DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom UTOPIA Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from Duke University Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/youngwestsequeltOOsclii Patent Applied for. YOUNG WEST, A SEQUEL TO EDWARD BELLAMY'S CELEBRATED NOVeL LOOKING BACKWARD. BV SOLOMON SCHINDLER. liOSTON : ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY, Copley Square, 1S94. Copyright 1S94, 1!Y ARENA PUHLISHIN(; COMPANY. All rights reserved. Arena Press. (Km YOUNG WEST. CHAPTER I. A nickname, once bestowed upon a man, clings to him forever. I am known as " Young West " all over the land, notwithstanding the fact that I am seventy years of age. My teach- ers and schoolmates used to call me " Young West." That was all very well at that period of life. If a person is to be distinctively quali- tied by the adjective " Young," childhood and youth are proper seasons for its application; but when people continued to call me " Young West " long after I reached manhood, it became aggravating. Is it not absurd that those who know me or of me still persist in calling me " Young West " even now that my hair has turned snow-white ? I sometimes wonder if to crown the absurdity with an anti-climax, the words : " This is all that remained of Younfr West, who died in the year — at the age of seventy, eighty, ninety " (as the case may be), will be inscribed upon the urn containing my ashes. ^ij YOUNG WEST. I must confess that the nickname, though it was bestowed upon me good humoiedly and was not sucfo-estive of any trait of character, either good, bad, or indifferent, used to annoy me greatly, and particularly when persons, who were my juniors by many years, applied it to me. Perhaps I had grown more sensitive than was proper, but I can barely describe my morti- fication, when in the presidential campaign, which ultimately seated me upon the much coveted chair, the rallying cry was : " Young West against Mr. Blank." How I fumed and fretted when the papers printed paragraphs like the following : " The guild of textile-makers have declared for Young West ; " or, The iron- workers are combining with the Electricians against " Young West " to offset the machina- tions of the grangers and cattle-raisers, who are pledged to elect " Young West." And mind, I was then in the fifty-seventh year of my life. I would have cheerfully foregone the honor for which I had been striving since I entered the industrial army as a private, if I could only have obliterated by my resignation the mortifying nickname '• Y'oung West ; " — but no, " Young 'West " I have ever been, and " Young West," I am fated to die. Looking upon this matter from the other side, TOUNG WEST. I must concede that the people, who are calling me " Young West," have some valid excuses for applying that sobriquet. Although I letired from public work many years ago, my physical constitution is yet sufficiently strong to stand the wear and tear, the worries and tribulations of any public office. Neither has my mind lost a particle of its former youthful freshness and vigor. My ideas are those of a young man. Old age has not made me a conservative, as it usually does of men. In so far my friends are right, I am still ''Young West." My life has been crowded with memorable events ; good fortune permitted me to contrib- ute somewhat to the welfare and progress of the nation, whom I served for a period of more than forty years. I ran through the whole /i, scale of social and public ambition, from the ' lowest to the highest note. From one public office, I was promoted to the next higher one. Lifted and carried by the good will which my fellow workers bore me, I continued to rise until they intrusted me with the highest office in their gift, — the presidency. Even after I returned to private life, as prescribed by law, my advice and counsel was frequently solicited by my successors. TOUNO WEST. No wonder, therefore, ray friends importune me now, as my days are fast ebbing away, to commit to writing the reminiscences of so event- ful and so successful a career as has been mine. Not that future historians would lack the material out of which to compose a thrilling biography of ex-president Julian West, — (or " Young West " as they most likely will call me) — for my name is attached to a multitude of documents of greater or less importance ; but my friends claim, that T am better qualified to explain the causes of events than my biog- raphers ever will be. Their statements, they say, will be the product of research or hearsay, while mine will have the color and conclusive- ness of personal observation. Who, moreover, could understand better than myself, how to sift the vast material, so as to select from it the most important and significant events, events that indeed determined the welfare of millions of people ? That I yielded to those flattering exhorta- tions, — or let me rather speak the truth — that I yiekhnl to the promptings of ray own vanity, the book, in the hands of the reader, suffi- ciently evidences. Why should I, after all, dis- Scrable and deny, that to write this volume gave me intense pleasure ? Living over the incidents YOVYO WEST. which I deemed worthy of preservation, I was thrilled a second time by the passions and im- pulses which then stirred me into action. Life is, indeed, twice enjoyed by man : once when it stretches out before him in the form of hopes and expectations ; the second time when he is reviewing it and beholds the accomplished facts, the leal history of his being, ineffaceably pre- served under the transparent crystal cover of the past. It has been often said, and well said, that a man's life docs not begin with the hour of his birth, not even with the moment of concep- tion, that begins the life of the embryo, but that every existence is linked to previous ones by a long line of ancestors. Most of our good and evil traits, health as well as disease, we in- herit from persons who have lived long before us ; to ignoie the influence, which even our re- motest ancestors have upon our being, would be like ignoring the rivulets and tributaries that form a river. Biographers, therefore, alway3 mention one preceding generation at least, that is, the pa- rentage of the hero of their tale ; thus I, too, must make mention, before speaking of myself, of the nearest links that connect me with the past, of my father and mother. In the few YOUNG WEST. lines which I feel bound to devote to them, the reader will find an additional explanation, how it happened that the nickname "Young West" was fastened upon me. In the year 2001, the inhabitants of Atlantis (a city which occurs in the annals of media3val history under the name of Boston), were thrown into a state or unusual excitement, which soon spread all over the inhabited world, when tele- graphic and telephonic communication distrib- uted the news. Workingmen, while excavating a lot for building purposes, had struck upon a piece of antique architecture, upon a subterranean room, so admirably constructed that it had withstood the ravages of time for more than a century. The appointments of this room were rather strange. Air seemed to have been led into it by way of tubes, and light by way of electrical con- trivances, which at once indicated the time when the chamber was built, as being that of the last decades of the 19th century. The fur- niture, which was found in the apartment, strengthened this conclusion ; it coincided with the fashion plates of that period. The discovery of this ancient structure would have received only a short mention in the "National News Register" had it not become TOUNO WEST. intensified by a ranch more startling incident. The room contained also the body of a man ; not the skeleton of a man, nor his embalmed corpse, — the body that was found was that of a man, fast asleep. All evidences indicated that this person had gone to sleep more than a centuiy ago. The usual methods to awake a sleeper, failing, the most eminent physicians were convened and the extraordinary case was placed in their hands. One of them. Dr. Leete, had retired from prac- tice many years ago. He had been paying of late, during his leisure, considerable attention to the medical inventions and discoveries of the nineteenth century, making a thorough study of Mesmerism or Hypnotism, as it was then called. He had read of a method by which such a sleep could be terminated ; he began to experiment and his endeavors were crowned with success; the sleeper opened his eyes. The patient was now given entirely into his care. He removed him to his own apartment and by degrees he brought him to conscious- ness. He supplied carefully the organism of his patient with the most needed food and after a few days of cautious treatment, he dared open a conversation with his guest, disclosing to him little by little where he was. 8 TOUNO WEST. The doctor's diagnosis of the case had been correct. Julian West, a wealthy resident of Boston, had been suffering for years from insom- nia. Sleep fled from him even in his quiet underground apartment, which he had caused to be specially constructed for his use as a bed- chamber. When slumber would not come to him for many days and nights, he used to send for his physician who would apply the hypnotic process to put him to sleep. One of his body attendants, who had been instructed how to re- verse the process, would wake him the next morning. Mr. West could not tell or even imagine, why he had not been roused as usual the next morning, nor what had become of the house of which the discovered apartment was merely the subcellar. The only possible explanation, that he could think of, was, that perhaps the house had caught fire during the night and that his friends supposed him to have perished in the flames. Why the place was never utilized afterwards as a site for new buildings or why excavations were never made before on the same place, he was as unable to surmise as were the people who had found him. The young man, — he appeared not older than thirty-five years, — became pitiably dis- YOUNG WEST. tracted, and for some time he was in danger of losing liis reason. Tlianks to the good care that Dr. Leete took of him, his mental equilib- rium was quickly restored. As soon as he began to rally, he plied his host with questions of all kinds. Since the time that he had gone to sleep, all social conditions had changed in such a marvel- lous manner that he failed to understand them. His age had been one of intense competitive strife, now he beheld society forming a brother- hood indeed, in which all worked for one and one for all. He could not understand how money should have ceased to be the stimulus for all individual efforts; he wondered that peo- ple were found willing to work without being paid for tlieir labor ; he could not see how it was possible that all could live in affluence, nor could he grasp the idea of economic equality. After a short time, however, he became not alone reconciled to our social arrangements, but he began to acknowledge their superiority over the conditions that prevailed in his time. He now wondered that his contemporaries could have been so blind as not to see the true remedy that would have cured all the evils of which they complained so much. He remembered now that at his time already some such ideas of 10 YOUNG WEST. economic equality had been troubling the minds of a few individuals and how the socialists, — so these people had been called, — were scorned and ridiculed as visionaries, yea, even persecuted as enemies of society. After his full recovery, he was given the posi- tion of professor of mediseval history in one of our colleges. His specialty was to lecture on the social conditions of the 19th century. Speaking from his own experiences, his dis- courses were very interesting and attracted wide- spread attention. The first woman whom his eyes met after waking up from his protracted slumber, was the daughter of his host. She was by occupation a hospital nurse and had been detailed to take special care of him under her father's directions. It was, therefore, not astonishing at all that he should have learned to love her, but that Miss Leete should have reciprocated the feelings of a person, who in fact was more than a hundred years older than she was, and who, — as was found out later on, — had been affianced to her own great grandmother, was a surprise to all, especially as she had not lacked suitors and had been courted by young men of high promise. So far, she had refused all offers of marriage, reserving her hand, — so she said, — for one who YOUNG WEST. 11 would distinguish himself by some great public deed. However, the fancies of women have always been and will forever be unfathomable ; she returned Julian West's affection, and after a time they were registered as a married cou- ple. Their marital bliss was destined to be only of short duration. Julian had been restored to life and apparent health ; still outraged nature took her revenge in due time. His tissues failed to procreate cells in sufficient numbers and of sufficient