DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Glenn Negley Collection of Utopian Literature LOOKING AHEAD. TWENTIETH CENTURY HAPPENINGS. BY H. PEREIRA MENDES, Pastor of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, New York City, Author of "England and America" "The Solution of War" etc. X*P TENNYSON-NEaT^TP 5: 4 fjjrm publisher ca« •J^ F. TENNYSON NEELY, PUBLISHER, LONDON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO Copyright, 1899, by F. Tennyson Nkklt, in United States and Great Britain. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. paok Knowest Thou the Land? 7 CHAPTER H. Brave Little Holland 21 CHAPTER III. Anglo-Saxon Confederation 36 CHAPTER rV. The Invasion of England 48 CHAPTER V. The Beginning of the End 66 CHAPTER VI. The Social Aspect 76 CHAPTER VII. The Political Aspect 92 CHAPTER VEIL The Religious Aspect 104 CHAPTER IX. Secret Societies 116 CHAPTER X. Catholic and Greek Church Against the Protestants. 141 CHAPTER XI. The Fall of Constantinople 164 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. PAGE Al Jehad— the Holy War! 174 CHAPTER XIII. The Happy Suggestion 192 CHAPTER XR T . The Solution of Evils 209 CHAPTER XV. Who Shall Have Palestine's Holy Places? 231 CHAPTER XVI. The Valley of Decision 245 CHAPTER XVII. The Bar of the World's Justice 257 CHAPTER XVIII. The Plea of the Catholic Church for Palestine's Holy Places 271 CHAPTER XIX. The Plea of the Protestant Church 285 CHAPTER XX. The Plea of the Greek Church 298 CHAPTER XXI. The Plea of Islam 305 CHAPTER XXII. Plea of the Free-Thinker 325 CHAPTER XXIII. The Plea of the Jew 331 CHAPTER XXIV. The Decision 354 INTRODUCTION "Adam's stature reached from the earth to the firmament." Like other sayings of ancient Hebrew sages, this is embroidery of fancy that hides a noble truth, a truth easily revealed if thought be called to discover it. In similar Oriental fashion I hide three thoughts in the embroidery of fancy, one in each of the three parts into which "Looking Ahead" can naturally be divided. In the first, which may be termed the political part, the thought is that a union of English speaking nations will be a mighty moral and phj 7 sical power productive of peace for the world. In the second, which may be termed the so- cial part, the thought is that in human affairs and government, Reverence, or Religion, sym- Vi INTRODUCTION. bolized by the term "Board of Pastors," must enter, if public and not private welfare is to be sought; that is to say, "Reverence for God, or Religion, considered as personal conduct, not as a system of dogma or belief," must be "the foundation stone, walls, pillars, rafters and roof" of every human institution. In the third, which may be termed the relig- ious part, the thought is that the preservation of the Jews and the restoration of a Jewish State are divinely designed for the ultimate benefit of all mankind, and not at all for the well-being of Jews only. They mean the real- ization of the only Court of Arbitration for In- ternational disputes which can be unbiassed; and what is of equally tremendous importance and value for the world, they mean a spiritual center for the world, as Rome is for the Catho- lics, except that Palestine will have no tempo- ral aspirations. And they mean a world univer- Bit}% where the world's best thoughts, drawn from all nations besides, will work for the weal of the world, i.e., for human enlightenmoct. I acknowledge my indebtedness to certain INTRODUCTION- vii Christian ministers and writers for some of the quotations embodied in the pleas of Catholic, Protestant and Free-Thinker. I have only to add that even the "embroid- ery" is founded on facts, actual occurrences, or cuttings from newspapers,magazines,pamph- lets, etc. Thus, the invasion of Holland is from the New York Herald, August 7, 1887; the plot to destroy Vienna, ditto, October 11, 188G; Tower of London blown up, January 24, 1885; wreckage of steamer by an Irishman, August 7> 1887; railway bridge blown up, Provi- dence Journal, August 17, 1887, etc., etc., etc. Out of hundreds of such threads the embroid- ery is constructed. I shall be happy indeed if the embroidery serves its highest purpose, to portray the pattern which designs Peace, Religion or Reverence, and Enlightenment. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Duke University Libraries http:/^www.archive.org/details/lookingaheadtwenOOmend LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER I. KNOWEST THOU THE LAND? You ask me to tell you something about the great events which led to the happiness which all nations have now enjoyed for some years. God be thanked for all, since everything has been overruled for the best. But it did seem as if man was doing everything for the worst! I am an old man to-day. But the chief of those events — and they marched quickly when they did begin to march — are perfectly fresh in my mind. Three or four of them stand out with special prominence. Others may be grouped around them as being of secondary importance, though it must be confessed they all were great enough in their way and in their day. 8 LOOKING AHEAD. First was the federation of all English speak- ing nations. It took time and patience to achieve, but it became a tremendous guaran- tee of peace for the world, though of course not a decisive one. Next was the solution of evils which long hud vexed the world but which had become in- tensified by the remarkable growth of trusts and the massing of capital in the hands of a comparative few, while the working classes were multitude. Terrible vice was at times revealed among the wealthy and every kind of vileness born of greed among their allies, the politicians. These politicians avowedly entered politics with the intention of making money out of it and never with any idea of self-sacri- fice, in order to serve one's country. And as for the working classes, men and women were becoming mere machines without the slightest chance of ever being able to set up for them- selves. The third great event was the end of the colonizing efforts of nations. For all unappropriated lands in Africa and LOOKING AHEAD. 9 in Asia were gradually appropriated by one or other of the great powers, and such semi- civilized countries as China and Turkey were deprived of one province after another. The fate of Turkey really brought matters to a crisis. For it brought up the question, "Who shall have Palestine?" The great Powers were dis- tracted with jealousies, with jealousies com- mercial, with jealousies political, above all with jealousies religious. With jealousies commercial. For Palestine is geographically the commercial key to Asia. It is the great receiving and distributing center for trade between the immense populations of three continents. It is the railway center of Europe, Asia, and Africa; and now Australia lands her produce and loads with cargo at Pal- estine's Red Sea ports. From Cape Town on the south, Congo, Senegambia and Morocco on the west, the trans- African railroads converge at Cairo and thence the traffic pours by trunk- line to Jaffa and other Palestine ports. Simi- larly from Bombay, Singapore, Mirs-Bay, 10 LOOKING AHEAD. Vladivostock, the trans-Asian railways gather up the trade of Asia, and meeting the Arme- nian system at Damascus, pour it by trunk line into Jerusalem and its port, Jaffa. Commercial jealousies! No wonder they were tremendous, for all nations saw the tre- mendous commercial possibilities and certain- ties of Palestine long before they were de- veloped. With jealousies political. Because all the great nations recognized Palestine's political importance. For it stood geographically the sentinel over the Suez Canal — a vital commu- nication between those powers and their colonies or possessions in Asia, East Africa, and Australasia. With jealousies religious. These were the most bitter. Catholic, Protestant, and Greek- Church wanted the land whose sacred soil ap- pealed to each. The horrors of those days of religious jealousies, of religious wars abroad and religious strifes at home ! Do not let me anticipate. Where shall I begin? Perhaps the second Franco-German war will be as good a place as any. LOOKING AHEAD. 11 Feverish jealousy of other powers had long actuated each government; "My strength lies in the weakness of my neighbors," was a poli- tical axiom of each nation. This was the cause of both the Franco-German and Russo-German wars. People had been thunderstruck at the swift and successful advances of the German armies, in the war of 1870. Terrible was the suffering of France in defeat, fearful was the loss of Germany in blood. The superiority of the German troops, officers and men , their better education, grand organization and skill- ful tactics won the day then, over French bravery. The collapse of France was sudden, complete, and stupefying. Not so in the second Franco-German war, for the intervening years had been busily utilized by France. Her armies were vastly improved. She had wonderful weapons and engines of war. And as if every effort and thought had been directed in the interim to qualify her hosts for revenge and recovery of her lost provinces, she had neglected nothing that would keep alive a passionate and intense [■> LOOKING AHEAD. sentiment in the hearts of her children against the German races. There had been frequent ebullitions of mutual hate, arrests of spies, front- ier troubles, demonstrations and suppression of demonstrations. At last the gauntlet was thrown down and taken up. Stories of awful carnage were flashed through the world. France was mad with blood-lust, would not dream of defeat, would not listen to a whisper of fresh humiliation, and blind with fury, grappled with her mighty foe. Germany feared to lose Alsace and Lorraine. Above all her emperor knew that defeat meant a break up of the German empire and consequent weaken- ing of German interests throughout the globe — ■ interests which were only sustained by the strength born of united Germany. History is still fresh with the story of the siege of Belfort and the occupation of La Champagne, Franche Compte and Burgundy, the grand but unsucessful dash at Metz, the capture of Strasburg and siege of Colmar. The weeds grow dank to-day where men fought, and the plowman yet turns up weapons, bones LOOKING AHEAD. 13 and accoutrements where Frank and Teuton strove. On swept Germany's hosts to Paris, only to be hurled back in defeat upon Rheims and Valmy. On swept her armies to the south — Bourg, Lyons, Grenoble were captured and Le Puy, Mende and Avignon saw her uhlans. A swift turn of war threw a. French army corps on her flank. Two new French armies seemed to rise from the soil. One hurled itself on Metz, the other marched to Dijon, Vesoul, and Belfort, where it raised the siege of the Ger- mans, was reinforced by two hundred thousand men, who had been shut up in its forts, and wheeling round, advanced on German territory. All. France was insane with joy at the tidings, and when the news was sent that Colmar was taken and Freiburg threatened, a terrible impetus was given the war fever. It roused the Germans to retrieve their loses by retreat- ing from south and central France, concen- trating their forces and hurrying more hosts from Germany. But the French had cut their lines and were intrenched too firmly. A truce was called, and through the good offices of U LOOKING AHEAD. England, the truce became a peace. That night a mob in Paris declared the government deposed, seized and shot the whole of the cabinet-ministers for making peace when the cry of "a Berlin," seemed a true tocsin of victory, and for willfully throwing away the wreath of victory at the very moment when it seemed in their grasp. Next day by a coup- 'V t'tut the house of Orleans reigned again. The Russo-German War was longer — the im- mense resources of Russia making up for her inferiority in quality of troops. It arose from clashing interests in Syria. Much blood was shed and Russia lost her Baltic provinces. It was in this war that a Russian regiment com- posed almost wholly of Hebrews, asked permis- sion to prove their loyalty by leading an attack on a German intrenchment near Breslau, in the hope that such an exhibition would tend to show the Russian government that the Jews were worth}* of fair treatment and justice. Per- lnission was granted. It failed, but not through lack of their bravery. For they were all found dead, mowed down in their ranks, but LOOKING AHEAD. 15 in every case with face to the foe. The pathos of these heroes' deaths was heightened by the afterward ascertained fact that the German soldiery opposed to them was largely composed of Hebrews. Strange fact which made Jew kill Jew ! And yet not more strange than that which made Christian kill Christian! But how sublime the evidence of Jews' loyalty to the land of their birth — and more sublime when we remember Russia's persecution of that un- happy people ! It brought up the Jewish problem, or, as it was called, the Anti-Semitic question, for humanity is humanity after all. And the pathos of that awful carnage of Jew at the hand of Jew touched the hearts of all good men and gentle women. "Why have they not, these Jews, become Christians? Why do they not do so?" was constantly asked. And the answer as con- stantly given was: "We are waiting to find out which sect, Catholic, Greek-Church or Protest- ant, and of the latter especially, which sub-sect, is the true Christianity. It would be a pre- It) LOOKING AHEAD. sumption, an impertinence on our part to de- cide. And especially are we incapable of judg- ing because we believe that the great founder of Christianity himself said : 'Think not that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophet ; I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law till all be fullfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least com- mandments, and shall teach men so. he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven." "From these verses it seems to us that Jesus' religion was that of the law and prophets; that he pronounced them unchangeable and declared any man who changed them unfit for heaven. Rather 3*011 Christians should become Jews even as Jesus was a Jew, than we should be- come Christians. "We can no more understand why you set aside his 'Law and the Prophet,' than we can LOOKING AHEAD. 17 understand why you disobey him by abolishing his the, seventh day, Sabbath." So wrote a Jewish minister. He was answered: ''Give up your false reasoning and become Christians, give up your Jewish patriotism and become patriots of the land of your birth." He replied in enthusiastic language: "I quoted from your own New Testament, have I quoted falsely? If I became a Christian I must become what Christ was, a Jew, a better Jew than many a Jew of to-day. I am already a Jew. Your taunt ' become patriots of the land of your birth,' is cruel and unjust — witness the trenches of Breslau where Jew fought Jew a month ago, so grandly! As for giving up Jewish patriotism here is my, here is our an- swer!" And he published a song called : KNOWEST THOU THE LAND ? Knowest thou the Land ? Where Lebanon's great cedars proudly toss their mighty branches, And the sun declining bathes in glory Carmel by the Sea. Where Jordan winds and glides beside the glades and glens of Gilead, And the moonbeams kiss the wavelets on the lakes of Galilee ? — 18 LOOKING AHEAD. Tis the land of the Hebrew, his heart's sole delight, No joy can her sons ever know, For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion alone in her woe! For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion alone in her woe! Knowest thou the Land ? Where vineyards are empurpled with the heavy drooping cluster, And the rustling of the golden grain makes music sweet to hear, Where verdant pastures stud the land from Dan unto Beersheba, And the ruins of the Temple wake the heart and call the tear ? — 'Tis the land of the Hebrew, his heart's sole delight No joy can her sons ever know, For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion bereft and in woe! For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion alone in her woe! God protect the Land ! The f oeman's sword may drive us forth to die or lie in dungeon, And the byword of the nations Judah's children long may be, — LOOKING AHEAD. 19 But on the day that sees us false, may Heaven's Light be darkened — Our tongues be stilled, our hearts be hushed, before we're false to thee ! O thou land of our fathers, our heart's sole delight, No joy can thy sons ever know, — For our thought by the day and our dream by the night, Art thou, Zion, loved and in woe! For our thought by the day, and our dream by the night Art thou, Zion, loved and in woe ! It brought up Jerusalem to notice and in a way quickened the "Eastern Question," long the bete noire of Europe, and first raised by old Chedorlaonier of Abraham's day. From his invasion to this day, what interest has gathered around Palestine and especially around Jerusa- lem! The shouts of David's warriors, the hymns of Solomon's priests were but too speedily fol- lowed by the wild rush of the horsemen of Egypt ; the thunder of the chariots of Babylon. Not an age but blood flowed there — Persian, Greek, Syrian, Roman, and more than all, Jewish blood, until the storm-swirl of Islam's warriors swept all away! Again blood flowed and swords clashed as battle-axe swung, scimetars 20 LOOKING AHEAD. flashed and arrows were hurled, proclaiming the Crusader and Saracen fighting for Jerusalem. The Christians were defeated. The Saracens remained the victors; and the Crescent grew until its horns touched France, reached Crimea, and cast a shadow on Vienna. Soon was the zenith reached ; but while Martel at Tours, and Ferdinand at Grenada drove in the Crescent's horn on the West, John of Austria at Lepanto, Sohieski of Poland at Vienna, and Potemkin of Russia in the Crimea, drove down the horn at its eastern extremity, and made the crescent wane. LOOKING AHEAD. 21 CHAPTER II. BRAVE LITTLE HOLLAND. France never forgot her claims in the East which the first Napoleon had stoutly urged. Germany had acquired recognized rights in S}*ria. Austria, more than ever since her defeat by Prussia made her a Slav state, desired an ap- proach to the JEgean Sea, over whose waters the commerce of Constantinople passed. Italy had Mediterranean claims to guard. Russia's eyes were never taken off Constantinople. She wanted a southern outlet for her com- merce, because all her other coasts were frozen in winter, and she wished as head of the Greek Church to have the holy places of Palestine. Her first object she furthered by posturing as the protector of the Balkan States. By making them her tools, she approached nearer to the city she coveted — for 22 LOOKING AHEAD. they were all "on the road to Constantinople." Her second object, she promoted by publicly posturing as the leader and protector of the Greek Church. The latter roused the Pope, as head of the Catholic countries such as France, Italy, and Spain, to work against Russia. This was easily accomplished by means of his lieutenants, the Jesuits, and his subordinates, the clergy. Germany objected to Russia's aims because it would add too much to Russia's political power. But she was for some years pacified by Russia's promise to second her efforts to get a footing in the further East. Russia first found it neces- sary to crush Austria, for she could not brook that she, or any power on the ^Egean, should cut off her commerce, and close her southern outlet. Hence the great Austro- Russian war, apparently an outgrowth of the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire some years before, and the scramble for the pieces. This was the first time that the war-balloon was used, and with complete success. The LOOKING AHEAD. 23 Russian fleet entered the Adriatic, appeared off Trieste, inflated a balloon, and directed it over the city by its electric alae or steering apparatus. In less than one hour Trieste was ruiDed. The death-dealing machine swept on to Vienna, de- stroyed that beautiful city, and brought Aus- tria to her knees in subjection. Poor Austria ! How she regretted her withdrawal from the old "Triple Alliance!" The czar's officer refused to be "San Stephanoed" by England and France. His charge-d 'affaires incorpo- rated Hungary and Bosnia and of course her Polish provinces into his empire. To Ger- many, Russia assigned her victim's German provinces; to Italy, Istria and Dalmatia in re- turn for her acquiescence. This strengthen- ing of Italy was a gain for England, her ally. Russia, however, could not help that. She could never have even entered the Adriatic had it not been for Italy's acquiescence. But most of all, England was girding for the fray. She had already acquired Cyprus, and she had a firm grasp on Egypt despite French, Russian and Turkish opposition. 24 LOOKING AHEAD. Unhappy land of the Pharaohs, destined ever to be as the Hebrew seer foretold, "a lowly- state." The cause of English interest in Egypt was not only to protect her own bondholders, but to guard her communications with India, the most valuable gem in her crown, and with her cen- tral and southern African possessions. As a Protestant nation she also joined the Catholics in their opposition to Russia's claims, whose success would give the Greek-Church too great an ascendency. Russia saw that England was really her chief opponent, and, in order to deal with her single handed, she sought to buy off France and Germany. She had long had an understanding with France, and the two had even arranged for the partition of the British Empire. The time had not been ripe for that yet. But it was known to be a fact. For the present she wished to propitiate Germany still more. She therefore promised to engage the resources of England, while France took Bel- gium, and Germany appropriated Holland. In return they were to connive at the incorpora- LOOKING AHEAD. 25 tion of all the Balkan powers and the rest of European Turkey in her own empire. This was three years after her conquest of Austria. The heroism of the Hollanders and the bravery of the Belgians demand more than passing notice. The noble defense of Liege, Antwerp, Grpningen, Deventer, the Hague and Arnheim showed that the same spirit animated the gallant Netherlander as in the days of Alva, the Spaniard. Women demanded to be allowed to assist in all duties possible for them to perform, and schoolboys, burning with en- thusiasm, insisted on being enrolled. At Ley- den history repeated itself. As the historian Motley says of the siege by the Spaniards three centuries and a half before, so it happened again, "Bread, maltcake, horseflesh had en- tirely disappeared; dogs, cats, rats, and other vermin were esteemed luxuries. A small num- ber of cows kept for their milk still remained ; but a few were killed from day to day and dis- tributed in minute portions hardly sufficient to support life, among the famishing population. Starving wretches swarmed daily around the 26 LOOKING AHEAD. shambles where these cattle were slaughtered, contending for any morsel which might fall, and lapping eagerly the blood as it ran along the pavement while the hides, chopped and boiled, were greedily devoured. Women and children, all day long, were seen searching gutters and elsewhere for morsels of food, which they disputed fiercely with the famishing dogs. The green leaves were stripped from the trees; every living herb was converted into human food; but these expedients could not avert starvation. The daily mortality was frightful. Infants starved to death on the maternal breasts which famine had parched and withered; mothers dropped dead in the streets wilh their dead children in their arms." In the midst of all, the Germans poured in their iron hail, and rendered ruins more ruined still. "A few murmurs were however, occa- sionally heard at the steadfastness of the mag- istrates, and one evening a crowd gathered round the burgomaster who was also the mili- tary commandant. They pointed to the dead and dying, and respectfully suggested surren- LOOKING AHEAD. 27 der. One man who had lost his wife and daughters through hunger, and his sons on the ramparts righting, said bluntly, that the limit was reached, and threatened the brave leader. He, knowing that the majority preferred death to surrender, as he personally did, exclaimed "What would ye, my friends? Why do ye murmur that we break not our vows and sur- render the city. ... I tell you, I have made my oath to hold the city, and may God give me strength to keep my oath. My own fate is indifferent to me; not so that of the city in- trusted to my care. I know that we shall starve if not soon relieved. . . . Your menaces move me not. My life is at your disposal. Here is my sword; plunge it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender as long as I remain alive." Thus he spoke, as he stood by the old Church of St. Pan eras. History repeated itself. In other parts of the country dykes were opened and the patient labor of centuries was lost in a few hours. 28 LOOKING AHEAD. But England would not remain inactive. She insisted on treaties being respected. Her fleet sailed into Constantinople. Her agents stirred the Balkan powers into union against Russia; their united forces thus joined checked Russia's attempt to surprise the capital of the Turks. Pledged to keep Belgium and Luxem- burg free, she spared neither money nor men. She declared war against France and Germany, summoned her colonies to her aid; and nobly they responded. But who could have foreseen the wonderful effect on the United States of America! It is true there yet lingered some ill-feeling against the English for their sympathy with the South in the great Civil War of 1861-65, and perhaps there was a little commercial jealousy. The hereditary hatred of Ireland toward Eng- land, though practically dead from the moment Irish Home-Rule had become an established fact, as it had twenty years before, still hissed feebly now and then, from press-scribblers, hun- gry and starved for want of public attention. But American manhood proved of too sterling LOOKING AHEAD. 29 a quality to allow such sentiments to prevent American action. And after all, blood was thicker than water. The two nations had been gravitating toward one another for many years. It did not want much to show Americans that this time England was on the side of Justice and was striving, at enormous cost of men and money, to keep treaty obligations which France, Germany and Russia, banded in injus- tice, were breaking. Thus a preacher, a de- scendant of the famous Channing, spoke, in words whose ring thrilled the hearts of those who heard or read : "If one nation is to cherish animosity against another which once has wronged it, or which twice or any number of times has wronged it, and shall cherish that animosity forever, when will Peace Universal dawn? To what end is our religion of Peace and Good-will, and wherefore died He who died for mankind's weal. No, here is onr motherland fighting, ay here is our mother to whom we owe our Saxon and therefore, best blood, fighting fcr honor, fighting to help Holland and Belgium, 30 LOOKING AHEAD. two brave, and above all, unoffending nations — ■ fighting too, to bridle the power of Russia, the most despotic nation on earth. Since when did America love despotism? Therefore, how can we sympathize with Russia? Since when has America stood up before the world, j T ea, before the bar of high Heaven to whose aid alone we owe our own independence and prosperity, as a sympathizer with high-handed robbery of the independence of two peaceful nations? Then how can we give France and Germany even our moral support, even as much as is conveyed in one of criticism of England? Speak not of the aid France gave us in our moment of need ! 'Twas not because she loved us, 'twas because she loved more to see England's humiliation, and wished to weaken her. Go further back in history to the middle of the seventeenth cen- turj-, and seek there the cause of that French hatred of England. 'Twas because the Eng- lish voice had pronounced against the so-called divine right of kings; it was because England had even executed a king, and the echoes of the ax-stroke woke sounds which the kings of LOOKING AHEAD 31 France liked not ! It was because the voice of England, though hushed for the time by Charles the Second's pernicious example, was against the immorality which was wrecking France! The sense of right was deep in the English soul, and to bridle France she fought Oudenarde and Ramillies, Blenheim and Maplaquet, as later she brought Napoleon to the dust — he who would have yoked Europe to the jugger- naut of his ambition! Think what France, what Europe, what the world would be to-day, if England had not fought France with the sword of Marlborough and Wellington as cen- turies before she had fought priestcraft with the words of Wyclif and the energy of Henry ! Think how she fought the blood-lust of the French Revolution, when it became unholy! Think, I say, how sbe bridled Napoleon's aims and rescued France then ! Do not we, does not the world "owe something to her for this?" And now some voices in this land would exult because England is pressed in need the sorest? She fights Russia to keep open her communi- cations with India, her choice land. Would we 32 LOOKING AHEAD. tolerate a power established at Chicago or St. Louis to cut off our western or southern trade? She fights France and Germany to keep her plighted word, and to aid two of earth's most industrious nations, two lovers of peace, nations seeking peace and the good-will of all. Shame, crimson shame upon our flag, if we hesitate to make the voice of America heard, and heard on the side of Honor, Honesty, and Right ! Say ye, too, that never shall America use her voice in affairs of the older world? Since when is it manly, righteous or Christian to keep silence while foul wrong is perpetrated, while the weak are wronged, while violence causes cries to rise to the offended God, the One whom we pretend to revere? O Manliness ! O Honor ! O Truth ! Are these virtues crushed and cowed in the American heart beneath the pressure of unworthy and selfish thoughts? O my country, whose shield of honor is untarnished ! Tarnished it will be if thy voice be -not raised and thy sword re- main undrawn to force a heeding! Not the tears of all the angels can wash away the stain LOOKING AHEAD. 33 of shame and dishonor when once 'tis there! And when history shall unroll her scroll and the future shall show England, the mother of lib- erty, the bulwark of Saxondom and freedom, bat- tered and broken and weak, while Frank, Teu- ton, and Slav are strong and overshadow the world, will not history's teachings be again re- peated if she shows us these great powers com- bining against us, as they combined against our motherland? We may beat them, we will beat them, but count we the cost, and try we prevention!" This, and other such speeches, effected a rev- olution of thought throughout America. Meet- ings were called, and such pressure was put on the president and cabinet that the voice of America was added to the voice of England. And the sudden activity, evident in all Ameri- can dockj'ards, the arrangements for im- mense transport accommodations, the pow- erful contingents already on their way from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Burma, a rapidly advanc- ing alliance with Turkey and Itah T , with ris- 34 LOOKING AHEAD. ings in Austria, Hungary and Poland fomented by English money, the federation of the Balkan States — all made the three giants of the con- tinent pause. A truce was called. Peace fol- lowed. The result for England was immense. She gained not an inch of territory, not a penny in money, except what experts declared right as indemnity for war expenses of the Netherlanders — and pensions for their widowed and orphaned and crippled. But she gained two allies on the continent, whole-souled, grateful, and resolved to show their gratitude — as show it they did, when presently England needed it. And above all, the war helped forward amazingly the cause of Anglo-Saxon confederation. In this was her gain immeasurable. For the leaders of the Canadian, Australian, and African troops were in London, to be thanked by the king, with their brave soldiers who were to be rewarded by him. And there were also American officers to arrange active co- operation with England and her colonies against LOOKING AHEAD. 