Cheyenne record., March 30, 1916, Image 2

About Cheyenne record. (Cheyenne Wells, Cheyenne County, Colo.) 1913-19??

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The SCARLET PLAGUE
by JACK LONDON
COPVRIOHT 191+* 09 AVCLURB WEW3PaP» 3XHDICATB'
CHAPTER IV—Continued.
B—
“Once, when the Chauffeur was
away fishing, she begged me to kill
him. With tears in her eyes she
begged me to kill him. But he was a
strong and violent man, and I was
afraid. Afterward I talked with him
I offered him my horse, my pony, my
dogs, ail that 1 possessed, if he would
give Vesta to me. and he grinned in
my face and shook his head He was
very insulting. He said that in the
old days he had been a servant, had
been dirt under the feet of men like
me and of women like Vesta, and that
now he had the greatest lady in the
land to be servant to him and cook his
food and nurse his brats ‘You had
your day before the plague,’ he said;
‘but this is my day, and a damned
good day it is. 1 wouldn’t trade back
to the old times for anything.’ Such
words he spoke, but they are not his
words. He was a vulgar, low-minded
man. and vile oaths fell continually
from his lips
“Also he told me that If he caught
me making eyes at his woman he’d
wring my neck and give her a beating
as well What was 1 to do? I was
afraid He was a brute. That first
night, when I discovered the camp.
Vesta And I had great talk about the
things of our vanished world We
talked of art, and books, and poetry;
and the Chauffeur listened and grinned
and sneered. He was bored and an
gered by our way of speech which he
not comprehend, and finally he
spoke up and said; ‘And this is Vesta
Van Warden, one-time wife of Van
Warden the magnate—a high and
stuck-up beauty, who is now my
squaw Eh, Professor Smith, times is
changed, times is changed Here, you
woman, take off my moccasins and
lively about it 1 want Professor
Smith tc see how well 1 have you
trained.’
"I saw her clench her teeth, and the
flame of revolt rise in her face. He
drew back his gnarled fist to strike,
and I was afraid, and sick at heart I
could do nothing to prevail against
him So I got up to go. and not be
witness to such indignity. But the
Chauffeur laughed and threatened me
with a beating if I did not stay and
behold And 1 sat there, perforce, by
the campfire on the shore of Lake
Temescal and saw Vesta. Vesta Van
Warden, kneel and remove the moc
ccsins of that grinning, hairy, ape
like human brute
“ —Oh. you do not understand, my
grandsons. You have never known
anything else, and you do not under
stand
“ ‘Halter broke and bridle wise.’ the
Chauffeur gloated, while she performed
that dreadful, menial task ‘A trifle
balky at times, professor, a trifle balky;
but a clout alongside the jaw makes
her as meek and gentle as a lamb.’
‘‘And another time he said: ‘We’ve
got to start all over and replenish the
earth and multiply. You’re handi
capped. professor You ain't got no
wife, and we’re up against a regular
Garden-of-Eden proposition. But 1
ain’t proud I’ll tell you what, profes
sor' He pointed at their little infant,
barely a year old ‘There's your wife,
though you’ll have to wait till shj
grows up It's rich, ain’t it? We’re
all equals here, and I’m the biggest
toad in the splash But I ain’t stuck
up—not 1 Ido you the honor. Pro
fessor Smith, the very great honor, of
betrothing to you my and Vesta War
den’s daughter. Ain’t it cussed bad
that Van Warden ain’t here to see?’