quality. He visibly fell off; he grew weaker and weaker, and finally he died, after a short illness, of exhausted vitality, — as the physicians termed it, — in the second year of his married life. At the time of his death, his widow was expecting to become a mother, and when, two months later, she gave birth to a weak, sickly- looking boy, the medical authorities debated upon the possibility of such a child, ever devel- oping into manhood. Some physicians prophesied that, lacking the proper stamina, the first attack of measles, would remove " Young West," other doctors gave him a longer lease of life but predicted that phthisis would carry him off; but all agreed that " Young West " would never reach man's 12 YOUJ^G WJ!:ST. estate ; that, should he live, he would never become a useful member of society. Did their predictions come true? No. They were all disappointed. " Young West " grew up healthy in body and mind and lived to serve his country well. He had entered life — to speak in the language of the 19th century — well advertised, and it was perhaps due to that very notoriety that he succeeded where others failed. CHAPTER II. When the human soul enters life, the whole world forces itself, so to say, throws itself upon it at once, craving recognition. It would crush the new citizen by its pressure had not a wise Providence so ordained it that it can reach'him only through one channel at a time, until he has accustomed himself to his environments and has become capable of bearing the world's full weight. The tablets of memory, — white and clean at birth, — become soon covered with the marks inscribed upon them by passing events and although nobody can tell how many such im- pressions the memory received before it learns YOUNG WEST. 13 to bring them into order and to recall them at will, it is within the bounds of reason to assume that the infant receives through the senses, and stores away for future use, thousands of im- pressions every day. The real awakening of the mind, however, occurs at a much later period, which varies as individual cases vary. Some will awake to consciousness as early as the second year, others not before the end of the fourth. In normal existences, the day or event can be fixed, when, for the first time, we remember ourselves either observing or acting. That day opens, in fact, the history of a man's life. I awoke to consciousness not before I was three years of age, but I remember that moment distinctly. I found myself in the company of quite a number of children like myself. We had been playing upon the green turf in a garden, and a bell was calling us to lunch. — I hear the tolling of that bell yet. — I clearly remember that not only did I understand the meaning of that bell, but I also knew that, when hearing it, I was to take a certain place in a file to be formed by us children. Whether I had been tiained before to act in that man ner, — most probably I had, — I cannot remem- ber. I only know that I took hold of the hand 14 YOUNG WEST. i-j of another child, we placed ourselves behind several others and kept step to the music which was rendered by an orchestrion. I then re- member that I tripped over some impediment and fell, dragging my companion with me. Both of us began to ciy, upon which a pretty woman of about twenty-five years came to us, lifted us up, put us again on our feet, straight- ened our frocks and tiers, kissed us tenderly and said in a sweet, sympathetic tone : " Don't cry, dears, don't mind a tumble or a fall ; say ' hey ho' and let us run for lunch." With tears yet trickling from our eyes, we exclaimed: "Hey ho," and led by her we trundled into a spacious hall, where we took seats upon little stools at a long, low table. The scene appears before me as if it had occurred but yesterday. I recollect how we were regaled with milk, bread, and sweet fruit. I also remember the names of my playmates and the names of most of the women who attended to us. Miss Bella, who had special charge of me and a few others, and at whose hand I had entered the dining-hall, tied a napkin around me and supplied me with the food I seemed to need. How she knew, I could not tell at that time, but she knew exactly how much it was well for each of us to eat. To the one she would give a larger portion than to the YOUNG WEST. other, and not rarely would she offer a diet dif- ferent from that of the rest, to one or the other of the children. After lunch, we went again into the garden. Some of us would play, others would lie down in hammocks and sleep. I remember that I liked all the nurses whom I met daily, but that I was most attracted by Miss Bella. Every morning an elderly man would appear amongst us before whom we passed in file. Mr. Rogers — so we called him — was always re- ceived by us with pleasure. He would stroke our hair or kiss us. Sometimes he would play with us, make us catch him, roll with us on the ground and teach us games. He was usually accompanied by another man, whom we did not like as well, because he woukl make us open our mouths to put a little ivory stick right into our throats, a proceeding which we did not fancy very much. He would also take hold of the wrist of some child and do many more things which we children did not comprehend. We used to call him Uncle Doctor. One of his actions remained a wonder to me until I learned its meaning. I will, therefore, give a true account of it, as it appeared to me at that time. Some of the children seemed to be unwilling 16 YOUNG WEST. to do what the nurses bade them do. They would strike and scratch other children, take away their toys or destroy without reason the flowers in the garden, or they would torment the rabbits, birds, or other animals which were kept therein. No matter how often the nurses would tell them that it was wrong to commit such deeds, these refractory children would not listen, but repeated the offence as often as they found a chance. Others were in the habit of not telling the truth. It seemed as if a certain impulse, over which they had no control, would diive them to do what was forbidden, or that it would give them a secret pleasure to commit deeds which would cause pain to others. When- ever one of us was hurt through the malice of such a young ruffian, our nurses would tell us not to retaliate and still to love him, because, they said, he was sick and would soon recover aud then not do it again. There was one dark complexioned little fel- low, a year older than myself, whom we called " Bobby," who seemed to derive special pleasure from annoying me. No sooner had Miss Bella turned her back to us than he would jump at mo, scratch or pinch me or pull my haii-. One day, he even thiew a stone at me ; it struck me on the head and I beu'an to scream. Other YOU^^G JVEST. 17 children had seen him send the missile, but he still stoutly denied the deed. " Don't mind it, Julian, dear," said Miss I'ella, uhi](; dressing the wound, " Bob is a very sick boy, only sick children will throw stones at others." The next morning, when Mr. Rogers, accom- panied by " Uncle Doctor " entered our ward, T ol)served Miss Bella earnestly talking to them. They cast glances at me and also at Bob. When his turn came to be examined, the doctor took him kindly in his lap, talked cheerfully and pleasantly to him, as if notliing had hap- pened and even made him ride upon his knee. Bob enjoyed the fun and clapped his hands in high glee. All at once the doctor made him recline on his arm, looked fixedly at him and said : " Poor Bobby is so sleepy, his little eyes feel so tired, his little legs are so weary ; Bobby is now closing his eyes, now he is going to sleep I " The last word he intuned with a commanding inllection. To my great surprise. Bob had indeed closed his eyes and was fast asleep. The Doctor then began to talk to him softly : " Bobby will not wake until I count three ; Bobby does not want to pinch and scratch other 18 YOUNG WEST. children, liobby will never throw stones again, do you hear me, Bobby?" Though his eyes were closed, Bobby said : " Yes sir." The doctor continued : "Bobby will never again tell a lie, Bobby will go to Young West, kiss him and beg his pardon. One, two, three." Bob opened his eyes. The doctor kissed him and put him on the ground. I expected that Bob would come to me and do as he was ordered, but he did not. All that day, he was quiet and abstained from playing his usual tricks on me. The following day, the doctor held a similar conversation with him and again the next day. On the fourth day, to my surprise. Bob came to me and begged my pardon. For a few more days, the doctor seemed to be extremely friendly towards Bob without, however, patting him to sleep. After that, he took no more special notice of him than he did of the others. Bob and I became fast friends after that. Perhaps because my attention had been drawn through Bob's case, I happened to see the doctor treat other children precisely in the same manner. When 1 questioned Miss Bella, whether Bob was yet sick, she answered : " No, he is just as well as the rest of you; — the doctor lias cured him." YOUNG WEST. l'.' The nursery — for such was the phice in which I came to consciousness — was attached to a block of residences quite in the heart of the city. It formed the southern wing of the square and was built like the houses, entirely of alu- minum and glass. In the rear, the garden extended to which I have referred above, to be used as a playground. It was walled in by panels of glass and covered by a glass roof that could be opened and shut at short notice, so that we could stay in the garden even when the weather was not pleasant. In front of the nursery, was a kind of park, much larger than our garden in whicli the grown-up resi dents of the block and their friends, would walk. We could see them and they could see us, but uidess they entered the nursery by a side en- trance, communication was impossible. At all times of the day, persons could be seen in the park, who, in their turn would watch us at play or at our meals, through the windows. They would smile at us, and we would tlirow kisses to them. The upper story of the building, to which we ascended by a broad staircase, was our doimi- tory. Each of us found there his little bed and his dressing case. In the cellar, to which light was carried through glass plates from above 20 YOUNG WEST. was the lavatory, furnished with wash bowls and bath-tubs. Its most remarkable feature was a large tank that could be filled within a short time with lukewarm water. Dressed in our bathing suits, all of us — we numbered about a hundred — would plunge into it every morning with our nurses and such fun it was ! The smaller ones would receive merely a good washing but the bigger ones were shown how to swim. I learned how to swim almost by my- self and became quite an expert. The routine of the nursery was about the same as it is in every nursery to-day. At seven o'clock in the morning, a bell warned us to rise. We slipped on our bathing robes and took our bath. After the nurses had dressed us, we par- took of a light breakfast, consisting of milk, cake and fruit, as the season of the year per- mitted. After breakfast, with the exception of cold days, we were sent into the garden where the nurses employed our time with all kinds of instructive games. We would mould figures of clay or play in the sand or sow seeds in garden beds and watch them grow, or braid strips of paper into handsome patterns, or string beads, etc. Our little fingers were made nimble by all kinds of work. Before we got tired of one occupation, the head nurse would propose somd YOUNG WEST. 21 \ 1 other. She would teach us songs, tell us stones 01- show us pretty pictures. Thus the time passed unnoticed by us. Lunch time was wel- come and after eating most of us would take a short nap. Refreshed 1)}^ the sleep, we would spend the afternoon in games that tended to develop our muscles, or we would look into the park, watch the fountains play and listen to the concerts which were given there every after- Jioon. We learned to love music : we would / file in and out of the halls to the strains of I music, which an orchestrion supplied, and we I would sing while marching ; even during our meals, soft music was frequently rendered. At four o'clock we had dinner, which consisted of various courses of wholesome vegetable diet. Meats were not given to us ; not before a child had reached his fourteenth year, was he allowed to taste either meat or fish. Dinner finished, we were apparently left to our own devices. We played what we pleased and with whom we pleased. Even if we were ever so noisy in the garden or in the play-rooms, we were not repri- manded. Mr. Rogers, who would invariably return at that liour and remain with us during the rest of the evening, would then watch our every action. As I found out afterwards, l»is eye discerned during these hours the talents YOUJSU we:st. m iiiul vices that were slumbering in every cliild ; the talents he gave instructions for properly developing ; the vicious inclinations, he ordered to be eradicated. During these hours, we received also visitors. Men and women — the latter in larger num- bers, — would come and stay and talk with us for a short time. Some would pick out a particular child and kiss and hug it. Why? I could not tell. Some came expressly to see me and frequently 1 heard people ask the attendant to show them " Young West." One lady, especially, paid me a visit once every week. As a rule, she came alone, only at times either a young man or an aged gentleman accompanied her. She Avould take me on her lap, inquire after my health, and she never left me without kissing me good bye. I liked her, but not any better than I did other ladies and not as much as I liked the nurses and in particular. Miss Bella. Miss Bella once told me that the lady was my mother, the young man, her husband, and the old gentleman, who wore a blue ribbon in his buttonhole, her father, and consequently my grandfather. What that meant, 1 could not comprehend at that time, and when I asked her to explain, she said evasively : " Some day, you will know." YOUNG WEST. 23 Also boys and girls, much older than we were, would occasionally call. IJotli Miss Bella and Mr. Rogers knew a great many of them. Tlie}^ liad been brought up in the same nursery, but now, the}-^ were at school. They wore uni- forms. 