35 the continental giants, if they would not heed America's advice to stop hostilities. Instruc- tions were telegraphed from the colonial and the American governments to arrange for the pre- vention of such future combination against right and justice, and especially against the infringement of treaties. 36 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER III. ANGLO-SAXON CONFEDERATION. The outcome was the Anglo-Saxon confed- eration. Loud, tremendously loud, were the voices pro and con. Intense was the excitement in Great Britain and Ireland and her col- onies, and of course in America in favor. But all foreign powers strain every nerve in opposition. It meant a serious menace to them, and was not in accord with their politi- cal ethics which said that a nation's strength required a neighbor's weakness. It is not possible to describe the thrill which seemed to agitate the best English and Ameri- can minds. And when Edward IX. of Eng- land declared that he would resign his crown, if that would further the cause of a federation which could not but strengthen the powers of its LOOKING AHEAD. 37 nation, such a burst of popular enthusiasm ensued that within a week confederation was practically an accomplished fact between Eng- land, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Natalia, Nyanza, Gordon, Soudan, Stanley-land, Rho- desia, South and West Africa, the West Indies and the Guianas, and the British Eg3'ptian, Cyprian, Indian, Malay, Burmese and Chinese possessions. Commissioners were appointed by each to draw up a constitution. They were to report within seven weeks. And they did. The government of the United States was taken as a pattern — in this way. As these States had each its own Governor, Senate and House of Representatives and formed laws for its own home or state government but yet joined each other to appoint a President, a Senate and House of Representatives for the protection and promotion of national or general interests, so the various countries joining the Anglo-Saxon Confederation had each its own home government for home affairs, elected its own head and House of Legislature, but joined 38 LOOKING AHEAD. together for the election of the "Central Senate" and "Central House of Commons," for all mat- ters affecting the general weal of "Saxondom, as it came to be called. In America and Australia, the official head or chief magistrate was elected and was called a President. In Ireland, Canada, the West Indies and Guiana, and in the African posses- sions he was also elected, but was called Gov- ernor-General. In India and the Eastern posses- sion he was called Viceroy. These Viceroys were not elected, for peculiar but special reasons; they were appointed by the Central Senate of Saxondom. In Great Britain the old title of Sovereign, King or Queen, was retained. But no pension was granted to royal connec- tions, though the king or queen was liberally salaried. For the British were eminently con- servative and preferred a regulated cost of roy- alty to the cost of the interruption of business, the partisanship and other unpleasantnesses incident to periodical election campaigns for nominees of parties. This had long been a serious fault in the American system. LOOKING AHEAD. 39 Except for Britain, the head was appointed every seven j^ears. This head, President, Viceroy, or Governor-General, was prevented by salutary laws from any abuse of power or favoritism. These heads, or chief rulers, were to meet in the first month of each septennate, to choose from their own number a Supreme Chief or Commander of the Confederation. The choice had to be ratified by the Central Senate. The powers of the Supreme Chief were similar to the powers of the United States President, except that he exercised no patronage. He could veto, but a two-thirds vote of the Central Senate would override him. Representation in each Home Senate and each Home House of Representatives or Commons, that is, for the upper and lower houses of each country in the Confederation, was regulated by the inhabitants of the country counted by the hundred thousand. In lands ruled by a Viceroy, the chieftains summoned in "durbar" acted where necessary. Repre- sentatives in the Central Senate and Cen- 40 LOOKING AHEAD. tral Commons in the Confederation of Saxon- dom was regulated by the inhabitants of each country counted by millions, counting, how- ever, only those who could read and write in one language at least. And provision was made for an easy and just transition to education as the standard of franchise, to become law in fifteen years. Similar provision was made for a common coinage, gold basis, the old to be retired gradually within fifteen years. A committee of judges of the Supreme Courts of each country was instructed to arrange for common-law for extradition, marriage, divorce, medica' or legal practice, patents, etc. In accordance with the suggestion of her Committee or Commission, America took ad- vantage of its being the year for a new Presidei.t to alter her constitution so that a Presidency should last seven years instead of four. This was gladly done. For a large and intelligent portion of the American public had »long thought that the disturbance of trade every four years was mischievous, especially as the condi- tions were so altered. In further accordance LOOKING AHEAD. 41 with the suggestion of the Commissioners, arrangements were made for elections in all the confederated countries for the Central Senate and Central Commons, and for chief ruler wherever he was elective. Just then the poet laureate of England died. It was a graceful act of King Edward to offer the honor to an American as poet-laureate of Saxondom. It was as graceful an act of Congress to empower "Longfellow's sweet-voiced heir" to accept. These Senators of Saxondom and members of the Central House of Commons, together with the chief rulers elected by the confederate peo- ple, duly repaired to London, England, which was naturally chosen for the seat of Central Government. It was a grand sight and a strange sight to see that historic gathering ! Inspiring, too, it was to hear old London streets resounding to the tramp of escorts of British, Irish, Ameri- can and Colonial soldiery, as they gathered in Trafalgar Square and marched together to Westminster Abbey. It was difficult to decide which were most cheered. Some said the 42 LOOKING AHEAD. Yankees secured the warmest reception (if there was any warmest). Possibly it was so, for Britain rejoiced to be reconciled with her child and the bonds of blood-union had, after all, proved mighty. A comic paper represented England killing the fatted calf on America's return, and the light treatment of the New Tes- tament was forgiven in the general joy. The chiefs assembled in Westminister Abbey to choose the Supreme Commander of the Con- federation. Their thrones of state were on a platform at the end of a large hall in which were assembled the members of the Central Senate and Central House of Commons. The hall was draped with suspended flags won in numberless battles, and with banners on which were emblazoned the victories and glories of the peoples of Saxon- dom in Scienco, Art and Exploration. In the center of the platform and as yet unoc- cupied was the ancient coronation chair of England, henceforth to be the throne of the Su- preme Chieftain of Saxondom. Under it was the Lia Fail, the Fatal (or Fate- LOOKING AHEAD. 43 ful?) Stone. This stone was itself an inspiration. History asserted that Edward I. of England carried it to Westminister from Scone after his Scottish victories; that Kenneth II., who over- threw the Picts at Camelon in 843 had carried it to Scone from Dunstaffnage, whither Fergus had conveyed it in 513 from the king of Muns- ter, whose cathedral town and capital had hith- erto held it. Here tradition took up the story and whispered that the stone had been carried to Ireland from Egypt by a sage of renown who conducted there also one of the king's daughters, a princess of the royal house of Judab, a remnant of which house had been carried to Egypt from Palestine. Further- more that the stone had followed the fortunes of the fallen house of Judah, and itself was no other than the stone on which the patriarch Jacob rested when, in his flight to Padan-Aram, he had the mystic dream. And finally that it was the stone of Government, of power or dominion to whatever monarch was throned upon it ! The proceedings began with a solemn prayer 44 LOOKING AHEAD. of gratitude for the Divine shaping of Human events toward the Union of Saxondom, which all felt was a guarantee of Human Progress, a step toward Universal Brotherhood and to Universal Peace. Thundering peals of a mighty organ — a salute of heavy artillery — a pause of an instant — a ring of an electric bell — and all rose to sing the new Saxondom hymn to the old tune "God save the King," or "My country 'tis of thee." SAXONDOM. I. God, let Thy blessing come On us of Saxondom, O save us all ! Make us for Peace unite, Drawing the sword to fight Only for God and right, God save us all ! II. Let our united word By all the world be heard Speaking for Thee. Thus Peace, Prosperity Shall spread from sea to sea, And all shall bend the knee In fear of Theo. LOOKING AHEAD. 45 III. Let man no more rehearse War's song of crime and curse, O make war cease. Death tube and shrieking shell Sound for brave men the knell, Widows the chorus swell — Let us have peace ! P7. May mankind's psalm of life Be Peace instead of Strife Filling all earth. Look down from Heav'n and bless Earth with sweet happiness, Then reign of righteousness Shall have its birth. Lion's lair, eagle's land, Afric and Austral strand — Heed us, O world ! Pledged for man s weal are we — For God, Humanity, For Peace and Liberty Our Flag's unfurled! Yes, we for peace unite, Drawing the sword to fight Only for God and Right — God save us all ! 46 LOOKING AHEAD. Then a curtain slowly descended, screening the platform and the chieftains from view. There, surrounded by the remains of those whose minds had won England's greatness in statesmanship, art, science, war and peace; there by the dust of those giants in liter- ature which by its language bound all in one bond, and by its richness rejoiced all; there the chieftains cast their votes to elect the Supreme Commander of Saxondom ! They had but one ballot, and that was for Edward IX. of England. All the votes but one had been cast for him; that one was for the President of the United States and had been cast by King Edward. The curtain rose, and amid breathless silence the President of the United States announced that "the first Commander or Supreme Head of all Saxondom, under God, is Edward of Eng- land!" It is impossible to describe the scene — cheer upon cheer arose and was taken up by the mul- titudes on the streets around. Staid and old men found their emotions too much for them LOOKING AHEAD. 47 and tears coursed down the cheeks of not a few — for had they not been spared to witness a grand step forward toward the dream of the old prophets of the Book of Books ! Flashing along the wires and cables went the announcement. Belting the world with one great tie of Brotherhood, Anglo-Saxondom from England to Egypt and to India ; from Canada to Australia and to South Africa ; from the United States to Guiana and Borneo and Burma, above all, from England to Canada and the United States by the many telegraph and tele- phone cables, all Anglo-Saxondom understood that at last it was one. And it seemed that the only rival of the Com- mander of Saxondom in the number of adher- ents was the Othman Commander of the Faith- ful, whose power was destined to so soon pass away. 48 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER IV. THE INVASION OF ENGLAND. Meanwhile the map of Europe slowly changed. As I have said Austria was obliter- ated, and the Balkan states, called Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia (wrung, like all the others, from Turkey by Russia's adroitness) Roumelia, Bulgaria, Roumania and Servia, were joined, separated, and used as cat's-paws by Russia, until as we have seen, they were finally united through Euglish influences and made to remain a barrier to Russia. Again a comic paper grasped the situation. It showed a deputation of these powers, "thank- ing the Russian bear for his long-continued efforts to promote their happiness, and announc- ing that they had ceased to dispute and had be- come united as good Christians should. And they took pleasure in informing Russia that as they were now happy and united, they would LOOKING AHEAD. 49 not trouble him any more for advice. He would please to mind his own business hence- forth and not interfere with theirs." The look on the bear's face was a most happy inspiration of the artist. Asia was changed by the adoption of Persia, half Afghanistan and several Khanates into Russia. England appropriated the other half of Afghanistan. Now, however, British policy had become Anglo-Saxon policy. American politicians were agreeably disappointed to find that its pursuit was not attended with any disturbances of home interests. Similarly the American po- litical economists were surprised to find that the abolition of duties on all goods from the confeder- ated nations had not disturbed trade percept- ibly, any more than the abolition of the Zoll- verein system of old German towns had re- tarded the advance of Germany financially and commercially. On the contrary, both finan- cially and commercially, Germany had bene- fited. And so Americans, just as they had unexpectedly found out that McKinleyan pro- 50 LOOKING AHEAD. tection resulted in higher prices, higher wages, stock exchange depression and business failures, after a period o'f remarkable but unstable pros- perity after the American-Spanish war, dis- covered that Free Trade with all Saxondom gave such an impulse to supply and demand that exports and imports increased seventy per cent, in three years. Africa was more and more opened by the English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and American "prospectors" or colonists. It was no longer a dark continent. America was unaltered, save that the Central Republics had, since their union and gradual absorption in the United States, taken great strides in progress through the Panama and Nicaragua canals, and many railways. They were very prosperous. But it must be borne in mind that while these political combinations and enterprises were filling political history with startling occurrences, the social history of man was by no means a tranquil page, as it was turned for men to read. LOOKING AHEAD. 51 The cry of want was still heard. Capitalists were still clever in manipulating and schem- ing. Anti-poverty schemes were still floated, and Socialists still preached their doctrines while Anarchists shrieked ''Murder" for Amen. A facile writer in the North American Re- view best expresses the situation. "In a society which has the wherewithal to clothe, fatten and cheer all its members, lords of in- dustry are acquiring the power to pool the profits of scarcity, and to decree famine. They cannot stop the brook that runs the mill, but they can chain the wheel. They cannot hide the coal mine, but they can close the shaft three days every week, to keep up gold digging rates of dividends. They declare war against plenty. On all that keeps the workman alive, the work- man must pay them their prices, while they lock him out of the mill in which alone his labor can be made to fetch the price of life. Seeds of social trouble germinate fast in such conditions. Society is letting these combina- tions become institutions, without compelling them to adjust their charges to the cost of pro- 52 LOOKING AHEAD. duction, which used to bo the universal rule of price. The change from competition to com- bination is nothing less than one of those revo- lutions which march through history with giant strides ; nothing goes backward except reform. " I must here again remind you of that other glaring source of evil — the increasing use of moneys by large capitalists in the secret oper- ating of State and National politics. This cor- rupting influence worked directly against the liberties and interests of the people. Yet another grave and potent evil was the increase of the criminal classes. The Secretary of the New York Prison Association publicly declared : "There are locked up in the jails, houses of refuge, and other places in the State where the people are sent for wrongdoing, fifty thousand persons; this we may estimate as one- fifth of the criminal population of the State. During the last decade this criminal population has increased thirty-eight per cent., while the population of the State has increased but twenty -four per cent. " And we have the start- ling fact to confront us of two hundred and fifty LOOKING AHEAD. 53 thousand more idle and vicious people in one State of the Republic to provide with honest labor when we ask them to turn from their evil ways." Then furthermore : "To the sad song of labor wrongs and social woes were constantly added the ominous notes of warning against politi- cal jobbery. Cried a voice : "No schemes of plunder of the public lands, or raids upon the treasury could obtain were they compelled to pass the scrutinizing ordeal of the press and the people previous to their enactment. Would the people ever have sanctioned and authorized the Credit Mobilier, the land-grants to railroads without proper guarantees, the subsidy acts, the soldier's bounty acts, and the river and harbor improvement swindles, could the proposed measures have been passed upon by them before their servants were directed to record their will? But "the voice called in a wilderness." No- body seemed to hear. Money was the king and laughed! What was to be the end? Econo- 54 LOOKING AHEAD. mists declared against the evil of standing armies which the great powers maintained in Europe, and against the regretable degenera- tion of liberty into license in America. Hu- manitarians proclaimed against the perfection of war-machines to destroy life and property. And preachers raised their voices against the violence with which men strove to further their ends and the unscrupulous conduct which char- acterized all in promoting their aims. It so happened, when the twentieth century was young, that a revolution in what used to be Austria, wrote the name of that country again on the map as an independent state. It was much furthered by the moral aid, and no doubt other aid, from certain members of the Anglo-Saxon confederation. For there were always adventurers of Saxon blood ready to go where there was fighting to be done. Most of all, Saxondom's statesmen saw that an Austria on the rear and flank of Germany and on the flank of Russia would prevent either from be- coming a Colossus to bestride the European world and would counterweigh France. This LOOKING AHEAD. 55 led to representations from Germany and Rus- sia. The then head of the Anglo-Saxon confed- eration, who happened to be the president of the United States, was one night cabled by the standing committee of the Confederate Senate to proceed to London, the seat of theConf ederate government. So thorough were all arrange- ments, that he left by special steamer that night, leaving the vice-president in charge of home affairs ; and he arrived in London by the morning of the fourth day — so much had trans- atlantic travel improved. There had been a tension of public sentiment on the part of Germany and Russia against England ever since the confederation. And it was heightened by the support already alluded to which the revolutionary parties were receiv- ing from Saxondom. The revolution was spreading. Not only Austria's independence was demanded, thanks to Saxondom's influence, but a central govern- ment was set up in Buda-Pesth. Armed demon- strations in Bohemia, Austria proper, and Styria, the German province of old Austria, f ol- 56 LOOKING AHEAD. lowed, and aided by the Balkan kingdom the states shook off the yoke of Russia. The dismem- bered ancient and worthy kingdom of Poland also rose in revolt, worthy let it be emphatically stated, for it was Poland which once saved Europe from a further tightening of the Mo- hammedan grasp. In all these movements the hand of Saxondom was perceived, directed against Germany and Russia. Moreover, Amer- ica had long given asylum to socialists from Germany and Russia, who were very active in fomenting anarchist and nihilist plots which gave the home governments much trouble. The sentiment against America was intensified because it was discovered that the dynamite used to murder the czars on two occasions and to blow up the Moscow Kremlin, was supplied by American socialists, or rather by socialists escaped across the Atlantic. The representations of the two continental powers were followed by demands and threats, which touched the pride of the Confederate peo- ples. War was declared after months of silent preparation by Russia and Germany, and the LOOKING AHEAD. 57 complete mobilization of the French and Italian armies, avowedly against each other, but by secret understanding with the allied powers, to be turned against Saxondom. The disruption of Saxondom was the declared object. Hence France and Italy had been tempted to join Russia and Germany. For noth- ing less than the partition of the British Em- pire was to follow. The United States was to be bought off by receiving Canada, the West Indies and Guiana. But the United States' celebrated answer was the withdrawal of her ambassadors and ministers without giving the courts of the powers an hour's notice. She simply said "she wished no relations ex- cept those of an enemy with powers that could dare attempt to bribe her from treaty obliga- tions; that such dastardly overtures as offering anything as the price of her neutrality, while they peipetrated their proposed outrage of 'Partition,' was an insult to Christianity, to America's honor, and to the world's God." Quickly Great Britain and Ireland mobil- ized. Quickly brigades and divisions were 58 LOOKING AHEAD. organized and dispatched on the men-of-war, transports and ocean greyhounds, from the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Central and South Africa, India and Burmah, Australia and New Zealand. But quicker still were the Russians to ad- vance into South Afghanistan. France, from Madagascar and Siam — both of which countries she had seized in defiance of that honor and chiv- alry which a strong nation should show to the weak — threatened Natalia and Burmah. Her immense fleets menaced Portsmouth and London by huge demonstrations off the Solent and the Nore. while a German army under cover of its own fleet landed on the Sussex coast, fought and won the battle of Dorking and threw cavalry as far forward as Ealing and Lower Norwood. Quickly the English fleet, both North Sea and "First" Channel divisions, drove back the French, while a mighty "Flying Squadron" emerged from Portsmouth and cut the German communications. Regiment after regiment of regulars, militia, and volunteers were meanwhile forming a new LOOKING AHEAD. 59 and mighty front. The Londoners drove back the Uhlans on Guildford— it was simply the old story of English unprepared ness with its re- deeming powers of quick resistance and "never- know-defeatedness. " Britain's fighters seemed to spring from the earth. Her commander-in-chief, from whom little had been expected, proved equal to the emergency. Wick, Caithness and Ross, with the clans of Argyle, Lanark, and the Lothians, rushed down with their brothers from Suther- land, Perth and Aberdeen, while the sons of Wales hurried to the fray, gathering from the North of Cambria , from the rocks of Anglesea, as from the glades of Glamorgan and inlets of Pembroke. To their sides sped the brave boys from the Liffey and the Shannon, aye from Donegal, Galway and Kinsale, the hills of Connemara, the lakes of Killarney — from the West all these poured in, while from the East the Anglians and men of the fens were rushed to Middlesex and Surrey Hills, to help to "save London!" Down swept the men of Northum- berland and the Ridings, with yeomen from the 60 LOOKING AHEAD. Midlands, and up strode strong-willed and strong-bodied men from all South England to the railways to whirl them to their assigned positions round London, up from Devon and the Cornish lands. With kith and kin from mere and moor, wold and wood, fens and marshes, all Great Britain and Ireland was roused as Eng- land was roused in the days of the Armada — and all moved like clockwork to their places to "save London !" Magnificent was the sight, the sons of the proud nation girt and joined for the fray, their brothers rushing from far coun- tries on the way to help, led by leaders who proclaimed to the men they led, "we are going home, home, boys — to fight!" And when in those stirring hours a cartoon was published, showing the lion at bay and troops of young lions marching to his succor, it was declared it struck the very keynote, especially when under it was written the verse of Shakespeare — Eng- land's immortal bard — so singularly and won- derfully appropriate: " This England never did, and never shall Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, LOOKING AHEAD. 61 But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes come home again, — Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them ! Naught shall make us rue If England to itself do rest but true !" Back the tide of invasion was rolled, for the English fleet cut off the German reinforce- ments. Back it was rolled to Senlac where another Hastings heralded this time English victory. At dawn in the morning, when attack was to be made on the invader's intrenchments, the news was wired from Fastnet that warships and transports from the United States and Canada were passing at racing speed. The African contingent was signaled off Finisterre, and had but to plunge through Biscay waters to arrive. Suez answered that Australia's chil- dren were already passed and on their way to Malta, and Gibraltar telegraphed that the In- dian fleet had just passed the strait. Cheer upon cheer broke from the British ranks as the happy news spread — and bardlj 7 had the armies taken their assigned stands when happier tid- ings still came from South Foreland that the 62 LOOKING AHEAD. British North Sea squadron had closed in on the French fleet which had been reinforced in the night by Russia, had sunk, or captured or driven on the Goodwins two-thirds and was chasing the rest eastward ! Hearts beat high throughout the whole of Ariglo-Saxondom. Presently the American and Canadian fleets were signalled off Tuskar Rock to "'bout ship and steam full speed to Hastings!" The same orders were given to theAf rican contingent when a few hours later it passed the Ushant. The excitement on all the fleets can be imagined, for they were signalled by the scout-boats which made a chain far out to sea, by tele- graph, telediagraphy, mirror-glass, etc. But the Germans heard the news also, and knowing that their sea communications were cut and that their own fleet was shut in by the Flying and Second Channel squadrons while the British North Sea division was chasing defeated France and Russia, decided to open negotiations. "Unconditional surrender" was the only terms which the President of the United States, as Chief Commander of the Confederate peoples LOOKING AHEAD. 63 would accept. Three hours were given the in- vaders to surrender or fight. By that time the first Americans, Africans, and Canadians were landing at Pevensey, and soon amid wild en- thusiasm their contingents were received in the British lines converging around Hastings. The Germans accepted, and it was decided that on the morning of the third day official surrender should take place. This permitted the advent of the first Indians and Australians,and the landing of the rest of the Americans, Africans, and Can- adians of the "First Colonial Saxon Brigade." On that memorable day, on the very ground where almost exactly a thousand years before the famous battle was fought which decided the fate of England for many a year, the descend- ants of conquerors and conquered met in suc- cessful defence of the great motherland. Peace was ratified by the Central Senate and signed by the great Commander in person, the President of the United States, on the part of the Anglo-Saxon Confederation, and by the monarchs of France, Germany and Russia through their representatives. 04 LOOKING AHEAD. Austria and Hungary were again erected into a joint kingdom, and Poland was made a prin- cipality under protection of Saxondom. The latter was a startling development due to nego- tiations set on foot by Germany who discovered, now too late, that she had been made a cat's-paw by Russia who had all to gain and nothing to lose by using up German and French men and money. Indeed it leaked out that Russia had made a secret compact with France in the last decade of the last century, that in the event of any hostility with England, France was to be free and even helped to seize the Rhine provinces, Holland and Belgium, if she would allow Rus- sia to seize all she wanted of the British Empire. It seemed now that the world would have breathing time to treat the social diseases which were becoming more and more serious. It was very hard to diagnose the real cause of these ailments. Some said it was the want of any "Religionizing religion" to mold the charac- ters of the masses ; others said it was the loose system of financial or commercial methods; others again, said it was due to the misled or- LOOKING AHEAD. 65 ganization of the working classes, whose lead- ers preferred to keep strife active and thus show a necessity for organization and paid officers — sooner than do an honest day's work at their own trades. It paid them better. Yet others declared it was due to the agitation of political discontents and schemers. Whatever was the true cause, the attention of the world was not allowed to linger long on the question, for it was suddenly called to look upon the terrible episode in the history of the earth's peoples which was to be forever known as : The Beginning op the End. 66 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. Turkey proved the firebrand. She played with England and France about Egypt, and with Russia about Thessaly, which, in the course of events, was to have been turned over to Greece, the protege of the Czar. When it suited her she favored Germany and Austro-Hungary. With constant astuteness, she chose her partner in the game of nations, secur- ing her own desperate fortunes by changing to any side whose temporary advantage would weaken another power's influence. She coolly disregarded obligations to effect reform and protect Christians. She broke her promises, alleging pressure. She repudiated debts, alleg- ing inability to pay through war-indemnities incurred by her creditors not aiding her in the conflicts forced upon her. She had not paid up LOOKING AHEAD. 67 her war-debts to Russia— debt long standing. She flouted ambassadors by assenting to con- ventions and then refusing to sign them. And she made secret treaties with the various pow- ers which were becoming inconvenient by- reason of the complications they caused. Thus she pledged her word in a treaty to give Cyprus to England, if that power would guarantee her possessions in Asia Minor. Shortly afterward she sided with Russia, the very power most to be feared by her in Asia. Then she showed a leaning toward Germany who officered her army or who instructed her soldiery, and who coveted her possessions in Syria. Presently she favored France who also coveted Syria. Then she refused, at her and at Russia's representations, to refrain from sign- ing a convention with England as to Egypt. She recognized that the presence of the British in Egypt was the best guarantee she had for a continuance of British interests in keeping for- eign powers from occupying her Asiatic lands. Then the world learned that Russia had almost succeeded in hoodwinking Turkey to believe 68 LOOKING AHEAD. that she, and not England, was her friend. As a matter of fact, Russia was Turkej T 's tradi- tional, historical and certain enemy in every quarter. At last the Sultan was confronted with a joint representation from all the powers, protesting against his methods of dealing, and demanding a royal commission to put in order the whole monetary and political system of the Turkish empire. A royal commission meant an attack on his status as an independent sovereign. The Sultan saw through it. He realized that the end had come for him. He proclaimed a fast throughout the whole of the Moslem world. On the fast day he went to the Mosque of St. Sophia, although it was not the custom for the head of the Moslems to enter those holy pre- cincts except once a year — on the first of Bairam or the close of the Ramadan. Clad in white, instead of in the usual gar- ments with the silk and gold apron, he carried the sacrificial knife, which gleamed with its hilt of diamonds. There stood he, the head of LOOKING AHEAD. 