“I lived three weeks of infinite tor
inent ‘here in the Chauffeur’s camp
And then, one day. tiring of me, or
of what to 1 im was my bad effect on
Vesta, he told me that the year before,
wandering through the Contra Costa
hills to the straits of Carquinez, across
the Btraits he had seen a smoke This
meant" that there were still other hu
man beings, and that for three weeks
he had kept this inestimable precious
information from me. 1 departed at
once, my dogs and horses, and jour
neyed across the Contra Costa hills to
the straits I saw no smoke on the
other side, but at Port Costa discov
ered a small steel barge oil which I
was able to embark my animals Old
canvas which I found served me for
a sail, and southerly breeze fanned
me across the straits and up to the
ruins of Vallejo. Here, on the out
skirts of tne city 1 found evidences of
a recently occupied camp. Many clam
shells showed me wh> these humans
had come to the shores of the bay
This was the Santa Rosa tribe, and I
followed Its track along the old rail
road right of way across the salt
guirsliea 'jo Sonoma valley. Here, at
the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came
upon the camp. There were eighteen
souls all told Two were old men,
one of whom was Jones, a banker
The other was Harrison, a retired
pawnbroker, who had taken for a wife
the matron of the State Hospital for
the Insane at Napa. Of all the per
sons of the city of Napa, and of all the
other towns and villages In that rich
and populous valley, she had been the
only survivor. Next, there were the
three young men —CardifT and Hale,
who had been farmers, and Wain
wrigbt. a common day laborer All
three had found wives. To Hale, a
crude, illiterate farmer, bad fallen Isa
dore, the greatest prize, next to Vesta,
of the women who came through the
plague. She was one of the world's
most noted singers, and the plague
had caught her at San Francisco She
had talked with me for hours at a
time, telling me of her adventures, un
til. at last, rescued by Hale In the
Mendocino forest reserve, there had
remained nothing for her to do but
become his wife But Hale was a
good rellow In spite of his Illiteracy.
He had a keen sense of lustlce.
"The wives of Cardiff and Wain
wright were ordinary women, ac
customed to toll, with strong constltu
lions —Just the type for the wild new
life which they were compelled to live
In addition were two adult Idiots from
the feeble minded home at Eldredge,
and five or six young children and in
fants born after the formation of the
Santa Rosa tribe Also, there was
Bertha She was a good wom
an Hare-Lip, In spite of the sneers
of your father. Her I took for wife.
She was the mother of your father,
Edwin, and of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And
It was our daughter, Vera, who mar
ried your father. Hare-Lip—your la
ther. Sandow. who was the eldest son
of Vesta Van Warden and the Chauf
feur.
"There are only two other tribes
that we know of —the Los Angelitos
and the Carmelltos. The latter start
ed from one man and woman. He
was called Lopez, and he was descend
ed from the ancient Mexicans and was
very black. He was a cowherd In the
ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife
was a maidservant In the Great Del
Monte hotel. It was seven years be
fore we first got In touch with the Los
Angelitos. They have a good country
down there, but it Is too warm. I
estimated the present population of
the world at between three hundred
and fifty and four hundred—provided,
of course, that there are no scattered
little tribes elsewhere in the world.
If there be such, we have not heard
of them. Since Johnson crossed the
desert from Utah, no word or sign has
come from the East or anywhere else.
The great world which I knew in my
boyhood and early manhood Is gone.
It has ceased to be. I am the last
man who was alive In the days of the
plague and who knows the wonders of
that far-off time. We. who mastered
the planet—lts earth, and sea. and
sky—and who were as very gods, now
live In primitive savagery along the
water courses of this California coun
try.
“But we are Increasing rapidly—
your sister, Hare-Lip. already has four
children We are increasing rapidly
and making ready for a new climb to
ward civilization. In time, pressure
of population will compel us to spread
out. and a hundred generations from
now we may expect our descendants
to start across the Sierras, oozing
slowly along, generation by genera
tion, over the great continent to the
colonization of the East —a new Aryan
drift around the world.
“But It will be slow, very slow; we
have so far to climb. We fell so hope
lessly far. If only one physicist or
one chemist had survived! But It was
not to be. and we have forgotten every
thing The Chauffeur started working
In Iron. He bulß the forge which we
use to this day. But he was a lazy
man. and when he died he took with
him all he knew of metals and ma
chinery. What was I to know of such
things? I was a classical scholar, not
a chemist. The other men who sur
vived were not educated. Only two
things did the Chauffeur accomplish—
the brewing of strong drink and the
growing of tobacco. It was while he
was drunk, once, that he killed Vesta
I firmly believe that he killed Vesta
in a fit of drunken cruelty, though lie
always maintained that she fell Into
the lake and was drowned.
