would like their company. But he understood it, and I must say + that I have never enjoyed people and their ways so much. Their hospitality + is a sort of compromise between that of the English houses where you are + left free at certain houses to follow your own devices absolutely, and + that Spanish splendor which assures you that the host's house is yours + without meaning it. In fact, the guest-house, wherever we go, <i>is</i> + ours, for it belongs to the community, and it is absolutely a home to us + for the time being. It is usually the best house in the village, the + prettiest and cosiest, where all the houses are so pretty and cosey. There + is always another building for public meetings, called the temple, which + is the principal edifice, marble and classic and tasteful, which we see + almost as much of as the guest-house, for the news of the Emissary's + return has preceded him, and everybody is alive with curiosity, and he has + to stand and deliver in the village temples everywhere. Of course I am the + great attraction, and after being scared by it at first I have rather got + to like it; the people are so kind, and unaffected, and really delicate. + </p> + <p> + You mustn't get the notion that the Altrurians are a solemn people at all; + they are rather gay, and they like other people's jokes as well as their + own; I am sure Mr. Makely, with his sense of humor, would be at home with + them at once. The one thing that more than any other has helped them to + conceive of the American situation is its being the gigantic joke which we + often feel it to be; I don't know but it appears to them more grotesque + than it does to us even. At first, when Aristides would explain some + peculiarity of ours, they would receive him with a gale of laughing, but + this might change into cries of horror and pity later. One of the things + that amused and then revolted them most was our patriotism. They thought + it the drollest thing in the world that men should be willing to give + their own lives and take the lives of other men for the sake of a country + which assured them no safety from want, and did not even assure them work, + and in which they had no more logical interest than the country they were + going to fight. They could understand how a rich man might volunteer for + one of our wars, but when they were told that most of our volunteers were + poor men, who left their mothers and sisters, or their wives and children, + without any means of support, except their meagre pay, they were quite + bewildered and stopped laughing, as if the thing had passed a joke. They + asked, “How if one of these citizen soldiers was killed?” and they seemed + to suppose that in this case the country would provide for his family and + give them work, or if the children were too young would support them at + the public expense. It made me creep a little when my husband answered + that the family of a crippled or invalided soldier would have a pension of + eight or ten or fifteen dollars a month; and when they came back with the + question why the citizens of such a country should love it enough to die + for it, I could not have said why for the life of me. But Aristides, who + is so magnificently generous, tried to give them a notion of the sublimity + which is at the bottom of our illogicality and which adjusts so many + apparently hopeless points of our anomaly. They asked how this sublimity + differed from that of the savage who brings in his game and makes a feast + for the whole tribe, and leaves his wife and children without provision + against future want; but Aristides told them that there were essential + differences between the Americans and savages, which arose from the fact + that the savage condition was permanent and the American conditions were + unconsciously provisional. + </p> + <p> + They are quite well informed about our life in some respects, but they + wished to hear at first hand whether certain things were really so or not. + For instance, they wanted to know whether people were allowed to marry and + bring children into the world if they had no hopes of supporting them or + educating them, or whether diseased people were allowed to become parents. + In Altruria, you know, the families are generally small, only two or three + children at the most, so that the parents can devote themselves to them + the more fully; and as there is no fear of want here, the state interferes + only when the parents are manifestly unfit to bring the little ones up. + They imagined that there was something of that kind with us, but when they + heard that the state interfered in the family only when the children were + unruly, and then it punished the children by sending them to a reform + school and disgracing them for life, instead of holding the parents + accountable, they seemed to think that it was one of the most anomalous + features of our great anomaly. Here, when the father and mother are always + quarrelling, the children are taken from them, and the pair are separated, + at first for a time, but after several chances for reform they are parted + permanently. + </p> + <p> + But I must not give you the notion that all our conferences are so + serious. Many have merely the character of social entertainments, which + are not made here for invited guests, but for any who choose to come; all + are welcome. At these there are often plays given by amateurs, and + improvised from plots which supply the outline, while the performers + supply the dialogue and action, as in the old Italian comedies. The + Altrurians are so quick and fine, in fact, that they often remind me of + the Italians more than any other people. One night there was for my + benefit an American play, as the Altrurians imagined it from what they had + read about us, and they had costumed it from the pictures of us they had + seen in the newspapers Aristides had sent home while he was with us. The + effect was a good deal like that American play which the Japanese company + of Sada Yacco gave while it was in New York. It was all about a + millionaire's daughter, who was loved by a poor young man and escaped with + him to Altruria in an open boat from New York. The millionaire could be + distinctly recognized by the dollar-marks which covered him all over, as + they do in the caricatures of rich men in our yellow journals. It was + funny to the last degree. In the last act he was seen giving his millions + away to poor people, whose multitude was represented by the continually + coming and going of four or five performers in and out of the door, in + outrageously ragged clothes. The Altrurians have not yet imagined the nice + degrees of poverty which we have achieved, and they could not have + understood that a man with a hundred thousand dollars would have seemed + poor to that multi-millionaire. In fact, they do not grasp the idea of + money at all. I heard afterwards that in the usual version the millionaire + commits suicide in despair, but the piece had been given a happy ending + out of kindness to me. I must say that in spite of the monstrous + misconception the acting was extremely good, especially that of some comic + characters. + </p> + <p> + But dancing is the great national amusement in Altruria, where it has not + altogether lost its religious nature. A sort of march in the temples is as + much a part of the worship as singing, and so dancing has been preserved + from the disgrace which it used to be in with serious people among us. In + the lovely afternoons you see young people dancing in the meadows, and + hear them shouting in time to the music, while the older men and women + watch them from their seats in the shade. Every sort of pleasure here is + improvised, and as you pass through a village the first thing you know the + young girls and young men start up in a sort of <i>girandole</i>, and + linking hands in an endless chain stretch the figure along through the + street and out over the highway to the next village, and the next and the + next. The work has all been done in the forenoon, and every one who + chooses is at liberty to join in the fun. + </p> + <p> + The villages are a good deal alike to a stranger, and we knew what to + expect there after a while, but the country is perpetually varied, and the + unexpected is always happening in it. The old railroad-beds, on which we + travelled, are planted with fruit and nut trees and flowering shrubs, and + our progress is through a fragrant bower that is practically endless, + except where it takes the shape of a colonnade near the entrance of a + village, with vines trained about white pillars, and clusters of grapes + (which are ripening just now) hanging down. The change in the climate + created by cutting off the southeastern peninsula and letting in the + equatorial current, which was begun under the first Altrurian president, + with an unexpended war-appropriation, and finished for what one of the old + capitalistic wars used to cost, is something perfectly astonishing. + Aristides says he told you something about it in his speech at the White + Mountains, but you would never believe it without the evidence of your + senses. Whole regions to the southward, which were nearest the pole and + were sheeted with ice and snow, with the temperature and vegetation of + Labrador, now have the climate of Italy; and the mountains, which used to + bear nothing but glaciers, are covered with olive orchards and plantations + of the delicious coffee which they drink here. Aristides says you could + have the same results at home—no! <i>in the United States</i>—by + cutting off the western shore of Alaska and letting in the Japanese + current; and it could be done at the cost of any average war. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + But I must not get away from my personal experiences in these + international statistics. Sometimes, when night overtakes us, we stop and + camp beside the road, and set about getting our supper of eggs and bread + and butter and cheese, or the fruits that are ripening all round us. Since + my experience with that pullet I go meekly mushrooming in the fields and + pastures; and when I have set the mushrooms stewing over an open fire, + Aristides makes the coffee, and in a little while we have a banquet fit + for kings—or for the poor things in every grade below them that + serve kings, political or financial or industrial. There is always water, + for it is brought down from the snow-fields of the mountains—there + is not much rainfall—and carried in little concrete channels along + the road—side from village to village, something like those conduits + the Italian peasants use to bring down the water from the Maritime Alps to + their fields and orchards; and you hear the soft gurgle of it the whole + night long, and day long, too, whenever you stop. After supper we can read + awhile by our electric lamp (we tap the current in the telephone wires + anywhere), or Aristides sacrifices himself to me in a lesson of Altrurian + grammar. Then we creep back into our van and fall asleep with the Southern + Cross glittering over our heads. It is perfectly safe, though it was a + long time before I could imagine the perfect safety of it. In a country + where there are no thieves, because a thief here would not know what to do + with his booty, we are secure from human molestation, and the land has + long been cleared of all sorts of wild beasts, without being unpleasantly + tamed. It is like England in that, and yet it has a touch of the sylvan, + which you feel nowhere as you do in our dear New England hill country. + There was one night, however, when we were lured on and on, and did not + stop to camp till fairly in the dusk. Then we went to sleep without + supper, for we had had rather a late lunch and were not hungry, and about + one o'clock in the morning I was awakened by voices speaking Altrurian + together. I recognized my husband's voice, which is always so kind, but + which seemed to have a peculiarly tender and compassionate note in it now. + The other was lower and of a sadness which wrung my heart, though I did + not know in the least what the person was saying. The talk went on a long + time, at first about some matter of immediate interest, as I fancied, and + then apparently it branched off on some topic which seemed to concern the + stranger, whoever he was. Then it seemed to get more indistinct, as if the + stranger were leaving us and Aristides were going a little way with him. + Presently I heard him coming back, and he put his head in at the van + curtains, as if to see whether I was asleep. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” I said, and he said how sorry he was for having waked me. “Oh, I + don't mind,” I said. “Whom were you talking with? He had the saddest voice + I ever heard. What did he want?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it seems that we are not far from the ruins of one of the old + capitalistic cities, which have been left for a sort of warning against + the former conditions, and he wished to caution us against the malarial + influences from it. I think perhaps we had better push on a little way, if + you don't mind.” + </p> + <p> + The moon was shining clearly, and of course I did not mind, and Aristides + got his hand on the lever, and we were soon getting out of the dangerous + zone. “I think,” he said, “they ought to abolish that pest-hole. I doubt + if it serves any good purpose, now, though it has been useful in times + past as an object-lesson.” + </p> + <p> + “But who was your unknown friend?” I asked, a great deal more curious + about him than about the capitalistic ruin. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, just a poor murderer,” he answered easily, and I shuddered back: “A + murderer!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. He killed his friend some fifteen years ago in a jealous rage, and + he is pursued by remorse that gives him no peace.” + </p> + <p> + “And is the remorse his only punishment?” I asked, rather indignantly. + </p> + <p> + “Isn't that enough? God seemed to think it was, in the case of the first + murderer, who killed his brother. All that he did to Cain was to set a + mark on him. But we have not felt sure that we have the right to do this. + We let God mark him, and He has done it with this man in the sorrow of his + face. I was rather glad you, couldn't see him, my dear. It is an awful + face.” + </p> + <p> + I confess that this sounded like mere sentimentalism to me, and I said, + “Really, Aristides, I can't follow you. How are innocent people to be + protected against this wretch, if he wanders about among them at will?” + </p> + <p> + “They are as safe from him as from any other man in Altruria. His case was + carefully looked into by the medical authorities, and it was decided that + he was perfectly sane, so that he could be safely left at large, to + expiate his misdeed in the only possible way that such a misdeed can be + expiated—by doing good to others. What would you have had us do with + him?” + </p> + <p> + The question rather staggered me, but I said, “He ought to have been + imprisoned at least a year for manslaughter.” + </p> + <p> + “Cain was not imprisoned an hour.” + </p> + <p> + “That was a very different thing. But suppose you let a man go at large + who has killed his friend in a jealous rage, what do you do with other + murderers?” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria there can be no other murderers. People cannot kill here for + money, which prompts every other kind of murder in capitalistic countries, + as well as every other kind of crime. I know, my dear, that this seems + very strange to you, but you will accustom yourself to the idea, and then + you will see the reasonableness of the Altrurian plan. On the whole, I am + sorry you could not have seen that hapless man, and heard him. He had a + face like death—” + </p> + <p> + “And a voice like death, too!” I put in. + </p> + <p> + “You noticed that? He wanted to talk about his crime with me. He wants to + talk about it with any one who will listen to him. He is consumed with an + undying pity for the man he slew. That is the first thing, the only thing, + in his mind. If he could, I believe he would give his life for the life he + took at any moment. But you cannot recreate one life by destroying + another. There is no human means of ascertaining justice, but we can + always do mercy with divine omniscience.” As he spoke the sun pierced the + edge of the eastern horizon, and lit up the marble walls and roofs of the + Regionic capital which we were approaching. + </p> + <p> + At the meeting we had there in the afternoon, Aristides reported our + having been warned against our danger in the night by that murderer, and + public record of the fact was made. The Altrurians consider any sort of + punishment which is not expiation a far greater sin than the wrong it + visits, and altogether barren and useless. After the record in this case + had been made, the conference naturally turned upon what Aristides had + seen of the treatment of criminals in America, and when, he told of our + prisons, where people merely arrested and not yet openly accused are kept, + I did not know which way to look, for you know I am still an American at + heart, Dolly. Did you ever see the inside of one of our police-stations at + night? Or smell it? I did, once, when I went to give bail for a wretched + girl who had been my servant, and had gone wrong, but had been arrested + for theft, and I assure you that the sight and the smell woke me in the + night for a month afterwards, and I have never quite ceased to dream about + it. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurians listened in silence, and I hoped they could not realize the + facts, though the story was every word true; but what seemed to make them + the most indignant was the treatment of the families of the prisoners in + what we call our penitentiaries and reformatories. At first they did not + conceive of it, apparently, because it was so stupidly barbarous; they + have no patience with stupidity; and when Aristides had carefully + explained, it seemed as if they could not believe it. They thought it + right that the convicts should be made to work, but they could not + understand that the state really took away their wages, and left their + families to suffer for want of the support which it had deprived them of. + They said this was punishing the mothers and sisters, the wives and + children of the prisoners, and was like putting out the eyes of an + offender's innocent relatives as they had read was done in Oriental + countries. They asked if there was never any sort of protest against such + an atrocious perversion of justice, and when the question was put to me I + was obliged to own that I had never heard the system even criticised. + Perhaps it has been, but I spoke only from my own knowledge. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + Well, to get away from these dismal experiences, and come back to our + travels, with their perpetual novelty, and the constantly varying beauty + of the country! + </p> + <p> + The human interest of the landscape, that is always the great interest of + it, and I wish I could make you feel it as I have felt it in this + wonderful journey of ours. It is like the New England landscape at times, + in its kind of gentle wildness, but where it has been taken back into the + hand of man, how different the human interest is! Instead of a rheumatic + old farmer, in his clumsy clothes, with some of his gaunt girls to help + him, or perhaps his ageing wife, getting in the hay of one of those sweet + meadows, and looking like so many animated scarecrows at their work; or + instead of some young farmer, on the seat of his clattering mower, or + mounted high over his tedder, but as much alone as if there were no one + else in the neighborhood, silent and dull, or fierce or sullen, as the + case might be, the work is always going on with companies of mowers or + reapers, or planters, that chatter like birds or sing like them. + </p> + <p> + It is no use my explaining again and again that in a country like this, + where everybody works, nobody over works, and that when the few hours of + obligatory labor are passed in the mornings, people need not do anything + unless they choose. Their working-dresses are very simple, but in all + sorts of gay colors, like those you saw in the Greek play at Harvard, with + straw hats for the men, and fillets of ribbon for the girls, and sandals + for both. I speak of girls, for most of the married women are at home + gardening, or about the household work, but men of every age work in the + fields. The earth is dear to them because they get their life from it by + labor that is not slavery; they come to love it every acre, every foot, + because they have known it from childhood; and I have seen old men, very + old, pottering about the orchards and meadows during the hours of + voluntary work, and trimming them up here and there, simply because they + could not keep away from the place, or keep their hands off the trees and + bushes. Sometimes in the long, tender afternoons, we see far up on some + pasture slope, groups of girls scattered about on the grass, with their + sewing, or listening to some one reading. Other times they are giving a + little play, usually a comedy, for life is so happy here that tragedy + would not be true to it, with the characters coming and going in a grove + of small pines, for the <i>coulisses</i>, and using a level of grass for + the stage. If we stop, one of the audience comes down to us and invites us + to come up and see the play, which keeps on in spite of the sensation that + I can feel I make among them. + </p> + <p> + Everywhere the news of us has gone before us, and there is a universal + curiosity to get a look at Aristides' capitalistic wife, as they call me. + I made him translate it, and he explained that the word was merely + descriptive and not characteristic; some people distinguished and called + me American. There was one place where they were having a picnic in the + woods up a hillside, and they asked us to join them, so we turned our van + into the roadside and followed the procession. It was headed by two old + men playing on pipes, and after these came children singing, and then all + sorts of people, young and old. When we got to an open place in the woods, + where there was a spring, and smooth grass, they built fires, and began to + get ready for the feast, while some of them did things to amuse the rest. + Every one could do something; if you can imagine a party of artists, it + was something like that. I should say the Altrurians had artists' manners, + free, friendly, and easy, with a dash of humor in everything, and a + wonderful willingness to laugh and make laugh. Aristides is always + explaining that the artist is their ideal type; that is, some one who + works gladly, and plays as gladly as he works; no one here is asked to do + work that he hates, unless he seems to hate every kind of work. When this + happens, the authorities find out something for him that he had <i>better</i> + like, by letting him starve till he works. That picnic lasted the whole + afternoon and well into the night, and then the picnickers went home + through the starlight, leading the little ones, or carrying them when they + were too little or too tired. But first they came down to our van with us, + and sang us a serenade after we had disappeared into it, and then left us, + and sent their voices back to us out of the dark. + </p> + <p> + One morning at dawn, as we came into a village, we saw nearly the whole + population mounting the marble steps of the temple, all the holiday dress + of the Voluntaries, which they put on here every afternoon when the work + is done. Last of the throng came a procession of children, looking + something like a May-Day party, and midway of their line were a young man + and a young girl, hand in hand, who parted at the door of the temple, and + entered separately. Aristides called out, “Oh, it is a wedding! You are in + luck, Eveleth,” and then and there I saw my first Altrurian wedding. + </p> + <p> + Within, the pillars and the altar and the seats of the elders were + garlanded with flowers, so fresh and fragrant that they seemed to have + blossomed from the marble overnight, and there was a soft murmur of + Altrurian voices that might very well have seemed the hum of bees among + the blossoms. This subsided, as the young couple, who had paused just + inside the temple door, came up the middle side by side, and again + separated and took their places, the youth on the extreme right of the + elder, and the maiden on the extreme left of the eldresses, and stood + facing the congregation, which was also on foot, and joined in the hymn + which everybody sang. Then one of the eldresses rose and began a sort of + statement which Aristides translated to me afterwards. She said that the + young couple whom we saw there had for the third time asked to become man + and wife, after having believed for a year that they loved each other, and + having statedly come before the marriage authorities and been questioned + as to the continuance of their affection. She said that probably every one + present knew that they had been friends from childhood, and none would be + surprised that they now wished to be united for life. They had been + carefully instructed as to the serious nature of the marriage bond, and + admonished as to the duties they were entering into, not only to each + other, but to the community. At each successive visit to the authorities + they had been warned, separately and together, against the danger of + trusting to anything like a romantic impulse, and they had faithfully + endeavored to act upon this advice, as they testified. In order to prove + the reality of their affection, they had been parted every third month, + and had lived during that time in different Regions where it was meant + they should meet many other young people, so that if they felt any + swerving of the heart they might not persist in an intention which could + only bring them final unhappiness. It seems this is the rule in the case + of young lovers, and people usually marry very young here, but if they + wish to marry later in life the rule is not enforced so stringently, or + not at all. The bride and groom we saw had both stood these trials, and at + each return they had been more and more sure that they loved each other, + and loved no one else. Now they were here to unite their hands, and to + declare the union of their hearts before the people. + </p> + <p> + Then the eldress sat down and an elder arose, who bade the young people + come forward to the centre of the line, where the elders and eldresses + were sitting. He took his place behind them, and once more and for the + last time he conjured them not to persist if they felt any doubt of + themselves. He warned them that if they entered into the married state, + and afterwards repented to the point of seeking divorce, the divorce would + indeed be granted them, but on terms, as they must realize, of lasting + grief to themselves through the offence they would commit against the + commonwealth. They answered that they were sure of themselves, and ready + to exchange their troth for life and death. Then they joined hands, and + declared that they took each other for husband and wife. The congregation + broke into another hymn and slowly dispersed, leaving the bride and groom + with their families, who came up to them and embraced them, pressing their + cheeks against the cheeks of the young pair. + </p> + <p> + This ended the solemnity, and then the festivity began, as it ended, with + a wedding feast, where people sang and danced and made speeches and drank + toasts, and the fun was kept up till the hours of the Obligatories + approached; and then, what do you think? The married pair put off their + wedding garments with the rest and went to work in the fields! Later, I + understood, if they wished to take a wedding journey they could freely do + so; but the first thing in their married life they must honor the + Altrurian ideal of work, by which every one must live in order that every + other may live without overwork. I believe that the marriage ceremonial is + something like that of the Quakers, but I never saw a Quaker wedding, and + I could only compare this with the crazy romps with which our + house-weddings often end, with throwing of rice and old shoes, and tying + ribbons to the bridal carriage and baggage, and following the pair to the + train with outbreaks of tiresome hilarity, which make them conspicuous + before their fellow-travellers; or with some of our ghastly church + weddings, in which the religious ceremonial is lost in the social effect, + and ends with that everlasting thumping march from “Lohengrin,” and the + outsiders storming about the bridal pair and the guests with the rude + curiosity that the fattest policemen at the canopied and carpeted entrance + cannot check. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <p> + We have since been at other weddings and at christenings and at funerals. + The ceremonies are always held in the temples, and are always in the same + serious spirit. As the Altrurians are steadfast believers in immortality, + there is a kind of solemn elevation in the funeral ceremonies which I + cannot give you a real notion of. It is helped, I think, by the custom of + not performing the ceremony over the dead; a brief rite is reserved for + the cemetery, where it is wished that the kindred shall not be present, + lest they think always of the material body and not of the spiritual body + which shall be raised in incorruption. Religious service is held in the + temples every day at the end of the Obligatories, and whenever we are near + a village or in any of the capitals we always go. It is very simple. After + a hymn, to which the people sometimes march round the interior of the + temple, each lays on the altar an offering from the fields or woods where + they have been working, if it is nothing but a head of grain or a wild + flower or a leaf. Then any one is at liberty to speak, but any one else + may go out without offence. There is no ritual; sometimes they read a + chapter from the New Testament, preferably a part of the story of Christ + or a passage from His discourses. The idea of coming to the temple at the + end of the day's labor is to consecrate that day's work, and they do not + call anything work that is not work with the hands. When I explained, or + tried to explain, that among us a great many people worked with their + brains, to amuse others or to get handwork out of them, they were unable + to follow me. I asked if they did not consider composing music or poetry + or plays, or painting pictures work, and they said, No, that was pleasure, + and must be indulged only during the Voluntaries; it was never to be + honored like work with the hands, for it would not equalize the burden of + that, but might put an undue share of it on others. They said that lives + devoted to such pursuits must be very unwholesome, and they brought me to + book about the lives of most artists, literary men, and financiers in the + capitalistic world to prove what they said. They held that people must + work with their hands willingly, in the artistic spirit, but they could + only do that when they knew that others differently gifted were working in + like manner with their hands. + </p> + <p> + I couldn't begin to tell you all our queer experiences. As I have kept + saying, I am a great curiosity everywhere, and I could flatter myself that + people were more eager to see me than to hear Aristides. Sometimes I + couldn't help thinking that they expected to find me an awful warning, a + dreadful example of whatever a woman ought not to be, and a woman from + capitalistic conditions must be logically. But sometimes they were very + intelligent, even the simplest villagers, as we should call them, though + there is such an equality of education and opportunity here that no + simplicity