69 the yet mighty religion of Islam. After prayer, with pale face that told of his emotion he handed the knife for a moment to a priest or attendant, and prepared to sacrifice the sheep which was led out as was customary. The scene was very solemn, for the faces of the officials and priests betrayed more than the faintness of mere fasting. It was evident that all were under most severe mental strain. Just as the sun descended, the moon was seen bril- liant with a star under it, and at the well-known sign of Turkish power at such a juncture, all were powerfully impressed. Judge of the horror of all, when the priest, through nervous- ness, cut his hand, cried out at his awkward- ness, and plunged the holy knife in his own heart! He staggered forward, and fell dead at the feet of the Sultan, whose robe he splashed with his blood! Before the bystanders could move, a terrific thunder-peal startled all. They looked up to heaven and saw dense black clouds rushing up from the north, from the south, and from the east, and from the west. The crescent-moon and star, had 70 LOOKING AHEAD. assumed a reddish tinge and quickly disap- peared, hidden behind wrathful clouds. All that night those clouds vomited forth their fury over the city, and amid other damage, burst an opening in the hundredth or closed window of St. Sophia. "Mahund's crime is avenged," whispered one to the other, as the news spread. "Is heaven about to avenge all the wrongs of all the Sultans?" The Sultan with a heavy heart summoned his council next morning, and after a prolonged session this answer was sent to all the Euro- pean powers. "With sword the Sultan gained his Em- pire. He will lose it only by stronger arms wielding mightier swords. You have resolved to drive me from what my fathers gained in the same way that your ancestors gained the lands you yourselves live in. If it is the will of Allah that the scepter shall fall broken from the grasp of Islam, let His will be done, Kismet! It is fate! But my duty is to defend that which I have, and defend it I will. Therefore my messenger hands you my scab- LOOKING AHEAD. 71 bard. The sword I hold, and it is whetted. Bring back my scabbard as suppliants to me to sheathe it, or take my sword from my death- stiffened hand! The chief cf the Moslem knoweth how to die, if to die be willed above!" A conference was called, to sit within a week at Berlin. The Viceroy of India and Burmah was at this time the Chief Commander of the Confederation. With him attended the kings of Austria, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Greece, Scandinavia, formerly Nor- way, Sweden and Denmark, the Emperors of Germany and Russia and the Emperor of France. By the decision of the conference the Empire of Turkey was declared ended. History thus saw the crime of the "Partition of Poland" equalled. The kingdom of Greece was ex- tended to the Vardar and Bojana. The rest of European Turkey, which included Saloniki and Constantinople, was made a neutral state guaranteed by the powers. Russia was given the northern slopes of the Taurus. The south- ern lands to the borders of ancient Palestine 72 LOOKING AHEAD. were divided between France and Austria. To Germany was assigned the basin of the Eu- phrates. England secured Egypt, Arabia, and Barca. Italy was given Tripoli proper. The other European powers gave up all claims to land outside of Palestine, except the Netherlands, to which power were assigned all the Turkish isles, except Crete, which had long been incor- porated with Greece. This Netherland appor- tionment proved to be of vast importance. But all interests centered in Palestine. For Europe was brought face to face with the prob- lem destined to be a vexed question — which power was to have the holy places? It was the everlasting "Eastern Question" — now pres- sing for solution. They decided, after much discussion, that Palestine should be divided in tribal divisions of ancient days; that the twelve powers should by lot occupy these divisions, except that the land around Jerusalem, for nine square miles, was to be neutral ground. Hither might come, for pilgrimage or commerce, members of all sects of the Christian and Mohammedan world, LOOKING AHEAD. 73 And here might pray the oriental peoples whose religions as recent antiquarian and ethno- logical research had indeed proved beyond cavil or doubt, owed so much to teachings con- veyed by Jewish exiles or their disciples. The twelve dividing powers were : 1st, The Anglo-Saxon Confederation; 2d, France; 3d, Germany; 4th, Russia; oth, Spain and Por- tugal; 6th, Italy; 7th, Greece; 8th, The Neth- erlands; Oth, Austria; 10th, The Balkan Em- pire; 11th, Scandinavia, and 12th, Switzerland. With the latter Poland was joined. This lat- ter arrangement turned out to be as important in the future as the gift of the Turkish isles to the Netherlands, and was attended with re- sults equally unexpected. But it was all very easy to set this to paper. It was comparatively very easy to secure the assent of Central Senate, House of Commons, Diet and Reichstrath, Chambers and Skorthing, Boule, Parliament and Supreme Council, etc. ; But it was not so easy to enforce the division, for the Sultan meant stern and strong opposition. Turkey knew that it was to be her death- 74 LOOKING AHEAD. struggle. Most Europeans thought it would be a very short one, while others said, "Do not for- get the inexhaustible supply of men which the Moslem world can afford; just as the French are alwaj's winning battles in the Sahara, yet are never at peace, so we shall find it a hard task to beat the Moslem at St. Sophia." The allied armies and fleets proceeded with their preparations. Turkey prepared to re- sist. Showing a brave front, she received her invaders in the Balkan passes, in the Rhodope Mountains, at Ainada and Saloniki. Harassed in Asia, she faced her foes on the slopes of Taurus, and spilled her blood in Palestine. There was something pitiful and painful in seeing a proud and once great nation like the Ottoman thus gasping but d} T ing with the face to the foe — holding the sword to the last, and when the sword was broken fighting with the hilt! There was something noble in it, which all the cant about Islamism, sloth and kismet- ism, Mohammedan misgovernment and Turk- ish oppression, could not remove from men's minds. Fields were dyed with the carnage, LOOKING AHEAD. 75 from the Balkans to Lebanon. Southern desert lands drank in Northmen's blood, and on the Arab and Turkish dead the birds of prey- fattened. Not all the trumpet-blasts announc- ing Christian victories could drown the sobbings of widows and orphans in the towns and vil- lages of Christendom, and on the myriad hearths, Christian and Mohammedan, where fell the dark shadow. Wailings for the dead where the black tent of the Bedouin waited for its master who came not, moanings for the husband and son killed by the Franks, were echoed by the cries of bereavement from the homes of Europe. And the sounds were caught up in the Western World, and in the vast island where the South- ern Cross shines. For woman's heart beats the same whether the skin above it be dark or fair. 76 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER VI. THE SOCIAL ASPECT.* In order to understand the great events which are about to occupy our attention, let us pause to review the social and religious conditions of those da} r s. For they both powerfully affected the political conditions on which I have already touched, and all three together lead up to the great climax of my story. In Europe we find effete monarchical con- stitutions, arbitrary monarchs or statesmen, conscription, vast standing armies, carelessness of the ruling classes as to the condition of the lower classes and their legitimate wants, searching and crushing taxation, protective laws, the growth of a wealthy class and *Every item in this chapter is fact, that actually oc curred within the last twenty years, or is founded on such fact. LOOKING AHEAD. 77 wealthy corporations aide by side with awful poverty. These and many such features of European life made existence such a struggle for the poorer and middle classes that the embers of discontent were found on many a hearth, and ofttimes at the breath of some demagogue they broke into active and destructive flame. Starving mechanics, ill-nourished families of clerks, underpaid laborers, heard of America and went thither. But in the dazzle of higher remuneration they lost sight of drawbacks, which prove that prosperity and good pay are not synon3 T mous ; or they stayed at Lome and agitated for a change from monarchical to re- publican government, for a "righting of labor's wrongs," or some other catchword of the demagogue. In America the wonderful development of the country, the extent of its resources and the rapidity of their realization created enormous fortunes, which naturally prevented a proper balancing of the intimately connected factors of society, called Capital and Labor. Owners 78 LOOKING AHEAD. of factories, mills, coal and metal mines, oil tracts, or produce lands, directors of railroad and shipping companies, combined and re- sisted successfullj- all strikes for higher wages. For there were always hosts of poor men starv- ing, and glad to get anything, if it were only the pittance to buy bread and pay rent. Prominent among the disturbing forces were capitalists who skillfully wove their nets by combinations of interests, by trusts, by watered stocks or by wrecked roads, etc., or they built rival lines or bought them in, reorganized railway systems, put roads in receivers' hands, repudiated bonded interests, or by market manipulations they caused flurries, crashes, "Black Fridays," to the ruin of the many and the gain of the few. Vast in number were the fortunes thus de- stroyed. Vast in extent were the fortunes thus built. Very powerful became these capitalists — and very dangerous. Very dangerous became all capitalists, for money, not character, was many a politician's assurance of successful attainment of office. Politicians therefore needed capitalists' aid, LOOKING AHEAD. 79 and thus became capitalists' creatures. But too frequently did capitalists nominate and by free use of monej 7 , cause the election of men pledged to further their interests in the City Halls, State Houses or Capitols of the country. The people learned this not only by enormous privileges, franchises, land grants, subsidies, etc., granted by the Legislatures, but by the fact that whenever Labor troubles threatened to become riot, and whenever incipient riots actu- ally began, the municipal forces or National Guards were put on the alert, and used "to preserve law and order," as the capitalists phrased it, "to further capitalists' interests," as the Labor party called it. Capitalists became recognized enemies of the Labor party. Combinations became frequent. Owners of estates combined to put up the rents. Owners of collieries combined to advance the price of coal. Large stores combined and by opening branches in every business, undersold the retail traders. "Trusts" were made in various trades, even in the necessaries of life, and for that matter, of death — for one of the 80 LOOKING AHEAD. oldest was a coffin trust by which coffins were charged for at three to a hundred times actual cost, and no undertaker could undersell. Rail- roads converging in a large city, and steam- ship lines on lake, river or ocean, instead of lowering rates to obtain public support, agreed to raise rates. By means of wealth, the rail- roads moved lobbyists to support them in every enterprise or plan to make money out of the public. Bountiful harvests did not mean cheaper food for the workingman. For farmers, brokers and railroad men would see their way to combine and make money by keep- ing the prices up. The public was powerless, for money was king. Politics were rotten, for lobbying had become a science, and money was king, even there. Religion preached in vain the "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, until there be no place!" as the Hebrew prophet of old proclaimed it, and equally in vain, denounced "corners" with the "He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him!" as the Hebrew sage expressed it. At last the Labor party combined, and the LOOKING AHEAD. 81 fight came to a contest between combined capi- talists and combined workers, due most directly to rotten politics and trusts by which taxes were increased for politicians "spoils," and rents and necessaries of life were gradually advanced to such degree that life became for workmen too much of a struggle. In South America, the energy required to gain life's necessaries was so little, as also in Africa, and the resources of these countries were so boundless that the evils which filled the social atmosphere in Europe and in the north- ern section of America with germs dangerous to Societ3 7 's existence, were almost or wholly unknown. Politically, they were constantly disturbed by revolutions in Central and South America, and in Africa by occasional clash- ings of European interests despite "ascertained spheres of influence," etc., etc. In Asia, the Kismetism of the Mohamme- dans, the weakness of the Buddhist, Brahman and Confucian races created rather political than social troubles, of which more pres- ently. Around Europe and North America, 82 LOOKING AHEAD. and we may add Australia, the chief interest gathered, socially, religiously and politically, though, as we shall see, Asia became most im- portant politically. On both continents the two great parties of Capital and Labor were arrayed in hostility, both knowing that all past and present contests were nothing compared with what the coming conflict was to be. Nor was it long before both parties were thoroughly organized, the capital- ists of America connected with the capitalists of Europe, and the Labor party of America con- nected with that of Europe. The workingmen had trades unions in every important town affiliated with a central office in America and a central office in each country in Europe, except Switzerland, where a standing "Central Emer- gency Committee" was located. These "Central Offices" regulated all domes- tic matters. But when questions arose affect- ing workingmen all over the world, an instance of which will have to be cited, the policy of the Labor party was settled by a conference of delegates from each central bureau or by a LOOKING AHEAD. 83 telegraphic order from the standing "Central Emergency Committee." The capitalist party was similarly organized, but, instead of trades unions, had what were called "Company Bureaus." Thus two powers on which society, and indeed civilization de- pends, were organized with a nervous energy and a keen watchfulness of each other which boded ill for those who were destined to hear the vae victis from the victors. As skirmishes with armies in the days I speak of preceded the battle, so riots in col- lieries, mines, and large cities, strikes some- times widespread, demagogues with large and applauding audiences, announced the impend- ing crisis. Mobs would make a demonstra- tion before some official's residence or would organize monster processions, or would even ruin some factory or mill, or blow up a house, or tower, or gas works, or boycott a business, or set fire to a store. Strange to what deviltry the human heart will turn in moments of ex- citement ! How slight the space overstepping which man becomes insane, as when a mob set 84 LOOKING AHEAD. fire to a boarding house wherein were sleeping some forty workmen whose crime was that they would not join the union ! These latter acts were, however, only the work of miscreants who perpetrated them on their individual re- sponsibility and were vigorously condemned by the organized trades unions or workingmen's societies. The capitalists made capital out of them and tried to gain sympathy from the middle classes by pointing out and emphasizing the "horrible and unconstitutional deeds of the ignorant working classes who imperil the lives of women and children, to attain most atrocious ends," etc., etc. Thus on a memorable occasion the North River Bridge, which joined New York and an adjacent city, was blown up and the crime was traced to a discharged workman of the con- structing company. Two trains were wrecked, and over three hundred lives lost. A message was flashed or spoken to every company-bureau in the United States of America and Europe, declaring it to be the work of the Labor party. LOOKING AHEAD. 85 The latter indignantly denied the aspersion, and the eagerness of the capitalists to traduce the workingmen taught the latter how to prove their strength by a mighty demonstration, on the next Sunday, in every city, town and vil- lage in Europe and America, where trades unions existed. At these demonstrations, identical resolutions were passed giving the capitalists three days to withdraw their asper- sions under threat of popular hate kindled into activity. True, a vague and dubious threat, since myrmidons of law and order were ready to obey the capitalists. But the capitalists did not care to risk any opposition to such a com- bined and mighty movement. So the asper- sions were explained away in due time. Still, the episode was not lost upon either party. The capitalists saw the mighty power of the workingmen and the latter were soon made to see a mighty and daring combination of capi- talists driven to desperation by the proof of labor's strength. As the labor party perfected its plans, the daring, or rather the desperation of the capital- 86 LOOKING AHEAD. ists increased. In a certain presidential cam- paign the capitalists secured the victory for their nominee. They carried nearly every State and city for almost every office. Congress was mostly composed of their tools. Once in power to such an extent, they commenced large public works. But the workmen were all their creatures, otherwise they were discharged and "blacklisted." And times were too hard, work was too difficult to get, for men to hesi- tate between voting as they were told and star- vation, especially if they had little mouths to feed. The Labor party in other countries could not account for the sweeping victory of the capitalists in the various political contests. Rumor, always busy, attributed it to intimida- tion at the polls, or to enlarged voting lists due to capitalists' money which swamped doubtful places with voters in time to be regularly quali- fied, or — so it was hinted — to the enlistment of the lawless classes. The outspoken threats of the latter did indeed keep home many a voter who, neither capitalist nor workman, was a true American and thoroughly antagonistic to the LOOKING AHEAD. 87 "foreignizing" tactics of the wealthy party. This may sound incomprehensible, but political methods in America became so outrageous that nothing was impossible, and only paroxysms existed to right political rascalities and lead men to hope for better things. American political methods ! Alas, they be- came proverbial. The honesty of Penn, the nobility of Franklin, the honor of Washington, served not to shape men's minds in the Great Eepublic where their names were revered, but their example was forgotten ! Men were too busy to think of them. Women, even mothers, were succumbing to the disease which wonderful national prosperity, ever brings. Pleasure, luxury, position, extravagance, led to the neglect of heart- shaping, thought-directing and soul-purifying duties of womanhood. How often stories were told, and how oft told with a laugh, of election frauds, such as non-resident voters or ballot-box stuffing, stories of free use of money, of men in the legislature trying to fraudulently retain membership, or fleeing from the State in the hope of preventing a just settle- 88 LOOKING AHEAD. ment of the matter by leaving the Senate with- out a quorum ! People did nothing. It is historically true, that schemes the deepest and most unscrupulous were effectually carried out by financiers and railway kings, government officials and monop- olists. What would not man do in those days to save himself? What was impossible? Noth- ing, in America ! Was it worse in other coun- tries? In Russia official corruption was proverbial. In France there was a series of crashes, ushered in by the collapse of the Credit Mobilier, Credit Lyonnais, etc, etc. Then came a few years of financial peace; then army dishonor war rumors, Bourse panics, and the terrific financial crash with army reverses which gave the Royalists their opportunity to press their claims with success for the restoration of monarchy. The growing and intense hatred of the French for the Germans, and the Germans for the French, increased social business perplexities. So also did the mutually intolerant conduct of Russia and Germany. But the reckless financial LOOKING AHEAD. 89 schemes in France, and the corruption in Rus- sia were surpassed in America where vast for- tunes were made by stock-watering, and where monopolists crushed out would-be rivals. Be- sides private financial schemes, far-reaching and effective, there were misappropriations of pub- lic funds, screened by officials. These misap- propriations succeeded each other with increas- ing rapidity. They had been grave under the administration of the general who was most prominent in suppressing the great secession upon the question of slavery. They were graver fifty years later. Then came the Star-Route trial, "subsidy acts, soldiers' -bounty acts, river and harbor im- provement swindles, the pension abuses. Then the Dockyard and Ordnance Robbery; the land-grant trickery; the State- Rail way com- mission jobbery ; the Indian treaty swindles and many another, all showing to what a low degree public morality had sunk. Nothing was impossible in the financial world any more than it was for the two sections of the Ameri- can people to fight each other, as they did, for 90 LOOKING AHEAD. a matter* which sensible people would imagine would have been settled by arbitration. No ! Families were divided, in that secession war to which I refer. The two parties spilled rivers of blood and more money was spent than would have bought up all the slaves they fought about. Nothing was impos- sible! Let us repeat, it is historically true that just when the Republican party lost the power it had possessed in occupying the Presidential chair for twenty-four consecutive years, a num- ber of capitalists met to provide funds to carry their candidate to victory and thus make him their creature, by putting him under obli- gation. And they did it in the way I have de- scribed, or otherwise. Just as they combined for this, they com- bined for their own interests. Just as they could buy up aldermen, so they could buy up representatives and senators, and so, they thought, they could buy the presidency. Even in the year when corrupt Tammany power was broken (for the fourteenth time), the opposing Republican party preached the doctrine "to the LOOKING AHEAD. 91 victor belong the spoils." Therefore he being victor, they belonged to him. And he took them. Moralists lamented. Essayists mourned. Philosophers sighed. Preachers warned. Be- cause it seemed that humanity under even most favorable auspices was corrupting its ways on earth. "Here in America," they said, "we have no aristocracy to batten on the workers, no monarch to be a despot over the lives and fortunes, no priests to wield temporal power. It is an age of enlightenment, civilization, prog- ress, freedom! Yet mankind proves itself either unworthy of these conditions, or unable to realize and utilize them properly." 92 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER VII. THE POLITICAL ASPECT. What form of government was best? The searching of classic writers whose brains were long since dust, but whose immortality was born of the reed or stylus which they wielded, proved that their thoughts had been directed to the same questions which stirred the noblest hearts and quickened the best brains of these days. The arguments of Plato, Cicero, Aris- totle were heard again. Spasmodic efforts to cleanse the filth of American politics were made but they were indeed only spasmodic. Grand meetings of indignant citizens were held, councils of one hundred or of seventy were ap- pointed. High-sounding resolutions were passed against "The neglect and infidelity of officials." "The plunder and perversion of public funds." "Official rascality and incom LOOKING AHEAD. 93 petence," etc., etc. Resolutions were passed such as "Resolved that the failure of municipal governments in the great cities of the Repub- lic, and in particular its greatest failure in the administration of Manhattan Island, etc." "Re- solved that the recent exposure by Legislative and Judicial investigation of a vast scheme of public robbery by which the powers of the local legislature of the city were secretly sold by its members to speculators," etc. "Resolved that a committee of one hundred be appointed to rep- resent," etc., " to select for municipal offices such candidates as are fitted for them by capac- ity, character, and industry," etc., etc. But resolutions availed nothing. There were many resolutions. There was no resolution. And spasmodic municipal revolutions came and went and were forgotten. It was as if the Grand Prophet of old was exclaiming as he did in the streets of Jerusalem before it fell by reason of its vice, "My people love to have it so, and what will ye do in the end thereof?" People did nothing. One of the cant expressions in politics indeed 94 LOOKING AHEAD. was "What are you going to do about it?" And this phrasing of the Prophet's words — "What are you going to do about it?" became a jeering proverb. Let us turn to Europe, to Asia, to Australia. Social miseries were found by no means con- fined to America: "From all climates and all peoples in the known world a cry of want and discontent strikes the ear. The Ryot, tilling his ancestral ricefields in Bengal ; the cowboy following his herd in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains; the colonist, tending his flock on the sheep walk of our great Pacific island continents, are sensible, each in his degree, of the depression that has driven the wage earners of the United States into a desperate conspiracy, with slaugh- ter in the streets for an immediate outcome, and which threatens some of the oldest and best ordered communities of Europe with revo- lution. What may happen in America, now that shots have been exchanged and men have been killed by the dozen, it is hard to say." So wrote a prominent English writer. LOOKING AHEAD. 95 In Germany, crushing taxation; in Russia, the black shadow of despotism with dungeon, death and Siberia were the baleful demons that haunted the darkness. In France it was far-reaching conscription and, alas! corruption —moral, military, civic, social— every kind. In Belgium there were hordes of laborers and miners prone to riot; their hands were be- grimed with work, their hearts were colored with no hues of spiritual beauty. In England cities were overcrowded with the unemployed and want was terrible. In Spain and Portugal priest-rule was crushing out enterprise and ed- ucation. Where was the happy land whose in- habitants had plenty, whose " garners were full, affording all manner of store," with whom there was "no outbreak nor emigration and no complaining in the streets?" Is it any wonder that there were political agitators, the result of social unrest, to rouse the working classes to mutiny and rapine? Was it any wonder that one day it should be announced that there were "one hundred thou- sand Socialists ready to arm in London;" and 96 LOOKING AHEAD. that the teachings of enthusiastic socialists were "telling dangerously on East End property and ruffianism," or that "So thoroughly have the seeds of Socialism been sown among the work- ing element that there may be said to be scarcely an artisan or a laborer in Belgium who, as the result of the crafty work of Social- ist leaders, does not, within his heart, curse his employer and the Government by day, and dream by night of Utopian schemes involving the reversal of the social system of the country. Was it any wonder that on another day there should be flashed to the world news of vast incendiary fires in Russia, while yet another day should reveal a plot to set fire to Vienna and blow up the Imperial palace at Schonbrunn with dynamite? What mattered if some of the plotters were convicted, as they really were, and sentenced? Others were ready to step in their places. As to those dangerous classes, the lawless class, as they were called, they were found in every city in Europe and America. The capi- talists feared them. The honest workingman LOOKING AHEAD. 97 hated them for bringing disrepute on the labor party. All lived in terror of them, for it was they who started fires and robbed stores, blew down monuments, and in the confusion, stole whatever they could. They were always ready. They took advantage of every chance. On a certain occasion, in Cincinnati, no sooner did a mob of outraged citizens storm the prison to lynch a fraudulent governor than they emptied every jewelry and weapon store in the city practically unhindered. For the police and national guard had their hands full with the better class of citizens whose only crime was that they wanted purity in the courts. In London (England) discontented political parties blew up such public buildings as the House of Commons, and the famous Tower of London. In Chicago, an Anarchist outbreak startled the world. Riot and murder were rampant. Stores were sacked. In Milwaukee the red flag of Revolution was waved and its bearer made to bite the dust by bullets from the soldiers called out to crush the movement. Troops were asked for Cincinnati. 98 LOOKING AHEAD. All these things in the same week seemed to show co-operation on the part of the violent classes. One morning Cleveland was found pla- carded with circulars calling workmen to arms. In New York and Brooklyn the armories had special guard. It was a dread week, that first week of May ! But the most awful feature was the horrible proof of blood-madness in the human heart — that human beings could lose reason and so swiftly become brutes! For even cultured gentlemen expressed satisfaction at the thought of getting a shot as militia against rioters, although the rioters were their human brothers, maddened, brutalized, but still human beings and brothers, needing to be taught more than to be shot! Is blood thirst naturally in the human nature? That the lawless class should be ever ready to creep out of their hiding-places and sack, stab, shoot or fell on every side, whenever opportunity offered, was most natural. It occurred at Socialist riots in America just as in that successful foreign invasion of France fifteen years before. LOOKING AHEAD. 99 But they must not be confounded with the discontented political parties. These existed in every land and formed the link between the labor party and the lawless classes in this way: the platform of the labor party was "We must gain our legitimate rights." The discontented political parties were such as Fenians, or Irish arrayed against England ; Socialists, especially active in Germany and Austria; Nihilists in Russia; Communists in France; Mafia in Italy; the Red-hand society in Spain; while nearly all were unceasingly active in America, where a home was offered to all political exiles. They also all claimed, "We must gain our legitimate rights." But they had among them lawless men as murder- ously unscrupulous as any of the lawless party in any city, whose platform was "We must gain our rights by force if necessary." Their violence was disowned by their parties for they did not hesitate to blow up bridges and rail- ways, to wreck even passenger ships, explode dynamite in public buildings, churches, banks, docks, and even form plans to wreck cities. 