“And, my grandsons, let me warn
you agalnbt the medicine men. They
call themselves doctors, travestying
what was once a noble profession, but
THE CHEYENNE RECORD.
In reality they are medicine men.
derll men. and they make for super
stition and darkness. They are cheats
and liars. But so debased and degrad
ed are we that we believe their lies.
They, too, will Increase In numbers as
we Increase, and they will strive to
rule us. Yet they are liars and charla
tans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, pos
ing as a doctor, selling charms against
sickness, giving good hunting, ex
changing promises of fair weather for
good meat and skins, sending the
death stick, performing a thousand
abominations. Yet I say to you, that
when be says he can do these things,
he lies. I, J. H. Smith, say that he
lies I have told him so to his teeth.
Why has be not sent me the deatn
stick? Because be knows that with
me it Is without avail. But you. Hare-
Lip, so deeply are you sunk In black
superstition that did you awake this
night and find the death stick beside
you, you would surely die. And you
would die, not because of any virtue
in the stick, but because you are a
savage with the dark and clouded
mind of a savage.
"The doctors must be destroyed, and
all that was lost must be discovered
over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I
repeat unto you certain things which
you must remember and tell to your
children after you. You must tell
them that when water Is made hot by
fire there resides In It a wonderful
thing called steam, which Is stronger
than ten thousand men and which can
do all man’s work for him. There are
other very useful things. In the light
ning flash there resides a similarly
strong servant of man, which was of
old his slave and which some day will
be his slave again.
"Quite a different thing is the alpha
bet. It is what enables me to know
the meaning of fine markings, whereas
you boys know only rude picture writ
ing. I have stored many books in
that dry cave on Telegraph hill, where
you see me often go when ”-e tribe Is
down by the sea In them Is great
wisdom. Also with them, I have
placed a key to the alphabet, so that
one who knows picture writing may
also know print. Some day men will
read again; and then, if no accident
has befallen my cave, thsy wil know
that Professor Smith once lived and
saved for them the knowledge of the
ancients.
"There Is another little device that
man Inevitably will rediscover It Is
called gunpowder. It was what en
abled us to kill surely and at long dis
tances. Certain things which are
found in the ground, when combined
in the right proportions, will make
this gunpowder. What these things
are. I have forgotten, or else I never
knew. But I wish I did know. Then
would I make powder, and then would
I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid the
land of superstition—”
“After I am man grown I am going
to give Cross-Eyes all the goats and
meat, and skins I can get, so that he’ll
teach me to be a doctor." Hoo-Hoo as
serted. "And when 1 know. I'll make
everybody else sit up and take notice.
They’ll get down In the dirt to me,
you bet.”
The old man nodded his bead sol
emnly. and murmured;
“Strange it is to hear the vestige
and remnants of the complicated Ar
yan speech fall from the lips of a
filthy little skin-clad savage All the
world Is topsy-turvy. And It has been
topsy-turvy ever since the plague."
“You won’t make me sit up," Hare-
Lip boasted to the would-be medicine
man. “If I paid you for a sending of
the death stick, and It didn’t work. I'd
bust In your head—understand, you
Hoo-Hoo, you?"
“I’m going to get Granser to remem
ber this here gunpowder stuff.” Edwin
said softly, "and then [’ll have you all
on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will do
my fighting for me, and you, Hoo-
Hoo. will send the death stick for me
and make everybody afraid. And If
I catch Hare-Lip trying to bust your
head, Hoo-Hoo, I’ll fix him with that
same gunpowder Granser ain’t such
a fool as you think, and I’m going to
listen to him and some day I’ll be boss
over the whole bunch of you."