1 remember a boy coming expressly to show ]\lr. Ixogers the silver cord which he wore for the first time around the collar of his uni- form, lie was so proud of it. ''What was school? Where was it? Was it a pretty place ? " Every year towards spring, a few of the older boys and girls left the nursery ; tiiey went to school. Their nurses kissed them good bye and cried when Mr. Rogers led them away. Why did they shed tears ? After a few weeks, some of these children would return during visiting hours, dressed in their handsome uniforms. We were glad to see them, but they were rather haughty towards us. They Avould. not join our })lays and seemed al- ways afiaid that we might soil their jackets with our fingers. They said the school was very pretty and that they loved it much better than the nursery. " Would the time ever come when I would be sent to school?" I asked Miss Hella. ''Of course, you will," said she, "but don't think of 24 YOUNG WEST. tliat now, my dear." Then she took me on her lap and told me the pretty story of a little fir tree who cared not for the pretty clouds that passed over him, nor for the songs of the little birds that had built their nests near by in the branches of the bigger trees, nor for the gam- bols of the rabbits that played near him in the grass, because he yearned so much to go where the other big trees went, which the wood-cut- ters cut down every year and carried away on heavy wagons. He would ask the clouds, but they could not tell him what becauie of them. They thought they had seen some of them far, far away, floating upon the water, decorated with many colored ribbons. Would he float some day upon the water ? He would ask the birds and one of them told him that they had once seen a little tree, like him in size, planted in a warm room, liolding candles and nuts of gold on its branches. Would he ever enjoy such a glory? Thus Miss Bella would finish Anderson's pretty story, advising me to be happy now and not to worry about to-morrow or about " school." About seven o'clock, a light supper was served, after which we were put to bed. In this pleasant manner, our days passed by. The only discomfort that could befall us was YOUNG WEST. sickness. We all dreaded to be sick ; not that we were not as well cared for as we were in the nursery, but because we had to go to the liospi- tal, where we missed our usual companions. I remember that once, having fallen sick, I was sent to the hospital. An excellent nurse, the very personification of kindness and patience, took charge of me, but I felt lonesome because neitl.er my playmates nor Miss Bella were al- lowed to come to see me, not even Mr Rogers. The only face known to me was that of " Uncle Doctor." Why was he allowed to visit places which the rest were not allowed to enter? One lovely day in spring, when I was about six years old, INIr. Rogers told Miss Bella to pre- pare me and a number of other children for "school." While she was dressing me in my best cloth, she whispered into my ear : "To-day you will be sent to school ; my darling lias grown to be a big boy, you will soon forget Miss Bella. I assured her I would never forget lier, but all the time I was burning with impatience to enter, what I imagined a still happier place, *• school." How J yearned to wear a imiform with shining buttons ! I would soon return, if for no other reason, than to show my new clothes. Mr. Rogers led us out of tlic house. For the 26 lUUytr WEIST. liitt time iu my life, 1 walked in the streets. I was surprised that there were so many people and liousfcs. How large the world was ! We walked for quite a while, strange objects meeting our inquisitive eyes at every turn, when we reached a peculiarly constructed house. Mr. Rogers showed a paper to a man who was sitting behind an open window. " Another lot?" said he, with an interrogative inflection? " Strapping little fellows ! theirs is the future ! " This is " Young West," remarked Mr. Rogers. ''In spite of the prediction of the doctors, 1 have developed him and I feel sure that he will live to be an old man." "Young West!" exclaimed the man, "you don't say ! Let me have a look at him." Mr. Rogers took me upon his arm, so that the man in the window could see. " The very image of his father," said the stranger, " what an excitement it was when he was found ! " We descended a flight of stairs into a cel- lar ; a bell was heard and Mr. Rogers guided his flock of little ones into what appeared to us a little house. We took seats on benches ; a man closed the door behind us. The room, which was lit by electric lamps, began now to vi- brate in a strange manner. About ten minutes YOUNG WEST. 27 might have passed, wlieii the vibration ceased ; a mail opened the door, exchiimed some words, wli it'll I did not understand, and Mr. Rogers told us to follow him. We ascended a flight of stairs, passed through a building similar to the one in which Mr. Rogers had held a conversa- tion with the man, who had known my father, and I had never seen the like before. There was a garden spreading before us a thousand times larger than the one in which we had been brought up. There were hundreds of trees and shrubs and flowers in full bloom. I had seen pictures of horses and goats and sheep, here I saw these animals alive, grazing in the pasture. In the centre of this ravishing paradise, stood a house, a palace, I should rather say. It was the "school." Mr. Rogers announced our arrival by press- ing a button. We heard the sound of a bell and the gate of the palace flew open. We entered. 28 yoi XG WEST. CHAPTER III. At the time when our present order of society liad been in its first stages of conception, its friends and advocates believed, that it would tend to break up tlieir colossal cities and would spread the inhabitants more evenly over the land. Their predictions never came true. The cities, instead of diminishing in size, grew to still larger proportions. The methods of agri- culture, of manufacture, of locomotion, of distri- bution, had been improved in an undreamed of manner, so that people could combine with ease the pleasures of city life with the various occupations that required their presence else- where. Travelling at the rate of more than one hun. drcd and fifty miles an hour, people could culti- vate the land in a radius of three hundred miles, or do tlieir work in factories, scattered in such a circle, and still live in a city, leaving their homes in the moi'ning and returning in the afternoon. Although steam had long ago been replaced by electricity, and the smoke that hovered ov(>r mediicval cities, no longer vitiated the atmos- phere, and although the improvements in regard YOUNG WEST. 20 to the sanitation of cities, had made them healthier abodes than they were in former centuries, still the concentration of millions of people within a comparatively small compass could not but produce a number of unavoidable disadvantages, among which the noise caused by the locomotion of so many people and the exha- lations rising fiom so many bodies, were the least. For more than half a century, the authorities had been wrestling with the question, where the public schools could be placed best, so that the children might obtain the polish which urbanity gives, without incurring the dangers unavoidably connected with city life. At last, a solution was found. It was, as is usually the case, so simple that they wondered why they had not thought of it before. They removed the schools out of the crowded districts into the suburbs : not too far, so as to preclude easy communication with the city^ and yet sufTiciently distant, so as to give to the children purer air, an abundance of light, plenty of elbow room for sports and that quietude which is needed for successful studies. The many sights and the noises of city life had eaten away the nerve-force of the children of former generations. Nervous prostration haar citizens, well equipped, both })hysically and mentally, to assure the continui'.y of a prosperous and happy society. The school to which our little troop was as- signed, was one, which in the language of my , father's century would have been called a " Pri- mary " school. It was built to hold about one thousand children of both sexes, of ajjes ranscinrr from six to ten years. At my time, the number of inmates was about nine hundred, not counting the teachers and the staff of officials. The building, like all our modern buildings, was constructed of aluminum and glass. Pillars, beams, spars, partitions, floois, doors, stairs, were all made of aluminum, the w^alls of plain / YOUNG WEST. 31 white, or stained glass, according to location. The building was covered by a huge cupola that could be opened and closed at will, permitting excellent ventilation. The whole structure formed a large square. The building contained on its first floor the offices of the various overseers, several reception rooms and a library. The second and third floor contained apartments for the teachers. The first floor of the right and the left wing was divided into class-rooms, the second floor contained din- ing halls and kitchens, and the third floor dormi- tories ; the boys occupying the northern and the gills the southern wing. In the building in the rear on an underground floor were situated the natatoriura, lavatory and the usual sanitary arrangements; on its first floor a gymnasium and on its second floor, workshops of all kinds for manual training. The third floor formed a large amphitheatre to be used for exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances, etc. At some distance from the square, were located a hospital, the stables, in which all kinds of" domestic animals were kept, and a poultry yard. The electricity for heating, lighting, and cook- ing purposes, as well as for running the various machines of the house was received by way of undeiground wires from the city. We were 32 YOUNG WEST. also connected by telephone with almost every large place in the state. Some of the supplies were sent to us from the national stores through pneumatic tubes, others were raised in the gardens which surrounded the school. The large space between the four buildings, covered by the dome, was used as a playground when the weather was not pleasant. Mr. Peters, the director of the school, re- ceived us in person. This day was one of the most busy days of his scholastic year, because almost every hour brought another troop of little ones to his institution. He could not, therefore, devote a great deal of attention to each company. Mr. Rogers handed our records to him. Cast- ing a quick glance over the list, Mr. Peters chanced to see my name. " Which of these children is Young West ? " Mr. Rogers pointed out my little person to him. He looked at me searchingly, stroked my hair, but made no further remarks. He seemed to be a very kind man, yet I began to feel sorry, that I was to part from my former guardian ; tears came in my eyes and not until Mr. Rogers had promised that I would soon receive permission to visit the nursery, did I become consoled. One of the teachers took us now to the YOUNG WEST. 33 dining-hall and offered us refreshments. While we were yet seated at the table, a number of boys and girls, inmates of the school, marched into the room with measured steps. They were members of the senior class and the present year was their last in the primary school. They were distinguished fiom the rest of the pupils by a silver cord fastened around the stiff collars of their jackets. They placed themselves be- hind us, and, after we had finished our meal, each of them took two of us by the liand and showed us all over the house. From that day, for a term of a whole year, the little mentors assigned to us, were held responsible for our comfort. Of the lowest grade, i. e., of the