100 LOOKING AHEAD. Every two or three years witnessed some such outbreak or attempt. The mischief was that they either pretended to be members of the working party, or to be aiming at the attainment of political ends which sounded fair enough when expressed on paper by the better- brained among them. Thus the Fenians declared that all they desired was Home-Kule for Ireland, a small island near Britain, where fogs play hide-and- seek and rainclouds love to gather. They cer- tainly had much right on their side. For the Union with Britain was unhallowed, and Eng- land had been guilty of much injustice. On the other hand it was pointed out that Irish rule for years had been paramount in New York City, and it had gained such a malodorous name for political fraud, jobbery, bribery, connivance at infamy, etc., that the true friends of Ireland wished her better fortune than Irish rule, if New York was a specimen of it. Even the Champions of the Home-Rule cause in the British Parliament, all of them educated intelligent men, lost much by their alleged con- nivance at the lawless acts of which some ex- LOOKING AHEAD. 101 tremists were guilty. This policy of violence retarded for seven years the final victory for Ireland, when victory was nearly won. But the English sense of justice was at last aroused and, with Scotland and Wales, it was decided that there should be home-rule for Ireland, even as there was home-rule for Canada. From that moment the Irish became the most loyal of the peoples in the whole British Empire. With that magnanimity and beauty of character which is especially theirs, they forgot the past, and for- gave it, in remembering their happy present and entering their happier future. But few pre- served any rancor, and when they tried to show it on an occasion to which we have referred, it was quickly overridden. As the Fenians had now and then followed the policy of violence, so the Socialists pursued the same plan. Hence their attempt on the lives of three emperors of Germany. The Nihilists were yet more violent. Hence their frequent and, at times, successful attempts on the lives of the czars or police officials. The avowed platform of the Nihilists was freedom from the iron tyranny 102 LOOKING AHEAD. of the Russian monarch. Their aspirations were proper and were the same which ever heralded new democratic revolution. But some of them killed the Czar. Thrice this occurred. Or they killed officials. Many a time this was done. Or they blew up a palace or a church, or fired a city or village to coerce the Russian court by violence. They had right on their side, but their methods were wroug. So it was with all political discontents, except those who openly declared that their platform was to destroy all existing institutions. It may be thought that there never could have been a party with such a platform. But it is true that there were actu- ally people with minds so horribly out of order as to entertain such a sentiment. Needless to say that apostles of violence found ready tools among the dangerous classes. They did not hesitate to employ them at the very moment they were protesting that they "wanted but their legitimate rights as men." To you, living in this age, that which I have said must seem incredible. Naturally you say : "It is impossible that capitalists should have LOOKING AHEAD. 103 acted in such a way, that in Ameiica, or any other place, politics should have been carried on by such unscrupulous methods; that in Europe political parties should have resorted to violence which mutilated and killed women and children, as the explosion of public build- ings must often have done. It is incredible that lands where churches thickly dotted every city and adorned every hamlet, and "in which the religion of peace and good will was preached, should have contained such mis- creants. It is beyond belief that in days when everybody received education, the heart was not also educated. In a word, it seems impos- sible that such conditions should have obtained in an age when Religion was a recognized factor. 104 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER VIII. THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT. Let me then speak of Religion and its in- fluences. It is true that men were earnestly working to purify social plague-spots, and to raise their brethren to a higher plane, morally, mentally, physically — in every way. But for the rich, religion was a succession of conven- tionalities and a passport to respectability. It was a sham for many, a mask for not a few, and a spiritualizing influence for only a minor- ity. For the poor, religion, if they were Catholics, meant being mulcted for every church service, taxed for this book or that pic- ture. The Catholic women did seem somewhat benefited by it, but the Catholic men were among the most ignorant, the most violent, the most unreasoning and the most desperate. Yet the Catholic religion was a decided in- LOOKING AHEAD. 105 flnence for good, for it kept these men in check. Religion for the Protestant poor meant neglect to a remarkable extent, notwithstanding that much effort was made in what was calledMission work. Only the minority of inhabitants in every town was under church benefit. Religion was not taught in national or public schools. The jealousy of each sect prevented it. Education of the heart, most certain of gratifying results when the individual is young and the heart most impressionable, was strangely neglected, or taught only vaguely. For though the need of spiritual light to illumine the mind was con- ceded by all, it could not be decided whether the window through which the spiritual light was to stream, should be figured with the saints of Catholicism or tinted with the many colors of Protestantism; or whether there should be no window at all. In England the govern- ment grant for a school was increased for every child that obtained a satisfactory percentage of marks in the examination. This was to the profit of the head of the school and teacher of the children. Hence time was utilized for 106 LOOKING AHEAD. teaching mathematics and even the classics, while time for moral instruction was stinted or refused. The result of the absence of educa- tion of the heart in the school system of various countries was shown by the atheism, material- ism and rationalism in Germany, irreverence in France, filial disrespect and toleration of political corruption in America, by the un- lovely lives of some of the English working classes, and by the brutality and ignorance of Belgian work-people. Thus religion, meant to be the great bond which binds man to God, and man to man, was slighted. Religion! Subject most im- portant in men's lives ; subject most debated ; subject most fruitful of discord though asso- ciated with love; subject most productive of hatred though teaching friendship; subject most fraught with heartaches, blinding tears, passionate words, fierce resolves, pitiless policy, though supposed to father all that softens and ennobles character ; subject on which all should be united — religion was either a mystery or a sham ! And how religion (?) set the Christian LOOKING AHEAD. 107 nations against each other, to fight in the name of religion, I shall have to tell you presently. Certain it is, that were any ten men taken hy chance on the London Strand, the New York Broadway, under the Berlin Linden, or on tho Prospekt Nevsky of St. Petersburg, or on the boulevards of Paris, on the quays of Naples, or on the dusty stones of Stamboul, they would have ten different opinions. In truth when people began to think of Christianity they were driven to the conclusion that even if they were called Christians after their Christ, they were not following his example. Thus, to quote an instance, he kept the Seventh Day Sabbath. Why then did they keep the first-day Sabbath ? If because three centuries after he died, men in Nicene council assumed the right to fashion Christianity even in direct opposition to his wishes, will and commands, then what logical objection could Protestants have to Catholicism which to this day fashions Christianity as it pleases. And if Catholics love Jesus, why do they not keep his Sabbath? After all, why change it ? It is as inconsistent as always 108 LOOKING AHEAD. painting Jesus with bare head. Who ever heard of anybody constantly going out in a hot country without a head covering? In churches which in Christian lands lifted lofty spires; under chapel's more modest roof, in synagogue with age-dust on the raft- ers, in temples with glitter of gold and paint wherewith newer sects replaced the reverence and observance of duty which once were thought a congregation's brightest ornaments — orisons were voiced, doctrines were preached, chants were sung, showing how the children of earth differed in their ideas about the Father of all! Nor on personal life was the influence of re- ligion any more potent than in social life. Not a day but crimes, most atrocious and unnatural, were presented in every paper in every city. Not a day but marriage vows were scoffed at. Not a day but the sad story of poverty was re- hearsed. Not a day but the wail of suffering, the sob of neglect, the sigh of despair rose heavenwards, discordant sounds to make the very angels weep for humanity's wretchedness. LOOKING AHEAD. 109 It was the same with business life. Religion was of slight or no account. Men lied in busi- ness. Precautions were necessary for every transaction. Lawyers throve. Gigantic finan- cial schemes crushed the weak, robbed tho widow and took from the fatherless the invest- ments which the bread-winner had made in his lifetime. Business failures, redolent with fraud, became no more startling, by reason of their frequency. Neighborhoods were rendered unsavory by immoral houses, whose tenants by bribery closed the very eyes which should have checked them, and who by proving the police rot- ten, bound the very hands which should have u}>- rooted them. There was a spirit of unrest every- where. The spirit of novelty moved every mind. Worse than all was the spirit of rejec- tion of salutary safeguards ; such as home-life made happy by parental example and parental interest in children; school-life made promis- ing by heart-training as well as by brain-train- ing; college life made vigorous by the inculca- tion of the doctrine of duty and self-sacrifice. Thinkers wondered at the immorality of so 110 LOOKING AHEAD. many even among the rich, marvelled at the ignorance of more, and trembled at the vicious- ness of yet others. Preachers preached, mis- sionaries were sent abroad to convert savages, while souls at home needed ministration — needed to be saved. Bibles were printed but not read. The working-classes in their attitude to the rich, and the rich in their attitude to the poor, showed little humility, less consideration, and least of all, any sufficient consciousness of duty ! In all towns, narrow alleys and dingy tenements were filled with homes on whose hearths the flowers of religion, sympathy, love, friendship and beauty never grew, never flour- ished, for they were never planted. This sad picture is actual fact, and an unexaggerated statement of society toward and at the close of the nineteenth century, and for half the twen- tieth. I do not mean to say that religion was wholly powerless; but it was certainly generally sub- servient to personal interest. By some it was not noticed, except with a shrug. By others it was a subject for jest. For all, it was so far LOOKING AHEAD. Ill practically of no force, that all business trans- actions were fenced in with precautions as I have before remarked— a fact testifying how little a man's spoken word was taken, how little man trusted his brother. The Devil was such a power in the world that lawyers were necessary. For they had to guard their clients against him. And sometimes they were his agents. Religious likes and dislikes were entertained, and fed by various sects, which fact did not fail to bring religion into disrepute. Above all, Religion was practically of such little force that in all Christian countries the institutions of conscription and standing armies, navies and militia, gave the lie to peace and good-will on earth ! Speaking of the religious conditions of society, mention must be made of a stranger race found in every country, citizens thereof and most patriotic, yet bound together by great and national aspirations into one peo- ple. I refer to the sect known as Hebrews, or Jews. In all countries, whether they labored 112 LOOKING AHEAD. under civil disabilities or not, they were model citizens, law-abiding, always on the side of law and order, enterprising and thus forwarding national prosperit}*, and wherever they had the chance, they were prompt in sacrifice of life and money in the wars and perils of their adopted countries. Their homes were examples of purity, their personal lives were fully equal to the lives of their neighbors. Yet there was always against them a peculiar unpleasant sentiment. This was fed by jealousy of Hebrew enterprise in business matters, and the Hebrew brain-work in Science and Letters. And it was extended to the Monites, or Jews who rejected all restric- tions of Jewish law, most of the fundamental principles of Judaism and who kept the Christ- ian Sabbath. But while a sentiment existed against the Jews, there was anything but cordiality be- tween Catholic and Protestant, as we shall presently notice. We have to add here, that from both faiths Christian and Jewish, was recruited the army of infidels, materialists ethic-culturists, etc., etc. LOOKING AHEAD. 113 Strange ! very strange, and beyond all patience, were the efforts of the better men and purer wo- men to search out a proper spiritual life ! Moan- ing in her heart, the tender Catholic woman asked if all the massacres, autos-da-fe, expul- sions, imprisonments and tortures brought about by the infallible church, were righteous acts? And, above all, was the church's eternal dam- nation of all the countless hosts who, through no fault of their own, had never heard of original sin, baptism, etc., acceptable to the Merciful and Righteous God? And the Protestant man, with his strong sense of right and unflinching adherence to the path of Reason, illumined with godliness, heritage of Puritan and Huguenot or Albigensian — what of him? Hs asked this question in his soul and listened to the echoes which it waked — "Granting that Catholicism is not correct, which one of tho many Protestant sects is? And must not He whom we worship be dis- pleased with our intolerance of each other, our unbrotherly bickerings and our self-sufficiency ?' ' And the Jew, as he stood, while the whirl- 114 LOOKING AHEAD. wind of opinion drove men hither and thither, what thought he? That sole relic of hoary an- tiquity! That puzzle of the ages! That his- toric figure whose pulse was beating when Troy's plains first hear the clang of Greek armor and when Remus leaped Rome's walls in scorn; when Socrates drank the hemlock and when the man-tide of barbaric hosts poured from fen and forest, lake side and mountain glen to wreck the classic world ' He who had lived so long and had borne so much, who lived yet so vigorous, deathless — was not his past an earn- est of his future? Then what was that future? What thought he? Had he a thought of the future? And had the thought been worked on the loom of speech, set forth with the colors of hope and patterned with the hues and shapes of aspirations? What thought he? What said he — that inscrutable man-growth which Time's scythe seemed unable to cut down? He wrung his hands, and heeding not the sharp words which cut more deeply than the sword of mediaeval hate, caring nought for falsehood that stunned him worse than the rude LOOKING AHEAD. 1] 5 blows of prejudice, bruised him more cruelly than the crushing violence of un-Christian crusaders, impious prelates and murderous mobs of old — he cried out to the Christian world as it writhed in sectarian hatreds, as it tossed with the agonies and mortifications of social wrongs, as it groaned beneath conscription, army, navy — beneath war with its Cost, Crime and Curse : "O brothers, love ye one another!" 116 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER IX. SECRET SOCIETIES. Ah, yes ! Those were sad times, sad times. Fighting in the field, disease in every camp, heavy hearts to answer every postman's sum- mons every day in every city, town and hamlet. Every home in Europe, America and Australia in mourning. And in Asia and Africa, fierce despair and stern determination in every heart. No story of knightly daring and Pajmim slaughter was expected as in the days of the first Crusades — framed in Troubadour verse — though daring there was, and slaughter too. War had become too grim to admit poetry. 'Twas too terrible. In former crusades, the distance softened the shock of sorrow, and the time required for news to travel allowed com- parative serenity to reign in home lands. But now the telegraph and telephone, the telephoto- LOOKING AHEAD. 117 graph, teleautograph, heliograph, hydrophone and aerograph, by which sights and sounds were transmitted through the agency of various elements, brought all the scenes and sounds to the bulletin board of every city and to the breakfast or supper table of every home. The thunders of the cannon and burst of dynamite tube, the hiss of the gas-gun and shriek of the vapor-shell were not hushed before all Europe had begun to echo them. And the wounded scarce had voiced their agony ere it waked responses in a distant home on Hudson and Rhine, on Ouse and Murray, on Thames and Jordan. Picture the world then, Cross united against Crescent, but divided by jealousies among its na- tions. Picture the world, I say, politically dis- tracted ; the powers — friends only when it suited them — grasping right hands but holding scab- bards with left; joined to-day against a com- mon enemy whose despoilment meant their gain ; to be to-morrow split in hostile camps, because disputing over the spoils. Picture to yourselves the world religiously 118 LOOKING AHEAD. discordant. Picture Protestants arraigning the papacy or Catholicism, declaring, "The papacy wields its power through the doctrine that the Pope holds the key of hell and heaven, the power to curse or bless men for time and eter- nity." Picture Catholics arraigning Protestanism — saying, "The sad apostasy of the sixteenth cen- tury has run its natural course. It began by destroying the foundations of Christian faith, and it has ended by restoring a worse infidelity than that of paganism." Picture the absence of any practical result of religion abundantly proved by the unlovely lives of the masses, by the vices of the rich, the infidelity, dishonor and irreverence of all. Picture to yourselves the world socially dis- turbed. Discontented political parties using violence. Capitalist and Labor parties at in- creased variance. The distinctions between rich and poor wider than ever. Fortunes made by huge combinations, small competitors crushed to the wall, and such operations called "business!" A fine "business" to prosper by LOOKING AHEAD. 119 crushing others! Picture the masses turned into tools of demagogues; financial panics created by unscrupulous plutocrats; rents raised beyond just limits by landlords; taxes in- creased so that vile politicians might steal all the more; politics becoming so vile that politi- cian and thief became synonymous terms, and so rotten that fewer and fewer decent men found courage to seek a nomination; trusts mighty and covering all productions, so that the prices of necessaries of life continually in- creased though wages did not. Ah, those trusts, those curses ! The masses were mere machines, machines to build up others' wealth. Hence the feeling of intense hatred against Trusts and the known existence of secret organizations against wealth, and against all trusts and monopoly. Picture to yourselves these and a thousand such things, and you will understand how the curse of gold was blighting society rich and society poor. Picture also in- creased army, increased ostensibly to meet colo- nial requirements, but really to be used at home if necessary. Picture the inability of police in 120 LOOKING AHEAD. any land to prevent outrages on property and life which so constantly shocked the world. Picture to yourselves all these things, and you will have some conception of the state of affairs when clouds gathered round St. Sophia, and Cross and Crescent fought again; when that tempest of strife came whose sobbings linger even to-day, when that storm burst whose violence made the earth ring with the echoes of agony, echoes which live yet in our own memories. Horrors soon were added to horrors. For it was learned that all the secret political societies in Europe and in America proposed to gain their individual ends by co-operation, especially as the Great Powers were so occupied with war and intrigue. Patiently they had worked. The powers had combined to refuse asylum to political refugees. All these now combined against the powers. They were forced to flee from place to place. Even America became dan- gerous to them and it was only by strictest secrecy that they could concoct their plans. Even then, detectives would pretend to join, learn LOOKING AHEAD. 121 all, and then divulge. The worst of all was that they were gaining the working classes and using them as tools, and even aimed at captur- ing labor organizations. As I have just said, now that all the powers were occupied with the Eastern Question, these social and political agitators thought their opportunity had come for a mighty combination demonstration. Now were ushered in most awful years. A circular was sent to all the Powers, and signed by certain stars representing the secret societies of Russia, Germany Netherlands, France and the "Confederation," as Anglo- Saxondom was popularly called. It demanded that Russia should grant representatives and constitutional government; that Germany should grant remission of taxation and the too far-reaching conscription laws; that France should be made a republic again ; and that in all lands workmen should be granted participa- tion in employer's profits besides being paid wages as usual. Other items were set forth ; some very ridiculous, because some leaders of the secret societies were wholly unable to reason 122 LOOKING AHEAD. out that cramped capital meant cramped enter- prise and fewer employees, and that without brain work neither capital nor labor could run a factory or extend operations. A certain time was set for "a demonstra- tion." Meanwhile the public mind was con- tinually shocked and kept in a state of excite- ment by explosions in factories, falsely ascribed to the Labor party, by railway outrages, de- struction of ships, gas-works, museums and state buildings, barracks and arsenals. The armies in the field sent home news of defeat or victory. They received back tidings of a spreading anarchy, of secret but terrible violence, of women and children blown into eternity by the diabolical wreckage of some building or passenger ship, railway bridge or motor, or by firing a hotel, or the residence of a millionaire, a bank president, or Trust -director. People feared to do as in New York a band of her best citizens did some twenty-five or thirty years before. Then a passenger ship was blown up, and a passing steamer speeding to the wreckage picked up a charred fragment of the LOOKING AHEAD. 123 Irish Times newspaper. At that time nothing could measure the violence of Fenians and United Irishmen, Clan-na-Gael, Moonlighters, and White Boys fighting for Ireland. On that occasion, no sooner did the steamer arrive in New York and the news was published, than a band of maddened brokers, bankers, ministers, lawyers and prominent business people, gathered round the office of the Irish Times, destroyed the presses, burned the building, tarred and feathered every man found in office or type- room, and while another part} T seized a man named Rossa and another named Most, and yet a third named Schwab, they dragged the editors to the nearest lamp-post and prepared to lynch them with the trio who had preached the doctrine of violence. It was the ministers who prevented the hanging. The victims weie handed over to justice and condemned to soli- tary confinement for life. But now people knew not whom to seize. One morning placards were posted in all the capitals and large towns of Europe and America, signed, "By order of the Socialists of 124 LOOKING AHEAD. Germany, the Anarchists of America and Eng- land, the Communists of France and the Neth- erlands, the Nihilists of Eussia, the Red-Hand Society of Spain, Mafia of Italy." It demanded that certain concessions should he made, or every two days there would be "happenings" to persuade governments into obedience. These concessions included those referred to above. Further, that all magistrates ever pro- scribed by the "Committee of action," as it was significantly called, should be removed; that pardons should be granted to whoever it designated; that property sequestrated should be restored in such cases as it re- quired; that department stores, trusts and monopolies should be abolished ; that the num- ber of apprentices to each trade should be limited, that railway, telegraph, telephone balloon-routes, etc. , should be government prop- erty, that there should be a limitation of wealth dependent upon the size of the capitalist's im- mediate family, and the surplus, together with all dividends of railways, etc., should be de- voted to a common fund under the manage- LOOKING AHEAD. 125 ment of the "Committee of action" represent- ing the Salvation Societies of Europe and America, as they impudently called themselves. People had no time to laugh at the absurdity of the demands, for two days afterward there was a tremendous explosion at Cronstadt. The authorities tried to hide the extent of the dam- age, but charred timbers, dead bodies, human limbs, were found far out at sea, passing ships received injury from huge pieces of falling stone and iron, and St. Petersburg was undenia- bly uneasy. Two days afterward the barracks of Pots- dam were blown up; two days more and the State BuildiDgs at Madrid and Spandau vere destroyed. And in succession, but at intervals of two days, the Tower was blown up in Lon- don, the arsenal at Toulon, and the State Capi- tol at Albany. Then post offices were burned at Manchester, (England), Dublin, Frank- fort-am-Main, Florence, Tarragona, Moscow, Glasgow, Macon, Montreal, Cincinnati, Grahamstown, Ottawa, Burlington, Benares, San Francisco, Trieste, Marseilles, Stettin, 126 LOOKING AHEAD. Sydney, Queenstown, Brisbane, Singapore, Birmingham (England), Porto Rico, King- ston ( Jamaica \ I cannot givethe whole list, but two hundred and seventy-nine post offices were burned — at intervals of two days — a series of destructive acts — interrupted only by the destruction of some barracks in Russia or the burning of some public building in that especially hated country. Presently a placard appeared signed as before, declaring that the Salvation Society would grant a respite of six months for the various governments to meet and legislate as they wished. Otherwise they would proceed to sterner measures and not be so careful to destroy only buildings which promised such little loss of life especiallj* if de- stroyed at night, as all the post offices had been. The six months passed, while the Eastern war dragged its length along. It might have been much speeded had it not been for the jealousies of the allies. Thus, when Russian troops drove the Turks over the Taurus and pursued them on the southerly slopes, the French, fearing that Russia v. o dd LOOKING AHEAD. 127 retain a hold on a district decreed at the Berlin Conference to be theirs, and fearing that Rus- sia would annex Palestine, remonstrated, and made the Russians halt. Naturally the Turks took advantage, rallied, procured reinforcements, and cut the Russian communications. Similarly, England refused to permit Russia to make Thessaly a base of operations for her threatened attack on Con- stantinople. The close of the six months' respite was an- nounced by blowing up, at intervals of two days, bridges over the Seine, Loire, Arno, Rhine, Rhone, Danube, Weser, Hudson, Neva, Ohio, St. Lawrence and Mississippi — in all, three hundred and ninety. Then churches were wrecked — old Italian, venerable German, quaint English, simple American, pretty French. Then, cathedrals — in three weeks more vandalism was committed than three cen- turies could repair — than ever could be repaired, for the loss was irremediable. Nearly two years were spent in destroying churches. Then war-ships were attacked. Transports were 128 LOOKING AHEAD. mysteriously blown up, with all on board. The English and chief continental governments took the precaution to keep their steam and hydraulic ships always at sea, and by using patent carbonized oil fuel they rendered it un- necessary to take coal on board, for it was thought the glycerine or dynamite cartridges were concealed in hollowed lumps of coal. The oil was taken out in lighters, whose crews left them to crews from the ships, and the oil was then pumped in the vats on the war-ships. No ships moving by compressed air, argol, oil or by stored electricity, or generating it other- wise than by old-time dynamos, suffered. A fleet of transports leaving Toulon for the East was wrecked when only two days out at sea. On board two ships that escaped, dynamite cartridges were found placed between an ammu- nition-room and the saloon. They had lost a spring which was necessary in their mechan- ism, and hence had failed to explode. At Eziongeber, a revived Red seaport of great antiquitj', torpedoes were sent into the midst of all allied fleets, and worked much LOOKING AHEAD. 129 damage. These acts of violence assisted the Turks material^. But what more than all strengthened the Moslems was the active as- sistance of Christian political discontents on their side. They enlisted as officers, and even sent contigents of men. The Turks found them hating the allies just as much as they did. They employed the detachments that came to them very skillfully. Thus all Nihilists were attached to the Turkish forces opposing Russia, all Socialists to those opposing Germany and Saxondom, and so forth. The blowing up of tunnels presently com- menced. The St. Gothard, Menai Tubular Bridge, Victoria Tubular Bridge, Pough- keepsie, Mt. Cenis, St. Paul-Minneapolis, New York and Brooklyn, Vienna-B/anube-under- ground, Buda-Pesth, Warsaw, Lyons, all in turn were destroyed. An explosion ruining the New York Arcade Stores and Elevated Rail- ways caused terrible loss of life. Men were wild, arms were seized, and fires were started on that occasion. Riots followed, with pillage and murder, of course. The Labor party ac- 130 LOOKING AHEAD. cused of complicity twenty-five years before, when the New York and New Jersey Bridge- way was first wrecked, was accused again. Capitalists were furious. But the Labor party showed its honesty by organizing vigilance committees, and forty-three arrests in New York in twenty-four hours, and as many lynch- ings in four more, by order of the Labor party, were terrible proofs of its innocence. The com- mittee of the Labor party surrendered to justice for taking those forty-three lives. They were acquitted without any trial, other than a for- mal accusation based upon their surrender. It would have been more than the life of judge or juryman was worth to have acted otherwise on that occasion ; for New York streets were packed with .armed men; ministers and mer- chants, brokers and lawyers, once more banded together in righteous indignation. The discon- tented political parties now worked against the Labor party which they said had deserted them. It was not long, therefore, before factories and mills were blown up, and employers were forced to discharge their employees. The sufferings of LOOKING AHEAD. 