The old man shook his head sadly,
and said;
“The gunpowder will come Noth
ing can stop It —the same old story
over and over. Man will increase, and
men will fight. The gunpowder will
enable men to kill millions of men,
and in this way only, by fire and
blood, will a new civilization. In some
remote day, be evolved. And of
what profit will It be? Just as the
old civilization passed, so will the
new. It may take fifty thou
sand years to build, but It will pass
All things pass. Only remain cosmic
force and matter, ever In flux, ever act
ing and reacting and realizing the
eternal types—the priest, the soldier,
and the king. Out of the mouths of
babes comes the wisdom of all the
ages. Some will fight, some will rule,
some will pray; and all the rest will
toll and suffer sore while on their
bleeding carcasses Is reared again, and
yet again, without end, the amazing
beauty and surpassing wonder of the
civilized state It were Just as well
that I destroyed those cave-stock
books —whether they remain or per
ish, all their old truths will be dia-
covered, their old lies lived and hand
ed down. What is the proflt—"
Hare-Lip leaped to bis feet, giving
a quick glance at the pasturing goats
and the afternoon sun
"Gee!" he muttered to Edwin. “The
old geezer gets more long winded
every day. Let's pull for camp”
While the other two, aided by the
dogs, assembled the goats and started
them for the trail through the forest,
Edwin stayed by the old man and
guided him in the same 'direction
When they reached the old rlght-of
way. Edwin stopped suddenly and
looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo
and the dogs and the goats passed on
Edwin was looking at a small herd
of wild horses which had come down
on the hard sand. There were at least
twenty of them, young colts and year
lings and mares, led by a beautiful
stallion which stood in the foam at
the edge of~the surf, with arched neck
and bright wild eyes, sniffing the
salt air from the sea.
“What is It?” Granser queried.
"Horses," waß the answer. “Firs!
time I ever Been ’em on the beach.
It’s the mountain lions getting thicket
and thicker and driving ’em down.”
The low sun shot red shafts of light
fan-shaped, up from a cloud-tumbled
horizon And close at hand, fn the
white waste of Bhore-lashed waters,
the sea lions, bellowing their old
primeval chant, hauled up out of the
se-. on the black rocks and fought
and loved.
"Come on, Granser,” Edwin prompt
ed.
And old man and boy, skin-clad and
barbaric, turned and went along the
right-of-way Into the forest In the
wake of the goats.
THE END.
SPREAD A SPIRIT OF JOY
Fat Man, With Hia Laugh, Dispelled
Some of the “Blue Monday”
Downheartedness.
The scene was a crowded street car,
and the time was about eight of a
Monday morning. Blue Monday was
written plainly across the face of
nearly every passenger—except one
He was a man round of face and al
most spherical of figure, who clung to
a strap and swayed with the crowd as
the car rounded the turns. In his free
hand he held a humorous weekly,
which he read between sways. And
as he read he laughed. Not a dry
cackle or a low chuckle, but a whole
some laugh, which seemed to start
somewhere near his shoes and gather
volume and tone as It rose through
his body and finally emerged from his
parted Ups Some gazed at him with
a kind of subdued horror expressed in
their eyes, as if he had intruded on
their private case of blues But the
malority looked upon him with envy,
and that envy called attention to a
common human failing all too common
for the good of the race. We are In
clined to look upon wholesome laugh
ter, especially In public, as a sign of
reprehensible vulgarity. But then why
the envy? Perhaps because the man
seemed to be enjoying himself after
his own fashion, and though his fash
ion might be wrong, the enjoyment
might be all right. There Is some
thing refreshing about wholesome
laughter, which Is contagious, and It
Is probable that those who heard the
fat man laugh went to their work in
better spirits. In that case he per
formed a real public service, and he
is a man to be praised. And in any
case there can be little doubt that the
fat man ate better, slept better and
worked better for his totally uncon
scious exhibition of a rare talent.
Little Wooden Shoes.
As I tramped for hours among the
refugees from Antwerp, one thing Im
pressed Itself strongly upon my mem
ory: the noise of so many little wood
en shoes —children’s shoes —that click
clacked on the cobblestones In the
characteristic short run of frightened
people. My memory bolds a whole
collection of noises, but none quite
so pathetic as the quick tok-iok-tok"
of these hordes of children trying des
perately with their tired little legs to
keep up with father and mother.—
From the Amsterdam Handelsblad.