recruits, two only were assigned to one senior. Of the second grade, one senior had charge of five, and of the third grade, over ten. This was a wise arrangement because the smaller a child is and the less used to the rules and discipline of the school, the more attention does he require. To look after two such little ones, was all that could be expected of a child of nine years. After one or two years' experience, when we knew what was wanted of us, a member of the senior class could overlook, with ease, five, or even ten. Children, to be sure, become more easily 34 YOUNG WEST. attached to other children than to grown-up persons. They understand them much better and are less afraid of them. Within half an hour, I liad closed a covenant of everlasting friendsliip with the boy into whose care I was given; so had Marry, my companion. Our little mentor took us to the dormitory, showed us our clothes-press, assisted us in un- dressing and helped us to put on our new uni- forms. He rolled our former wearing apparel into a bundle which was to be returned to the nursery. This day, being a holiday, he took us during the rest of it to the playgrounds, into the gardens, to the hennery and to the stables. We were all ears and eyes; Milton Green, that was his name, never tired of our questions. He seemed to be proud of his new office, glad to be of use to us, and to show how much more he knew than we little ones. In our wanderings, we fell in with some boys and girls of the second grade, whom we had known in our nursery, among them, Bob, who joyfully exclaimed : "Why, there is Young West! I'm so glad to see you in school ! " He inquired after Miss Bella and the rest of our mutual friends. From that moment, Mil- ton Green, and with him all my new compan- ions began to call me " Young West." " Young YOUNG WEST. 35 West, you are wanted in the office," or, " Young West, let us have a run," or, "Young West, make haste, lest you will be late for dinner." Children are quick and keen observers ; when, therefore, my companions observed that the teachers seemed to bestow some additional attention upon me, they, too, sought my com- panionship. After a few weeks, " Young West" was a favorite with all. Eight hours sleep, eight hours work, eight [yf hours recreation is the general rule observed in \ all our institutions. At our school, it was adhered to in its spirit rather than its letter. No objections were ever raised, if children, whose constitutions required more sleep than eight hours, would use some of their leisure time to take a nap. Neither were labor and recreation divided by hard and fast lines. Some of our labors were quite a recreation to us, while during the hours set aside for recrea- tion, we would sometimes engage in work, which, though playful, demanded a larger ex- penditure of muscular or brain force than actual labor did. There was another rule to which we were held. Whatever useful work children of our age could perform, we were expected to do. 36 YOUNG WEST. Thus we learned not to depend upon the ser- vices of others for our personal comfort, while on the other hand, we were instructed never to refuse friendly aid to the ones who were in need of assistance. Our little mentors, or our teachers, would show us how to perforii] a task well, but we, ourselves, had to do the work in every case. A great many changes have occurred since I was a boy and many valuable impiovements have been introduced ; however, it is a delight to me to remember my school days and it gives me pleasure to pass in thought again through the routine of one of them. From the dome of the building was suspended a large dial of a clock. It was regulated by electricity from the provincial timepiece and a gong connected with it would strike automati- cally all quarters, lialf hours, and hours. At six o'clock in the morning it would set free our orchestrion, and thus music would wake us \ from sleep and tell us that it was time to leave the bed. This mode of rousing us from slumber had been introduced only a few years before I entered school. Before this, the sound of a bell would give the signal, but it was found that many of the little ones did not hear it. The Y(}l\\(; W'h'ST. 37 frequent striking of the clock as well as the many signals that were given during the day by means of bells, had accustomed their ears to these sounds so that they failed to rouse them in the morning. The authorities, therefoi'e, in- troduced music, not as a luxury but as a neces- sity. An officer would set every night the orchestiion for a new piece of music. The repertoire covered a whole year so that the selections should not become tiresome. -^^.^''^'''^ In summer, or when some pleasure trip was to be undertaken, we would rise before the offi- cial hour. Ordinarily, however, we all rose after the first few measures of the music were heard. Our first work was to air our beds ; this done, we hastened to the natatorium or the lavato- ries. The natatorium could not accommodate all of us at a time, therefore, we took turns. Some would take their daily bath in the morning, others at noon, others before retiring at night. The ones, who did not bathe that day in the morning, washed, and combed their hair in the lavatories. Returning to the dormitory, we fijiished our toilet, and the beds, having been properly aired, were now made by us. Who would have believed in ancient times )(H,\(i \\i:sT. I that children of six years could perforin such labors? Of course their sleeping arrangements were so clumsy, that to keep them in good and healthy conditions was an unpleasant and tire- some work ; but our light aluminum cribs, could be lifted with ease by two children. It took little strength to turn the air mattresses and cushions and after we had been shown three or four times how to spread sheets and blankets, we performed that task with neatness. Under the supervision of the mentors, two of us children would first make the one bed and then the other. Within five minutes all was done. Two of the larger boys then pressed down a lever which opened the upper window panes, and two others set free the fanning machine which in less than fifteen minutes purified the air. To be tidy is but a habit. If a child is trained from his earliest youth to put everything in its proper place, and what is much more, if a proper place is prepared for everything, neatness be- comes with him a habit. After a few weeks, none of us needed to be told how to keep his personal property in order ; through mere force of habit, none of us would think of leaving a comb or towel on the floor or on the chair, or place an article where it did not belong. YOUNG WEST. 39 fTime was ours until 7.15 A. M., when we as- sembled in the dining-hall for breakfast. Around every table, sixteen of us were seated, namely : five mentors with their charges, making fifteen, and an ofiicer to supervise them. Fruit, milk, and bread, were placed in plenty upon each table, and we helped ourselves. We were al- lowed to talk and laugh at meal times, but not so loud as to interfere with the comfort of others. Embarrasing others or playing tricks upon / others for fun was avoided as shameful. It was I of rare occurrence that a pupil would overstep V the limits of propriety and would have to be reprimanded. The dining-halls extended over the second floor of the two side wings but neither of them was given to the exclusive use of either boys or gii'ls. We dined together, studied together, and .[ played together. Only our dormitories were located in opposite wings of the house. After breakfast, we would play for a while in the yard or in the gardens, read, do some work to which we had taken a fancy, or we would watch the older boys at their rougher games. At eight o'clock, we repaired to our class rooms. To every subject of study, a full hour was devoted, but no distinction was ever made as in the schools of old, between geography and his- 40 YOUNG WEST. tory, 01- between natural history and physical science, or between drawing and modelling, or reading and grammar, or writing and orthog- raphy ; all related studies were combined into one. They were taught by expert teachers and in rooms fitted up for the purpose. Each class, when in full strength, numbered not more than twenty-five pupils. At the sound of the gong, each class would file into its class-rooms to be instructed by teachers who were masters in their branch. Very few books were used ; the teacher imparted knowledge mainly by means of conver- sation. His aim was not so much to cram tlie head of the child with facts, as to develop his mind. Books were used only when labor was to be saved; when the art of reading and writing was to be practiced, or when tasks in arithmetic were given to the whole class. On the other hand, no object was ever discussed in a class without placing it, or a good model or illustra- tion of it, before the pupils. Thus we always I knew what we were talking about and, more- ' over, acquired the habit of observation. Our school government took great pride in these methods of instruction which preserved the eyesight of the pu2jil, and not infrequently were we informed that in ages long past by, eye- glasses had been a badge of scholarship. " Young YOUNG WEST. 41 West's own father," one of our teachers once told the class, " could not read a line without the use of spectacles." Then he produced photo- graphs of men of the 19th century who were renowned for their scholarship and lo, and be- hold, most of them wore eye-glasses. Some had them tied to a string or chain, others had them set in a frame. After every hour of mental work, we either had a half hour's lesson in gymnastics or calis- thenics or an hour's lesson in manual work. Dinner was served at 12 M. It consisted of delicious vegetable soups, eggs, cakes, bread and fruit. The bill of fare was changed each day. On Sunday and Wednesday, delicacies were more numerous than on the other days of the week. Till two o'clock, we were free to employ our time as we chose. Instructions then followed until 4 P. M. The hours from four to six were again our own. During that time visitors would come to see us or we would take a walk in the iields or amuse ourselves in the gymnasium, or indulge in sports. Some classes would take their turn in the natatorium. At 6 P. M., the gong called us to supper which was similar in kind to the other repasts. After sujiper, one hour's time was devoted to house- 42 YOUNG WEST. hold work preparatory to the next day. We would clean our clothes and shoes, sew on a button that threatened to fall off, darn a stock- ing or mend a rent. We learned how to do all such work, the older boys and girls helping the younger ones. As our fingers were made nimble through the handling of all kinds of tools, such work was more of a pleasure to us than a drudgery In summer time, weather permitting, we would spend the hours from 8 to 10 in the gardens ; in winter, we would play games indoors or listen to recitations, or concerts in the large hall, which were frequently given by delegations from neighboring higher schools, that came to visit us. Those who needed more hours of sleep were excused from attendance and could seek their beds whenever they felt tired. At 10 o'clock all retired for the night. This routine was never broken except on Wednesdays, Sundays, and on national holidays. On these days, the class rooms were closed and the whole time was ours. We would then travel in groups to the city to see the sights and return calls, or make excursions into the coun- try. It happened only in the first year that such privileges were denied to a few on account of misconduct ; in the second year, hardly any- YOUNG WEST. 43 one was found who would not cheerfully yield to order, and in the fourth year, a deserved reprimand, would have lost for the culprit liis mentoi'ship, a humiliation wdiich in very rare cases was incurred or inflicted. The fact that we were alwa3^s under the eye of some one and that no deed could be per- petrated in secret, accounts for the rare occurrence of any action on our pai't that could be called bad. Some teacher was always observing us and no sooner were any evil tend- encies in our characters discovered than they were uprooted either by moral instruction and rational expostulation, or in obdurate cases by the medical advisor who wfis attached to the official staff of every school. The health in general was good. The hospi- tal was rarely filled. Wise precautions made much physicking unnecessary. I cannot remem- ber ever having been seriously laid up, except once, when in a race, I fell and fractured my collarbone. I was carefully bandaged, remained for a few da^'s in the hospital, and then re- turned to my class. A word in regard to our apparel. Our clothes were simple, durable, seasonable, and artfully designed and tiimmed. Tu eacli school, the pupils wore clothes of a diflorent shade. Ours 44 YOUNG WEST. were of a light blue. In summer, we wore white calico waists, knee trousers, made of light woolens and a jacket of the same material. Our shoes were made of soft leather that required oiling once