131 the workmen were terrible, and the capitalists would not or could not come to their rescue. Many honest workfolk were driven into the ranks of the dangerous classes, and the social web of horrors became more and more entan- gled, for it became, in truth, difficult^ discern between law-abiding and lawless workmen, Anarchists, and similar desperadoes. The very organization of the workmen and trades-unions deepened the distress of the laboring classes. They were driven here and there like sheep; they were fleeced by people who pretended to be their shepherds; indeed, the workingmen became so entangled that they could not get out of the grasp of their "leaders. " They were ordered to strike without being told why; or to strike in order to show sympathy with strikes in other cities, or because a certain class of workmen had struck and were still unsuccess- ful. The tone of the workman had deterior- ated. He would get half-drunk during work hours, and thus do his work improperly. It was useless to tell him: "You are not acting squarely with your employer, he pays you like 132 LOOKING AHEAD. an honest man would, but you do not do honest work for him." These poor workmen, mad, ignorant, nose-pulled fools, destroyed their own cause; for, in the end, the contractors had to combine and undertake to employ no Union men. When this was announced officially there was a panic. At once a general strike was ordered. Rail- road men, canal men, slaughterers, engineers, telegraphists, truckmen, postmen — all struck. Such a paralysis of business was never known. But it lasted only ten days, for the contractors and employers had been driven to desperation and for three j T ears had planned a grand coup for just such a crisis. It was to import workmen on a large scale from Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy. The Home Trades Unions workmen were thus to be shut out. The labor and vio- lent parties got wind of it, and rushed to the steamer docks and landings. They burned the piers, threatened violence to the emigrants. The militia were called out in New York and it was only when a Gatling opened fire and cut a swath LOOKING AHEAD. 133 of dead along the Battery, that with a mad de- spairing shout, the wan, passion-moved mob went. Next morning it reassembled. Every building in process of construction was wrecked. The same scenes were enacted in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Boston, Savan- nah, New Orleans, and St. Paul. In the West and South demagogues used the agitation as a pretext to forward a new political cry, tending to separate those sections from the East and make San Francisco the western capital city. The riots were quelled with fearful bloodshed, including outrages against the blacks who sided with the employ- ers. Then began more suffering on the part of the poor. The capitalists offered aid, some of the workingmen refused through pride. Others had to accept. Meanwhile rich men's houses were burned and banks were blown up with sad frequency. It became evident that Capi- tal had to fight no longer with Labor led by re- spectable men, but with Labor maddened by unscrupulous demagogues, and by the heads of the terrible lawless classes. It was resolved to 134 LOOKING AHEAD. arrest, right or wrong, every leader in the working party. A traitor in the Socialist rank gave away, at this juncture, a list of all the prominent Socialists. This, followed up, led to a knowledge of the personality of every agent of the combined dangerous classes in Europe and America. The governments took their precautions most carefully. Within a week after the arrest of the labor leaders in America, every one of their agents in Europe, America and Australia was arrested. Ten thousand five hundred and fifty-seven arrests were made, and lists implicating some ten thousand others were found. Eighty- five leaders and agents were shot or hanged without mercy. The heads of the Labor party were sentenced to imprisonment pending in- quiry. On the next Sunday, on every church door, in every city in Europe, and in the United States, a notice was posted, setting forth in plain com- mon-sense language, how much the sufferings of the workmen were due to their foolish lead- ers. In the United States the notice said that LOOKING AHEAD. 135 the workmen could not expect constant increase of wages, when employers did not make suffici- ent margin to pay for improvements or wear in their machinery or for the undertaking of other enterprises. That contractors, mill-owners and factory runners, had to refuse contracts because they were uncertain, through fear of strikes, whether they would be able to fill them. Their mills and factories were thus shut up, or worked on half-time. It was asked thai: employ- ees should share in employers' profits besides being paid, because the former built up the lat- ter's wealth, but did they, could they, share tho brain work necessary? Could it be ex- pected that the employers would pay the ad- vanced wages or even full wages when strikes occurred so unexpectedly and so unfairly? Who could guard against "Sympathy Strikes," as they were called? If Burlington-Quincy emplo3'ees struck, why must employees of all railroads strike? And why should that cause bricklayers to strike "in sympathy?" The law bound a contractor to execute whatever he undertook under penalties. But it did not bind 136 LOOKING AHEAD. its laborers to finish his work at the same rate they commenced it. The law bound contrac- tors to finish work by a stipulated time. But the law did not hold laborers responsible for hindering the work by strikes. Further, brain- work was paid according to ability. Thus skillful physicians, eloquent ministers and clever lawyers were better rewarded than in- ferior ones. So with hand-labor. Those who used their muscles best, as workmen, and their heads besides, got best pay. Therefore trades- unions had no right to say all workmen should be paid alike. And again, if laborers chose to work ten hours instead of eight, no trades unions had the right to say: "You shall work only eight hours." These arguments were backed up by the logic of suffering and starva- tion. But they simply roused the workman, who still dozed, tossed his arms, snored, started, uttered inarticulate sounds, and when shaken up, remained dazed and unable to collect his senses. He could not yet learn the old fable that just as the members of the body must work to feed the head, while the brain does no LOOKING AHEAD. 137 manual work, so in a community there must be workers to supply the body politic with food, although there may seem to be some who do no work, but who really plan it all. Meanwhile the wars continued; the home troubles increased. Earthquakes spread ruin in America and South Europe. Storms swept over harvest fields, and rotting produce alone remained. Fisheries seemed to fail. People said it was due to volcanic turmoil on the coast. Winters of unusual severity were fol- lowed by spring snow-meltings of unprece- dented suddenness, and by consequent floods. Summers were broken with cold intervals, fierce thunderstorms and constant rain, so that harvesters' songs were turned to starvation's despairing sighs. Yet people refused to learn humiliation and reverence from what was the law of Divine blessing and protection. For science now knew all about the natural phe- nomena and could explain everything! But science did not give food to the hungry, and the many philosophic systems of religion all failed to clothe the naked ! 138 LOOKING AHEAD. In the midst of all, emperors and statesmen entered cathedral and church to give thanks for victories just announced, while mothers' hearts Avere breaking and bitter tears were falling. Preachers continued to preach "peace and good will on earth," while fathers of families expe- rienced that indescribable agony of hearing their children cry for food when they had none to give them. Now and then, if in his pulpit, some minister would inveigh against a states- man, impeach the rich and plead for the work- man, or would "cry aloud, and spare not to tell" the wealthy "their faults" and the sinful leaders "their transgressions," men would bid him be careful and mind his books, and not touch questions he could not comprehend — or his rich members would join some other congregation, where the preacher never said disagreeable things. Women would simper "Don't scold us !" Said men of preachers, ' ' if they could console the sorrowing, they might. It was part of their duty. The rest of it was to conduct services, marry, christen, bury, etc. Outside of this they might act as orators when occasion offered, and LOOKING AHEAD. 139 second or even move resolutions of horror at outrages," etc. But, on the other hand, there were those who declared that it was distinctly and indubitably the minister's duty to protest against wrong- doing, to champion the oppressed, to deDounce the unjust, fearlessly, uncompromisingly. And to their honor, be it said, the ministers slack- ened not. The outrages were continued. The drainage works of Rome and Paris, the ancient palaces of monarchs and nobles, the embankments in Lon- don, Liverpool, Washington, Quebec, the quays of Cronstadt, Dublin, Glasgow, Havre, Cadiz, Ostea, Dunedin and Boston, the borings through the Alps, the pneumatic roads that joined cities underground, all suffered; and even villages and cities were set on fire. Vandals destroyed the Escurial in Madrid, the St. Petersburg and British Museums and the New York libraries, and the monuments of the great men. Oh! How could they ever be replaced ! Destruction was easily accom- plished, for science had discovered how to raanu- 140 LOOKING AHEAD. facture violent explosives, cheaply, swiftly and simply. The resources of civilization were thus placed within reach of any little club of angry men. So the home troubles continued, while the armies were in the field, lighting the Otto- man hosts. LOOKING AHEAD. 141 CHAPTER X. CATHOLIC AND GREEK CHURCH AGAINST THE PROTESTANTS. By this time the powers occupied Salonica ; Russia occupied Galilee; France was estab- lished in the shadow of Lebanon ; Germany had advanced her soldiers to the Euphrates, and was firmly established in old Babylon and Pal- myra, while English outposts stood sentinel in Jaffa, Hebron, Beyrout, Bethlehem, Jerusa- lem and Damascus. But this league against the Turks had, as al- ready intimated, showed signs of weakness. The unexpected difficulties were not the oppo- sition and bravery of the Turks, but the jeal- ousies of the great powers, each so wishful to hold Jerusalem and to shut out all others from the holy places. Through Catholic influence and the alleged 142 LOOKING AHEAD. subtle work of the Jesuits, France, Spain, and Portugal and Italy grew cool in the league-al- leged subtle woik, for subsequent facts proved tbe Jesuits innocent. Peace was made with Turkey, who had seen her advantages, had played Catholic vs. Protestant, and both against the Greek church of Russia. She saw these Christians did not love one an- other. Open disputes resulted, and the insanity of humanity was illustrated by a split among those who had banded against the Crescent! A split, whether due to international jealousies, or through the approaching division of the Turkish empire, or whether due to the oft-al- leged diplomatic action of the priesthoods, mat- ters not. The split came, and to the astonish- ment and horror of the world, matter gravi- tated in such a way that Russia, Austria, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy — the Greek and Catholic countries — were banded against Saxondom, Holland, Scandinavia and Germany, the homes of Protestantism. At last open war was declared. France announced the break by seizing and LOOKING AHEAD. 143 holding Jersey and Guernsey, and threw armies into Germany. But Germany was ready. Rus- sia pushed five army corps over the Pamirs into India; another expedition marched on Herat, yet another on Quetta. England was unready. Japan, a great Asiatic power, for the first time in the world's history appeared as a hos- tile power in European waters. Naturally she ranged herself with England, her firm friend against Chinese duplicity and Russian intrigue which had forced her to yield Manchuria and evacuate Corea at the very moment that she entered the stage of modern history. Austria, with Italy, menaced Germany on the south, and Russia threatened on the east. Saxondom moved quickly. Powerful fleets and reinforcements sailed from Canada, from the United States (amagnifi- cent contingent), from Africa and from Aus- tralia. I must pause to speak of that great war which woke the echoes of weeping and bereave- ment in so many lands. No doubt the victo- ries were glorious. The widows and orphans 144 LOOKING AHEAD. did not think so. But the}* were scorned. And the office of the London Punch was wrecked for publishing a cartoon showing Christ wring- ing his hands in grief at so-called Christian nations fighting, while the Turk, convulsed with laughter, looked on. The cartoon was called "Peace and good- will." A mighty move was soon observed to again invade England, the seat of Saxondom's gov- ernment, temptingly rich in stores, easily ac- cessible, and with few or no great fortified cities. Saxondom understood it, and soon two immense hostile fleets gravitated toward the wa- ters of the English channel from the Baltic and North Seas, and from the Bay of Biscay, the Atlantic and the further seas. Dimgeness, South Foreland to Beachy Head promised to be the scene where the world was to be treated to the sight of a great battle of modern war-ships. And so it was. The cliffs and beaches were crowded with spectators. Three hundred and eighty-four ships of war of various types were there, stretching into the wider waters of the Channel. For convenience LOOKING AHEAD. 145 we will use the term "combined fleet" to de- note Saxondom, Germany, Netherlands, Scan- dinavia and Japan, and the term "allied fleet" to denote the other powers. No sooner were the hostile fleets within reach of each other than the leviathans, attended by torpedo catch- ers or swift launches, or both, let down their torpedo nettings and plates. These latter were strong plates behind the nettings, interlocking with yielding rims, backed with powerful springs, which connected them with the ship, every part of which was so protected. 'W hen a torpedo struck a ship, the net having failed to hold it, it impinged upon those plates, ex- ploded, drove the plates back on the springs with tremendous force, and thus spent its power. If even the plates were destroyed, the mere fact that the ship was always mov- ing made it difficult for the attacking tor- pedo-vessel to hit in exactly the same place. Each man-o'-war dropped six or seven "sub- mergibles," which could manufacture their own air, or use condensed air and remain under wa- ter during the whole action. They patroled 14C LOOKING AHEAD. around the ship's hull, illumining their course by electric lights in parabolic reflectors, and were frequently able either to deflect the ene- my's torpedos, or to cut the wire connecting a non-automobile torpedo with a hostile boat. The torpedoes were thus rendered utterly use- less. The submergibles were also armed with dynamite guns and tubes so arranged that they could discharge shells or torpedoes under the water, and thus destroy other submergibles or torpedo-boats, or line-of-battle ships. As the two great fleets drew nearer and nearsr, the interest became intense. British cheers an- nounced the advent of reinforcements, for Ameri- ca, Africa and Australia had, at the first signs of rupture, hurried to the mother-land some of their best ships. The long-range guns opened fire, and the mighty thunders of English and American monsters were hardly heard beforo the enemy answered. Smokestacks and hurri- cane decks, spars and rigging were soon swept away. The British admiral-in-chief signaled to his fleet to concentrate fire with heavy guns where possible, on one vessel of the enemy at a LOOKING AHEAD. 147 time. This was done with success. One after another no less than five of the "allied fleet" succumbed to the concentrated shower of iron, as they came within range. But it was observed that many of the guns fouled, or their compli- cated machinery failed, or something in the steering apparatus went wrong, or a patent con- trivance suddenly would not work — this was the case on both fleets. Soon a commotion in the water showed that the torpedoes and sub- mergibles were at their deadly work. At last the awful battle became general. The "combined fleet's" line of battle was as follows: Great Britain, America and Scandina- via were in the centre ; opposed to them and form- ing the "allied fleet's" center were Russia, Austria, Greece and Portugal. The right wing of the "combined fleet" was occupied by Ger- many and Japan; opposed on the left wing of the "allied fleet" was France. The left wing of the "combined fleet" was composed of Afri- ca, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia; op- posed and forming the right wing of the "al- lied fleet" were Italy and Spain. 148 LOOKING AHEAD. As the fleets approached each other, their sub- mergibles and torpedoes began more rapid work. Soon enough many of the "submergi- bles," some belonging to the combined and some to the allied fleet, sank forever. Hostile submergibles had ruined them. And within thirty minutes over one hundred and fifty were riddled with the rapid-fire guns of the enemy. For all submergibles were to rise every ten min- utes for a hasty glance for orders, if their tele- graphic and telephone connections with their ships were injured or fouled. On sixty-three of these vessels, after the battle, the crews were found asphyxiated, through damaged air-ap- paratus. Majestically the mighty fleets came into close action. Every shot between the monsters now told. The crash of huge balls on thick armor joined the thunder of the heavy English, American, Russian, French and Italian heavy guns. They tore through the thickest plating. They exploded and rent turrets like paper. Dynamite torpedoes from Zalinski-guns sent ship after ship to the bottom. The sounds of LOOKING AHEAD. U9 smashing iron and splintering wood were mixed with the roar of Gatlings, Mitralleuses, the noise of other multicharge weapons, such as Nordenfelds, Hotchkiss and Dorsays, while the shrieks and rush of rocket and dynamite guns added to the pandemonium. The screaming his.i of picrate-bolts fired from tubeholes, the rushing and crashing sound of huge bombs, made a chorus such as never on earth had been heard before. In old battles huge clouds of smoke arose as if to hide from an outraged Father in heaven the sight of brothers on earth — all equally His children — so cruelly crushing and wounding each other. In this frightful conflict but little, if any, smoke was seen, for gas-explosive, nitroglyc- erine, cordite, picrate and smokeless, or com- paratively smokeless, chemicals were used. Worst of all were the dynamite shells. For each shell truly aimed blew the ship to atoms. It was horrible! Suddenly sounds would cease in one quarter, and looking there, one would see a mighty ehip 150 LOOKING AHEAD. sink through a deadly wound from a submerg- ible. To describe in other than general terms the many single combats, the swiftly following phases of that great battle, is impossible ! See the grand English battleship, the Col- lingwood, separated from her fellows by the captain's intrepidity! She is beset with five opponents, two on each quarter, one at the bow. She opens her torpedo-tubes, and belches out four keen-pointed monsters, which plow the way to her foes. Four more and yet four more in quick succession, and three of her opponents, the Rurik, Imperator Alexander II., and Kai- ser in are mortally wounded, with great gaps blown in their sides — and the Collingwood's submergibles do the rest for them. They sink in the watery grave, but with colors flying, the guns voicing forth defiance to the last. Quick- ly the Collingwood closes her tubes, full speed is ordered, and swiftly she rams the Russian in her front, the Moscow, and then pours broad- sides at close quarters into the remaining foe, an Austrian ship — one shell from her dynamite LOOKING AHEAD. 151 tube and the Austrian disappears in fragments. The Russian she had rammed and sunk was the flagship of the "allied fleet." Victorious and war-scarred, she takes her place again in the line of the "combined fleet," and the admiral's signal runs up "Well done, Collingwood, but breach of discipline in break- ing my line." How long did this take? Not eight minutes, so mighty were the powers with which science had equipped war- vessels. Nor were the French idle. As swiftly as stored-up hate could work their muscles, they poured in heavy fire on the Germans, who were stationed opposite, and dared as only French- men can dare — with a diabolical daring. They rashly broke their line and rushed into the midst of the German squadron. Then ensued a series of single-handed combats. The Re- doubtable grappled with the Kaiser ; and — irony of fate ! the flagship of the French, called La France, closed with a formidable German cou- ple, named the Von Moltke and the Bismarck. Similarly the others found antagonists. At close quarters the French sent red-hot shot on 152 LOOKING AHEAD. the sides and decks of the Germans, and plied them with dynamite cartridges and voltaic rockets. They vomited torpedoes, used keen rams, and pushed with spar-torpedoes to the very bulwarks of the enemy, while they swept the foe's decks, masts and rigging with mi- trailleuses and other multicharges. Nor were the Germans passive. Calm and cool, their admiral gave the orders, by means of a clever adaption of wireless telegraphy and also by signal, and many a brave and reckless act of the French was rendered impotent by reason of his adroitness and that of his subordinates, the captains of the individual ships. His submerg- ibles wrought dreadful havoc, and the Eng- lish Chief -Admiral saw that as usual, dash and bravery, unless successful at the first moment, meant defeat. The discipline and intelligence of the Germans prevailed, and one by one the best warships of France sank, the Hoche, De- puy de Lome, Tage, Bart, Marceau, France, Brennus, Admiral Baudin, Friedland, Turenne, etc. , with them, however, some of the enemy, such as the Kron-Prinz,Brandenberg, Bismarck, LOOKING AHEAD. 153 Liepzig, Irene, Rosalie von. Hamburg and Kur- furst Fr. Wilhelm. By this time the English, Americans and Canadians had broken the Russians, Austrians and Greeks, who kept the center opposite them. The huge monsters of the Czar presented a ter- rible sight, and many a one was missing, due to Anglo-Saxon dynamite, iron and skill. Leav- ing the care of the division to some of the Americans, the English admiral divided Sax- ondom's fleet. In obedience to the flagship's orders, her two lines deployed. The grandeur of the scene was most thrilling. To the left moved one division, to aid the Colonial and Netherlands contingents against the right wing of the "allied fleet," which it will be remembered consisted of the Italian, Scandinavian and Spanish. The Italian ships were magnificent structures, numerous, heavily armed and splendidly appointed. The left of the "combined fleet" had been at the outset reinforced by a large detachment of British and American gunboats, armored, netted, covered craft, carrying one, two or three guns, rockets, 154 LOOKING AHEAD. torpedoes, and dynamite artillery. Most useful they proved, especially with service of accom- panying torpedo-catchers and submergibles. These gunboats were hard at work, when the first of them, the Slaney, perceived the line-of- battleships coming to their aid, and started a cheer which, as the leviathans swept on, was taken up in turn by the rest of the detachment, the Trent, Bramble, Gorgon, Scourge, Catskill, Camandie, Bulldog, Snap, Nantucket, Pincher, Kenosha, Badger, Arrow, etc. Not but that many of their number had sunk, such as the Fidget, Tees, Ticonderoga, Medway and Kite, which went down together, unable to stand the fire of the towering Italia, Dandolo, Lepanto, and the unseen assault of their submergibles. Many of the latter craft, belonging of course to both sides, were floating bottom up or had sunk. Some had run foul of friends and foes, impeding screws or torpedo-tubes or dj'namite underwater tube-holes, through which the dynamite guns worked. The English and American warships which were rushing to the aid of the Nether- lands on the "combined fleet's" left, included LOOKING AHEAD. 155 the Mohawk, Maine, Concord, Texas, Mianto- nomah, Shannon, Neptune, Ajax, Boston, Devastation, Edinburg, Inflexible, Iron Duke, Monadnock, Collingwood, New Orleans and Black Prince. They plowed into the "allied" right, and again concentrating fire on the mons- trous ships opposed to them, sank the Prim, Lepanto, Keppler, Italia, Lauria, Copenhagen, Duilio, Svealand, Dandolo, Roma, Seville, Sar- degna, Madrid and Re Umberto. They lost, how- ever, seven of their own. The work of butch- ery and destruction continued, for the other di- vision of the Saxondom fleet was just as much maddened with the blood fever. This division included the Victory (flagship), Minateur, Chi- cago, Repulse, Imperieuse, Yorktown, Con- queror, Sultan, Yantic, Atlantic, Royal Sov- ereign, Hotspur, Invincible, Rupert, Mersey, Fearless, Active, Volage, Resolution, Incon- stant, Brooklyn, San Francisco, New York, Empress of India, St. Louis, Ohio and Chesa- peake. It engaged the French wing, and with the aid of such German ships yet unsunk, such as the Prince Carl, Yon Moltke, Unser Fritz, 156 LOOKING AHEAD. turned the tide of battle here also. The Stet- tin, Woerth, Kaiser Weisenburg, Augusta, Krienihild, Friederich I., Siegfried, Rhine and Sedan weie sunk, five English and two Ameri- can sinking with them. But the French lost correspondingly the Foudroyant, Colbert, Suf- frim, Tours, Bayard, Charme, Magenta, Nep- tune, Isly — in fact, France was overwhelmed, and her fleet was annihilated. In connection with the defeat of the French, a novel experiment was tried by the Japanese. It was successful, and j r et most terribly unsuc- cessful. These Orientals, naturally peaceful, hated war, but were wise enough to know that with- out an army and navy "up to the times," they would fall a prey to Russian greed or to French finesse, which were ever active, especially in the seas between Japan and China. Hence, although they had a well-organized army and a magnificent navy, they eagerly adopted any suggestion which would rob war of any of its horrors. A Japanese student of the French Ecole Cen- LOOKING AHEAD. 157 trale had invented and perfected what he called an "anaesthetic shell." It was a shell charged, not with an explosive, but with a powerful gas, compressed and capable of suffus- ing fumes which produced partial or complete anaesthesia. One ordinary bullet, so charged, would fill an ordinary room with such fumes. One shell would fill a ship, for the subtle fumes would gradually enter through every crevice, once it was exploded within the hull. Explo- sion, or, more correctly, unfolding at the right time, was easily secured by interval "clock- work" arrangement. Such "explosion" of a dozen or more on the battlefield set loose such a quantity that it produced the effect of rendering all within its influence non-combatants without maiming and without killing, for its toxic, or rather its anaesthetic powers, passed off after some hours. A breeze onlj 7 drove the drug in one direction with more thorough results on the unfortunates in the wrong- wind -quarter. Two or three breaths drawn in it produced the effect. The Japanese adopted the invention, and in 158 LOOKING AHEAD. this battle used such bullets and shells in ear- nest for the first time. Where the projectiles struck a man, the impact killed him. but almost immediately the confined gas was set loose and worked its spell around. This was at all events better than the fragments of a bursting shell killing or wounding the surrounding men. The results were wonderful. The admiral- in-chief of the "allied fleet," to his utter as- tonishment, observed that five French vessels slowly slackened firing and some guns ceased. Indignantly he ordered them to keep up the attack. They paid no attention to his signals. The crew had simply been asphyxiated. The Japanese had secured their ends. Their opponents had been rendered powerless, and prize-crews were to be sent in due time to at- tach the ships and disarm the crews. But, unhappily, Japanese submergibles knew nothing of what was going on. They attacked the five ships. Meeting no resistance what- ever, they simply sank them with all on board. The longer the battle, the more trouble was experienced through disconnected electric cur- LOOKING AHEAD. 159 rents or jammed machinery on many ships. It may also be again noted here that many an ingenious war-contrivance, which in trial had answered its purpose, failed in the continued strain of action, and not only interfered with those who used them, but fatal- ly crippled them. It was a fight of heroes. Praise and honor were no more due to the conquerors than to the conquered. The "combined fleet" gained a complete vic- tory over the "allied," but did not gain bj 7- a single degree a greater claim to the respect and admiration of men. A fearful explosion suddenly startled the hostile armadas. It was a daring act of the Americans, left to hold the Russians in the cen- ter. They had chained together three submer- gibles and had sunk them under a Russian giant, the Admirable Popoff, as it was called. A charge of dynamite on board the little crafts was fired by electricity when they were in po- sition under the Popoff's hull. No ship could stand such an attack — torpedo- nets, torpedo-shields, were driven in on the 160 LOOKING AHEAD. hull, and a huge rent was torn through the chilled iron plates of the floating castle. Thrice, four and five times the awful sound was heard, and the Dumidoff, the Romanoff, the Pultowa, the Kozak and the Suwarrow w r ere seen to plunge and quiver, sway and sink and join the other Russian, Austrian and Greek ships already sunk by British or Ameri- can skill. Seeing his advantage to use the minutes before the allies recovered from this shock,the chief admiral of the "combined fleet" signaled for all to draw off. It was true it gave the allies time to re-form battle-line, but the meaning of his order was soon apparent. Neither party had as yet used the war- balloons — apparatus for which was on several of the largest ships. They did not use them when approaching each other, because by dynamite rockets the balloons could be hit by the enemy and tumbled into the sea. Nor was there any time to inflate them, for the onset was too swift and violent. They had not used them when the combat became close, because the balloons would have been in the way of the rocket- fire LOOKING AHEAD. 161 of both sides. But now that the Lest of the allied ships were sunk, the English admiral thought he could safely use his air-artillery. As speedily as possible the balloons were in- flated, and no sooner were they seen floating in the air than an ineffectual fire was opened on them. Three were hit, but nineteen sailed over the allies and dropped bombs, adding to the awful loss of life. Each bomb was charged with dynamite, each hit meant a ship blown to pieces. It was criminal to continue the fight. The admiral and two vice-admirals of the "al- lied fleet" were slain. The next in command signaled "surrender," and the great sea fight was won. Thus ended the famous battle of Dungeness. This led to the French evacuation of the Channel Islands. The transports of the Anglo- Saxons arrived in quick succession. Three army columns were landed on the Maas. Ger- man armies crossed the frontier, and it seemed as if the oft-talked-about general European war had indeed arrived, for there was not a country where hosts were not marching to redden the lands. 102 LOOKING AHEAD. Time fails to describe the details. Enough to say that Poland proved a strong aid to the combined powers, for it was on the flank of Austria and Russia. It created a powerful di- version by keeping large armies watching it. And the value of the Netherlands' friendship for the Anglo-Saxon Confederation, and there- fore for the combined powers was soon evident. For orders were sent to the new Australian and New Zealand contingents to change their course, and instead of going to England to go to Psara, a small island in the iEgean, among those handed over to the Netherlands by the Berlin conference. It had been a rendezvous really through the foresight of the American members of the staff of the combined forces. Before Russia had time to defend her Asiatic gains from Turkey she lost Smyrna, Aleppo, Brussa and Kars, through the rapid and skill- ful advances of the South Sea soldiers, who from Psara landed on the Asiatic coast. Though beaten in Armenia and at sea, Russia gave England much trouble in India. She had caused the peoples of Hindustan and Burmah LOOKING AHEAD. 