of life has the effect of dulling people as it has with us. One + thing was quite American: they always wanted to know how I liked Altruria, + and when I told them, as I sincerely could, that I adored it, they were + quite affecting in their pleasure. They generally asked if I would like to + go back to America, and when I said No, they were delighted beyond + anything. They said I must become a citizen and vote and take part in the + government, for that was every woman's duty as well as right; it was wrong + to leave the whole responsibility to the men. They asked if American women + took no interest in the government, and when I told them there was a very + small number who wished to influence politics socially, as the + Englishwomen did, but without voting or taking any responsibility, they + were shocked. In one of the Regionic capitals they wanted me to speak + after Aristides, but I had nothing prepared; at the next I did get off a + little speech in English, which he translated after me. Later he put it + into Altrurian, and I memorized it, and made myself immensely popular by + parroting it. + </p> + <p> + The pronunciation of Altrurian is not difficult, for it is spelled + phonetically, and the sounds are very simple. Where they were once + difficult they have been simplified, for here the simplification of life + extends to everything; and the grammar has been reduced in its structure + till it is as elemental as English grammar or Norwegian. The language is + Greek in origin, but the intricate inflections and the declensions have + been thrown away, and it has kept only the simplest forms. You must get + Mr. Twelvemough to explain this to you, Dolly, for it would take me too + long, and I have so much else to tell you. A good many of the women have + taken up English, but they learn it as a dead language, and they give it a + comical effect by trying to pronounce it as it is spelled. + </p> + <p> + I suppose you are anxious, if these letters which are piling up and piling + up should ever reach you, or even start to do so, to know something about + the Altrurian cities, and what they are like. Well, in the first place, + you must cast all images of American cities out of your mind, or any + European cities, except, perhaps, the prettiest and stateliest parts of + Paris, where there is a regular sky-line, and the public buildings and + monuments are approached through shaded avenues. There are no private + houses here, in our sense—that is, houses which people have built + with their own money on their own land, and made as ugly outside and as + molestive to their neighbors and the passers-by as they chose. As the + buildings belong to the whole people, the first requirement is that they + shall be beautiful inside and out. There are a few grand edifices looking + like Greek temples, which are used for the government offices, and these + are, of course, the most dignified, but the dwellings are quite as + attractive and comfortable. They are built round courts, with gardens and + flowers in the courts, and wide grassy spaces round them. They are rather + tall, but never so tall as our great hotels or apartment-houses, and the + floors are brought to one level by elevators, which are used only in the + capitals; and, generally speaking, I should say the villages were + pleasanter than the cities. In fact, the village is the Altrurian ideal, + and there is an effort everywhere to reduce the size of the towns and + increase the number of the villages. The outlying farms have been gathered + into these, and now there is not one of those lonely places in the + country, like those where our farmers toil alone outdoors and their wives + alone indoors, and both go mad so often in the solitude. The villages are + almost in sight of each other, and the people go to their fields in + company, while the women carry on their house-keeping co-operatively, with + a large kitchen which they use in common; they have their meals apart or + together, as they like. If any one is sick or disabled the neighbors come + in and help do her work, as they used with us in the early times, and as + they still do in country places. Village life here is preferred, just as + country life is in England, and one thing that will amuse you, with your + American ideas, and your pride in the overgrowth of our cities: the + Altrurian papers solemnly announce from time to time that the population + of such or such a capital has been reduced so many hundreds or thousands + since the last census. That means that the villages in the neighborhood + have been increased in number and population. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, I must say the capitals are delightful: clean, airy, quiet, + with the most beautiful architecture, mostly classic and mostly marble, + with rivers running through them and round them, and every real + convenience, but not a clutter of artificial conveniences, as with us. In + the streets there are noiseless trolleys (where they have not been + replaced by public automobiles) which the long distances of the ample + ground-plan make rather necessary, and the rivers are shot over with swift + motor-boats; for the short distances you always expect to walk, or if you + don't expect it, you walk anyway. The car-lines and boat-lines are public, + and they are free, for the Altrurians think that the community owes + transportation to every one who lives beyond easy reach of the points + which their work calls them to. + </p> + <p> + Of course the great government stores are in the capitals, and practically + there are no stores in the villages, except for what you might call + emergency supplies. But you must not imagine, Dolly, that shopping, here, + is like shopping at home—or in America, as I am learning to say, for + Altruria is home now. That is, you don't fill your purse with bank-notes, + or have things charged. You get everything you want, within reason, and + certainly everything you need, for nothing. You have only to provide + yourself with a card, something like that you have to show at the Army and + Navy Stores in London, when you first go to buy there, which certifies + that you belong to this or that working-phalanx, and that you have not + failed in the Obligatories for such and such a length of time. If you are + not entitled to this card, you had better not go shopping, for there is no + possible equivalent for it which will enable you to carry anything away or + have it sent to your house. At first I could not help feeling rather + indignant when I was asked to show my work-card in the stores; I had + usually forgotten to bring it, or sometimes I had brought my husband's + card, which would not do at all, unless I could say that I had been ill or + disabled, for a woman is expected to work quite the same as a man. Of + course her housework counts, and as we are on a sort of public mission, + they count our hours of travel as working-hours, especially as Aristides + has made it a point of good citizenship for us to stop every now and then + and join in the Obligatories when the villagers were getting in the farm + crops or quarrying stone or putting up a house. I am never much use in + quarrying or building, but I come in strong in the hay-fields or the apple + orchards or the orange groves. + </p> + <p> + The shopping here is not so enslaving as it is with us—I mean, with + you—because the fashions do not change, and you get things only when + you need them, not when you want them, or when other people think you do. + The costume was fixed long ago, when the Altrurian era began, by a + commission of artists, and it would be considered very bad form as well as + bad morals to try changing it in the least. People are allowed to choose + their own colors, but if one goes very wrong, or so far wrong as to offend + the public taste, she is gently admonished by the local art commission. If + she insists, they let her have her own way, but she seldom wants it when + she knows that people think her a fright. Of course the costume is + modified somewhat for the age and shape of the wearer, but this is not so + often as you might think. There are no very lean or very stout people, + though there are old and young, just as there are with us. But the + Altrurians keep young very much longer than capitalistic peoples do, and + the life of work keeps down their weight. You know I used to incline a + little to over-plumpness, I really believe because I overate at times + simply to keep from thinking of the poor who had to undereat, but that is + quite past now; I have lost at least twenty-five pounds from working + out-doors and travelling so much and living very, very simply. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <p> + I have to jot things down as they come into my mind, and I am afraid I + forget some of the most important. Everybody is so novel on this famous + tour of ours that I am continually interested, but one has one's + preferences even in Altruria, and I believe I like best the wives of the + artists and literary men whom one finds working in the galleries and + libraries of the capitals everywhere. They are not more intelligent than + other women, perhaps, but they are more sympathetic; and one sees so + little of those people in New York, for all they abound there. + </p> + <p> + The galleries are not only for the exhibition of pictures, but each has + numbers of ateliers, where the artists work and teach. The libraries are + the most wonderfully imagined things. You do not have to come and study in + them, but if you are working up any particular subject, the books relating + to it are sent to your dwelling every morning and brought away every noon, + so that during the obligatory hours you have them completely at your + disposition, and during the Voluntaries you can consult them with the rest + of the public in the library; it is not thought best that study should be + carried on throughout the day, and the results seem to justify this + theory. If you want to read a book merely for pleasure, you are allowed to + take it out and live with it as long as you like; the copy you have is + immediately replaced with another, so that you do not feel hurried and are + not obliged to ramp through it in a week or a fortnight. + </p> + <p> + The Altrurian books are still rather sealed books to me, but they are + delightful to the eye, all in large print on wide margins, with flexible + bindings, and such light paper that you can hold them in one hand + indefinitely without tiring. I must send you some with this, if I ever get + my bundle of letters off to you. You will see by the dates that I am + writing you one every day; I had thought of keeping a journal for you, but + then I should have had left out a good many things that happened during + our first days, when the impressions were so vivid, and I should have got + to addressing my records to myself, and I think I had better keep to the + form of letters. If they reach you, and you read them at random, why that + is very much the way I write them. + </p> + <p> + I despair of giving you any real notion of the capitals, but if you + remember the White City at the Columbian Fair at Chicago in 1893, you can + have some idea of the general effect of one; only there is nothing + heterogeneous in their beauty. There is one classic rule in the + architecture, but each of the different architects may characterize an + edifice from himself, just as different authors writing the same language + characterize it by the diction natural to him. There are suggestions of + the capitals in some of our cities, and if you remember Commonwealth + Avenue in Boston, you can imagine something like the union of street and + garden which every street of them is. The trolleys run under the + overarching trees between the lawns, flanked by gravelled footpaths + between flower-beds, and you take the cars or not as you like. As there is + no hurry, they go about as fast as English trams, and the clanger from + them is practically reduced to nothing by the crossings dipping under them + at the street corners. The centre of the capital is approached by + colonnades, which at night bear groups of great bulbous lamps, and by day + flutter with the Altrurian and Regionic flags. Around this centre are the + stores and restaurants and theatres, and galleries and libraries, with + arcades over the sidewalks, like those in Bologna; sometimes the arcades + are in two stories, as they are in Chester. People are constantly coming + and going in an easy way during the afternoon, though in the morning the + streets are rather deserted. + </p> + <p> + But what is the use? I could go on describing and describing, and never + get in half the differences from American cities, with their hideous + uproar, and their mud in the wet, and their clouds of swirling dust in the + wind. But there is one feature which I must mention, because you can fancy + it from the fond dream of a great national highway which some of our + architects projected while they were still in the fervor of excitement + from the beauty of the Peristyle, and other features of the White City. + They really have such a highway here, crossing the whole Altrurian + continent, and uniting the circle of the Regionic capitals. As we + travelled for a long time by the country roads on the beds of the old + railways, I had no idea of this magnificent avenue, till one day my + husband suddenly ran our van into the one leading up to the first capital + we were to visit. Then I found myself between miles and miles of stately + white pillars, rising and sinking as the road found its natural levels, + and growing in the perspective before us and dwindling behind us. I could + not keep out of my mind a colonnade of palm-trees, only the fronds were + lacking, and there were never palms so beautiful. Each pillar was + inscribed with the name of some Altrurian who had done something for his + country, written some beautiful poem or story, or history, made some + scientific discovery, composed an opera, invented a universal convenience, + performed a wonderful cure, or been a delightful singer, or orator, or + gardener, or farmer. Not one soldier, general or admiral, among them! That + seemed very strange to me, and I asked Aristides how it was. Like + everything else in Altruria, it was very simple; there had been no war for + so long that there were no famous soldiers to commemorate. But he stopped + our van when he came to the first of the many arches which spanned the + highway, and read out to me in English the Altrurian record that it was + erected in honor of the first President of the Altrurian Commonwealth, who + managed the negotiations when the capitalistic oligarchies to the north + and south were peacefully annexed, and the descendants of the three + nations joined in the commemoration of an event that abolished war forever + on the Altrurian continent. + </p> + <p> + Here I can imagine Mr. Makely asking who footed the bills for this beauty + and magnificence, and whether these works were constructed at the cost of + the nation, or the different Regions, or the abuttors on the different + highways. But the fact is, you poor, capitalistic dears, they cost nobody + a dollar, for there is not a dollar in Altruria. You must worry into the + idea somehow that in Altruria you cannot buy anything except by working, + and that work is the current coin of the republic: you pay for everything + by drops of sweat, and off your own brow, not somebody else's brow. The + people built these monuments and colonnades, and aqueducts and highways + and byways, and sweet villages and palatial cities with their own hands, + after the designs of artists, who also took part in the labor. But it was + a labor that they delighted in so much that they chose to perform it + during the Voluntaries, when they might have been resting, and not during + the Obligatories, when they were required to work. So it was all joy and + all glory. They say there never was such happiness in any country since + the world began. While the work went on it was like a