every week. Rubbing with a damp cloth would keep them clean. A soft cap, trim- med like the jacket and trousers, with braid of a darker shade, covered the head. Oxidized silver buttons formed a kind of ornamentation. Our underwear was made in part of silk and in part of fine wool. For winter wear, the materi- als were heavier, and an overcoat was added ; so wore leggings and rubber boots. The girls were dressed almost like the boys; they wore wide pantaloons covered by a short skirt. Each child had three changes of underwear and two sets of clothing. The boys were supplied in addition with overalls and the girls with wide tiers for use at the work-bench or at any kind of work that was likely to soil their garments. Speaking of cleanliness, it was easy, and it gave us pleasure to observe it. Our teachers told us how in former times people used to con- stantly war against dust and filth without ever succeeding ; how they became discouraged and allowed disintegrating matter to accumulate ; bow the work of cleaning was most unwillingly performed and called a drudgery. But they YOUNG WEST. also informed us that our ancestors had to con- tend with a great many difficulties that are unknown to us. Our sanitary arrangements and lavatories are of the best, and easily accessible; our roads are well paved ; smoke, cinders, and ashes are unknown because electricity is used now for all purposes for which formerly fires had to be built ; our buildings and furniture, made of lacquered aluminum and glass, are cleansed by delicately constructed machinery that operates automatically. The very germs of unclean matter are removed by the most powerful of disinfectants, electrified water, that is sprayed over our walls, and penetrates into every crack and crevice. The uncleanliness of the people of which the historians of former ages complain so frequently, was caused partly by their lack of machinery, partly by the moral discouragement which is apt to seize upon men when labor will never show satisfying results, partly, also, by the unequal distribution of the means of subsistence. Unclean matter, we were taught, is one of the most persistent enemies of humanity ; it poisons the health and destroys the lives of millions. It defies individ- ual assaults and it yields only when attacked by combined efforts. 46 YOUNG WEST. CHAPTER IV. The subjects which were comprised in the course of our studies, were not made in them- selves the end and aim of instruction, they were used in our schools as means of developing cor- responding mental or physical abilities. Mathe- matics, for example, were taught not for the sole purpose of making mathematicians of the pupils, but rather foi- the purpose of exercising and developing their logical faculties ; geog- raphy and natural sciences were taught for the purpose of imparting the habit of keen observation ; drawing, to awaken their sense of the beautiful ; language, to train them in the proper expression of thought ; manual work to practice eyes and hands ; gymnastics to develop muscular force and general health. Our teach- ers cared less for the readiness and skill acquired in a certain branch of knowledge, than that the real end and aims were attained by its study and its relation to the other branches. Special abilities are, after all, gifts of nature. The talented will grasp all in one lesson and YOUNG WEST. 47 excel in it with scarcely any effort on their part. Persistent training, it is true, can ac- complish much even with children who are not gifted, but whatever results are obtained, they are bought at a high price, by the suppression of some other, natural talent. Our social order employs only the talented for every kind of work which is to be per- formed ; thus we are obliged to try and discover these natural gifts and to develop them. A great many branches of study which had fig- ured prominently upon the programmes of the schools of the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies, are, therefore, entirely ignored by us. We were taught in our primary school how to read, write and cipher, we were directed to observe all objects surrounding us; we were trained how to express our thoughts in proper language; and in addition, we learned how to draw, to model in clay, and to handle and use all kinds of tools. The observant eye of our teacher easily de- tected the talents that slumbered in every child. Though we were told to take part in every kind of work in which the class was employed, we were never discouraged by vituperation if we failed in branches for which we showed no special aptitude, while we were encouraged by 48 YOUNG WEST. praise when we gave indications of the posses- sion of special gifts. After the first year, our teachers formed some estimate in regard to our natural talents and in the second thoy assigned us to classes in which courses were pursued that tended to develop these special aptitudes. A boy, slow in figures, but quick in observa- tion, was not retarded on account of his failure in arithmetic ; he was placed into a class in which that branch took a secondary rank but in which full scope was given to observation. Whoever excelled in practical woik was not discouraged or called a dunce because of his failure in purely mental work and vica versa. I showed talents and a decided predilection for all kinds of manual labor. I was handy with tools and showed special aptitude for keeping my belongings scrupulously clean. My shoes had a superior gloss, my clothes never showed a stain, my bed clothes were neatly folded. I was also a good draftsman, and I preferred to convey my thoughts by a draw- ing or a model rather than by veibal descrip- tion. I delighted to assist in the housework, and to dig in the garden was a keen pleasure- I executed with neatness whatever task was given to me. I learned to read fluently and to YOUNG WEST. 49 write a legible hand, but I cared little for liter- ature. I began to warm up for physical science only when we studied chemistry in later years. In figures, I was very slow, and only geometry and trigonometry had some charm for me. I displayed no rhetorical talents, and whatever successes I had in after life, were never the result of captivating speech. I could state a fact in plain language, but whenever I failed to convince bj^ argument, I was utterly lost. I could reach the head but never the heart of a listener. My second year found me in a class in which these, my natural talents were allowed a wider scope, and when I left school at the end of four years, I was assigned to a higher graded school in which the manual arts and labor received special attention and were given more time than studies of a literary nature. I had been a tiny babe and a weakly child, now I began all of a sudden to grow and to de- velop. My chest expanded and my muscles hardened. I could run, jump, climb, row or swim for hours without fatigue. There were others of my size and age who were my supe- riors in these sports, but I did not stand very far below them in rank. I acquired the knack of handling tools with 50 YOUNG Wi:ST. ease. In my last year, Mr. Peters frequently detailed " Young West " for work in the gaidon, and he used to watch with apparent delight how I swung a little pick axe or plied a small sized spade. My relations to my classmates were of a most pleasant nature. We formed one brotherliood ; as there were no private interests that clashed with one another, there was never cause for dis- cord. Some boys, of course, had attractions for each other stronger than had others for them, but indifference and even instinctive moral antipathy never was fanned into hostility by harsh conflict. I associated a great deal with girls and with boys who were younger than myself. Little as I cared for literary pursuits, I admired literary attainments in others and could pass hours with boys and girls who excelled in mental studies but had no taste for manual labor. I felt a kind of superioi'ity over them, when they sought my advice or came to ask my assistance. This preference developed by no means a dislike towards such of my friends, who displayed tal- ents like mine. Quite to the contrary, we would depend upon one another's help, when- ever we undertook a work that one could not well perform alone. We would then put our YOUNG WEST. 51 heads together and plan and discuss and design the task. Yet a most pleasurable feeling came over me whenever I was sitting among some younger boys or girls, listening to their prattle, and saw them watching the develop- ment of a toy, that I was making for one of them, under the clever treatment of my knife. Our teachers loved us and we idolized them. Every child found in one or the other his ideal, but that was not so great a miracle, as it may appear. Mr. Peters, constantly watchful of the unfolding of our talents, assigned us judiciously to the care of teachers who were specialists in the very branches we loved so well. Thus it was but natural that we should admire their knowledge, and eagerly imbibe their instruction. Besides, Mr. Peters, whom we all admired and loved, and who seemed to be with ns every- where, and on all occasions, 1 thought a good deal of two teachers. One was a woman and the other a man. Mrs. Howe was about thirty-five years of age. She was the wife of one of our male teachers, Mr. Howe. She had two children, a boy of twelve years, who was a member of the sciiool for which we prepared, and a girl of nine years, who was the inmate of a primary school like ours. According to the laws, children of teach- 52 YOUNG WEST. ers, had to receive their instruction elsewhere ; they came, however, on visiting days to see their parents. Mrs. Howe, I think, loved some of us scarcely less than her own children ; I was especially, one of her favorites. She taught us how to draw, how to model in clay, and similar work but while I was quick in these lessons and admired her artistic creations, I became much more attached to her for the fascination and sweetness of her personality. I loved to be in her company ; and she had always a kiss or a kind word for me. I imagined she loved me better than the rest, although she seemed as kind and considerate to all. A flock of little ones would surround her whenever she crossed our playgrounds. From her I learned, — I have good cause to believe, — the neatness and accu- racy in work, which in after life, helped me so much and raised me to the position of an officer in the industrial army. Mr. Groce was a specialist in horticulture; -he had charge over the extensive gardens that I surrounded our school. A staff of helpers Worked under his direction, but some of the gardening was done by us children. We worked slowly, it is true, but when fifty of us were ordered to dig a trench or to weed flower- beds, it took no more time than if two or three YOUNG WEST. 53 men, even five, had been set to work at it. And what pleasure it gave us to work in the garden under Mr. Groce's eye ! He would show us how to hold our little spades and rakes to best advantage. " Do your work with your heads," he would say, " and you will not blister your hands. Never go twice when you can attain the same results by going once." lie was ever watchful that we did not overwork or overheat ourselves. No matter how eager we were sometimes to finish a task, he would make us stop when he observed that our youthful strength was getting exhausted. He disliked to see work done in a slipshod manner. " Take your time, boys and girls," he would say, " but do your task properly." Although fruit and vegetables formed the larger part of our fare at the table, children love to eat fruit that they pick themselves off the tiees and bushes. He never objected to our picking berries or plucking cherries. He only warned us not to waste useful food and not to destroy our health by over indulgence. I can- not remember any boy or girl who ever ate in the garden more than an occasional berry, or a few cherries Even in the fall, when we helped to harvest the ripe fruit, we did not think of either willfully destroying the 54 VOL/Na WiJST. fruit or appropriating any for our own immedi- ate appetites. Mr. Groce seemed to take special interest in me. " I see no reason why " Young West " should not live to be an old man," he said, ''he is growing stronger every day and harrows and digs like a little man." He himself was a lover of athletic sports, an expert rider on the cycle ; an excellent swimmer and none of the teachers in the school surpassed him in pitching ball. Such qualities were sure to be admired by us boys and as Mr. Groce would drop now and then a hint to me how such feats could be accomplished, it was quite natural that I loved him and that he stands before me even now, the very ideal of manliness. When I speak of Mrs. Howe and the teachers whom I loved best while attending the primary school, 1 wish by no means to intimate that I looked upon the rest of the teachers with cold- ness, indifference or dislike. They were all well-trained educators, who had chosen their occupation out of pure love for it and it would have been a miracle had