163 to rise against the confederated occupation. The awful scenes of massacre surpassed even the stories of the famous Indian mutiny of about a century ago. Again the grandeur of the old courage of the indomitable Saxon race was shown — the same power to strive and en- dure — a courage and power which had won victories on many a field of carnage in Europe and Asia, and victories of peace in the wilds of Australia, and in the woods and on the prai- ries of America. Men surprised in the night by the dark- skinned demons, died fighting to the last gasp. Their wives and children were carried away. Often did the women die by their own hands, when they found that their defenders were slain. Sufferings were endured uncomplain- ingly, sieges were sustained, and courage was renewed until British perseverance and Ameri- can grit conquered. Wilson, Howe and Mc- Niven, O'Connor, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Sheri- dan and Cregan won names to rank with Out- ram and Havelock, Napier and Sydney Smith, the immortal heroes of the old Indian mutiny, and Clive, who first won the land. 164 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER XI. THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Nothing, however, seemed to come from all the fighting; while, at home, social troubles and labor's sufferings were intensified. And to make matters worse, a bitter senti- ment was kindled in Protestant countries. For it was said that splits in the Christian ranks were due to Papal aspirations to tempo- ral power, which the Catholic church never would renounce. "How is it," it was pertinently asked, "that all the Catholic powers, except Belgium, who owed her life to Saxondom, are banded as the allied powers, temporarily courting the aid of the Greek church, against the Protestant pow- ers?" "Was it chance or was it Papal policy to first crush Protestantism, and then reckon with LOOKING AHEAD. 165 the Greek church for the possession of the Holy places? If the latter, it was assuredly a master stroke of state craft." Indignantly the Catholics denied it was Pa- pal work. And the Jew, who exercised a pow- er in the press, regretted that Christians should fight, and declared that to charge Catholics with the crime was in itself a crime. Certain it is that the Catholics were open to the grave charge of creating imperium in im- perio. For they educated their own children instead of sending them to public, government or na- tional schools. Their own ideas were thus in- culcated and perpetuated, and the bent they desired was given to the mind from the earliest years. They maintained their influence by the "con- fessional" and the pulpit, by platform and club. Statesmen became their tools through fear of excommunication. Votes were similarly influenced. Hence it was mischievously urged that "the Protesant 166 LOOKING AHEAD. world had grave reasons to fear the advent to power of political parties who would shape politics to further Catholic aims." Perhaps among these aims the possession of the Holy Places. Strange to say, however, in Catholic countries there was an accountable hostility- to their priests, due doubtless to the ignorance of the masses, who thought it wrong that men, even priests, should be so comfortably housed and fed without having to earn it by the work of their hands. On the other hand it was claimed, even by some Protestants, that "it was far better that the church should wield the power it did and maybe the additional power at which it aimed, for thus were restrained millions of men who otherwise would undoubtedly become an unbridled power for ill, ready and willing, because undeterred by the thought of any hereafter, to flood the world with the lava of hot passion, and bury its fairest monu- ments under the scorise of ruin and desolation. A peace was patched up at Vienna between the combined and the allied powers. But the LOOKING AHEAD. 167 former insisted on serious modification of the treaty of Berlin. The Anglo-Saxon Confederation saw that it was better to have a barrier, no matter how small, between its eastern possessions and Rus- sia, in order to be able to combat that power. As a result, Turkey was to be propped up in the Taurus district, but was no longer to be a Eu- ropean power. She was to evacuate Europe. And since there was no unanimity now, as to the holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth, etc., they were intrusted to Turkey for the time being, upon condition that all religions should be followed in freedom in those cities. What a strange result ! But Turkey would not consent to yield Con- stantinople. In the war between the combined and allied powers, she had, thanks to her own bravery and to the efficient aid afforded by the discon- tented political parties of the various Christian nations, retrieved many of her defeats. Now all the allied powers again declared war 168 LOOKING AHEAD. against the Moslem power, to drive it out of Europe forever. Alas for civilization ! At the pathos of that Christian capture of Constantinople, Time must weep and Eternity blush! Again the sickening details of war were printed on the page of history, for the powers decided that Turkey should evacuate her capi- tal within one month. The Turkish armies were driven in from their lines on the Balkan and Rhodope Moun- tains. The women and children were sent from Constantinople to St. Stefano by the sul- tan's orders. The month ended. The city was duly in- vested b} r the allied forces. That night one of their balloon-corps rained down destruction upon it. That night it truly seemed as if the ancient and historic site was to be destroyed forever, amid a hell-chorus of shrieking and hissing, bursting and crashing! But that night an emissary of the sultan stole through the enemy's lines and was rowed LOOKING AHEAD. 169 to Besika Bay, which he reached after much delay. He bore a letter from the sultan as Sheik ul Islam to Mecca. In the morning Constantinople was in ruins. Those ruins the Turks would not surrender. An assault was determined upon. The multicharge guns, the dynamite repeaters, scatter-shot rockets, and other improved artil- lery, which she had secured by her agents abroad, or which were supplied by the discon- tents, all these were so diligently served that the assailants were simply mowed down. It was declared not war, but butchery. Active operations were then stopped to bury the dead, the Turks assenting. Two days were thus spent. On the morrow the Turks opened negotiations, and thus clever- ly occupied three days. They evidently wished to gain time for some purpose which the enemy could not guess. Next day they broke off par- ley. The attack was renewed. Through a se- ries of feints, the allies gained important posi- tions, from which they poured a fire into the Turkish soldiery, fairly decimating them. 1?0 LOOKING AHEAD. Night ended an eventful day. Without loss of time measures were taken for assault by land and sea. The Turks, reduced in numbers, strengthened their positions as best they could for a final stand through the Kapoussi (or gate of Egro) and Edrene. Through the Top Ka- poussi, Yeni Kapoussi the attack was made, while on the shore of the Golden Horn the as- sault was carried on. Arnout and Orta Quiui, Beshik, Tash, Dolma Batshe, Azat Kapou were penetrated, and step by step Galata, Pera, Ey- oub, and Top-hane — suburbs of the European shore, and Scutaro on the Asiatic — were won. All was ready for the capture of the last stand of the Turks, who were strongly intrenched around the seraglio and St. Sophia. Experi- ence had taught the impossibility of storming in the face of Turkish artillery, and a message was sent to induce the sultan to surrender. He was found surrounded by his devoted captains. In the hearing of the messenger he said to his officers, "My sons, the shadows of evening gath- er, shrouding the earth. So gather the shad- LOOKING AHEAD. 171 ows of fate, shrouding the children of Othman. Lo, the sun sets, glorious in its disappearance; so shall the sun of Osmanli set, glorious as it vanishes from the earth. Lo! the night comes, as come it must. Welcome, then, the night of death, if such is the will of Him who shapeth destiny!" "Kismet! Kismet!" replied his warriors. "It is fate, it is fate!" "Go, take this message to my foes. My hand yet grasps my sword-hilt, and my grasp will not be loosed except in death !" Thus spoke the brave man. The embassy returned ; three rockets rose in the air, and as the last shades of evening deep- ened into night, three balloons rose, three more and three more. From the first streamed searchlights, which rendered the position of the Turks visible for attack. From the others streamed shot and shell from gatlings and other guns, which the American officers of the allied forces suggested should be mounted on the balloon carriages. Other balloons mounted; the artillery of the 172 LOOKING AHEAD. Turks was in vain turned skyward ; a crushing fire from heavy pieces also poured in on the doomed men from the allied lines, and the exists ence of Turkey in Europe was stamped out. The historical drama of Turkish history thus was ended. Its final an d mighty chorus were the thunders of cannon, and the roar, rush and wreckage of bombs. The sultan was found dead in the midst of his standard-bearers. The conquerors had found a brave foe. Re- presenting as they did so many races of the world, they were forcibly reminded of what the Bible says of the destiny of Ishmael, the ancestor of that foe whose ranks include all fol- lowers of Islam — that "he shall fall in the very presence of his brethren." So had befallen, in the presence of his brothers; sons, like him- self, of the Father of all. Was it accidental, or was it designed that a staff officer, passing through the ruins of the seraglio, echoed the verses of Fidonrsi, which Mahomet, the Othman chief, quoted when the Turkish hosts captured Constantinople more than four centuries before? LOOKING AHEAD. 173 The spider's iveb is the royal curtain in the palace of Kasarj The owl is the sentinel on the watchtower of Afrasiab. But alas for tbe world's peace! The sultan, before dying, had lit a flame destined to scorch and scar the earth. For at the very moment that the Berlin con- ference was sitting, he had taken steps to move the whole of the Moslem race against the Chris- tians. At the very moment that the allied forces closed around him in his capital, he touched off his machinery and set it in motion by dispatching bis emissary to Mecca. The touch required to effect this was simply to proclaim Al Jehad— The Holy War! 174 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER XII. AL JEHAD — THE HOLY WAR! Carried to the oases of the deserts, carried to the far Euphrates, carried to the coasts of Mozambique and Benin, carried to the wilds of Thibet, carried to the rolling Ganges, carried to the isles of the Malays, the sacred summons, "Al Jehad," bade all the faithful gather to fight the common foe. "Al Jehad!" was proclaimed! Wonderful thus was the sultan's power. Al Jehad — it meant an upheaval of the whole of the Moslem world ! Al Jehad— it meant that the demons of war were loosed in Mecca, were speeding to the west on the wings of the wind o'er the waddies and wastes of Arabia, speeding across the vast Sa- hara, speeding to the frowning peaks of Atlas* lofty heights, and thence rebounding, were LOOKING AHEAD. 175 speeding through the heart of the dark conti- nent, to the great lakes to Tanganyika, and be- yond to the ocean of Ind. Al Jehad — it meant that those spirits of evil worse than Furies of old were riding on the blasts of mischief and Death. Rid- ing? No; were rushing, flying, flashing back and forth from Mecca the holy, lashing to mad- ness the sheik and emir, the mufti and pilgrim with the thought that Christian hands should dare essay to drive Islam from the land of the holy places. And at the thought every son of Islam set his teeth and grasped his sword. Al Jehad! Spreading their pinions on the gathering tempest of death,the war-demons sped east to the hills of Afghan, to the valleys of the Persian, over the Himalayas to Ceylon, the footprint of Adam, till the Indus and Krishna trembled with the shouts of the myriads they stirred for the fray. On flew the demons west- ward and eastward from Mecca the holy, nor did they fold their wings until the kris was drawn in every land from Ceylon to Timor, from the gates of China to the Isles of Sulu, 176 LOOKING AHEAD. from Egypt to Uganda, from Benin to Maroc. In obedience to the messengers the chiefs of all the Mohammedan races repaired or sent deputies to Mecca. There, before the holy Caaba, the "Council of the Prophet" was appointed to plan the sa- cred war. The emissary of the sultan, who had remained at Mecca, solemnly gave the sultan's firman to the new commander-in-chief. It was the last he ever signed. Prearranged signal by fire-beacon, chupatti and token, was at once sent through the Moslem world. From the center of Africa, across the Sahara, along the coast of North Africa, by the caravan routes, from the lands of the white and red Nile, the defenders of the Crescent banner marched into Egypt, driving the Italians from Erythea and the English from Khartum to Assouan, thence to Cairo, thence to Alexandria, Suez and Port Said. The attention of Christendom was urgently aroused. The Mohammedan Indians rose in Hindostan and besieged Saxondom's garrisons. Vast ar- LOOKING AHEAD. 177 mies were sent from its plains and from its mountain districts to join other hosts of Islam drawn from Central Asia The aid of political discontents from Euro- pean or American peoples was refused by the captains of Mohammed. For it was resolved by the Mecca council that in a Jehad none could defend the Crescent except a true believer, because all who died in its defense went to heaven, whose gates were closed to all unbe- lievers. These discontents had offered to officer the Moslem armies, to teach them how to use im- proved methods of warfare, and to ship any number of Malay true believers from the is- lands to the mainland. The Mohammedan powers resolved tc do this themselves. Agents were dispatched to buy all improved weapons — an easy task, for the vast treasures of the Mohammedan world were freely offered for war expenses. They readily learned the use of the newest weapons, and means were found to carry large contingents of men from the isles of Malay to India and 178 LOOKING AHEAD. thence to Suez and Bagdad. These were joined to the Asiatic armies of the faithful which were mustered, one wing in North Arabia, the center on the Euphrates, and the other wing toward Mosul. On marched the tide of dark-faced men. The European forces tried to make a stand, but many of their garrisons were surprised by sud- den attack. Nothing seemed to arrest the Mo- hammedan advance. The left wing entered Palestine on the South, the center shut up strong Geiman garrisons in Babylon and Pal- myra, and the right wing advanced westward along the Soliman and Lebanon mountain de- files, threatening the Russians on one side and the Austrians and French on the other. This remarkable demonstration had the effect of cementing Christendom in unity, and hush- ing for the time the jealousies of Catholic, Protestant and Greek churchmen as to who was to have the scenes of the New Testament his- tory. The "twelve-tribe armies," as people nicknamed the garrisons of the nations estab- lished by the Berlin conference, were concen- LOOKING AHEAD. 179 trated at Tyre, a restored port of splendid accommodations, and embarked for Cyprus. Another conference of the Christian nations was hastily summoned; it sat in session at Rome. After many representations the Pope was formally represented — an instance of the influ- ence of the church. Proceedings were retarded a whole month through this. For the other sects demanded representation, if the discussion was to be sectarian besides political. The right was conceded. But although the Greek-church sent its head, thus incidentally strengthen- ing Russia, the Protestants could not make up their minds which one of their sects should represent the whole body of Protestantism. The month lost was very precious. For the Moslem wasted no time. When at last the conference sat, the first news it received was that the soldiers of the Crescent had entered Jerusalem. Had the eyes of the Christian world therefore been directed to that ancient city, instead of to the ancient, but comparatively youthful city of Rome, it would have seen the heads of Islam's warriors bent in 180 LOOKING AHEAD. response to the muezzin's summons to prayer, while the Christian inhabitants and Christian agents marched out. And more it would have seen. For there, crouching on the stones, as if he loved them and was loath to leave them, was the figure of a man who wore no cross and who answered not the prayer-call. It was the Jew. A fast day was proclaimed throughout the Christian world, and in every pulpit a new cru- sade was preached. Immense preparations were made. Europe became a vast camp, and the anvils of Ameri- ca, the throbs of engines in Australia, echoed the sounds in the old world, which told of guns being made and swords being sharpened to kill, maim and destroy brothers' homes, brothers' bodies, brothers' property and brothers' lives. And all in the name of religion ! It happened that Christmas came and the carols rang forth, while preachers preached that peace and good will had come on earth. Peo- ple bowed the head, but wondered where was peace and where was good will. LOOKING AHEAD. 181 Unhappil} T the war sentiment against Islam did not silence the cries of poverty, did not Lush the threats of the political agitators, did not stay the hand which applied the torch or fired the train which led to the cartridge. It was one of the worst decades of human history. And saddest of all was the fact that material- ism had spread among all classes. The very workmen, hod-carriers and masons who form- erly used to tremble at a hint from the priest, now lived without fear of any being, human or divine. They said that "unless man's own strong arm and stronger will won for him his bread, no power could — and as for one's rights, why, that meant just as much as one could get." A dull despair seemed settling down on them, in Europe, in America, and Australia. For the employers left the fooled laborer in the lurch when his "Grand-master Workman," "Grand Past-master," "International head center," "Knight Commander," or whatever the misleading title was, ordered a strike. They simply summoned State troops to protect them properly, and employed non-union men 182 LOOKING AHEAD. on their own terms. Not that the outlook was so cheerful for employers. "Father," said a young man one day to his parent, "I have been engaged to be married these four years, and I know you have not been able to start me in business, as you promised you would within a year after I was plighted to Mary." "Son," replied he, "I wish to heaven I could do so, for you deserve it." 1 • There is no need no w, sir, ' ' he answered ; "I told Mary I did not see my way to marry- ing, and did not think I ought to stand in her way of being wedded to a man able to support her as she has been accustomed to live, and as I did think, with right, I would support her myself. She answered she would learn to work, and if I pleased she would leave her home, her friends and all, and go abroad with me to South America, content to eat a crust and help me to earn it." "Spoken like a true girl, Tom," said the fa- ther. "And so — and so," resumed the young LOOKING AHEAD. 183 man, "I thank God, and so Mary and I have made up our minds to marry quietly and go — " Something in his throat which he would not let rise, stopped his speech and he turned his head away. "Go, my son, and God be with you— your mother did think, and so did I, to give you a house of your own, and see our young lives lived again in you and Mary and your chil- dren." "I know, father, I know," replied the lad in a low voice; "but the bitterest thought of all is that you and mother have aged so much in the last five years, that I fear my going away will be hard for you." "Aye," responded the father, "thanks to the troubles with the hands, I have aged. Thanks to my having cut down home expenses I have worried for mother's sake, and in my worryiug your mother has worried. Thanks to the strikes my means are diminished, and you must now seek your fortune abroad. Oh, it's a bad piece of business, this labor trouble, for it breaks up many a home and whitens many a 184 LOOKING AHEAD. head. My home and my head amid a thou- sand others." Such scenes were not only enacted in better class homes. Change the scene to a tenement, where a man and a woman are seated on a couple of broken chairs, with none of the signs of comfort which used to mark even a laborer's home. Listen to the talk, and we hear the man say: "Maggie darling, I promised to marry you last spring a year ago, but I have not done any work for fourteen months, through being or- dered to strike for this, that and t'other reason. You're free, Maggie, to marry George Dalton ■ — he loves you, as must any one who knows you — ye plighted your troth to me by the old mill gate, ye mind, in the gloaming o' the day that I thought so peaceful and happy like, that I could na make it out, I was so happy, lass. But I'm a man and not a rascal, so ye shan't waste your best years through me." Yet brave as he was, he could not keep the tears from fill- ing his eyes. LOOKING AHEAD. 185 "And do ye think, Rob, that I'm that kind? We plighted for weal or woe — it looks for woe, Rob, but I can face a' with you by me," and she hid her face on his shoulder and wept. Oh, it was a grand thing, that workman's organization, especially when it became a po- litical machine. Workmen, once respectable, found themselves driven to crime through want. Reerhouses throve on beer drunk to drown care, or by "clubs" and "branches" and "head centers" and "lodges" and "chapters" and " command eries" held in meeting rooms which these saloons had so handy. And so among the lower classes, so among the upper, spread the materialism. Vice was found in most unexpected quarters, where the restraint of religion had been thrown off either covertly or openly. The Germaniza- tion of the Northwest provinces of the United States had brought the loose lives of some Ger- man priests to set the example. There was more than one Oneida community. In France the unstable government unsettled business. In Russia a representative government was 186 LOOKING AHEAD. granted at last, but only government nominees could hope for election. The prisons and mines were crowded with condemned political offend- ers. Siberia was terrible as ever. The road there was lined with crosses marking the graves of men shot as they attempted to escape, or the yet more numerous graves of those who succumbed to the privations of the march. In Germany the successful attempt on the Kai- ser's life had raised three or four candidates for the crown of emperor. The result was the dismemberment of the empire itself. Outrages continued. The banking houses of Bennett, Rothschild, Jefnap, Levy, Bleich- roder, Cyrushays, Menasce, Sassoon, Gold- smidt, Brandon, Clifford, Piza, Camondo, Hope, May, Wolff, Wise, Stein, Astruc, Strauss, Ma- duro, Klarenz-Dezzola, Pereire, Astor, Foulard, Dikderdom, Garrett, Pettmerz, Gould, Brown, Vanderbilt, and many another bank was wrecked. Public buildings were destroyed. While strikes and boycots became less and less, through fear of State troops, the burning of mills and factories,the blowing up of bridges and churches, became more frequent. LOOKING AHEAD. 187 Hard times, very hard times they were. Terrible times : meat dear; clothing almost be- yond the reach of any of the working-classes, bread at famine prices — the cry of want rose in the East, it rose in the West, it was heard in Eu- rope and it was heard in America. In great South Africa the echoes spread and they were responded to in Australia. Meanwhile the Jehad, or holy war, contin- ued. Thousands were slain, tens of thousands were wounded or stricken with disease, and sent home to drag out a miserable existence. Hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans were created. Oh, the glories of war ! In all the horrid discord of human strife there was but one harmony — the harmony of grief. For the same note rang out from widows, and the same cry was uttered by the orphan, whether the sounds were heard in the wealds of Sussex or in the defiles of Nubia, in the vineyards of Piedmont, or under the date-trees of Tafilet, in the plains of Ukraine, or on the 188 LOOKING AHEAD. spurs of Hindoo Kush. Not a home was there in Cross-land or Crescent-land but the moan of bereavement was heard. Not a week nor a day passed but the desert drank in blood, or some woman-loved form was left in the dank herbage asking from foe the charity of burial. "Grand victory," "glorious victory," was oft proclaimed. "So many thousand killed, so many thousand wounded." But who counted the killed hopes of mothers and sweethearts, and who remembered the countless hearts that were wounded sore with grief incurable? And God was thanked for victories, though victories meant that some of His children had killed others ! No expense was spared by the allies of the Cross. No enterprise was too wild. A balloon- corps with dirigible machines sailed to destroy Mecca. It was met by a hostile fleet of similar machines near Medina, for the Moslems were careful to keep abreast of all war improve- ments. Their agents were everywhere, in dis- guise, and plentifully supplied with money — and what will not money do? It will even buy LOOKING AHEAD. 189 government secrets, as seemed proved by the failure of many a deepl}- laid plan of the allies. The battle in the air between hostile balloons, above Medina, did not seem strange to the be- lievers in Mohammed's suspended coffin. The French decided ' to cut a canal into the Sahara and attack the Mohammedan forces, which were constantly moving to the seats of war from the interior of Africa. American capitalists supplied the mcney, and received in return the surrender of all claims of France on the canals of Panama and Yucatan, in both of which French bondholders were interested. The Mohammedan leaders allowed the Sahara canal to be built, allowed the allies to flood as much of the desert as they could, allowed ships to enter, but presently threw an immense force on the canal and destroyed it. The result on the Sahara in- vaders can be imagined. There seemed to be no end to the resources of Islam. If the Christian forces captured a city, the Mohammedans would fiud a way to poison the water. If the allies condensed their own 190 LOOKING AHEAD. water from the sea, when that was near them, or from proper admixture of hydrogen and oxy- gen which by the improved methods, could be done; if the invaders escaped the disease conse- quent upon drinking such water, the wily sons of the desert would kindle fires on such sides of the city that the evening breeze would carry in the fumes of certain drugs which they threw upon the flames. The result was hsemoptesis and hae- matemesis — spitting of blood from the lungs or stomach. Or they would bombard with shells which, when burst, would let loose fumes or gases which stupefied. Cyprus was the chief rendezvous for the Christian forces and gathering of supplies. From her ports sailed a constant stream of war-ships and supply-ships of all Christian nations to various parts of the theater of war, especially Jaffa, where their forces were in- trenched again and could not be dislodged. The ancient prophesy of the Moabite seer was brought to mind, for truly "from the coast of Cyprus (or Kittim, as it was anciently called) were ships passing to and fro, and great was. LOOKING AHEAD. 191 the affliction of Ashur and Eber" — affliction of Aryan and Semite, or Christian and Mohamme- dan. There no glory was won — for how could brother glory over killing a brother? — There death and sickness were the attendants, and here everybody had occasion to echo that an- cient seer's cry of "Mi Yih'ye Mesumo El?" 192 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER XIII. THE HAPPY SUGGESTION. "Ml Yih'ye Misumo El?" "Who can live when God doeth this?" whispered voices with trembling. And as in the tongues of the Orient these wishes were expressed, so in the more modern tongues of Europe the same heart-echoes were born. Something had to be done. "Men were running the world their own way and making a failure of it," said a shrewd American. "The voices of the present are the voices of a hell, murder, war, vice, destruction. The voices of the future as we catch the coming sounds presage but a continuation or an inten- sification of the present chorus of sorrow and violence. And the voices of the past — the crimes LOOKING AHEAD. 193 of the old Oriental states and of the classic world could not have been much worse than those we shudder at to-day." So wrote a skilled hand in the "Revue des deux Mondes.'' To a clergyman, under God, belongs the honor of the rescue of human it}'. The method he adopted was simply this. He ascertained all the names of the heads of all the chief denominations in all countries through consuls. To their credit be it said, the various consuls declined to accept remuner- ation for their trouble, for they were able not only to appreciate the evils of the era, but to eagerly embrace any effort to remedy them. He wrote to the heads of the Catholic, Prot- estant and Greek church sects in their respect- ive countries, suggesting that they, with three assistants to aid and counsel, should appoint nine legates, clerical or lay, for each country. He wrote to the heads of the Jewish church in each countiy, suggesting that they, similarly assisted, should appoint one legate, a clergyman or a layman, for Europe, one for America, one for Asia, one for Africa and one for Australia. 194 LOOKING AHEAD. This was found to produce about one hundred and eighty Christian and five Hebrew dele- gates, which was proved to be a correct pro rata proportion. The delegates, he said, should meet in conference in Basle, and appoint eigh- teen others to represent Europe, eighteen for America and nine each for Asia, Africa and Australia, men whom they thought most quali- fied by character, erudition and ability to com- prehend the evils of the day. This sub-com- mittee of sixty-three would then meet in general conference in the city or town where the oldest individual in all the sub-countries was residing. It was to be their duty to finally select a body of seventy men, clerical or lay, naming conscientiously only those whom they thought could best grapple with the many and terrible problems. He said in his circular letter that he had no authority from any man or body of men to write. But that he found himself forced, as if by a supernatural power, to make his sugges- tion. He humbly begged that his name should be kept secret. He wished not for fame or LOOKING AHEAD. 195 recognition. He fervently prayed that good would result for weeping and bleeding humani- ty. Far be it from him to presume. He posed not as a prophet of God to speak with words which demanded any respectful heeding. To be a prophet was an honor and a distinction which he considered a crime to even hope for, inasmuch as it was presumption for him to imagine that he was in the least worthy of Di- vine afflatus. He simply pleaded to be al- lowed to make the suggestion above indicated, "and to God," concluded he, "I commit the rest." It promised well when the legates met, and appointed the sub-committee of sixty-three. It was then decided to make the movement public. The publication of it was hailed with universal enthusiasm. The praise of the humble minis- ter was on every tongue; he had the supreme happiness of hearing it on every side, and of reading blessings invoked on his head in what- ever newspaper he happened to peruse. The names of the legates and the sub-com- mittee which they appointed were published, 196 LOOKING AHEAD. and it was recognized that they were the names of men eminently qualified for the duties demanded of them. There was not one politician among them — that is to say, a politician by profession. When the sub-committee assembled in Stutt- gart, where resided a member ninety years old, the published list of the seventy ulti- mately chosen included the names of most hon- ored ministers of religion, lawyers, financiers, professors, and practical men from all countries of the world. All this took time, but it was wise to take every precaution in the selection of the final council. Legates, sub-committees and members of the final council had all been sworn most solemnly to do their task conscientiously. There was no reason to doubt that they had done so, and ex- cept some non-contents, all of whom were with reason suspected of belonging to the party of violence, not a voice was raised to criticize the personnel of the council. While all these steps were being taken, or LOOKING AHEAD. 