perpetual Fourth of + July or an everlasting picnic. + </p> + <p> + But I know you hate this sort of economical stuff, Dolly, and I will make + haste to get down to business, as Mr. Makely would say, for I am really + coming to something that you will think worth while. One morning, when we + had made half the circle of the capitals, and were on the homestretch to + the one where we had left our dear mother—for Aristides claims her, + too—and I was letting that dull nether anxiety for her come to the + top, though we had had the fullest telephonic talks with her every day, + and knew she was well and happy, we came round the shoulder of a wooded + cliff and found ourselves on an open stretch of the northern coast. At + first I could only exclaim at the beauty of the sea, lying blue and still + beyond a long beach closed by another headland, and I did not realize that + a large yacht which I saw close to land had gone ashore. The beach was + crowded with Altrurians, who seemed to have come to the rescue, for they + were putting off to the yacht in boats and returning with passengers, and + jumping out, and pulling their boats with them up on to the sand. + </p> + <p> + I was quite bewildered, and I don't know what to say I was the next thing, + when I saw that the stranded yacht was flying the American flag from her + peak. I supposed she must be one of our cruisers, she was so large, and + the first thing that flashed into my mind was a kind of amused wonder what + those poor Altrurians would do with a ship-of-war and her marines and + crew. I couldn't ask any coherent questions, and luckily Aristides was + answering my incoherent ones in the best possible way by wheeling our van + down on the beach and making for the point nearest the yacht. He had time + to say he did not believe she was a government vessel, and, in fact, I + remembered that once I had seen a boat in the North River getting up steam + to go to Europe which was much larger, and had her decks covered with + sailors that I took for bluejackets; but she was only the private yacht of + some people I knew. These stupid things kept going and coming in my mind + while my husband was talking with some of the Altrurian girls who were + there helping with the men. They said that the yacht had gone ashore the + night before last in one of the sudden fogs that come up on that coast, + and that some people whom the sailors seemed to obey were camping on the + edge of the upland above the beach, under a large tent they had brought + from the yacht. They had refused to go to the guest-house in the nearest + village, and as nearly as the girls could make out they expected the yacht + to get afloat from tide to tide, and then intended to re-embark on her. In + the mean time they had provisioned themselves from the ship, and were + living in a strange way of their own. Some of them seemed to serve the + others, but these appeared to be used with a very ungrateful indifference, + as if they were of a different race. There was one who wore a white apron + and white cap who directed the cooking for the rest, and had several + assistants; and from time to time very disagreeable odors came from the + camp, like burning flesh. The Altrurians had carried them fruits and + vegetables, but the men-assistants had refused them contemptuously and + seemed suspicious of the variety of mushrooms they offered them. They + called out, “To-stoo!” and I understood that the strangers were afraid + they were bringing toad-stools. One of the Altrurian girls had been + studying English in the nearest capital, and she had tried to talk with + these people, pronouncing it in the Altrurian way, but they could make + nothing of one another; then she wrote down what she wanted to say, but as + she spelled it phonetically they were not able to read her English. She + asked us if I was the American Altrurian she had heard of, and when I said + yes she lost no time in showing us to the camp of the castaways. + </p> + <p> + As soon as we saw their tents we went forward till we were met at the + largest by a sort of marine footman, who bowed slightly and said to me, + “What name shall I say, ma'am?” and I answered distinctly, so that he + might get the name right, “Mr. and Mrs. Homos.” Then he held back the flap + of the marquee, which seemed to serve these people as a drawing-room, and + called out, standing very rigidly upright, to let us pass, in the way that + I remembered so well, “Mr. And Mrs. 'Omos!” and a severe-looking, rather + elderly lady rose to meet us with an air that was both anxious and + forbidding, and before she said anything else she burst out, “You don't + mean to say you speak English?” + </p> + <p> + I said that I spoke English, and had not spoken anything else but rather + poor French until six months before, and then she demanded, “Have you been + cast away on this outlandish place, too?” + </p> + <p> + I laughed and said I lived here, and I introduced my husband as well as I + could without knowing her name. He explained with his pretty Altrurian + accent, which you used to like so much, that we had ventured to come in + the hope of being of use to them, and added some regrets for their + misfortune so sweetly that I wondered she could help responding in kind. + But she merely said, “Oh!” and then she seemed to recollect herself, and + frowning to a very gentle-looking old man to come forward, she ignored my + husband in presenting me. “Mr. Thrall, Mrs. ——” + </p> + <p> + She hesitated for my name, and I supplied it, “Homos,” and as the old man + had put out his hand in a kindly way I took it. + </p> + <p> + “And this is my husband, Aristides Homos, an Altrurian,” I said, and then, + as the lady had not asked us to sit down, or shown the least sign of + liking our being there, the natural woman flamed up in me as she hadn't in + all the time I have been away from New York. “I am glad you are so + comfortable here, Mr. Thrall. You won't need us, I see. The people about + will do anything in their power for you. Come, my dear,” and I was + sweeping out of that tent in a manner calculated to give the eminent + millionaire's wife a notion of Altrurian hauteur which I must own would + have been altogether mistaken. + </p> + <p> + I knew who they were perfectly. Even if I had not once met them I should + have known that they were the ultra-rich Thralls, from the multitudinous + pictures of them that I had seen in the papers at home, not long after + they came on to New York. + </p> + <p> + He was beginning, “Oh no, oh no,” but I cut in. “My husband and I are on + our way to the next Regionic capital, and we are somewhat hurried. You + will be quite well looked after by the neighbors here, and I see that we + are rather in your housekeeper's way.” + </p> + <p> + It <i>was</i> nasty, Dolly, and I won't deny it; it was <i>vulgar</i>. But + what would <i>you</i> have done? I could feel Aristides' mild eye sadly on + me, and I was sorry for him, but I assure him I was not sorry for them, + till that old man spoke again, so timidly: “It isn't my—it's my + wife, Mrs. Homos. Let me introduce her. But haven't we met before?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps during my first husband's lifetime. I was Mrs. Bellington + Strange.” + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. P. Bellington Strange? Your husband was a dear friend of mine when + we were both young—a good man, if ever there was one; the best in + the world! I am so glad to see you again. Ah—my dear, you remember + my speaking of Mrs. Strange?” + </p> + <p> + He took my hand again and held it in his soft old hands, as if hesitating + whether to transfer it to her, and my heart melted towards him. You may + think it very odd, Dolly, but it was what he said of my dear, dead husband + that softened me. It made him seem very fatherly, and I felt the affection + for him that I felt for my husband, when he seemed more like a father. + Aristides and I often talk of it, and he has no wish that I should forget + him. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Thrall made no motion to take my hand from him, but she said, “I + think I have met Mr. Strange,” and now I saw in the background, sitting on + a camp-stool near a long, lank young man stretched in a hammock, a very + handsome girl, who hastily ran through a book, and then dropped it at the + third mention of my name. I suspected that the book was the Social + Register, and that the girl's search for me had been satisfactory, for she + rose and came vaguely towards us, while the young man unfolded himself + from the hammock, and stood hesitating, but looking as if he rather liked + what had happened. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall bustled about for camp-stools, and said, “Do stop and have some + breakfast with us, it's just coming in. May I introduce my daughter, Lady + Moors and—and Lord Moors?” The girl took my hand, and the young man + bowed from his place; but if that poor old man had known, peace was not to + be made so easily between two such bad-tempered women as Mrs. Thrall and + myself. We expressed some very stiff sentiments in regard to the weather, + and the prospect of the yacht getting off with the next tide, and my + husband joined in with that manly gentleness of his, but we did not sit + down, much less offer to stay to breakfast. We had got to the door of the + tent, the family following us, even to the noble son-in-law, and as she + now realized that we are actually going, Mrs. Thrall gasped out, “But you + are not <i>leaving</i> us? What shall we <i>do</i> with all these + natives?” + </p> + <p> + This was again too much, and I flamed out at her. “<i>Natives</i>! They + are cultivated and refined people, for they are Altrurians, and I assure + you you will be in much better hands than mine with them, for I am only + Altrurian by marriage!” + </p> + <p> + She was one of those leathery egotists that nothing will make a dint in, + and she came back with, “But we don't speak the language, and they don't + speak English, and how are we to manage if the yacht doesn't get afloat?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no doubt you will be looked after from the capital we have just left. + But I will venture to make a little suggestion with regard to the natives + in the mean time. They are not proud, but they are very sensitive, and if + you fail in any point of consideration, they will understand that you do + not want their hospitality.” + </p> + <p> + “I imagine our own people will be able to look after us,” she answered + quite as nastily. “We do not propose to be dependent on them. We can pay + our way here as we do elsewhere.” + </p> + <p> + “The experiment will be worth trying,” I said. “Come, Aristides!” and I + took the poor fellow away with me to our van. Mr. Thrall made some + hopeless little movements towards us, but I would not stop or even look + back. When we got into the van, I made Aristides put on the full power, + and fell back into my seat and cried a while, and then I scolded him + because he would not scold me, and went on in a really scandalous way. It + must have been a revelation to him, but he only smoothed me on the + shoulder and said, “Poor Eveleth, poor Eveleth,” till I thought I should + scream; but it ended in my falling on his neck, and saying I knew I was + horrid, and what did he want me to do? + </p> + <p> + After I calmed down into something like rationality, he said he thought we + had perhaps done the best thing we could for those people in leaving them + to themselves, for they could come to no possible harm among the + neighbors. He did not believe from what he had seen of the yacht from the + shore, and from what the Altrurians had told him, that there was one + chance in a thousand of her ever getting afloat. But those people would + have to convince themselves of the fact, and of several other facts in + their situation. I asked him what he meant, and he said he could tell me, + but that as yet it was a public affair, and he would rather not anticipate + the private interest I would feel in it. I did not insist; in fact, I + wanted to get that odious woman out of my mind as soon as I could, for the + thought of her threatened to poison the pleasure of the rest of our tour. + </p> + <p> + I believe my husband hurried it a little, though he did not shorten it, + and we got back to the Maritime Region almost a week sooner than we had + first intended. I found my dear mother well, and still serenely happy in + her Altrurian surroundings. She had begun to learn the language, and she + had a larger acquaintance in the capital, I believe, than any other one + person. She said everybody had called on her, and they were the kindest + people she had ever dreamed of. She had exchanged cooking-lessons with one + lady who, they told her, was a distinguished scientist, and she had taught + another, who was a great painter, a peculiar embroidery stitch which she + had learned from my grandmother, and which everybody admired. These two + ladies had given her most of her grammatical instruction in Altrurian, but + there was a bright little girl who had enlarged her vocabulary more than + either, in helping her about her housework, the mother having lent her for + the purpose. My mother said she was not ashamed to make blunders before a + child, and the little witch had taken the greatest delight in telling her + the names of things in the house and the streets and the fields outside + the town, where they went long walks together. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <p> + Well, my dear Dorothea, I had been hoping to go more into detail about my + mother and about our life in the Maritime Capital, which is to be our home + for a year, but I had hardly got down the last words when Aristides came + in with a despatch from the Seventh Regionic, summoning us there on + important public business: I haven't got over the feeling yet of being + especially distinguished and flattered at sharing in public business; but + the Altrurian women are so used to it that they do not think anything of + it. The despatch was signed by an old friend of my husband's, Cyril + Chrysostom, who had once been Emissary in England, and to whom my husband + wrote his letters when he was in America. I hated to leave my mother so + soon, but it could not be helped, and we took the first electric express + for the Seventh Regionic, where we arrived in about an hour and forty + minutes, making the three hundred miles in that time easily. I couldn't + help regretting our comfortable van, but there was evidently haste in the + summons, and I confess that I was curious to know what the matter was, + though I had made a shrewd guess the first instant, and it turned out that + I was not mistaken. + </p> + <p> + The long and the short of it was that there was trouble with the people + who had come ashore in that yacht, and were destined never to go to sea in + her. She was hopelessly bedded in the sand, and the waves that were + breaking over her were burying her deeper and deeper. The owners were + living in their tent as we had left them, and her crew were camped in + smaller tents and any shelter they could get, along the beach. They had + brought her stores away, but many of the provisions had been damaged, and + it had become a pressing question what should be done about the people. We + had been asked to consult with Cyril and his wife, and the other Regionic + chiefs and their wives, and we threshed the question out nearly the whole + night. + </p> + <p> + I am afraid it will appear rather comical in some aspects to you and Mr. + Makely, but I can assure you that it was a very serious matter with the + Altrurian authorities. If there had been any hope of a vessel from the + capitalistic world touching at Altruria within a definite time, they could + have managed, for they would have gladly kept the yacht's people and + owners till they could embark them for Australia or New Zealand, and would + have made as little of the trouble they were giving as they could. But + until the trader that