they not succeeded. I singled out these two teachers, and clung to them with particular love ; but other school- mates of mine displayed similar affection for other teachers and felt for Mr. Groce and Mrs. YOUNG WEST. 55 Howe no greater liking than I felt toward their favorites. Besides the staff of instructors, some oflicials lived in the same building with us, who pio- vided for our wants. There were cooks and bakers, engineers, carpenters, iron-workers, masons, cobblers, and butcluMS ; there weie gardeners and men who attendid to the cattle, and the products of the farm and dairy. We children came frequently in contact with them; we delighted to watch them at work, and fre- quently some of us were asked to help them or do some light work under their direction. I had many fiiends among them, especially among the men who took care of the animals. I enjoyed being near and around the stables in which all kinds of domestic animals were kept. Our cows supplied the hospital with fresh milk. The milk supply for the whole school came in a condensed form from the large national ranches where, — as we were told, — thousands of heads of cattle were kept. The few horses supported in the stables, weie used to cart farm products from the fields and gardens to the barns ; for the transportation of persons, bicycles and electric carriages sutficed. A few sheep and goats were kept to serve as objects for our lessons, so were the inmates of 56 TOVNG WEST. the poultry yard. The men and women, attend- ing to the stables and farmyard never tired of answering intelligently all our questions in regard to the life and habits of the animals in their charge. They showed us, how, when kindly treated, these dumb creatures will return our love by sincere devotion. If one of us children showed an inclination to be cruel to animals, lie was treated as one suffering from a mental disease. When I was laid up in the hospital, with a broken collar-bone, I observed that one of the boys was put to sleep and spoken to by the doctor in the same manner as T remembered ray friend Bob once was treated in the nursery. In the midst of so large a number of children, it happened that the ones who had the same likings met more frequently and at the same places, than did the rest ; that they discussed the subjects in which they were interested more thoroughly and hence became more closely attached to one another. Granting opportuni- ties for thus grouping themselves in perfect liberty, the teachers easily discovered the in- born talents of their pupils. They formed congenial classes of them and made their favor- ite topics the main objects of study. The pupils thus learned with eagerness and grasped YOUNG WEST. 57 a lesson iu a very short time. Under this system of teaching, none needed to be stimu- lated, quite to the contrary, teachers had fre- quently to curb the eagerness of boys or girls who wished to proceed before they had fully mastered a previous lesson. To teach pupils, who are eager to learn, is easy. The troubles which teachers of previous ages experienced, arose from the fact that they were forced to teach children who were unwill- ing and sometimes unable to learn certain lessons. 1 own a manuscript containing a num- ber of lectures which my father prepared and delivered shortly before his death. In one of them, he describes his life in school. Teachers were at his time censured when a sufficient number of their pupils failed to pass an exami- nation. They were obliged, therefore, to almost pump a lesson into a dull child's head. Dull? By no means. The children of that age were as bright as are ours, but they were forced to study things for which they had neither taste nor talent and were not permitted to select studies for which their innermost soul was yearning. What happy days my school days were when compared with those of my father's time ! 58 YOUNG WEST. CHAPTER V. Some time, of course passed by, before I had accustomed myself to my new suiToundiiigs. So many objects crowded upon my mind that my full attention was enlisted to master them. Time flew and more than four weeks had passed before I gave a thought to the nursery or the friends whom I had left behind. It was even by accident that I was reminded of them one day. I happened to meet Mr. Rogers in our yard. Of course I ran to him ; he took me up in his strong arms, kissed me tenderly and asked : "How is Young West? Why, you have grown to be quite a little man since I saw you last. How pretty you look in your uniform ! but you seem to have forgotten us, you never came to call upon your old friends." I could hardly keep back my tears. " I have not had a chance," I stammered. Then I asked after Miss Bella and the rest, naming a string of children whom I knew. Mr. Rogers gave all the latest news from the nursery. Before parting, he promised that he would arrange for me to visit the nurs- ery at an early day. YOUNG WEST. 59 On the following Wednesday, Milton Green received orders to take his two wards into the city. He had made the trip at various occa- sions, bnt heretofore, he had been under the supervision of a guardian, this time he was to act independently and what was a ranch greater honor to him, he was to take charge of his two little wards. The night previous to this, my first visit, I was very restless, and could not got to sleep. Long before the orchestrion began to play, I was wide awake, while Milton, whose bed stood at my right, slept as if the proposed excursion was an every day affair with him. 1 passed in my mind through all the pleasures which I ex- pected on the holiday. We were not alone to visit the nursery but to see some other friends. We were to call at the place where my mother and grandfather lived, then at the residence of Milton's relations, finally, at the parents of TTarry, our companion. How slow the hands on the dial of the large clock moved I Would morning never dawn? For the first time, I heard the wheals in the orchestrion squeak, previous to the intonation of the musical piece — then came the blast of cor- nets and trombones, the clashing of cymlials, the roll of drums ; at last — the boys opened dream- 60 YOVNQ WEST. ily their eyes, I jumped out of my bed and began to dress in such a flurry that I could not find anything. Milton helped me. " Don't be in such a haste," said he, " there is plenty of time." We put on our gala suits, passed in review before the teacher who was on duty, took break- fast and reported at the office For that day, more than two hundred children had received permission to visit the city. Each mentor received a number of cards. Some of them, I observed, Milton showed at the tunnel stations, others, he showed at the place where we took lunch, one in the hippodrome, in which we were told to spend the afternoon. A few of our teachers took the same train with us, but did not appear to supervise us ; we enjoyed perfect freedom. By way of the tunnel route, we reached the city after a few minutes ride. One month ago, when I passed the streets for the first time, the sights so bewildered me that I observed almost nothing. Now all came back so me. My friend Milton, in addition, felt duty-bound to call our attention to every large structure on our way and to explain its purposes. The trees, which lined the streets, the parks which intersected the squares, did not impress us YOUNG WEST. 61 very much ; there were larger trees near the school and the parks did not compare with our gardens. The buildings, the streets, and the people, that swarmed therein on foot, on bicycles, and in electric vehicles surprised us much more. "This is the teachers' club-house," Milton would say, "Here teachers meet and have a good time." We saw, indeed, some of our teachers entering. " Here is the post office ; here are the sample-rooms ; and right here in the neighborhood is the supply department. I have never been inside of any of these buildings, but boys who have seen the interior, could not stop speaking of the pretty things they saw exhibited therein for sale. They are ' immense.' " Im- mense was a favorite word of Milton's. He would apply it indiscriminately to express sur- prise or admiration. I had frequently observed some large objects flying through the air and INfr. Groce had told me that they were " aeroplanes." These air ships were moved by electricity and people would employ them when they travelled to foreign countries, particularly when they had to cross oceans. We now saw one of these ma- chines starting from the top of a tower. The people upon it waved their handkercliiefs as 62 YOUNG WEST. "• they rose higher and liigher, until they vanished out of our sight. We arrived safely at the square of which the nursery formed the rear. How small and in- significant it now appeared to me ! Mr. Rogers received us at the door ; the nurses, Miss Bella among them, welcomed us most heartily, the little ones ciowded around us, but although I enjoyed this greeting, T felt disappointed in a measure. I had expected to be thrilled by a more intense sensation of pleasure, and the reality was less than the anticipation. I had already outgrown the nursery, and even the charm of old friendship vanishes in course of time. I felt too old to play with these little tots ; I had a new sensation of diffidence and with the overwhelming self-consciousness of childhood T felt that to play with these other children would have lowered me in their eyes as well as my own. I, usually, preferred the com- pany of younger ones to that of older ones, but these little ones were yet dressed in kilts and I wore a uniform. That made quite a differ- ence. They were babies, while I was a school boy. We stayed just long enoue"h to enjoy the admiration of our former teachers; and we de- parted earlier than I expected to leave the place with the promise to call again. This promise TOUNO WEST. G3 was given in good faith but after a time, our visits to the nuisery grew less frequent until they ceased altogether. Mr. Rogers led us now to the adjacent wing in which my mother, her husband, and Dr. Leete, my grandfather — (Mrs. Leete had died a few years ago) — had their private apartments. The square in which they lived, was inhabited mostly by members of the medical profession, including hospital nurses. After serving a few hours a day in the hospital, they would return to their homes and use their leisure time as they pleased. Some of them, like my grandfather, who had retired from active service, would spend their time partly in study, partly in travelling. From Mr. Rogers, I learned the reason why neither my mother nor Dr. Leete had ever come to see me in school. My mother had been sick and my grandfather had just returned from a trip. When I entered the room, I found that mother was quite pale ; she held a little baby- girl in her arms. She told me that she was my new sister and that her name was Edith. We found my grandfather in an adjoining room, stretched upon a sofa, reading. Both my mother and grandfather seemed surprised that I looked so well. The latter asked me a number of questions which I answered to the best of my r.4 YOUNG WEST. knowledge, although I did not understand their drift. He also placed an instrument at my bare chest and back, and listened through it at my respiration. Then, with a knowing look at my mother, he said ; " Julian will live to be an old man, unless he meets with some unforeseen accident." Mr. Parkman, the gentleman who used to accompany my mother when she came to the nursery, was not at home that day, he was on duty. I expressed the desire to see the house and my grandfather volunteered to act as our guide. The house did not vary much in its structure and appointments from the rest of the houses, not even from the school. The underground floor contained a natatorium and the usual sani- tary accommodations ; the floor above it was divided into three parts : Kitchen, dining-hall find library, all of which were sumptuously furnished. One half of the second floor formed the parlor, and the other lialf as well as the entire third floor, to which the tenants ascended by means of elevator cars, was divided into suites of two and three rooms, which served as bed-chambers for the residents. Passing through the rooms and corridors, we nu't a number of people wlio all expressed their FOUNG WEST. 05 pleasure at seeing " Young West " in such good healtli. I observed tliat some of them wore ribbons of various coloi's in their buttonlioles, and iny grandfather explained that these ribbons were tokens of pid)lic recognition for some ex- traordinary service whicli the wearers had rendered to the community. He himself, wore the blue ribbon, which high honor had come to him througli the discovery of a specific that would cure cancer, a disease which, heretofore, had been considered incurable. He hoped that some day I would become the recipient of the thanks of the community and be decorated with at least a white ribbon. Tliis suggestion remained forever in my mind. It recurred to me when after many efforts and many failures in these later years T finally suc- ceeded and the blue ribbon