197 rather from the moment when the plan was published, a happier feeling was evident. Meetings were held everywhere. Not only the proposed plan was eagerly and enthusiasti- cally indorsed, but throughout the world reso- lutions were adopted that on the day the final council met, men and women, youths and maid- ens above the age of twentj-, should take solemn oath and covenant to follow its decisions, to further them with moral and with every other aid possible — and they were to register their names. On that day, accordingly, a solemn sight was seeu. The wisdom of having the oath and covenant taken simultaneously in all towns, villages and cities throughout the lands of Christian nations, was soon evident in the ces- sation of all violence from labor organizations. A practical result was that in all places sub- scriptions had been taken for the expenses of the sub-committees and the final council. The subscriptions, when forwarded, were returned by the municipal officers of the cities where the meetings had taken place, thanking the send- 198 LOOKING AHEAD. ers, but stating that the gentlemen meeting had been under no expense, either for board or for travel. Everything had been supplied, every want had been attended to — no man, no company would accept payment, so great was the enthusiasm. On the day of the oath and covenant, the day the final council first met, the idea was flashed and spoken to the great cities and thence to the inland towns, to make the returned money the nucleus for a fund to be increased by subscrip- tion and the issue of municipal bonds, said fund to be used for public works to be at once under- taken. Thus every one could have work, and when workmen's meetings resolved that "no trades-union should be allowed to interfere in these public works," all felt that another step forward had been made, for the winds of vio- lence and agitation were taken out of labor's sails. The news of all that was going on was conveyed to the armies and fleets which were waging the war against the resourceful Moslem world. On the day of the oath and covenant, or LOOKING AHEAD. 199 "League day," as it came to be called, every soldier or sailor took oath to abide by the decis- ions of the council, be they what he understood or approved of, or not. "The council cannot make things worse than they are; it's time this war was over, and it's time they Tightened things at home." This was the general senti- ment, as a young Russian aboard a ship ex- pressed it. The final council had decided to sit in Corfu, where they were guarded from all interference by a sworn band of young men from all nations, bound to prevent any approach of any kind to the council, bound also not to speak except among themselves and to hold no communication with the outside world. The council was to report within three years. But they were ready long before the three years ended. It was at last announced that the report would be rendered in seven weeks. The gladsome news was published far and wide. Public meetings were again called, and pledges to support the council to the utmost were solemnly renewed, It needed not the elo- 200 LOOKING AHEAD. quence of ministers to stir up enthusiasm. Strong men shed tears and women fainted in the excitement. Amid wild applause hands were grasped and resolutions were passed that if the governments would not accept the "Final Council's Solution of Evils," as it was termed, whatever that solution was, and make it law by constitutional means, they would be forced to do so. Ministers and judges, professors and tradesmen, laborers and bankers, in short, all men, declared and swore they would see to it. The armies and navies renewed their own "oath of adherence" to the decisions, and the last Sabbath before the day for the publication was appointed for & t day of thanksgiving to Almighty God for swaying men's hearts in the direction of peace, and for advancing mankind one step further toward universal happiness. When the materialists objected, they were told in a letter which was printed and trans- lated and reprinted in all the journals of the day: "Man has been left to experiment with all kinds of governments and all kinds of social regulations. The ancient monarchies LOOKING AHEAD. 201 and the classic systems have alike failed to secure the happiness of the individual and the stable prosperity of the community or nation. We, in modern days, have ourselves just experienced how swiftly and surely the institutions of men become the means of curse and not blessing, unless the 'fear of God' or re- ligion, considered as personal conduct, not as a system of dogma or belief, is the foundation- stone, walls, pillars, rafters and roof of what- ever the institution may be. Strongly do I feel that God must be the thought which weaves the web of personal and public life, the web of social and national existence. Far from my heart is the wish to intrude again on the attention of my brothers on earth. I do so now that we may not continue in our error of imagining that we can shape personal, social or political life for good, without the good God to guide. If the fact that it was I who suggested the action which, under Divine blessing, has resulted in the solution of evils by the final council, if this fact will lend weight to the words which I now am penning, let me be condemned for intrud- 202 LOOKING AHEAD. ing, but let my words be heeded." The letter appeared first in Switzerland. It was signed with a star and indorsed with the signatures of ten church dignitaries, testifying that the writer was indeed the very originator of the movement which had brought about the Final Council. The letter was well received. Some were for refusing their daughters in marriage with ma- terialists, ethiculturists, agnostics, monists, etc., refusing to receive such and all free-thinkers into their houses. Others -were for refusing them recognition in the courts. But although the laboring classes, now finally aroused to the folly of strikes, swore with the educated classes adherence to the "Solution of Evils," the anar- chists, socialists and other malcontents would not. They became marked men in consequence. Seeing that their occupation would be gone when the council's solution became law, they resolved to inaugurate a new era of terror by intimidating the members of every ministry. This they did by announcing that if the min- isters of state and legislative houses should LOOKING AHEAD. 203 make the decision law before the} r — the com- bined Socialists, Communists, Anarchist Red- hands, Intransigentes, Irredentists, Trappists and Schwartzkinder — approved, they would show their power to have things their own way. This created intense excitement. Surely enough, state ministers were found assassi- nated in various countries at the dread interval of two days — the old anarchist plan. The new public works were next destroyed, then schools, as if indicating the true character of the miscreants. Faces were again blanched and teeth were again ground in horror, but the ministers were replaced by others. Nobody shrank, everybody was resolved to be firm. The registers were searched to see what names were absent from the League of Adher- ence. All were called upon to sign adherence with- in two days or they would be treated as public enemies. Those who had not signed had to give satisfactory reason, and even then if their 204 LOOKING AHEAD. associations were known to be at all shady, they were placed under police supervision. From that moment they could not leave the town or village they were in without permit, under pen- alty, nor could they leave their homes after dusk. And vigilance committees saw to it. The action thus taken was the result of inter- change of communications between the cabinet ministers of the nations. In the course of the next week it was pub- lished simultaneously in all places that all out- rages were to cease within one hour; that at the receipt of the news of any assassination or destruction traceable or thought to be traceable to the anarchists and their friends, all people under supervision in all towns, would be ar- rested and sentenced to death, or to imprison- ment for terms of from one to twentj 7 years. All persons on the lists of the police as suspects or who had steadfastly refused to join the league, would also be arrested and summarily executed. This shocking remedy for the outrages was regretted, but no other course was left. LOOKING AHEAD. 205 Next day in Russia the Minister of the Inte- rior was murdered. That evening, the arrests were made as threatened. Strange to say, some who had signed at the first instance were arrested. The police gave satisfactory reason why. It was found that many men had been murdered that evening in private meeting halls and se- cret rooms. Evidence proved that they had been stabbed by former associates who had heeded the government's warning, and had wished to abandon the policy of violence. These former associates became true to the reign of law, but traitors to their former party, and its reign of violence. The police said they had no right to take the law in their own hands, and hence they arrested them. As for inflicting death penalty on "the suspects" public opinion modified the intentions of the governments, for the majority were liberated after trial. Some received as much as twenty years penal servitude. The assured anarchists, etc., cap- tured, were shot or hanged or guillotined or 206 LOOKING AHEAD. strangled or killed by electricity or vapor, ac- cording to the methods of capital punishment in vogue in each country. The seven weeks, so full of incident, passed away, and on the eve of the Sabbath, about an hour before dusk, Christendom quivered with joy, not onlj' because the happy day was near at hand, but because the happy news was an- nounced that that morning the allied troops had re-entered Jerusalem, Port Said, Hebron and Damascus. Hebron, Nazareth and Bethlehem had been captured, and now the soldiers of the Crescent were in flight toward the Palmyrene and Gaul of Tenama deserts. It was a grand dash splendidly planned and splendidly carried out by the commanders of the cross, that coup which captured those places. The Sabbath eve found the Christian world as never it had found it before, happy, united, and with every promise of the initiation of a new era. In the morning the places of worship were thronged. For the first time in the history of the great peoples it was found that they were LOOKING AHEAD. 207 all crowded, and yet there was not room for one-third of the number of would-be worshipers. To accommodate these, large halls offered free by the proprietors, and public schoolrooms, seemed at last to suffice. Accurate calculation had fixed the time of service to such an hour that the whole Christian world was assembled at the moment when the chief of the Final Coun- cil stood up in the presence of his co-laborers and the special envoys of the nations. Thus one vast assembly, east, west, north and south, thanks to telegraph, telautograph and telephone electric, news-indicators and virl-multisonants, were able to follow, word by word, sentence by sentence. Thus they heard tbe ceremonies begin, though miles and tens of thousands of miles divided them. Thus they bowed in reverence when the words of the presiding officer were conveyed to them, for tbe first words he spake were: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who hath kept us alive, sus- tained us and brought us to this era." 208 LOOKING AHEAD. And the world answered "Amen!'' In a few words he announced the termina- tion of their labors, and then proceeded to read officially the document he held in his hand, headed : The Solution of Evils. LOOKING AHEAD. 209 CHAPTER XIV. THE SOLUTION OF EVILS. There is no need to describe that document at length. It is modern history, and modern in the sense of our own experiences. For we have heard our parents speak of it, and they or their parents heard it proclaimed with their own ears. It is in every reading book in all the schools in all lands. It is in every library. It is in every home and it is imprinted in most men's memory. By it, astonished governments were over- turned in many countries, and republics estab- lished wherever the government was not al- ready practically a republic, as in England. International Relations. — Political dif- erences of an international character were to be settled by an international court of arbitration, composed of the three senior judges of the supreme court of each nation subscribing to the 210 LOOKING AHEAD. solution of evils, and the three senior members of the clergy of such countries. Conscription and standing armies were thus rendered un- necessary. Colonies or protectorates recently formed, and all future ones, were to be under a home- country board of management until they at- tained a certain population, when they were to be constituted a State on a Republican basis. The decimal system of coinage, weights and measures was made universal. Coinage other than decimal had to be retired within ten years. The new international coinage was to have on one side of the coin the imprint of the country coining it, on the other its value and exact weight. Extradition for all crimes was secured. The rights of inventors, authors, composers and artists were secured by international agree- ment. Home Government— Franchise. — Educa- tion not the value of property or accident of birth, was made the necessity for franchise. No one could be naturalized unless he passed LOOKING AHEAD. 211 an examination in general civil and political history, and especially of the country of his adoption. No one could vote, whether natu- ralized or native citizen, unless he produced a certificate from the school examiners of the country of birth in accordance with the regula- tions under section 9 of church committees. Government Monopolies and Responsi- bilities. — Land belonged only in a limited sense to those who could pay for it. The gov- ernment, because representing the people, had a supreme claim, and was practically the only land -owner. The land in city limits was valued by sworn experts, and the owners were obliged to sell to the city government. They could rent it back and sublet it if they liked, but they had to pay rent to the city treasury at a rate fixed every seven years, allowance ac- cording to schedule to be made for improve- ments made by tenants and length of occupa- tion, etc. Thus every man's house came to be looked upon as a homestead. Workingmen had the same advantage, for a proportionate part of each city was reserved for LOOKING AHEAD. artisan's houses at correspondingly cheap rents. Similai provisions were made as to country property. Not more than one family, ot two or more whose aggregate reached seven individuals, could live in one house. Tene- ments were abolished — these were huge houses in which thirty and even forty families were herded. They had all to be pulled down or altered into non-communicating flats licensed for occupants according to suites of rooms. Railroads and transit lines were to be owned by the State. Certain trains and cars were free, evening and morning, and the municipal officers were bound to provide a sufficient num- ber. This was to permit workmen to live in the country around a city, but the privilege was only accorded to those in good standing — of which more presently. As a matter of fact, improved locomotion no longer made it neces- sary for workmen or clerks to live near their places of employment. Water was to be provided free. Chemical science had found a fuel and an il- luminating agent so easily and cheaply made LOOKING AHEAD. 2 13 and managed, that the humblest homes could have them. The government was now to sup- ply them. Insurance (fire and life), post, telegraphs, telephones, telautographs, supply of electricity steam, argol, heat, light, all belonged to the government. Cornering was made criminal. Trusts or monopolies in necessaries of life were prohibited by law. Justice. -Justice was secured by juries com- posed of salaried barristers, of or above the age of fifty-five; their service was compulsory. Judges could not serve as judges after fifty-five years of age. To be a judge or a magistrate of any kind, a diploma of a university of high stand- ing was necessary. To be a mayor or alder- man in a town of less than 30,000 inhabitants the candidate must have passed out of high school in the honors division. To hold such office in a town of over 30,000 he must have a college degree. To be in any municipal office, except that of a policeman, also required a college degree and indorsement of candidature by the Board of 214 LOOKING AHEAD. Pastors. To be a member of a public legisla- tive body required a university degree, an ex- amination by ten reputable citizens (house- holders in the district for fifteen years), and indorsement by the the Board of Pastors. A policeman required five such nominating names, and the indorsement of the pastor of his church or of the Morality School-superintendent under whose care he had been as a boy for at least five scholastic years. Foreigners could not rise in police above the grade of roundsmen. Board op Pastors. — The pastors of a vil- lage, and in a town, of each parish or district, constituted, with their assistants, a committee to visit the schools, to supervise the employ- ment bureaus of the public, and all charitable institutions. The chairman or head of the board of pastors, chosen annually among them- selves, could not hold office more than one year, and since the ministers of all sects of one thou- sand adult adherents were de facto members of the board, each sect was to hold the chairman- ship in turn, until all had served. The duties of the chairman were to indorse, LOOKING AHEAD. 215 after due inquiry as to character, any applicant for municipal office above that of policeman, to sign certificates of all boys and girls who passed from the highest classes of the high schools in honors or in the merit division, and to attest the reports of the school principal as to the standing of each scholar. Further, in the event of a trades-union dispute or strike, the chairman was to preside at a conference, or court of arbitration. Pastors were retired from active service at full salary at the age of fifty-five, when they became consultants or guides. Their congregations had to insure their lives, according to authorized scale in proportion to salary. Education. — Secular education was compul- sory and under the care of the municipality. Attached to each church were schools, for in- struction in religion. Attendance thereat, or at morality schools, was compulsory from the age of seven to twenty. Without a certif- icate of such attendance the right of franchise, pension-right and suburb-right were forfeited. The churches in each district or village had 216 LOOKING AHEAD. to join and form committees for the following purposes. First. — To visit the homes of the poor and use every effort to refine the inmates. Second. — To pay for professional service to in- struct and amuse the working classes with ra- tional methods, once a week or more often, by means of lectures on travel, discovery, inven- tion, hygiene, literature, and music. Amateur aid might of course be utilized, for the working classes must be encouraged to bring out their natural taleats and to give technical instruction in trades. Third. — To organize and manage free libra- ries and lyceums, to be open every evening; technical or trade schools, and clubs for men, boys and girls respectively, the expense of furnishing and the location to be granted bj'the municipal authorities. Fourth. — To keep a register of places reported vacant in all trades and professions or service in the "education district," which vacancies were to be filled according to the merit of the applicant. Thus, applicants born in that dis- LOOKING AHEAD. 217 trict took precedence of others, and themselves ranked according to their school standing, con- sidered in connection with their character and length of actual service rendered in their trade or profession. Boys and girls desiring posi- tions received choice of vacancies according to school standing, by which was meant secular and religious school. Fifth. — To keep a register of every man or woman in the district, and when requested by any of them, to declare his or her good standing to do so, provided no moral fault had been en- tered in the register against him or her. This entitled the person, after seven years' residence in the district, to one free pass, morning and evening, from a suburb home to the place of work. This was called "suburb right." It also entitled the person after the age of sixty to be supported honorably at public expense, upon the ground that by faithful work in factory or store, the country was as much benefited as it was by soldiers who were pensioned at a cer- tain age, or as it was sometimes phrased, "re- tired on half- pay. ' ' The support granted was 218 LOOKING AHEAD. in proportion to the average wages of the indi- vidual. Experience shows that few, except the absolutely incapacitated and friendless, apply for this pension. But it takes away the horror of the old workhouse or union home system. Sixth. — To visit at least monthly all public institutions, such as hospitals, asylums, etc., report irregularities and insist that religious scruples of inmates be respected. Seventh. — To foster benefit societies, espe- cially among the poor. Eighth. — To encourage inventions if desired, provided the invention be first approved by three respectable householders of the trade or profession for which it was designed. Every invention remained the property of the invent- or, until it was computed that at least one- tenth of the trade or profession in the State used it, when it was to be bought for the public benefit, by the government, at a price to be fixed by experts. Ninth. — To appoint school examiners, whose duty should be to issue certificates entitling boys LOOKING AHEAD. 219 and girls to vote in elections when they reach twenty — the voting age; the certificate was not to be granted unless the scholar left school in the honors or merit division, or the division imme- diately next to it. Or if the scholar's natural ability was deficient, if he or she, after ten years additional and certified schooling, was still un- able to pass in the submerit division; or if the scholar, obliged by necessitous worldly posi- tion, left school at the age of fourteen without passing into any of the divisions named, but attended night school and there became quali- fied by passing proper examination to rank in any of three grades, then franchise-right was to be granted. [In this way, the members of a congregation were able to find congenial ways of being useful to humanity, by serving on whichever subcommittees out of these nine pleased them. ] Rich parishes had to support poor ones in Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Women's Rights. — Girls lost the right to vote on becoming married, it being the object of the council to insist on all that would make 220 LOOKING AHEAD. woman what she ought to be, "the queen of the home," which home was the sphere to engage her whole attention. Married women when widowed, resumed the right to vote, if child- less or when the youngest child reached the age of twelve. Capital and Labor. — Workmen earned a right to participate in the profits of the busi- ness according to their length of service and wages earned. Any one striking work unjustifiably lost that right of participation forever. Strikes were to be allowed without the strikers becoming liable to fine or imprison- ment, or both, provided the employer was not employing them on contract work undertaken b} r him. In the latter case workmen had to fin- ish at the rate they commenced with, or be lia- ble to the above punishment and forfeiture of suburb and pension rights. If a dispute be- tween employer and employees was not settled within a week, arbitration had to be invoked; the decision had to be accepted under penalty of fine or imprisonmeut, or both, incurred by whichever side did not yield. Arbitration was LOOKING AHEAD. 221 to be at the hands of the board of pastors, seveD reputable citizens resident in the city or village of dispute for ten years and not of the trade dis- puting. The judge of the district or village was also required to attend ; the court of arbi- tration was to be presided over by the chair- man of the board of pastors. If, however, arbitration was not accepted, the strikers could, after undergoing the legal penalty, apply for work where they pleased, and the Education district sub-committee No. 4 would have to appoint them to available vacan- cies. But applicants for places were, if appli- cants through strikes, ranked after applicants who were not. In any case, any action against the person, business interests or prop- erty of the employees, if traceable to the strik- ers, rendered them all equally amenable. No interference in the rate of wages or hours of work was to be permitted, unless indorsed by the court of arbitration. A workman above the age of twenty could work extra hours at what- ever rate was mutually agreed upon between employer and employee, provided that the num- 222 LOOKING AHEAD. ber of hours did not altogether exceed twelve, up to the age of thirty ; fifteen hours up to the age of forty; thirteen hours to the age of fifty; ten hours to the age of fifty-five, and eight hours to the age of sixty and upward. Convicts. — Convicts lost all political and civic rights. They could not be employed by private parties under the contract system. They were to labor on public works. Rents. — Rents were regulated by appropria- tions for municipal necessities, estimated every seven years, by a joint committee of the Board of Pastors, all past supreme court judges above fifty-five years, and ten real-estate men of the district elected by their Boards. Department Stores. — Such stores must pay to the municipal funds, §50 annually for the second department, 6100 for the third, $200 for the fourth, $400 for the fifth, and so on doubling the amount for each additional department. In "Department Store disputes," the court of arbitration above mentioned had to decide. Special Emergencies. — Any special emer- gency was to be met by a special meeting of the LOOKING AHEAD. 223 municipal authorities, the judges, the barris- ters on the jury list and the board of pastors summoned by the mayor's special call and an- nounced in the local press. Abuse op Public Trusts. -Any abuse of public trusts was to be punished with the ex- isting legal penalty, but deprivation of all po- litical or communal rights was to be added. Revision of Sentences. -Judicial sentences had to be announced in the next day's issue of the Daily District Law Journal Penalties were not to be inflicted until after eight days' interval. In cases of death sentences, the whole of the stenographic notes of all the evidence offered at the trial had to be published in the Law Journal of the city, with notary attesta- tion and the indorsement of the presiding judge. Officers of prison fortresses, mines, and all other places of punitive detention, were required to prepare a list of all prisoners in their charge. All sentences imposed without conviction by a jury whose appointment was by the people directly or indirectly, were to be revoked. 224 LOOKING AHEAD. Committee on Public Morality.— This was composed of the Mayor, the Board of Pas- tors, the acting and ex- judges of the district and the Grand Jury of the year. Its duty was to watch the Press and places of amusement. The Press. — If the general tone, or any fea- ture of a newspaper, was deemed improper by two-thirds vote of the pastor's board, the paper was to be warned ; on repetition of offense it was to be suppressed and its editors were to be punished with imprisonment, fined seven years' deprivation of political rights and were to be prohibited to follow journalism for ten years. Sensational and prejudiced journalism thus be- came impossible, and editors were made to un- derstand that the greater the circulation of their paper, the greater and more solemn was their responsibility as educators of public mor- als and public tastes, on which the purity, health and strength of the community depend. Theaters, etc. — All must obtain license of the Committee on Public Morality. These are the chief items of the Solution of Evils. LOOKING AHEAD. 225 Labor's vagaries were checked, municipal or political corruption was corrected, and by the hold which governments had on railroads and such enterprises the financial world was rid of the chief causes of trouble. Every fifteen years the legislative bodies of the world had to indorse the "Solution of Evils." Suitable measures w T ere adopted to obtain amendment, if declared necessary by such bod- ies in three countries. Of course all the regulations could not be im- mediately applied, but measures were taken to insure a gradual transition from the evils to be corrected to the corrections themselves. Thus, for example, as to the rights of voting. It was decided, that franchise by education should come into force in fifteen years. Mean- while, only those who had been resident for fif- teen years, or who had passed any college or regents' or third-grade public school examina- tion could vote, and then only upon production of a certificate from the Board of Pastors that he or she had attended a religious or morality 226 LOOKING AHEAD. school for at least three years between the age of fifteen and twenty. The next generation of voters is becoming all that can be desired. Through education, all know the evils which history teaches are to be guarded against. History is thus what it ought to be — a warning and a guide. "Politician" is no longer a term of reproach. Gentlemen no longer hold aloof from politics through dislike to associate with professional politicians. Nepotism or favoritism is impossible for no official can appoint. Every public ap- pointment is by competitive civil service exami- nation, under such further precautions as have been intimated. To three other points in this "Solution of Evils" I must specially refer because worthy of special notice. 1st — Education in religion or morality was made compulsory. 2d — Edu- cation of boys in carpentering and general "tool-handling," and of girls in sewing and cooking, and of both in hygiene and music or gardening was also made compulsory. No man or woman can marry without producing LOOKING AHEAD. 227 certificates for such education. The resultant improvement in self-helpfulness and refine- ment among the poor has already been won- derful. 