brought us should return with the crew, as the + captain had promised, there was no ship expected, and any other wreck in + the mean time would only add to their difficulty. You may be surprised, + though I was not, that the difficulty was mostly with the yacht-owners, + and above all with Mrs. Thrall, who had baffled every effort of the + authorities to reduce what they considered the disorder of their life. + </p> + <p> + With the crew it was a different matter. As soon as they had got drunk on + the wines and spirits they had brought from the wreck, and then had got + sober because they had drunk all the liquors up, they began to be more + manageable; when their provisions ran short, and they were made to + understand that they would not be allowed to plunder the fields and woods, + or loot the villages for something to eat, they became almost exemplarily + docile. At first they were disposed to show fight, and the principles of + the Altrurians did not allow them to use violence in bringing them to + subjection; but the men had counted without their hosts in supposing that + they could therefore do as they pleased, unless they pleased to do right. + After they had made their first foray they were warned by Cyril, who came + from the capital to speak English with them, that another raid would not + be suffered. They therefore attempted it by night, but the Altrurians were + prepared for them with the flexible steel nets which are their only means + of defence, and half a dozen sailors were taken in one. When they + attempted to break out, and their shipmates attempted to break in to free + them, a light current of electricity was sent through the wires and the + thing was done. Those who were rescued—the Altrurians will not say + captured—had hoes put into their hands the next morning, and were + led into the fields and set to work, after a generous breakfast of coffee, + bread, and mushrooms. The chickens they had killed in their midnight + expedition were buried, and those which they had not killed lost no time + in beginning to lay eggs for the sustenance of the reformed castaways. As + an extra precaution with the “rescued,” when they were put to work, each + of them with a kind of shirt of mail, worn over his coat, which could + easily be electrized by a metallic filament connecting with the communal + dynamo, and under these conditions they each did a full day's work during + the Obligatories. + </p> + <p> + As the short commons grew shorter and shorter, both meat and drink, at + Camp Famine, and the campers found it was useless to attempt thieving from + the Altrurians, they had tried begging from the owners in their large + tent, but they were told that the provisions were giving out there, too, + and there was nothing for them. When they insisted the servants of the + owners had threatened them with revolvers, and the sailors, who had + nothing but their knives, preferred to attempt living on the country. + Within a week the whole crew had been put to work in the woods and fields + and quarries, or wherever they could make themselves useful. They were, on + the whole, so well fed and sheltered that they were perfectly satisfied, + and went down with the Altrurians on the beach during the Voluntaries and + helped secure the yacht's boats and pieces of wreckage that came ashore. + Until they became accustomed or resigned to the Altrurian diet, they were + allowed to catch shell-fish and the crabs that swarmed along the sand and + cook them, but on condition that they built their fires on the beach, and + cooked only during an offshore wind, so that the fumes of the roasting + should not offend the villagers. + </p> + <p> + Cyril acknowledged, therefore, that the question of the crew was for the + present practically settled, but Mr. and Mrs. Thrall, and their daughter + and son-in-law, with their servants, still presented a formidable problem. + As yet, their provisions had not run out, and they were living in their + marquee as we had seen them three weeks earlier, just after their yacht + went ashore. It could not be said that they were molestive in the same + sense as the sailors, but they were even more demoralizing in the + spectacle they offered the neighborhood of people dependent on hired + service, and in their endeavors to supply themselves in perishable + provisions, like milk and eggs, by means of money. Cyril had held several + interviews with them, in which he had at first delicately intimated, and + then explicitly declared, that the situation could not be prolonged. The + two men had been able to get the Altrurian point of view in some measure, + and so had Lady Moors, but Mrs. Thrall had remained stiffly obtuse and + obstinate, and it was in despair of bringing her to terms without + resorting to rescue that he had summoned us to help him. + </p> + <p> + It was not a pleasant job, but of course we could not refuse, and we + agreed that as soon as we had caught a nap, and had a bite of breakfast we + would go over to their camp with Cyril and his wife, and see what we could + do with the obnoxious woman. I confess that I had some little consolation + in the hope that I should see her properly humbled. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors must have seen us coming, for they met us at the + door of the tent without the intervention of the footman, and gave us + quite as much welcome as we could expect in our mission, so disagreeable + all round. Mr. Thrall was as fatherly with me as before, and Lord Moors + was as polite to Cyril and Mrs. Chrysostom as could have been wished. In + fact he and Cyril were a sort of acquaintances from the time of Cyril's + visit to England where he met the late Earl Moors, the father of the + present peer, in some of his visits to Toynbee Hall, and the Whitechapel + Settlements. The earl was very much interested in the slums, perhaps + because he was rather poor himself, if not quite slummy. The son was then + at the university, and when he came out and into his title he so far + shared his father's tastes that he came to America; it was not slumming, + exactly, but a nobleman no doubt feels it to be something like it. After a + little while in New York he went out to Colorado, where so many needy + noblemen bring up, and there he met the Thralls, and fell in love with the + girl. Cyril had understood—or rather Mrs. Cyril,—that it was a + love-match on both sides, but on Mrs. Thrall's side it was business. He + did not even speak of settlements—the English are so romantic when + they <i>are</i> romantic!—but Mr. Thrall saw to all that, and the + young people were married after a very short courtship. They spent their + honeymoon partly in Colorado Springs and partly in San Francisco, where + the Thralls' yacht was lying, and then they set out on a voyage round the + world, making stops at the interesting places, and bringing up on the + beach of the Seventh Region of Altruria, on route for the eastern coast of + South America. From that time on, Cyril said, we knew their history. + </p> + <p> + After Mr. Thrall had shaken hands tenderly with me, and cordially with + Aristides, he said, “Won't you all come inside and have breakfast with us? + My wife and daughter”— + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, Mr. Thrall,” Cyril answered for us, “we will sit down here, if + you please; and as your ladies are not used to business, we will not ask + you to disturb them.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sure Lady Moors,” the young nobleman began, but Cyril waved him + silent. + </p> + <p> + “We shall be glad later, but not now! Gentlemen, I have asked my friends + Aristides Homos and Eveleth Homos to accompany my wife and me this morning + because Eveleth is an American, and will understand your position, and he + has lately been in America and will be able to clarify the situation from + both sides. We wish you to believe that we are approaching you in the + friendliest spirit, and that nothing could be more painful to us than to + seem inhospitable.” + </p> + <p> + “Then why,” the old man asked, with business-like promptness, “do you + object to our presence here? I don't believe I get your idea.” + </p> + <p> + “Because the spectacle which your life offers is contrary to good morals, + and as faithful citizens we cannot countenance it.” + </p> + <p> + “But in what way is our life immoral? I have always thought that I was a + good citizen at home; at least I can't remember having been arrested for + disorderly conduct.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled at me, as if I should appreciate the joke, and it hurt me to + keep grave, but suspecting what a bad time he was going to have, I thought + I had better not join him in any levity. + </p> + <p> + “I quite conceive you,” Cyril replied. “But you present to our people, who + are offended by it, the spectacle of dependence upon hireling service for + your daily comfort and convenience.” + </p> + <p> + “But, my dear sir,” Mr. Thrall returned, “don't we <i>pay</i> for it? Do + our servants object to rendering us this service?” + </p> + <p> + “That has nothing to do with the case; or, rather, it makes it worse. The + fact that your servants do not object shows how completely they are + depraved by usage. We should not object if they served you from affection, + and if you repaid them in kindness; but the fact that you think you have + made them a due return by giving them money shows how far from the right + ideal in such a matter the whole capitalistic world is.” + </p> + <p> + Here, to my great delight, Aristides spoke up: + </p> + <p> + “If the American practice were half as depraving as it ought logically to + be in their conditions, their social system would drop to pieces. It was + always astonishing to me that a people with their facilities for evil, + their difficulties for good, should remain so kind and just and pure.” + </p> + <p> + “That is what I understood from your letters to me, my dear Aristides. I + am willing to leave the general argument for the present. But I should + like to ask Mr. Thrall a question, and I hope it won't be offensive.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall smiled. “At any rate I promise not to be offended.” + </p> + <p> + “You are a very rich man?” + </p> + <p> + “Much richer than I would like to be.” + </p> + <p> + “How rich?” + </p> + <p> + “Seventy millions; eighty; a hundred; three hundred; I don't just know.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't suppose you've always felt your great wealth a great blessing?” + </p> + <p> + “A blessing? There have been times when I felt it a millstone hanged about + my neck, and could have wished nothing so much as that I were thrown into + the sea. Man, you don't <i>know</i> what a curse I have felt my money to + be at such times. When I have given it away, as I have by millions at a + time, I have never been sure that I was not doing more harm than good with + it. I have hired men to seek out good objects for me, and I have tried my + best to find for myself causes and institutions and persons who might be + helped without hindering others as worthy, but sometimes it seems as if + every dollar of my money carried a blight with it, and infected whoever + touched it with a moral pestilence. It has reached a sum where the wildest + profligate couldn't spend it, and it grows and grows. It's as if it were a + rising flood that had touched my lips, and would go over my head before I + could reach the shore. I believe I got it honestly, and I have tried to + share it with those whose labor earned it for me. I have founded schools + and hospitals and homes for old men and old women, and asylums for + children, and the blind, and deaf, and dumb, and halt, and mad. Wherever I + have found one of my old workmen in need, and I have looked personally + into the matter, I have provided for him fully, short of pauperization. + Where I have heard of some gifted youth, I have had him educated in the + line of his gift. I have collected a gallery of works of art, and opened + it on Sundays as well as week-days to the public free. If there is a story + of famine, far or near, I send food by the shipload. If there is any great + public calamity, my agents have instructions to come to the rescue without + referring the case to me. But it is all useless! The money grows and + grows, and I begin to feel that my efforts to employ it wisely and + wholesomely are making me a public laughing-stock as well as an easy mark + for every swindler with a job or a scheme.” He turned abruptly to me. “But + you must often have heard the same from my old friend Strange. We used to + talk these things over together, when our money was not the heap that mine + is now; and it seems to me I can hear his voice saying the very words I + have been using.” + </p> + <p> + I, too, seemed to hear his voice in the words, and it was as if speaking + from his grave. + </p> + <p> + I looked at Aristides, and read compassion in his dear face; but the face + of Cyril remained severe and judicial. He said: “Then, if what you say is + true, you cannot think it a hardship if we remove your burden for the time + you remain with us. I have consulted with the National and Regional as + well as the Communal authorities, and we cannot let you continue to live + in the manner you are living here. You must pay your way.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall be only too glad to do that,” Mr. Thrall returned, more + cheerfully. “We have not a great deal of cash in hand, but I can give you + my check on London or Paris or New York.” + </p> + <p> + “In Altruria,” Cyril returned, “we have no use for money. You must <i>pay</i> + your way as soon as your present provision from your yacht is exhausted.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thrall turned a dazed look on the young lord, who suggested: “I don't + think we follow you. How can Mr. Thrall pay his way except with money?” + </p> + <p> + “He must pay with <i>work</i>. As soon as you come upon the neighbors here + for the necessities of life you must all work. To-morrow or the next day + or next week at the furthest you must go to work, or you must starve.” + </p> + <p> + Then he came out with that text of Scripture which had been so efficient + with the crew of the <i>Little Sally</i>: “For even when we were with you + this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat.” + </p> + <p> + Lord Moors seemed very interested, and not so much surprised as I had + expected. “Yes, I have often thought of that passage and of its + susceptibility to a simpler interpretation than we usually give it. But—” + </p> + <p> + “There is but one interpretation of which it is susceptible,” Cyril + interrupted. “The apostle gives that interpretation when he prefaces the + text with the words, 'For yourselves know how you ought to follow us; for + we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any + man's bread for nought; but <i>wrought with travail</i> night and day, + that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not + power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.' The whole + economy of Altruria is founded on these passages.” + </p> + <p> + “Literally?” + </p> + <p> + “Literally.” + </p> + <p> + “But, my dear sir,” the young lord reasoned, “you surely do not wrench the + text from some such meaning as that if a man has money, he may pay his way + without working?” + </p> + <p> + “No, certainly not. But here you have no money, and as we cannot suffer + any to 'walk among us disorderly, working not at all,' we must not exempt + you from our rule.