was publicly tied to my buttonhole. We returned to my mother's apartments and after she had promised to return my call at an early day, we took our leave to see the relatives of my friends. The incidents of these visits were of a similar nature. At lunch time, we entered the nearest dining- liall. Milton produced his passports and we received about the same fare that we did at school. We observed, however, that the gi'own GG YOUNG WEST. up folks would order a variety of dishes which we had never seen before or tasted. Our little mentor informed us that it was not well for eliildren to partake of all kinds of food but that our promotion to high school at the age of four- teen would include also the privilege of ordering foii^iinner whatever we pleased. We spent an hour or so walking through the stieets and parks until we felt tired, and then we took a public carriage that brought us to the hippodrome. In my time, the building was not nearly so large and magnifieent as it is now, but even then it seated more than fifteen thousand persons, around the immense arena. Three performances were given each day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one during the evening. There were walking matches, bicycle races, and horse races. Trained animals showed their tricks ; men and women peiformed feats of agility, endurance, and strength, and the exhibi- tion closed with the production of a comic pantomime which was greatly enjoyed by us children, who had never seen anything like it before. Milton had visited the place several times and gave us the benefit of his knowledge, lie was quite a critic in our eyes and we al- lowed ourselves to be led by his riper judgment. I TOUNQ WEST. 67 He declared the show was " immense," and that satisfied us. The hippodrome had been lit up with thou- sands of electric lights during the performancei thus we did not observe that night was ap- proaching. When we left the building, we found it was night, but the city was ablaze with lights and wliat a magnificent sight that was ! The walls of the houses, made of stained glass, showed the most beautiful pictures, mostly historical scenes, some of which Milton was able to explain to us. I saw them afterwards so frequently that they lost their significance to me, but I remember how vigorously a few of them impressed me at the time. One of them represented the landing of the Puritans at Plymouth Rock ; another was a scene in which fire and smoke issued out of iron tubes, placed on two hills. Milton said these tubes were called cannons or guns. Two sets of uniformed people, one clad in blue, the other in gray, struck at each other with long curved knives, sabres, explained Milton ; some of these people were lying sick on the ground, bleeding from wounds as I did when Bobby hit my head with the stone, but nobody seemed to care for them, quite to the contrary, people role their horses over them. Milton said this picture was called 68 TOUJS'G WEST. the Battle of Gettysburg ; that many people had objected to exposing such a barbmous scene to the view of the 3'oung, but otheis th(jught it was well that the children should fur ni some idea of the folly and the savagery of the mecj- ia;val ages, so as not to wish for a I'eturu of those times. They would thus learn to appre- ciate more the higher virtues and nobility of our present glorious conditions of universal peace. Another picture represented a section of ancient Boston, — the Noith End. I wondered how people could have ever lived in such hov- els, and why the children in the streets looked unclean, hungry and careworn. If I admired Milton Green, it was that even- ing. I never suspected him of being so learned and well-informed. He told us that he had read how in ancient times, a few people were allowed to enjoy all the wealth of the nation while the greater number weie deprived even of the necessities of life ; that the former were called rich, the latter, poor. By that time we had reached the station, and a few minutes later, we were comfortably seated at our table in the dining hall of our school. Almost all the excursionists had re- turned. We were tired and, therefore, we sought our beds earlier than usual. YOUNG WEST. m I passed again a restless night. The day had left too many impressions upon my mind. I dreamt that I was falling from a trapeze, right into the midst of a battlefield ; horses were about to I'un over my body, when Mr. Rogers came to my rescue ; he picked me u^j, but he carried me to the North End where peo- ple took away my pretty clothes and dressed me in filthy rags and deposited me at the door of a rickety house. For the next few days, I looked pale, and Mrs. Howe, to whom I told my adventures and dreams, found it not an easy task to quiet me. However, the shadows passed by. I went to the city time and time again and I saw all the sights, without ever experiencing similar dis- comforts. CHAPTER VI. Four happy years went by. ' I had been transferred from one class to another. 1 had worn with great pride a silver cord around the collar of my jacket and had taken charge of smaller children as their mentor. We were not promoted as was the custom of the 19th century, in full classes and from one 70 YOUNG WEST. school to another ; on the contrary we under- went a process of careful sifting. Such of us as showed similar inclinations and talents were grouped together in separate school buildings for instruction and further development. I had reached my 10th year and had shown a decided liking for manual occupations rather than for mental work. I was, therefore, sent with a number of other boys and girls, who had dis- played similar traits, to an intermediate school in which the general development of faculties like ours was to receive special attention. The new school was situated at a greater dis- tance from Atlantis than was the primary department. If the schools were to adjust them- selves to the talents of the children ; if the mis- take of previous ages Avas to be avoided, by which the expanding originalities of a child were pressed into the unyeilding mold of a uni- form course of study ; if the various lines of aptitude were to be respected, it became clear as daylight that the schools must vary in their char- acters. The simplest, most economic, and at the same time, the most adequate arrangement was found in the establishment of provincial schools for an intermediary course of study. The nur- sery was strictly a local concern ; the primary school was a city institution ; the intermedi- YOUNG WEST. 71 aries weru spread over a whole province and the high schools were scattered all over the land. The primaries were recruited from the nurse- ries, the intermediaries drew from the prima- ries, with the slight difference that the prima- ries received their pupils from specified districts, while the intermediaries were filled, not accord- ing to geographical lines but in accord with the particular talents of the children. The ones, who, like my first mentor, Milton Green, showed tastes for literary pursuits, were sent to an intermediary school where these talents were predominately developed, while my friend I>ol), who seemed to care only for work that brought into play his muscular strength, had been assign- ed to one in which such gifts were turned into proper channels of usefulness ; the preponder- ance of logic that expressed itself in love for matheinathical studies was taken care of in another school, and so were schools established in which aptitudes like mine were carefully and exceptionally treated. Such rational divisions and subdivisions had become possible since the nation bad under- taken the education of its future citizens. Only on such a laige scale could useful distinctions be made. These intermediaries, though recruited from all parts of a province with regard to 72 YOUKG WEST. talents of the children, were not, what in medi- leval times, would have been called trade schools. They did not ignore the necessity of developing also faculties of a secondary or tertiary predominance. The one who inclined (toward brain work, was not excused entirely from muscular work, neither was the one who preferred the latter, permitted to neglect the culture of his mind. The schools of this order differed only in so far from one another, that better opportunities were given for the broaden- ing of these particular talents. The best educators are not infallible and thus it was expected that oace in a while children would be misjudged. Teachers would some- times be misled by appearances and assume that a pupil showed a certain talent, where in fact there was but a semblance of it ; moreover, as children grow older, their predilections some- times change. Faculties will suddenly show themselves at the age of twelve that had never been noticed before. The intermediary schools corrected such mistakes and pupils could be transferred with ease from one of them to the other. This elastic system resulted in finally placing every child into his or her proper sphere, so that, when they entered the high school, at the age of fourteen, no further changes became YOUNG WEST. 73 necessary aiul the school authorities could feel reasonably assured that the imlividuality of every child had been respected. The greater distance of the school to which. I had been promoted from the city, made trips to Atlantis more expensive. Permits for such visits were, therefore, given only four times a year or on exceptional occasions. None of usi however, seemed to care. Instead, we made fiequent excursions to other cities under the supervision of our teachers, and new friends consoled us in a very short time for the loss of I'ormer acquaintances. Only a small number of bo3''S and girls had been promoted witli me at the same time to the new school. I did not find many whom I had known in our primary school. Of my nursery friends, I recognized only two or three. This process of constant sifting and replac- ing, of scattering us all about, did not of course, permit the formation of lasting alliances. But, what of it? Our interests did not clash with one another's and why should we not feel affec- tion for classmates even after one day's aquaint- ance? As our experiences were identically the same, it took us but a very short time to come to a full understanding with a new com- panion. 74 YOUNG WEST. This constant meeting with different persons had even its advantages; the feeling of shyness and distrust vanished, which in previous ages had made the expression and the extension of good will toward a stranger, impossible. On my first visit to the city and to the primary school which I had just left, I experi- enced the selfsame feeling of disappointment that had crept over me when I paid my first visit to the nursery. Within a few wrecks, I had outgrown these circles and Mr. Groce, the chief gardener, impressed me no longer with the same admiiation with which I used to look up to him. My visits ceased, therefore, after a while. Our school building was modelled after the plan of our primary school but it was larger in its dimensions. Instead of three stories, each wing was seven stories high, to meet require- ments. Both the system and the discipline were similar to that of the primary department. The boys of the senior class acted as officers, each supervising five pupils of the three lower classes. This left a number of them unem- ployed and out of these were chosen commis- sioned officers, each in charge of five squads. At the head of each company, stood a special officer and another at the head of each battal- YOUNG WEST. 75 ion, which numbered when in full strength, 125, including himself. Each officer reported to his superior and the chief of a battalion, to one of the teachers. The same arrangement held good also for the girls who took their meals and lessons jointly with the boys. They learned to handle hammer and chisel as well as the boys, while we learned how to thread and use a needle or how to set a table as well as the girls. Only their dormitories were situated in a different wing of the build- ing and stood under the sole control of women. The girls also had a natatorium of their own, which, however, did not prevent them from tak- ing occasionally a swim with the boys in a lake near tlie school. The mode of instruction was also similar to that of the primary school. Lessons were im- parted directly through the teacher and not by means of text books. Teacher and class worked together ; the teacher showing how to master a certain fact by observation. In the study of geography our memory was not crammed with a thousand names of cities, mountains, rivers or lakes that existed some- where in the interior of Africa, but, instead, we learned, how to find our way to any given place in the neighborhood by using maps. Every 76 YOUN'O WEST. one of us was able to draw a map of his sur- roundings at sight, which containing a clear description of the situation, could be read with ease by the rest of us. When an excursion on foot or on bicycles was planned, the map of the territory to be visited was studied beforehand ; each of the excursionists made a general sketch of it for his own use and though we left the school in various groups of not more than thirty, there was no fear that we would ever fail to meet at a given point. On our way, we verified our maps, and when dismissed, we found our way home without the aid of our teachers. These excursions extended some- times over a circle of one hundred miles in diameter and lasted from five to ten days. Neither was our memory overloaded with names of animals, stones, and plants, or with anecdotes, more or less true, describing their characteristics. We simply learned how to observe every object and how to note its quali- ties. A flower was placed in the hands of a pupil and he would at once notice its similarity with or difference from other plants and de- scribe them in every detail. We never returned from our excui'sions empty- handed ; we always brought some object that excited our curiosity, and about which we de- TOUNG WEST. 77 sired further information. If a clear distinction l)( tween our system of teaching and that of pre- vious ages is to be given in a few words, it could be formulated into the following sentence : Heretofore, the teacher questioned the pupil, now the pupil questioned the teacher. All reasonable questions were answered. Either the explanation was given in a straightforward manner or ways and means were outlined by which the pupil could go to work to find out for himself. Foolish questions received no reply, and as this was a rebuke, they rarely occurred. We had learned how to read and write, but while we were utilizing these acquisitions, we were now taught also a system of writing by which we could note down sentences as rapidly as they were spoken. We also practiced writ- ing by machine. This latter knowledge proved to be of great usefulness because all our tele- graphs were manipulated by similar keyboards and all official communications were sent by telegraph. The English language had so far been the only language which we had studied. We learned how to use it properly and arti.stieally but in the int Ix' 82 YOUNG WEST. added to it, in order to afford me pleasure. (^hemistry, for instance, fascinated me because / it gave employment to both my mind and \ my hands. Still I cared less for its theories than for its application to agricultural pur- suits. Mr. Gordon, the principal of the intermediary school, in which T now lived, guided somewhat by my records from the nursery and the primary school, noticed how, as I advanced in years, these two qualities began to blend. He neither stimulated this process nor did he impede it; he gave it free play, allowing me the employment I liked best and excusing me as far as was permissible from studies which did not correspond with my tastes. Our teachers were lovable and I can hardly I decide now whom of them I loved most. They were, — as were all the teachers, — experts in their special branch of instruction. It was, therefore, quite natural that they should put their whole soul into their work and thus weave a spell around us while we were under their influence. Of course, we felt greater attach- ment to the ones under whom we studied than to those who taught parallel classes, but as we frequently came in contact with them, espe- cially in excursions, we were attracted to them YOUNG WEIST. 83 in proportion to our congeniality of tastes and disposition. The relations that existed between class- mates were cordial. Some, it is true, were moie sympathetic to one another and antipathies were not overcome entirely, but while the for- mation of clubs was encouraged of such as were sympathetic, antipathies were not allowed to assume or to degenerate into hostility. The few, for whom one cared less, were simply left to themselves, and they in their turn formed alliances which were congenial to them. There was room for all kinds of selections. Aiiionrj the thousand inmates, we could easily find a number of friends. Any instinctive dislikes or discords of temperament were weakened partly by the fact that the characters that did not appeal to our fancy were lost in the crowd, partly by way of links. While I might harbor a feeling of antipathy, — for which I could give no reason — towards a certain boy or girl, a sympathetic friend of mine might happen to bo attracted by the very same person that I was uninterested in, or disliked. Such a mutual friend would bring us nearer to each other so that our aversions were, at least, kept within jiroper bounds. Rivalry existed. Why should it not ? It is M4 YOUNG WEST. the spice of life. We endeavored to excel one another in doing our best. It was an honor to win in a race, or in a game, or to turn out the most perfect work, but our rivalry was built upon the appreciation of merit. Besides the feeling of satisfaction, of having done his best, or having won the admiration of his classmates, to which was joined the appreciation of the teachers, the victor expected no personal advan- tages from his victories. The defeated party would always be the first to acknowledge defeat and to congratulate the winner, while the win- ner would acknowledge in turn, the merits of his vanquished opponent. Thus the sting of defeat was robbed of any bitterness or poison. Neither were the strong ever pitted against the weak; and to show exultation because they were stronger or more clever by nature than others, would have been bad form. If nature had given to any one a superiority over others in a certain branch, such superiority was to be applied to help the weaker brother. If I could swim better than another, it was my duty as well as my privilege to watch over him, while we were bathing, so that no mishap should occur to him. If he could stand the strain of handling his shovel for a longer time than I, it became his duty as well as his privilege to help YOUNG WKST. 85 lue finish my task. Nature does not create men e(j[ual, but man can lift himself by his in- tellect above nature, mend her shortcomings and divide the common burden so that it will not rest with its whole weight upon the shoul- om this gallery, a number of doors led into the interior, a large hall, which received its light partly from above through a huge cupola of glass, partly from clusters of electrical lamps. Seats, rising in amphitheatrical form, sur- rounded a platform of lacquered aluminum upon which stood on a trap door, a casket made of asbestos. A neat chancel arose in the rear, to which the speakers ascended upon winding stairs. The casket contained at this hour tlie body of Dr. Leete. A wreath of laurel rested upon the half opened lid. Crossing the platform to the seats which were reserved for relatives and the most intimate friends, we cast a last glance upon his well known features. His eyes were closed as in sleep. He had worn the blue ribbon, therefore, the heads of every governmental department, dom- iciled in Atlantis, had been convened. They 92 YOUNG WEST. filled a whole section of the hall. The medical fniild had turned out in full force and occupied another section ; the guild of hospital nurses was represented by a large delegation ; literary clubs of which the departed had been a mem- ber, had sent their representatives ; people, who had been cured by his medical skill, showed their gatitude by their attendance. Two hours are granted to each funeral party and as it takes almost fifteen minutes to reduce the body to ashes, and fifteen minutes are usu- ally spent in preliminary arrangements, such as the seating of guests, etc., the exercises cannot be extended beyond the limit of one hour and a half. An orchestra, hidden from sight, now began to play a dirge, after which, a member of the government, also a wearer of the blue ribbon, ascended the pulpit. In eloquent words, he extolled the merits of the departed and expressed the gratitude which the world owed him for the valuable services rendered. > Other speakers succeeded him ; one described Dr. Leete's career both as a citizen and physi- cian, another spoke of his lovable character and how he had cured people and removed suiTering, almost as often by his cheerful presence at the bedside of a patient as by specifics. YOU^'G Ml^ST. 03 Tlie last orator, speaking of the future, refer- red to the various beliefs that people harbored in regard to personal continuity. " Death," said he, '■ is as much a mystery to us in our day as it has always been to mankin(L If matter is indeed indestructible, how can the forces which permeate it, cease to be ? In fact, matter cannot exist witliout mind, nor mind without matter, they are one, but whether the same atoms which compose a certain body, or the same forces which dwell therein as mind, will continne in their combinations ; whether their number will increase or decrease, or in other words, whether we will remain personali- ties, no matter in what form, we do not know and never will. To deny a pei'sonal existence /after death, is as presumptuous on our part as ' to afhrm it." '•If there are some who lead a noble life, inspired by the belief that it is preparatory to a new state of existence, why should we rob them of their hap])iness by demanding a proof for their assertion, which they can never give? If there arc others who feel satisfaction in the thought that death is the end of individual, or personal activity ; that the atoms will disband in order to form new creations, or that the forces that inhabit them as mind, will now 94 YOUNG WEST. enter into other forms to do similar service, wliy shall we demand of them to accept theories of personal continuity for which they find no room in their reason ? " " Neither the past nor the future must concern us, it is the present for which wo must have a care. If a personal state of existence does await us after death, so much more pleasant will be our disappointment. We will then accommodate ourselves to the new conditions, as we were forced to place ourselves into proper relationship with the conditions here on earth." " To live nobly and to enjoy fully the one life of which we know most, must be our foremost aspiration, and by our work to aid contempo- raries and co-workers that they may enjoy the measure of time assigned to them, as we do, must be our foremost duty." " Howevei', as the past has prepared for our welfare, so must we prepare for the well-being of the generations that are to come after us. As we have profited by the labors of our pro- genitors, so let our children profit by ours." " Our departed friend has fully understood his duties and he has worked in accordance w^ith such undeistanding. Ilis studies were ever devoted to researches how to remove pain and how to prolong life to its utmost limits. YOUNG WEST. 95 He has conquered a disease which had baffled the skill of the most learned medical men, Tlie results of his studies will live, therefore, to the end of time. Thousands of sufferers will praise him, and thank him for the years of life, which through his discovery, have been added to theirs. His name will be mentioned with reverence and gratitude by our remote descend- ants, when ours will be long forgotten. Such is immortality indeed ! " By some invisible mechanism, the casket slowly sank from sight. The trap door through which it had disappeared, closed noise- lessly. The music died away in a plaintive Adagio, executed by a few string instruments. About fifteen minutes passed when the folding doors opened and an urn, containing the ashes of Dr. Leete, appeared upon the platform.* The leaves of the laurel wreath that had decorated the casket were now distributed among the nearest relatives of the departed. I received one and afterwards placed it in the portfolio which Dr. Leete had given to me. That night, I was unable to sleep. Whether the imposing ceremonies of the cremation had excited me ; or whether every piece of furniture •All urns are deposited in the city maufloleniu, one of the rtii- eat structures in the land. YOUNG WEST. in the room brought back to my memory the kindness ^Yhich my grandfather had always shown me. I cannot tell. My thoughts wan- dered from one subject to another. What was death ? I had frequently observed the cessation of life in plants and animals; I had seen flowers fade and wither; I had found birds lifeless in their cages ; I had seen chickens, lambs, calves, and once a cow slaughtered to be prepared for the table of our teachers, bnt I had never before seen the corpse of a human being. What did the orators refer to, when they spoke of a future life, of immortality, of the indestructibility of matter and mind? I began to remember a number of occurrences to which before I had never given a thought. Once, one of my schoolmates was transferred from the school to the city hospital. He had always been a feeble boy and was troubled with a painful cough ; we used to lead him to the sunniest places in the garden and to help him in iiU his tasks, which he wished to per- form, although the teachers had gladly excused him. He went and never returned to school. We were told that he died. Was it painful to die? While wo woie swimming in the lake, one (l;