Pain Is a Hint to the Wise.
One thing that should be regarded
seriously Is pain In any form in any
part of the body If there Is a dull
headache frequently, find out what
causes It Pain In the knee, the arch
of the foot or itt any point should be
taken seriously Pain means some
thing wrong. It may be brave to
bear It, but it Is not wise. Remember
that pain felt in one part of the body
may be the result of something wrong
In another part See a wise doctor
about it. —Hoy Scout Handbook.
Daily Thought.
Life is made up not of great sacri
fices or duties, but of little things In
which smiles and kindness and small
obligations given habitually are what
win the heart and secure comfort —
Davy.
Daily Thought
In character, in manners, in style. In
all things, the supreme excellence ts
simplicity.—Longfellow.
HOW MRS. BEAN
MET THE CRISIS
Carried Safely Through Change
of Life by Lydia E. Pinkham’s
Vegetable Compound.
Nashville,Tenn. —“When I was going
through the Change of life I had a tu
—ilii niiiiiiiiiiinii ||| m °r aa large as a
juMUjull child’s head. The
doctor aaid it was
three years coming
and gave me medi
mmimt c^na f° r until i
was called away
lC3g|Hm from the city for
< JaaJ sometime. Of
JJ1 course I could not
* E° him then, so
Jf f jBpjBB my sister-in-law told
iiSr- l ■ that she thought
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Com
pound would cure It. It helped both
the Change of Life and the tumor and
when I got home I did not need the doctor.
I took tile Pinkbam remedies until the
tumor was gone, the doctor said, and I
have not felt it since. I tell every one
how I was cured. If this letter will
help others you are welcome to use it."
—Mrs. E. H. Bean, 625 Joseph Avenue,
Nashville, Tenn.
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Com
pound, a pure remedy containing the
extractive properties of good old fash
ioned roots and herbs, meets the needs
of woman’s system at this critical period
of her life. Try it
If there is any symptom in your
case which pozzies you, write to
the Lydia E. Plnkham Medicine
Co., Lynn, Mass.
TOO SEVERE A PUNISHMENT
Tramp Objected to So Long a Sojourn
In a Town That Shall Re
main Nameless.
A certain town —not the one you live
in, dear reader, but It's nearest and
dearest rival —was noted for being
dead slow. There was no amusement
In the place, not even so much as a
moving-picture show, and everybody
went to bed at nine o'clock every night
because there was no other place to
go.
One day a tramp was caught beg
ging In the streets of this town and
was promptly arrested and arralgnod
before the justice of the peace.
After hearing the evidence the mag
istrate put on his sternest look and
said: ‘‘lt appears from the testimony
presented here that you are a vagrant
without visible means of support. In
order that you may not become a
charge upon the taxpayers of a re
spectable community I sentence you to
leave this town In three hours."
“Aw Judge," pleaded the tramp,
with a look of abject terror on his
face, “have a heart, won’t yer 1 I
didn't do nuthln' but ask a guy fer a
nickel. Please don't make me stay In
dls burg all dat time. Make it three
minutes, Judge, can’t yer?”
A girl thinks she has made good as
soon as she hypnotizes some young
man Into buying her an engagement
ring.
All He Wanted and More.
“Did you ever have all yer wanted
of anything?”
"Yes; two things—advice and wa
ter."
Ever Eat
Grape-Nuts?
There’s a vast army of
physical and mental
workers who do.
One reason —its deli
cious nut-like flavour.
Another —it is easily
and quickly digested
generally in about one
hour.
But the big reason is—
Grape-Nuts, Lesides hav
ing delicious taste, sup
plies all the rich nutri
ment of whole wheat and
malted barley, including
the “vital” mineral salts
necessary for building
brain, nerve and muscle.
Always ready to eat
direct from the package,
Grape-Nuts with cream
or good milk is a well
balanced ration —the ut
most in sound nourish
ment.
“There’s a Reason”
—sold by Grocers.