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII + </h2> + <p> + At this point there came a sound from within the marquee as of skirts + sweeping forward sharply, imperiously, followed by a softer <i>frou-frou</i>, + and Mrs. Thrall put aside the curtain of the tent with one hand, and stood + challenging our little Altrurian group, while Lady Moors peered timidly at + us from over her mother's shoulder. I felt a lust of battle rising in me + at sight of that woman, and it was as much as I could do to control + myself; but in view of the bad time I knew she was going to have, I + managed to hold in, though I joined very scantly in the polite greetings + of the Chrysostoms and Aristides, which she ignored as if they had been + the salutations of savages. She glared at her husband for explanation, and + he said, gently, “This is a delegation from the Altrurian capital, my + dear, and we have been talking over the situation together.” + </p> + <p> + “But what is this,” she demanded, “that I have heard about our not paying? + Do they accuse us of not paying? You could buy and sell the whole + country.” + </p> + <p> + I never imagined so much mildness could be put into such offensive words + as Cyril managed to get into his answer. “We accuse you of not paying, and + we do not mean that you shall become chargeable to us. The men and women + who served you on shipboard have been put to work, and you must go to + work, too.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall—Lord Moors—have you allowed these people to treat + you as if you were part of the ship's crew? Why don't you give them what + they want and let them go? Of course it's some sort of blackmailing + scheme. But you ought to get rid of them at any cost. Then you can appeal + to the authorities, and tell them that you will bring the matter to the + notice of the government at Washington. They must be taught that they + cannot insult American citizens with impunity.” No one spoke, and she + added, “What do they really want?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, my dear,” her husband hesitated, “I hardly know how to explain. But + it seems that they think our living here in the way we do is orderly, and—and + they want us to go to work, in short.” + </p> + <p> + “To <i>work!</i>” she shouted. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, all of us. That is, so I understand.” + </p> + <p> + “What nonsense!” + </p> + <p> + She looked at us one after another, and when her eye rested on me, I began + to suspect that insolent as she was she was even duller; in fact, that she + was so sodden in her conceit of wealth that she was plain stupid. So when + she said to me, “You are an American by birth, I believe. Can you tell me + the meaning of this?” I answered: + </p> + <p> + “Cyril Chrysostom represents the authorities. If <i>he</i> asks me to + speak, I will speak.” Cyril nodded at me with a smile, and I went on. “It + is a very simple matter. In Altruria everybody works with his hands three + hours a day. After that he works or not, as he likes.” + </p> + <p> + “What have we to do with that?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “The rule has no exceptions.” + </p> + <p> + “But we are not Altrurians; we are Americans.” + </p> + <p> + “I am an American, too, and I work three hours every day, unless I am + passing from one point to another on public business with my husband. Even + then we prefer to stop during the work-hours, and help in the fields, or + in the shops, or wherever we are needed. I left my own mother at home + doing her kitchen work yesterday afternoon, though it was out of hours, + and she need not have worked.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, then, we will do nothing of the kind, neither I, nor my + daughter, nor my husband. He has worked hard all his life, and he has come + away for a much-needed rest. I am not going to have him breaking himself + down.” + </p> + <p> + I could not help suggesting, “I suppose the men at work in his mines, and + mills, and on his railroads and steamship lines are taking a much-needed + rest, too. I hope you are not going to let them break themselves down, + either.” + </p> + <p> + Aristides gave me a pained glance, and Cyril and his wife looked grave, + but she not quite so grave as he. Lord Moors said, “We don't seem to be + getting on. What Mrs. Thrall fails to see, and I confess I don't quite see + it myself, is that if we are not here <i>in forma pauperis</i>—” + </p> + <p> + “But you <i>are</i> here <i>in forma pauperis</i>,” Cyril interposed, + smilingly. + </p> + <p> + “How is that? If we are willing to pay—if Mr. Thrall's credit is + undeniably good—” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall's credit is not good in Altruria; you can pay here only in one + currency, in the sweat of your faces.” + </p> + <p> + “You want us to be Tolstoys, I suppose,” Mrs. Thrall said, contemptuously. + </p> + <p> + Cyril replied, gently, “The endeavor of Tolstoy, in capitalistic + conditions, is necessarily dramatic. Your labor here will be for your + daily bread, and it will be real.” The inner dullness of the woman came + into her eyes again, and he addressed himself to Lord Moors in continuing: + “If a company of indigent people were cast away on an English coast, after + you had rendered them the first aid, what should you do?” + </p> + <p> + The young man reflected. “I suppose we should put them in the way of + earning a living until some ship arrived to take them home.” + </p> + <p> + “That is merely what we propose to do in your case here,” Cyril said. + </p> + <p> + “But we are not indigent—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you are absolutely destitute. You have money and credit, but neither + has any value in Altruria. Nothing but work or love has any value in + Altruria. You cannot realize too clearly that you stand before us <i>in + forma pauperis</i>. But we require of you nothing that we do not require + of ourselves. In Altruria every one is poor till he pays with work; then, + for that time, he is rich; and he cannot otherwise lift himself above + charity, which, except in the case of the helpless, we consider immoral. + Your life here offers a very corrupting spectacle. You are manifestly + living without work, and you are served by people whose hire you are not + able to pay.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear sir,” Mr. Thrall said at this point, with a gentle smile, “I + think they are willing to take the chances of being paid.” + </p> + <p> + “We cannot suffer them to do so. At present we know of no means of your + getting away from Altruria. We have disused our custom of annually + connecting with the Australasian steamers, and it may be years before a + vessel touches on our coast. A ship sailed for Boston some months ago, + with the promise of returning in order that the crew may cast in their lot + with us permanently. We do not confide in that promise, and you must + therefore conform to our rule of life. Understand clearly that the + willingness of your servants to serve you has nothing to do with the + matter. That is part of the falsity in which the whole capitalistic world + lives. As the matter stands with you, here, there is as much reason why + you should serve them as they should serve you. If on their side they + should elect to serve you from love, they will be allowed to do so. + Otherwise, you and they must go to work with the neighbors at the tasks + they will assign you.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean at once?” Lord Moors asked. + </p> + <p> + “The hours of the obligatory labors are nearly past for the day. But if + you are interested in learning what you will be set to doing to-morrow, + the Communal authorities will be pleased to instruct you during the + Voluntaries this afternoon. You may be sure that in no case will your + weakness or inexperience be overtasked. Your histories will be studied, + and appropriate work will be assigned to each of you.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Thrall burst out, “If you think I am going into my kitchen—” + </p> + <p> + Then I burst in, “I left my mother in <i>her</i> kitchen!” + </p> + <p> + “And a very fit place for her, I dare say,” she retorted, but Lady Moors + caught her mother's arm and murmured, in much the same distress as showed + in my husband's mild eyes, “Mother! Mother!” and drew her within. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII + </h2> + <p> + Well, Dolly, I suppose you will think it was pretty hard for those people, + and when I got over my temper I confess that I felt sorry for the two men, + and for the young girl whom the Altrurians would not call Lady Moors, but + addressed by her Christian name, as they did each of the American party in + his or her turn; even Mrs. Thrall had to answer to Rebecca. They were all + rather bewildered, and so were the butler and the footmen, and the <i>chef</i> + and his helpers, and the ladies' maids. These were even more shocked than + those they considered their betters, and I quite took to my affections + Lord Moors' man Robert, who was in an awe-stricken way trying to get some + light from me on the situation. He contributed as much as any one to bring + about a peaceful submission to the inevitable, for he had been a near + witness of what had happened to the crew when they attempted their + rebellion to the authorities; but he did not profess to understand the + matter, and from time to time he seemed to question the reality of it. + </p> + <p> + The two masters, as you would call Mr. Thrall and Lord Moors, both took an + attitude of amiable curiosity towards their fate, and accepted it with + interest when they had partly chosen and partly been chosen by it. Mr. + Thrall had been brought up on a farm till his ambition carried him into + the world; and he found the light gardening assigned him for his first + task by no means a hardship. He was rather critical of the Altrurian style + of hoe at first, but after he got the hang of it, as he said, he liked it + better, and during the three hours of the first morning's Obligatoires, + his ardor to cut all the weeds out at once had to be restrained rather + than prompted. He could not be persuaded to take five minutes for rest out + of every twenty, and he could not get over his life-long habit of working + against time. The Altrurians tried to make him understand that here people + must not work <i>against</i> time, but must always work <i>with</i> it, so + as to have enough work to do each day; otherwise they must remain idle + during the Obligatoires and tend to demoralize the workers. It seemed that + Lady Moors had a passion for gardening, and she was set to work with her + father on the border of flowers surrounding the vegetable patch he was + hoeing. She knew about flowers, and from her childhood had amused herself + by growing them, and so far from thinking it a hardship or disgrace to + dig, she was delighted to get at them. It was easy to see that she and her + father were cronies, and when I went round in the morning with Aristides + to ask if we could do anything for them, we heard them laughing and + talking gayly together before we reached them. They said they had looked + their job (as Mr. Thrall called it) over the afternoon before during the + Voluntaries, and had decided how they would manage, and they had set to + work that morning as soon as they had breakfast. Lady Moors had helped her + mother get the breakfast, and she seemed to regard the whole affair as a + picnic, though from the look of Mrs. Thrall's back, as she turned it on + me, when I saw her coming to the door of the marquee with a coffee-pot in + her hand, I decided that she was not yet resigned to her new lot in life. + </p> + <p> + Lord Moors was nowhere to be seen, and I felt some little curiosity about + him which was not quite anxiety. Later, as we were going back to our + quarters in the village, we saw him working on the road with a party of + Altrurians who were repairing a washout from an overnight rain. They were + having all kinds of a time, except a bad time, trying to understand each + other in their want of a common language. It appeared that the Altrurians + were impressed with his knowledge of road-making, and were doing something + which he had indicated to them by signs. We offered our services as + interpreters, and then he modestly owned in defence of his suggestions + that when he was at Oxford he had been one of the band of enthusiastic + undergraduates who had built a piece of highway under Mr. Ruskin's + direction. The Altrurians regarded his suggestions as rather amateurish, + but they were glad to act upon them, when they could, out of pure good + feeling and liking for him; and from time to time they rushed upon him and + shook hands with him; their affection did not go further, and he was able + to stand the handshaking, though he told us he hoped they would not feel + it necessary to keep it up, for it was really only a very simple matter + like putting a culvert in place of a sluice which they had been using to + carry the water off. They understood what he was saying, from his + gestures, and they crowded round us to ask whether he would like to join + them during the Voluntaries that afternoon, in getting the stone out of a + neighboring quarry, and putting in the culvert at once. We explained to + him, and he said he should be very happy. All the time he was looking at + them admirably, and he said, “It's really very good,” and we understood + that he meant their classic working-dress, and when he added, “I should + really fancy trying it myself one day,” and we told them they wanted to go + and bring him an Altrurian costume at once. But we persuaded them not to + urge him, and in fact he looked very fit for his work in his yachting + flannels. + </p> + <p> + I talked him over a long time with Aristides, and tried to get his point + of view. I decided finally that an Englishman of his ancient lineage and + high breeding, having voluntarily come down to the level of an American + millionaire by marriage, could not feel that he was lowering himself any + further by working with his hands. In fact, he probably felt that his + merely undertaking a thing dignified the thing; but of course this was + only speculation on my part, and he may have been resigned to working for + a living because like poor people elsewhere he was obliged to do it. + Aristides thought there was a good deal in that idea, but it is hard for + an Altrurian to conceive of being ashamed of work, for they regard + idleness as pauperism, and they would look upon our leisure classes, so + far as we have them, very much as we look upon tramps, only they would + make the excuse for our tramps that they often cannot get work. + </p> + <p> + We had far more trouble with the servants than we had with the masters in + making them understand that they were to go to work in the fields and + shops, quite as the crew of the yacht had done. Some of them refused + outright, and stuck to their refusal until the village electrician rescued + them with the sort of net and electric filament which had been employed + with the recalcitrant sailors; others were brought to a better mind by + withholding food from them till they were willing to pay for it by + working. You will be sorry to learn, Dolly, that the worst of the rebels + were the ladies' maids, who, for the honor of our sex, ought not to have + required the application of the net and filament; but they had not such + appetites as the men-servants, and did not mind starving so much. However, + in a very short time they were at work, too, and more or less resigned, + though they did not profess to understand it. + </p> + <p> + You will think me rather fickle, I am afraid, but after I made the + personal acquaintance of Mr. Thrall's <i>chef,</i> Anatole, I found my + affections dividing themselves between him and his lordship's man Robert, + my first love. But Anatole was magnificent, a gaunt, little, aquiline man, + with a branching mustache and gallant goatee, and having held an exalted + position at a salary of ten thousand a year from Mr. Thrall, he could + easily stoop from it, while poor Robert was tormented with misgivings, not + for himself, but for Lord and Lady Moors and Mr. Thrall. It became my + pleasing office to explain the situation to Monsieur Anatole, who, when he + imagined it, gave a cry of joy, and confessed, what he had never liked to + tell Mr. Thrall, knowing the misconceptions of Americans on the subject, + that he had belonged in France to a party of which the political and + social ideal was almost identical with that of the Altrurians. He asked + for an early opportunity of addressing the village Assembly and explaining + this delightful circumstance in public, and he profited by the occasion to + embrace the first Altrurian we met and kiss him on both cheeks. + </p> + <p> + His victim was a messenger from the Commune, who had been sent to inquire + whether Anatole had a preference as to the employment which should be + assigned to him, and I had to reply for him that he was a man of science; + that he would be happy to serve the republic in whatever capacity his + concitizens chose, but that he thought he could be most useful in studying + the comestible vegetation of the neighborhood, and the substitution of the + more succulent herbs for the flesh-meats to the use of which, he + understood from me, the Altrurians were opposed. In the course of his + preparation for the rôle of <i>chef</i>, which he had played both in + France and America, he had made a specialty of edible fungi; and the + result was that Anatole was set to mushrooming, and up to this moment he + has discovered no less than six species hitherto unknown to the Altrurian + table. This has added to their dietary in several important particulars, + the fungi he has discovered being among those highly decorative and + extremely poisonous-looking sorts which flourish in the deep woods and + offer themselves almost inexhaustibly in places near the ruins of the old + capitalistic cities, where hardly any other foods will grow. Anatole is + very proud of his success, and at more than one Communal Assembly has + lectured upon his discoveries and treated of their preparation for the + table, with sketches of them as he found them growing, colored after + nature by his own hand. He has himself become a fanatical vegetarian, + having, he confesses, always had a secret loathing for the meats he + stooped to direct the cooking of among the French and American bourgeoisie + in the days which he already looks back upon as among the most benighted + of his history. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV + </h2> + <p> + The scene has changed again, Dolly, and six months have elapsed without + your knowing it. Aristides and I long ago completed the tour of the + capitals which the Thrall incident interrupted, and we have been settled + for many months in the Maritime Capital, where it has been decided we had + better fill out the first two years of my husband's repatriation. I have + become more and more thoroughly naturalized, and if I am not yet a perfect + Altrurian, it is not for not loving better and better the best Altrurian + of them all, and not for not admiring and revering this wonderful + civilization. + </p> + <p> + During the Obligatories of the forenoons I do my housework with my own + hands, and as my mother lives with us we have long talks together, and try + to make each other believe that the American conditions were a sort of + nightmare from which we have happily awakened. You see how terribly frank + I am, my dear, but if I were not, I could not make you understand how I + feel. My heart aches for you, there, and the more because I know that you + do not want to live differently, that you are proud of your economic and + social illogicality, and that you think America is the best country under + the sun! I can never persuade you, but if you could only come here, once, + and see for yourselves! Seeing would be believing, and believing would be + the wish never to go away, but to be at home here always. + </p> + <p> + I can imagine your laughing at me and asking Mr. Makely whether the <i>Little + Sally</i> has ever returned to Altruria, and how I can account for the + captain's failure to keep his word. I confess that is a sore point with + me. It is now more than a year since she sailed, and, of course, we have + not had a sign or whisper from her. I could almost wish that the crew were + willing to stay away, but I am afraid it is the captain who is keeping + them. It has become almost a mania with me, and every morning, the first + thing when I wake, I go for my before-breakfast walk along the marble + terrace that overlooks the sea, and scan the empty rounding for the + recreant ship. I do not want to think so badly of human nature, as I must + if the <i>Little Sally</i> never comes back, and I am sure you will not + blame me if I should like her to bring me some word from you. I know that + if she ever reached Boston you got my letters and presents, and that you + have been writing me as faithfully as I have been writing you, and what a + sheaf of letters from you there will be if her masts ever pierce the + horizon! To tell the truth, I do long for a little American news! Do you + still keep on murdering and divorcing, and drowning, and burning, and + mommicking, and maiming people by sea and land? Has there been any war + since I left? Is the financial panic as great as ever, and is there as + much hunger and cold? I know that whatever your crimes and calamities are, + your heroism and martyrdom, your wild generosity and self-devotion, are + equal to them. + </p> + <p> + It is no use to pretend that in little over a year I can have become + accustomed to the eventlessness of life in Altruria. I go on for a good + many days together and do not miss the exciting incidents you have in + America, and then suddenly I am wolfishly hungry for the old sensations, + just as now and then I <i>want meat</i>, though I know I should loathe the + sight and smell of it if I came within reach of it. You would laugh, I + dare say, at the Altrurian papers, and what they print for news. Most of + the space is taken up with poetry, and character study in the form of + fiction, and scientific inquiry of every kind. But now and then there is a + report of the production of a new play in one of the capitals; or an + account of an open-air pastoral in one of the communes; or the progress of + some public work, like the extension of the National Colonnade; or the + wonderful liberation of some section from malaria; or the story of some + good man or woman's life, ended at the patriarchal age they reach here. + They also print selected passages of capitalistic history, from the + earliest to the latest times, showing how in war and pestilence and + needless disaster the world outside Altruria remains essentially the same + that it was at the beginning of civilization, with some slight changes + through the changes of human nature for the better in its slow approaches + to the Altrurian ideal. In noting these changes the writers get some sad + amusement out of the fact that the capitalistic world believes human + nature cannot be changed, though cannibalism and slavery and polygamy have + all been extirpated in the so-called Christian countries, and these things + were once human nature, which is always changing, while brute nature + remains the same. Now and then they touch very guardedly on that slavery, + worse than war, worse than any sin or shame conceivable to the Altrurians, + in which uncounted myriads of women are held and bought and sold, and they + have to note that in this the capitalistic world is without the hope of + better things. You know what I mean, Dolly; every good woman knows the + little she cannot help knowing; but if you had ever inquired into that + horror, as I once felt obliged to do, you would think it the blackest + horror of the state of things where it must always exist as long as there + are riches and poverty. Now, when so many things in America seem bad + dreams, I cannot take refuge in thinking that a bad dream; the reality was + so deeply burnt into my brain by the words of some of the slaves; and when + I think of it I want to grovel on the ground with my mouth in the dust. + But I know this can only distress you, for you cannot get away from the + fact as I have got away from it; that there it is in the next street, + perhaps in the next house, and that any night when you leave your home + with your husband, you may meet it at the first step from your door. + </p> + <p> + You can very well imagine what a godsend the reports of Aristides and the + discussions of them have been to our papers. They were always taken down + stenographically, and they were printed like dialogue, so that at a little + distance you would take them at first for murder trials or divorce cases, + but when you look closer, you find them questions and answers about the + state of things in America. There are often humorous passages, for the + Altrurians are inextinguishably amused by our illogicality, and what they + call the perpetual <i>non sequiturs</i> of our lives and laws. In the + discussions they frequently burlesque these, but as they present them they + seem really beyond the wildest burlesque. Perhaps you will be surprised to + know that a nation of working-people like these feel more compassion than + admiration for our working-people. They pity them, but they blame them + more than they blame the idle rich for the existing condition of things in + America. They ask why, if the American workmen are in the immense + majority, they do not vote a true and just state, and why they go on + striking and starving their families instead; they cannot distinguish in + principle between the confederations of labor and the combinations of + capital, between the trusts and the trades-unions, and they condemn even + more severely the oppressions and abuses of the unions. My husband tries + to explain that the unions are merely provisional, and are a temporary + means of enabling the employees to stand up against the tyranny of the + employers, but they always come back and ask him if the workmen have not + most of the votes, and if they have, why they do not protect themselves + peacefully instead of organizing themselves in fighting shape, and making + a warfare of industry. + </p> + <p> + There is not often anything so much like news in the Altrurian papers as + the grounding of the Thrall yacht on the coast of the Seventh Region, and + the incident has been treated and discussed in every possible phase by the + editors and their correspondents. They have been very frank about it, as + they are about everything in Altruria, and they have not concealed their + anxieties about their unwelcome guests. They got on without much trouble + in the case of the few sailors of the <i>Little Sally</i>, but the crew of + the <i>Saraband</i> is so large that it is a different matter. In the + first place, they do not like the application of force, even in the mild + electrical form in which they employ it, and they fear that the effect + with themselves will be bad, however good it is for their guests. Besides, + they dread the influence which a number of people, invested with the charm + of strangeness, may have with the young men and especially the young girls + of the neighborhood. The hardest thing the Altrurians have to grapple with + is feminine curiosity, and the play of this about the strangers is what + they seek the most anxiously to control. Of course, you will think it + funny, and I must say that it seemed so to me at first, but I have come to + think it is serious. The Altrurian girls are cultivated and refined, but + as they have worked all their lives with their hands they cannot imagine + the difference that work makes in Americans; that it coarsens and classes + them, especially if they have been in immediate contact with rich people, + and been degraded or brutalized by the knowledge of the contempt in which + labor is held among us by those who are not compelled to it. Some of my + Altrurian friends have talked it over with me, and I could take their + point of view, though secretly I could not keep my poor American feelings + from being hurt when they said that to have a large number of people from + the capitalistic world thrown upon their hands was very much as it would + be with us if we had the same number of Indians, with all their tribal + customs and ideals, thrown upon our hands. They say they will not shirk + their duty in the matter, and will study it carefully; but all the same, + they wish the incident had not happened. + </p> + <h3> + XV + </h3> + <p> + I am glad that I was called away from the disagreeable point I left in my + last, and that I have got back temporarily to the scene of the + Altrurianization of Mr. Thrall and his family. So far as it has gone it is + perfect, if I may speak from the witness of happiness in those concerned, + except perhaps Mrs. Thrall; she is as yet only partially reconstructed, + but even she has moments of forgetting her lost grandeur and of really + enjoying herself in her work. She is an excellent housekeeper, and she has + become so much interested in making the marquee a simple home for her + family that she is rather proud of showing it off as the effect of her + unaided efforts. She was allowed to cater to them from the canned meats + brought ashore from the yacht as long as they would stand it, but the + wholesome open-air conditions have worked a wonderful change in them, and + neither Mr. Thrall nor Lord and Lady Moors now have any taste for such + dishes. Here Mrs. Thrall's old-time skill as an excellent vegetable cook, + when she was the wife of a young mechanic, has come into play, and she + believes that she sets the best table in the whole neighborhood, with + fruits and many sorts of succulents and the everlasting and ever-pervading + mushrooms. + </p> + <p> + As the Altrurians do not wish to annoy their involuntary guests, or to + interfere with their way of life where they do not consider it immoral, + their control has ended with setting them to work for a living. They have + not asked them to the communal refectory, but, as long as they have been + content to serve each other, have allowed them their private table. Of + course, their adaptation to their new way of life has proceeded more + slowly than it otherwise would, but with the exception of Mrs. Thrall they + are very intelligent people, and I have been charmed in talking the + situation over with them. The trouble has not been so great with the + ship's people, as was feared. Such of these as have imagined their stay + here permanent, or wished it to be so, have been received into the + neighboring communes, and have taken the first steps towards + naturalization; those who look forward to getting away some time, or + express the wish for it, are allowed to live in a community of their own, + where they are not molested as long as they work in the three hours of the + Obligatoires. Naturally, they are kept out of mischief, but after their + first instruction in the ideas of public property and the impossibility of + enriching themselves at the expense of any one else, they have behaved + very well. The greatest trouble they ever gave was in trapping and killing + the wild things for food; but when they were told that this must not be + done, and taught to recognize the vast range of edible fungi, they took + not unwillingly to mushrooms and the ranker tubers and roots, from which, + with unlimited eggs, cheese, milk, and shell-fish, they have constructed a + diet of which they do not complain. + </p> + <p> + This brings me rather tangentially to Monsieur Anatole, who has become a + fanatical Altrurian, and has even had to be restrained in some of his + enthusiastic plans for the compulsory naturalization of his fellow + castaways. His value as a scientist has been cordially recognized, and his + gifts as an artist in the exquisite water-color studies of edible fungi + has won his notice in the capital of the Seventh Regional where they have + been shown at the spring water-color exhibition. He has printed several + poems in the <i>Regional Gazette</i>, villanelles, rondeaux, and triolets, + with accompanying versions of the French, into Altrurian by one of the + first Altrurian poets. This is a widow of about Monsieur Anatole's own + age; and the literary friendship between them has ripened into something + much more serious. In fact they are engaged to be married. I suppose you + will laugh at this, Dolly, and at first I confess that there was enough of + the old American in me to be shocked at the idea of a French <i>chef</i> + marrying an Altrurian lady who could trace her descent to the first + Altrurian president of the Commonwealth, and who is universally loved and + honored. I could not help letting something of the kind escape me by + accident, to a friend, and presently Mrs. Chrysostom was sent to interview + me on the subject, and to learn just how the case appeared to me. This put + me on my honor, and I was obliged to say how it would appear in America, + though every moment I grew more and more ashamed of myself and my native + country, where we pretend that labor is honorable, and are always heaping + dishonor on it. I told how certain of our girls and matrons had married + their coachmen and riding-masters and put themselves at odds with society, + and I confessed that marrying a cook would be regarded as worse, if + possible. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Chrysostom was accompanied by a lady in her second youth, very + graceful, very charmingly dressed, and with an expression of winning + intelligence, whom she named to me simply as Cecilia, in the Altrurian + fashion. She apparently knew no English, and at first Mrs. Chrysostom + translated each of her questions and my answers. When I had got through, + this lady began to question me herself in Altrurian, which I owned to + understanding a little. She said: + </p> + <p> + “You know Anatole?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, certainly, and I like him, as I think every one must who knows him.” + </p> + <p> + “He is a skillful <i>chef</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Thrall would not have paid him ten thousand dollars a year if he had + not been.” + </p> + <p> + “You have seen some of his water-colors?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. They are exquisite. He is unquestionably an artist of rare talent.” + </p> + <p> + “And it is known to you that he is a man of scientific attainments?” + </p> + <p> + “That is something I cannot judge of so well as Aristides; but <i>he</i> + says M. Anatole is learned beyond any man he knows in edible fungi.” + </p> + <p> + “As an adoptive Altrurian, and knowing the American ideas from our point + of view, should you respect their ideas of social inequality?” + </p> + <p> + “Not the least in the world. I understand as well as you do that their + ideas must prevail wherever one works for a living and another does not. + hose ideas are practically as much accepted in America as they are in + Europe, but I have fully renounced them.” + </p> + <p> + You see, Dolly, how far I have gone! + </p> + <p> + The unknown, who could be pretty easily imagined, rose up and gave me her + hand. “If you are in the Region on the third of May you must come to our + wedding.” + </p> + <p> + The same afternoon I had a long talk with Mr. Thrall, whom I found at work + replanting a strawberry-patch during the Voluntaries. He rose up at the + sound of my voice, and after an old man's dim moment for getting me + mentally in focus, he brightened into a genial smile, and said, “Oh, Mrs. + Homos! I am glad to see you.” + </p> + <p> + I told him to go on with his planting, and I offered to get down on my + knees beside him and help, but he gallantly handed me to a seat in the + shade beside his daughter's flower-bed, and it was there that we had a + long talk about conditions in America and Altruria, and how he felt about + the great change in his life. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I can truly say,” he answered much more at length than I shall + report, “that I have never been so happy since the first days of my + boyhood. All care has dropped from me; I don't feel myself rich, and I + don't feel myself poor in this perfect safety from want. The only thing + that gives me any regret is that my present state has not been the effect + of my own will and deed. If I am now following the greatest and truest of + all counsels it has not been because I have sold all and given to the + poor, but because my money has been mercifully taken from me, and I have + been released from its responsibilities in a state of things where there + is no money.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Mr. Thrall,” I said, “don't you ever feel that you have a duty to + the immense fortune which you have left in America, and which must be + disposed of somehow when people are satisfied that you are not going to + return and dispose of it yourself?” + </p> + <p> + “No, none. I was long ago satisfied that I could really do no good with + it. Perhaps if I had had more faith in it I might have done some good with + it, but I believe that I never did anything but harm, even when I seemed + to be helping the most, for I was aiding in the perpetuation of a state of + things essentially wrong. Now, if I never go back—and I never wish + to go back—let the law dispose of it as seems best to the + authorities. I have no kith or kin, and my wife has none, so there is no + one to feel aggrieved by its application to public objects.” + </p> + <p> + “And how do you imagine it will be disposed of?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I suppose for charitable and educational purposes. Of course a good + deal of it will go in graft; but that cannot be helped.” + </p> + <p> + “But if you could now dispose of it according to your clearest ideas of + justice, and if you were forced to make the disposition yourself, what + would you do with it?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that is something I have been thinking of, and as nearly as I can + make out, I ought to go into the records of my prosperity and ascertain + just how and when I made my money. Then I ought to seek out as fully as + possible the workmen who helped me make it by their labor. Their wages, + which, were always the highest, were never a fair share, though I forced + myself to think differently, and it should be my duty to inquire for them + and pay them each a fair share, or, if they are dead, then their children + or their next of kin. But even when I had done this I should not be sure + that I had not done them more harm than good.” + </p> + <p> + How often I had heard poor Mr. Strange say things like this, and heard of + other rich men saying them, after lives of what is called beneficence! Mr. + Thrall drew a deep sigh, and cast a longing look at his strawberry-bed. I + laughed, and said, “You are anxious to get back to your plants, and I + won't keep you. I wonder if Mrs. Thrall could see me if I called; or Lady + Moors?” + </p> + <p> + He said he was sure they would, and I took my way over to the marquee. I + was a little surprised to be met at the door by Lord Moors' man Robert. He + told me he was very sorry, but her ladyship was helping his lordship at a + little job on the roads, which they were doing quite in the Voluntaries, + with the hope of having the National Colonnade extended to a given point; + the ladies were helping the gentlemen get the place in shape. He was still + sorrier, but I not so much, that Mrs. Thrall was lying down and would like + to be excused; she was rather tired from putting away the luncheon things. + </p> + <p> + He asked me if I would not sit down, and he offered me one of the + camp-stools at the door of the marquee, and I did sit down for a moment, + while he flitted about the interior doing various little things. At last I + said, “How is this, Robert? I thought you had been assigned to a place in + the communal refectory. You're not here on the old terms?” + </p> + <p> + He came out and stood respectfully holding a dusting-cloth in his hand. + “Thank you, not exactly, ma'am. But the fact is, ma'am, that the communal + monitors have allowed me to come back here a few hours in the afternoon, + on what I may call terms of my own.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't understand. But won't you sit down, Robert?” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, if it is the same to you, ma'am, I would rather stand while + I'm here. In the refectory, of course, it's different.” + </p> + <p> + “But about your own terms?” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks. You see, ma'am, I've thought all along it was a bit awkward for + them here, they not being so much used to looking after things, and I + asked leave to come and help now and then. Of course, they said that I + could not be allowed to serve for hire in Altruria; and one thing led to + another, and I said it would really be a favor to me, and I didn't expect + money for my work, for I did not suppose I should ever be where I could + use it again, but if they would let me come here and do it for—” + </p> + <p> + Robert stopped and blushed and looked down, and I took the word, “For + love?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma'am, that's what they called it.” + </p> + <p> + Dolly, it made the tears come into my eyes, and I said very solemnly, + “Robert, do you know, I believe you are the sweetest soul even in this and + flowing with milk and honey?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you mustn't say that, ma'am. There's Mr. Thrall and his lordship and + her ladyship. I'm sure they would do the like for me if I needed their + help. And there are the Altrurians, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “But they are used to it, Robert, and—Robert! Be frank with me! What + do you think of Altruria?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite frank, ma'am, as if you were not connected with it, as you are?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite frank.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, ma'am, if you are sure you wouldn't mind it, or consider it out of + the way for me, I should say it was—rum.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Rum</i>? Don't you think it is beautiful here, to see people living + for each other instead of living <i>on</i> each other, and the whole + nation like one family, and the country a paradise?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that's just it, ma'am, if you won't mind my saying so. That's what + I mean by rum.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you explain?” + </p> + <p> + “It doesn't seem <i>real</i>. Every night when I go to sleep, and think + that there isn't a thief or a policeman on the whole continent, and only a + few harmless homicides, as you call them, that wouldn't hurt a fly, and + not a person hungry or cold, and no poor and no rich, and no servants and + no masters, and no soldiers, and no—disreputable characters, it + seems as if I was going to wake up in the morning and find myself on the + <i>Saraband</i> and it all a dream here.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Robert,” I had to own, “that was the way with me, too, for a long + while. And even now I have dreams about America and the way matters are + there, and I wake myself weeping for fear Altruria <i>isn't</i> true. + Robert! You must be honest with me! When you are awake, and it's broad + day, and you see how happy every one is here, either working or playing, + and the whole land without an ugly place in it, and the lovely villages + and the magnificent towns, and everything, does it still seem—rum?” + </p> + <p> + “It's like that, ma'am, at times. I don't say at all times.” + </p> + <p> + “And you don't believe that the rest of the world—England and + America—will ever be rum, too?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't see how they can. You see the poor are against it as well as the + rich. Everybody wants to have something of his own, and the trouble seems + to come from that. I don't suppose it was brought about in a day, Altruria + wasn't, ma'am?” + </p> + <p> + “No, it was whole centuries coming.” + </p> + <p> + “That was what I understood from that Mr. Chrysostom—Cyril, he wants + me to call him, but I can't quite make up my mouth to it—who speaks + English, and says he has been in England. He was telling me about it, one + day when we were drying the dishes at the refectory together. He says they + used to have wars and trusts and trades-unions here in the old days, just + as we do now in civilized countries.” + </p> + <p> + “And you don't consider Altruria civilized?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, not in just that sense of the word, ma'am. You wouldn't call heaven + civilized?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, not in just that sense of the word. Robert.” + </p> + <p> + “You see, it's rum here, because, though everything seems to go so right, + it's against human nature.” + </p> + <p> + “The Altrurians say it isn't.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope I don't differ from you, ma'am, but what would people—the + best people—at home say? They would say it wasn't reasonable; they + would say it wasn't even possible. That's what makes me think it's a dream—that + it's rum. Begging your pardon, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I quite understand, Robert. Then you don't believe a camel can ever + go through the eye of a needle?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't quite see how, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + “But you are proof of as great a miracle, Robert.” + </p> + <p> + “Beg your pardon, ma'am?” + </p> + <p> + “Some day I will explain. But is there nothing that can make you believe + Altruria is true here, and that it can be true anywhere?” + </p> + <p> + “I have been thinking a good deal about that, ma'am. One doesn't quite + like to go about in a dream, or think one is dreaming, and I have got to + saying to myself that if some ship was to come here from England or + America, or even from Germany, and we could compare our feelings with the + feelings of people who were fresh to it, we might somehow get to believe + that it was real.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I had to own. “We need fresh proofs from time to time. There was a + ship that sailed from here something over a year ago, and the captain + promised his crew to let them bring her back, but at times I am afraid + that was part of the dream, too, and that we're all something I am + dreaming about.” + </p> + <p> + “Just so, ma'am,” Robert said, and I came away downhearted enough, though + he called after me, “Mrs. Thrall will be very sorry, ma'am.” + </p> + <p> + Back in the Maritime Capital, and oh, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly! They have + sighted the <i>Little Sally</i> from the terrace! How happy I am! There + will be letters from you, and I shall hear all that has happened in + America, and I shall never again doubt that Altruria is real! I don't know + how I shall get these letters of mine back to you, but somehow it can be + managed. Perhaps the <i>Saraband's</i> crew will like to take the <i>Little + Sally</i> home again; perhaps when Mr. Thrall knows the ship is here he + will want to buy it and go back to his money in America and the misery of + it! Do you believe he will? Should I like to remind my husband of his + promise to take me home on a visit? Oh, my heart misgives me! I wonder if + the captain of the <i>Little Sally</i> has brought his wife and children + with him, and is going to settle among us, or whether he has just let his + men have the vessel, and they have come to Altruria without him? I dare + not ask anything, I dare not think anything! + </p> + <h3> + THE END + </h3> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Eye of the Needle, by +William Dean Howells + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE *** + +***** This file should be named 8295-h.htm or 8295-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/9/8295/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Musser, Charles Franks, David Widger, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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