3d — Public health. Two baths, one for ordinary purposes, and one shower bath from a proper height, must be in every house or flat. Physicians must follow a nine-year course, in- cluding pharmacy, and after graduation, must pass three years in a physician's office, where a record of cases attended and treated, counter- signed by the physician, must be declared sat- isfactory by the State Examining Board before permission is given to practice alone. And lastly, before marriage, the contracting parties must produce certificates as to cause of death of all direct ancestors for three generations. If the local hoard of physicians should find possibility of hereditary taints such as consumption, can- cer, dypsomania, insanity, etc., the marriage is forbidden. The certificate has also to state if any of these and such hereditary taints are known to be in collateral branches. The deci- sion of the board is directed by tables as exact as those of an actuary. Naturally this law is 228 LOOKING AHEAD. only gradually coming in force. In sixty years it will be universal. I must not linger more on the Solution of Evils. It was read by the chief of the final council, as I have said, and a listening world drank in every word. When the reading was concluded he said "May God bless our work" — and again a whole world answered "Amen." People, however, had been so overstrung that they were conscious of a feeling of disappoint- ment at first. But when they read over what the evening showed them in cold type, they saw that it was indeed a "Solution of Evils," and were satisfied. The various legislative houses were required to make it law constitutionally, within a week. It was so made in all countries but Russia, where imperial influences caused the so-called House of Representation to reject it. No words of mine can describe the ultimate enthusiasm of the nations concerned. The dis- appointment was momentary, The evening LOOKING AHEAD. 229 papers were cold. The morning editions were wildly enthusiastic. The sentiment grew and found expansion in universal votes of thanks to the committee, and intimations of reward, which were properly declined. An interna- tional Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed, and grandly observed. Everyone, every society, every legislature at once set about the necessar} r steps to put the Solution of Evils in force. As for Russia, when the week passed without any action having been taken, at dawn the next morning, emperor and cabinet-officers were pris- oners. For the imperial guards, the rest of the soldiery and the police forces, sided with the people and determined that the Solution should become Law. The silence of the multitudes which thronged the streets of St. Petersburg as the prisoners were carried to the House of Repre- sentation was ominous. Some one whispered to the czar that his life was to be sacrificed, like the life of the English Charles and French Louis, and with him would die all his cabinet and perhaps many more officials, if once popu- 230 LOOKING AHEAD. lar fury was unleashed. He stepped to the tri- bune, and was man enough to say that he ac- cepted the situation. In the revulsion of feeling, he was made first president of the Re- public of the Russians. Then and then only, nihilism died. LOOKING AHEAD. 231 CHAPTER XV. WHO SHALL HAVE PALESTINE'S HOLY PLACES? Some time passed, of course, before any bene- ficial results became apparent, and much time must yet pass before all the "Solution of Evils" can come into complete operation. Meanwhile a wild attack on Jerusalem by Arabs of Yemen drew renewed attention to this Eastern question which really was, as I have intimated, which nation or sect was to have Palestine and the Holy Places. The question was put in print. At once all harmony was for- gotten. Protestant, Greek Church and Catho- lic published philippics against each other. Russia reminded France of their treaty to pre- vent England having the Holy Land, provided Russia helped France to get Alsace-Lorraine, which she was ready to do, England reminded 232 LOOKING AHEAD. Germany that she wished to have it, and Germany was to help her in consideration of her holding France back ten years before. All objected to Russia having it lest, as Napoleon prophesied, Europe would become Cossack through Russian predominance. Were the happiness, the relief and the peace due to the Solution of Evils but a dream? Were men suffering from horrible nightmare? It was incredible how the joy at the Solution of Evils was changed into national or religious hate. It was awful. It was horrible. Not a paper but daily published something to in- flame the mind. Palestine, being the commer- cial key to the East, the commercial jealousies of the powers were intensified. The political importance created political jealousies. But worse, far worse than jealousies commercial or jealousies political, were jealousies religious, due to clashing religious interests. Protestant, Catholic, Greek Church, each claimed Pales- tine's holy soil to the exclusion of all rivals. Religion stood for hatred. It threatened to stand for war and carnage, widows and woe \ LOOKING AHEAD. 233 A glance at the journals of the day will show us the tension of the public mind. "The railway from Morocco to Cairo and from Cape Town to Cairo, with the Trans- African line from Congo to Cairo, take the measureless products of Africa to Egypt. Al- exandria is no fit port. Jaffa alone offers possi- bilties which with engineering skill can rival Liverpool or London, New York or Marseilles. There must be a trunk line from Cairo to Jaffa. "The Trans-Asiatic lines from Vladivostock, Tapofu, Singapore to Damascus, the Indian systems, the Euphrates Valley road, the Sibe- rian road by its branch to Teheran, all carry the goods of supply and demand of Asia's countless millions to Beyrout, but Jaffa and Beyrout are Palestinian towns." Hence the commercial importance of Pales- tine. "Therefore we must have it," said the English papers. "We must have it, " said France. " We con- sented to let England have Egypt; we cannot let her have Palestine. Our capital is invested 234 LOOKING AHEAD. there. There we have the greatest commercial interests. ' ' "We must have it," said Germany. "We require it as a commercial centre. Our goods are known throughout Syria. ' ' "We must have it," said Russia. "The great commerce of Siberia is ours. Its outlet on the Mediterranean is Palestine which holds two great ports, and it should hold Tyre and Sidon, which can he restored as of old, not to mention Acre, and on the Red Sea, Elath and Eziongeher." "For political reasons I must have it," said England. "How cau I have another power in Palestine to cut my communications with India and Australia. No, I took Egypt to safeguard the Suez Canal. I must have Palestine, yea, and Arabia, for the same reason." "Perfidious Albion docs not believe in the first article of the Solution of Evils," retorted the French press. "By that article interna- tional differences are to be adjusted not by war but by arbitration. She must know, as we know, that she holds much by might and not LOOKING AHEAD. 235 by right. Therefore she fea^s political entan- glements which will by the dicta of arbitration endanger many of* her foreign possessions, India included. For political reasons France must have Palestine. The Mediterranean is mostly a French lake. France has, with its African possessions, more Mediterranean coast than any other power. Politically, therefore, France has most right." "Politically, Palestine is important to us," said Germany. "We have no sufficient inter- ests on the Mediterranean, and we have great Oriental possessions in East Asia and in East Africa," "Politically we cannot permit any power to increase its power in the Mediterranean," said Italy, "Solution or no Solution of Evils." "The Solution of Evils is very good — on pa- per. But w T e have Mediterranean interests, and they must be respected. The Powers must rec- ognize them and permit us to make ours equal to theirs. This we can do by occupying Pales- tine." So Austria spoke. "Politically Palestine is of extreme import- 236 LOOKING AHEAD. ance to us. It is more important than Constan- tinople. We must have the country as the outlet of our Asiatic railroads, on to the Medi- terranean. And it is politically more impor- tant to us than to any other power. For it com- mands the communication with the East, where French, English, German and Italian possessions menace our commercial and politi- cal supremacy. Palestine must, therefore, be Russian." Then the religious papers took up the sub- ject, and hate became intensified. "It would be a fine thing, a delicious satire on Progress and Civilization if a Catholic power should be allowed to hold Palestine. What a source of revenue the Catholic Church would make out of pilgrimages to the Holy Places, and what chance would Protestants or Greek church men have to see sites sacred to them also? No, at all costs, we must prevent Pales- tine becoming Catholic. The world has suf- fered enough under Catholic regime. The In- quisition was Catholic Church. Aspiration for temporal power is Catholic Church. Infalli- LOOKING AHEAD. 237 bility of a pope is Catholic Church. Where her hand has written history it has written igno- rance, bloodshed, priest-greed and priestcraft. No. The Catholic Church shall not have Pal- estine!" So wrote a Protestant religious weekly. "It would be amusing, if it were not too pa- thetic, to view the possibility of Palestine being assigned to a Protestant power. Which sect of that lamentable secession from the Holy Moth- er Church would be dominant? They would quarrel among themselves. Only we are united. Moreover, let it be remarked that in Protestant countries has been born those phil- osophies which overthrow religion — so sacred to humanity. Furthermore we are the Mother Church. Why should we be excluded, as ex- cluded we would be, b} T Protestants in power? The keys of the Church are ours. The keys of the Holy Places should also bo ours. It is Pro- testant impertinence, Protestant robbery, Pro- testant wickedness that would deny the right of the Catholic Church to be supreme in the Holy Land. We are used to this impertinence. 238 LOOKING AHEAD. We know how to treat it — with contempt. We have suffered from this robbery. We will pro- tect our rights even if we have to send the sword on earth as said He whom all good Catholics worship. And as for Protestant wick- edness, it has defaced history long enough. It has robbed us of England, of Germany, of America, shall it rob us of Palestine? Never." So ran an editorial in a Catholic paper. "We may be persuaded to give up commercial interests. We may be induced to forego politi- cal interests. But religious interest may never be surrendered. The Greek Church is the original Christian church. It is the real Chris- tianity. It was the original Christianity of Palestine. Palestine was Greek Church. His- toric right, therefore, says it must be Greek Church the moment the Mohammedan power is driven out by the Cross. It must be. It shall be. We have tolerated Catholic aggrandize- ment long enough. Protestant pretensions are insufferable. The Powers had better recognize the inevitable. For religious reasons, Pales- tine must be Russia's." LOOKING AHEAD. 239 Thus spoke the Greek Church organs. But these are slight specimens of the rancor. These are mild in tone compared with others. Mutterings of new St. Bartholomews on one side, and of anti-Catholic Protective Associa- tions on the other, presaged religious storms. One Easter there were anti-Catholic and Pro- testant outbreaks by Greek Church followers. Soon after, some Protestant lads mobbed certain cardinals and wrecked many church windows. Whereupon, Catholic students retaliated. The Catholic great powers began to grow cool in their courtesies to Protestant and Greek church. Protestant powers recalled ambassa- dors from Catholic and Greek church govern- ments. Russia and Greece, as Greek Church powers, resolved to join Catholic, and so crush Protestants, they being free afterwards to reckon with Catholicism. Was there to be another shocking combination of Christian nations to wage war against each other? How the Mo- hammedan would laugh ! W r as there to be an- other battle of Dungeness? How Islam would rejoice ! 240 LOOKING AHEAD. At last it was suggested that the question might be settled by the final council, which had so wonderfully framed the "Solution of Evils." "Temporal powers had yielded to it. Why should not the spiritual powers yield also? Make Palestine a neutral state, its independ- ence guaranteed by the joint powers. Let it be governed by its own people, settled there. They are Germans, French, English, Hebrews, Italians, besides Mohammedans; they are educated, industrious, and fully able to admin- ister a republic. Let an international commis- sion draw up its constitution. Political jeal- ousies will thus be assuaged. Let its ports be free to the world. Commercial jeal- ousies will thus be silenced. As for reli- gious jealousies, let liberty of conscience be as- sured. Give Palestine's Holy Places into the keeping of a religious body, not a civil power. For the latter will mean death to reverence, and without reverence society cannot exist. This may seem unsatisfactory because certain to revive religious jealousies. Not so. Let the Holy Places be consigned to one, and only to one, LOOKING AHEAD. 241 of the great religious sects, Catholic, Protest- ant or Greek Church. That sect must be respon- sible for the safety and condition of the Holy Places, but access must be free to all, and no sectarian rites or services shall be allowed at them. To decide which sect shall be in- trusted with the custody of the Holy Places, let the final council, that presented the Solu- tion of Evils reassemble and adopt just means to this end. Can we not trust it? Meanwhile, let us pray for Divine guidance," From the same minister the suggestion came, with the attestation as to authenticity by the same church dignitaries. Naturally it was copied in every paper. The reception it met showed that Vox Populi was for it. Every place of worship had special prayer. Every town, city, yes, every village called "in- dorsement meetings," by concerted ac- tion of the best citizens of all denominations. Overtures were opened by the President of the United States, who had just succeeded the Gov- ernor of Australia as head of Saxondom. All the Powers responded. For all were sick of 242 LOOKING AHEAD. war. Was not every home in mourning? The final council was therefore again convened. Its first session was in Corfu, out of compliment to the hospitality and attention extended to it on the previous occasion. But it was thought that inasmuch as Jerusalem was now again in the hands of the Christians, that city, by reason of its associations, was the appropriate place for holding such a conference. Accordingly the Council moved there, secure in the midst of the Christian forces which had taken possession of what had been called the tribal divisions, except the district of Bashan, where the Moslems were very strongly fortified. At the third session it resolved to summon representatives of all sects of three million ad- herents, each sect to plead its reasons why the Holy Places should be consigned to its keeping. One representative was to be chosen by each sect, and was to appear that day seven weeks, when the claims of each would be heard and the decision made known in due time. This was thought just by the general public. Accordingly Catholics, Presbyterians, Luther- LOOKING AHEAD. 243 ans, Calvinists, Greek churchmen, Episcopa- lians, Friends, Methodists, Baptists, Sweden- borgians, Keformed Dutch Congregationalists, Unitarians, Culturists, Monists, Materialists, and certain others prepared to answer the sum- mons addressed to them as Christian sects. The last three named claimed to teach the doc- trines of conduct preached by the founder of Christianity, as well as of any other teacher of morality, and therefore were to be consid- ered as coming in the category of those who were invited. The Sabbath preceding the day of the import- ant meeting of the final council was set apart for prayer, each sect praying that its chosen champion might be strengthened and taught what to say, except the last three named, who had no one to whom they could pray, for they did not believe in prayer. The}' were there- fore content with prettily worded, grandly phrased speeches as to their own noble aims and the superiority of their own systems. Was that all that they prayed for? No! Among the congregants, no matter under which 244 LOOKING AHEAD. fragment of Christianity's tattered garment they took shelter, were many — alas, how many ! — in deep mourning. For the Crusade had been long and bitter and bloody, and "not a house there was without its dead" — not a home in Christendom without its husband, brother, son, or other loved one, a sacrifice on the altar of religious sentiment ! How bitterly humani- ty had learned the lesson that without the cul- tivation and strengthening of religion there was no hope for the peace and happiness of the world ! Is it any wonder, then, that peace with the Moslem was also prayed for ? Is it any wonder that a theme of earnest orison was that religion should soften the hearts of brothers to brothers? Oh, man! oh, woman! The web of human life or human happiness is not worth weaving unless God is the warp and the woof thereof. It will be rent else, and that surely. Then soon enough by reason of age advanced and strength decreased, it will be too late for you to help to weave anew in your generation ! LOOKING AHEAD, 24:5 CHAPTER XVI. THE VALLEY OF DECISION. Calm, cool and clear dawned the day over the hills round Jerusalem, where the Christians were in force, and where the council was as- sembled. On the slopes were encamped the troops of Christendom. Hardly were the mina- rets and spires of the Holy City kissed by the sunshine w r hen all stood to arms, and to the strain of sweet music slowly marched large de- tachments of the combined armies from the sa- cred precincts. Every nation was represented. These took up assigned positions at the foot of the declivities of the hills whose bases formed a valley, known anciently as the Valley of Je- hoshaphat. They thus inclosed a large oval space, and in honor of their duty of keeping it clear for the exercises, were called "Guards of the Day." 246 LOOKING AHEAD. In the center was a draped stand for the sev- enty members of the final council. To the right and stretching forward was another, called the military stand, but larger, because reserved for the commanders and staff officers of the Chris- tian armies. To the left and similarly stretch- ing forward was a third, called the "diplomat's stand," because reserved for the plenipotenti- aries and diplomatic agents of the governments leagued under the Cross. In front and within easy hearing distance, was a tribune, or raised dais. Close behind, stretching forward in semi- circular form, was another platform. The tri- bune was for the speakers who were to cham- pion each religious system. The semi-cir- cular platform, called for convenience the "stand of the sects," was for Catholic, Greek Church and Protestant deputations, the Protes- tants having each of its sects properly repre- sented. All the stands were beautifuily decorated with the standards of the nations embroidered with crosses. At nine o'clock a large white flag was unfurled over the council's stand. It LOOKING AHEAD. 247 was of silk, and had been embroidered in Dub- lin, Ireland, by a deputation of high-born ladies of every Christian country. On it was a large gold dove, with the words "Justice, Loving- Kindness, Humility." Filling up the remain- ing space were embroidered the names of those men and women who had achieved specially notable work for humanity in all the years that Christianity had been swaying men's minds. Only to read those names was an inspiration — an inspiration never dispelled until the last of the names was read. For omitted were the names of men who, even in the supposed inter- ests of the cross, had shed blood, had dealt falsely, or had caused tears to flow. Omitted also were the names of many supposed saints, inasmuch as it was found that they had lived passively and. not actively good lives. But many an uncanonized or less known man or woman was thought to have a better title to the honor, having been an active philanthropist. To describe how the names were suggested, and how the ladies of the world sought the honor and privilege of being among the chosen 248 LOOKING AHEAD. embroiderers, to describe how the choice of the la- dies and of the immortalized names was made, would detain us too long. Enough to say that the cost was defrayed many times over by penny subscriptions from the school-children of the Christian nations. Jewish children also contributed. When the flag waved in the breeze, a salute of a hundred guns woke the echoes of the hills, and all the troops knelt. The salute was the signal for the worshippers in all the churches in Jerusalem to bend the knee, and a message was flashed or spoken from the Holy City to all centers in Europe and Asia, Africa and Aus- tralia. Thence the signal was conveyed to all towns and villages. The expectant crowd thronging in front of the bulletin-boards and in the places of worship, all bowed the head, knowing that such a sight had never been be- held by heaven before. Nine minutes passed in the recital of the ten commandments, followed by brief, silent prayer. A signal gun was then fired. Instantly the hillsides were filled with moving troops, glit- LOOKING AHEAD. 249 tering arms, waving flags. From all points of the compass, except from Jerusalem, marched detachments, accompanying the respective commanders and staff officers of each army. All were superbly mounted. They halted upon reaching the circle formed by the "Guards of the Day." Meanwhile, from the city itself issued three processions. From one gate, with trumpets and drums preceding, issued squad- rons of cavalry, escorting the diplomatic agents and plenipotentiaries. From another gate marched a similar escort, bringing the deputa- tions of the sects in carriages, four gentlemen in each carriage. From the center gate marched a battalion of guards, a band of youths, tall and active-looking, clad in white uniforms and sil- vered breastplates, on which was set in brilli- ants the name of their country. They marched, surrounding thirty-five carriages in which the seventy members of the final council were seated. A guard of honor followed, escorting four carriages, each drawn by six horses. The carriages contained the four pleaders of the day. Reverend and venerable all but one. 250 LOOKING AHEAD. Next followed, on white horses, a detachment of soldiers clad in white and each carrying a wand. On their breasts were embroidered the words "Justice, Loving-Kindness, Humility." Immediately followed a carriage drawn by twelve horses, each horse held by a page. This carriage contained the venerable president of the council, the commander-in-chief, and the oldest member of the diplomatic corps. The commanders and staff officers of the armies formed a brilliant body. Everything was so well timed that all of the processions and the detachments simultaneously reached the cordon formed by the "Guards of the Day." The guards, by a simple manoeuver in sections, let each pass, saluting meanwhile. The military, diplomatic, and sect-representatives slowly pro* ceeded to their respective positions. But all re- mained standing until the four pleaders reached the tribune and the president, with his two honored associates, reached their seats. Even the latter stood until the president was seated, whereupon a hundred guns announced that the proceedings were to commence. The president LOOKING AHEAD. 251 rose. All knelt. He prayed earnestly and simply. He spake the blessing be bad used in introducing tbe "Solution of Evils," and then he prayed for Divine guidance that they might render a righteous decision. It was a most magnificent sight. The mem- bers of the final council were robed in black, with "Justice, Loving-Kindness, Humility" worked in small red silk letters on the left over the heart. All wore bands and scarfs like a priest's stole. Around their stand was the regiment of young men who bad guarded them in Corfu and also in Jerusalem. Between them and the two stands, right and left, were cavalry and in- fantry escorts, which also surrounded the stands of the military and the diplomatic services. The military officers wore full state dress uniform. So did the diplomats. All wore their chief orders and insignias. Their stands thus presented a blaze of color, gems and arms. The delegates of the religious denominations wore the officiating garb of their respective sect, the scarlet and crimson, gold and jewels of the Catholic and Greek church forming a 252 LOOKING AHEAD. distinct contrast with the sober black or white robes of the Protestants. In the tribune were the four pleaders, a car- dinal of the Catholic church, an archimandrite of the Greek church, an archbishop of the Prot- estants, all in appropriate robes, and a younger man in ordinary morning dress. How came it there were only four, was asked in the minds of the military and the state offi- cials? It transpired that the Protestants had, during the early morning hours, met and in ac- cordance with a suggestion of the final council, had decided that they would unite their claims. And at the same time it was learned that the Culturists, Moralists, Mouites, and the various kinds of froe-thinkers had also resolved to unite their claims, determined that if to them the so- called Holy Places should be awarded, they would make Jerusalem the headquarters for the furthering of their work of emancipation of man from all religious ideas except morality. All was ready, and after a pause that was al- most painful — so strained was the attention — the chief of the final council was seen to take LOOKING AHEAD. 253 his seat, when, suddenly, there issued forth a gaunt figure, clad in a hairy garment, a fire gleaming in his eyes, and with the stain of travel upon him. Like an apparition he startled all, arid still more startling was the effect when he rapidly took up a position under the tribune, and wav- ing his arms, thus spoke in a ringing voice: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. "Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, 'I am strong.' "Assemble yourselves and come, all ye Gen- tiles, and gather yourselves together round about." Then wildly tossing his arms and suddenly clasping his hands as he stretched them toward the heavens, he exclaimed : "Here cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord!" He paused an instant, and then his face seemed to light up with fresh fire as he slightly bent his head, and facing round, said solemnly : 254 LOOKING AHEAD. "Let the nations be wakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge the Gentile nations round about. "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get ye down, for the press is full, the vats overflow ; for their wickedness is great. "Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of De- cision; for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. "The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." "He speaks from the book of Joel," whis- pered one of the occupants of the tribune. A dead silence reigned while the prophet-like man spoke. What did it mean? A strange feeling came upon all. War? When all were for peace? What harvest was ripe? To grasp the sickle, who was destined? To be mowed down, who was fated? The sun was bright. It was a perfect day, tempered with a gentle breeze. Not a cloud was visible, and there seemed no reason to pre- vent the queen of the night appearing in due time with all her silver-robed train. LOOKING AHEAD. 255 He said but little more, and theD moved away, disappearing among the soldiery, tossing his arms, pausing, looking to heaven, clasping his hands, pressing onward again, and speak- ing as if in ecstasy. Again the president of the council rose; again he was constrained to pause. For, in the awe-struck attention of the specta- tors as they watched every motion of the weird speaker, nobody had noticed a messenger ride up at full speed to the president. He handed a note to the commander-in-chief, who read it, and who, hardly able to control a gesture of in- voluntary surprise, tore off the back, wrote a note and bade the messenger give it to the chief of the military stand. All were fevered with excitement. The dis- tant and vast assemblies in all lands were sick with anxiety, wondering why the pleadings had not yet begun. The commander-in-chief was observed to hand the note to the president. Turning to an attendant, he gave a second message to the chief of the military stand, who evidently 256 LOOKING AHEAD. gave some orders, for several rose, descended the steps, and mounting their horses, rode rap- idly toward the city. In the scrap handed to the president of the council were the words: "Enemy reinforced, approaching in force, our camp and intrench- ments at Port Said captured on the south ; we may lose Damascus on the north before night- fall — Bethlehem, our center, threatened." With admirable presence of mind, the presi- dent betrayed no emotion at the terrible news. He felt that nothing should be allowed to inter- fere with the pleading, and while he prayed in his heart that a happy end might be attained in all the matters which pressed upon the world at that moment, he decided not to excite anxiety by making known the contents of the dispatch. LOOKING AHEAD. 257 CHAPTER XVII. THE BAR OF THE WORLD'S JUSTICE. The president rose and said : "Brothers, we are assembled to hear the pleadings of the appointed speakers for the cus- tody of the Holy Places, for the religious pos- session of Palestine, the land whose very dust is dear to us all ! Let the oldest of the speak- ers arise! God guide his tongue and the tongues of his associates in the tribune! God give us all wisdom to decide in accordance with 'Justice, Loviug-Kindness and Humility' — yea, in accordance with His will!" He resumed his seat, but a commotion in the direction where the standard of Italy was planted arrested his attention. He motioned to the occupants of the tribune to pause a mo- ment, for it almost seemed as if a conflict was commencing. 258 LOOKING AHEAD. It was, however, only a martial salute to an Arab detachment carrying a flag of truce. At the head was a splendid type of manhood, clad in a close-fitting chain-armor which re- vealed his perfect proportions and allowed ev- ery freedom to his slightest movement. He and his escorts were mounted on magnificent chargers. All carried swords or spears, points downward, while magazine rifles were slung on their backs. They rode swiftly through the lines, right up to the tribune of the speakers, whom they sa- luted. They turned and rode past the stands, saluting the occupants of each in order, and halting before the stand of the seventy, they repeated a dignified salute. Then the leader gracefully dismounted, and bowed respectfully to the president of the supreme council. The rest of the party remained mounted. As if oblivious of the fact that they were in the very midst of their enemies, they seemed lost in the close attention which they paid to their leader's words. "God is God." LOOKING AHEAD. 259 "We worship the same God as you do," said he. "Sire," he, continued, "is not this as- sembly convened in the name of 'Justice, Love and Humility?' " The president answered : "It is.'' "Then, although we are sons of Islam, in the name of 'Justice, Loving Kindness and Hu- mility,' I ask to be heard," was the chieftain's reply. The president looked toward the tribune. The occupants bowed. Interpreting this as an indication of their as- sent, the president continued : "Speak on : we invite you to do so. Here at the bar of the world, here in the shades of the most holy of Holy Places, here under the wide heavens are we assembled to listen to all who will plead in the name of 'Justice, Loving- Kindness and Humility.' O son of Islam, it would ill become us who are met to render a just decision, to say to thee, 'Thou shalt not speak !' For if thou hast the most cogent rea- son to bring forward, then our decision, if a 260 LOOKING AHEAD. true one, must be for thee. Art thou here to plead for the custody of the Holy Places?" "I am, reverend father," he respectfully and modestly answered. Turning to the other members of the council, the president asked; "Is it your pleasure that he shall be heard? Or shall he not be heard? He is not a Christian." Whereupon the chief of the council arose and said: "It is true we are met through the action of Christian nations; that only Chris- tians were invited to send delegates. It may be said, though I think impropeily, that we are exceeding our powers to listen to other than Christians. To bear this in mind is a duty we ov*e to our brethren in the Christian world. But our highest duty is to render a just decis- ion as to who has the best right to hold the sacred places. Our decision is to be rendered in the name of 'Justice, Loving-Kindness and Humility,' and must be uttered with moral courage." The oldest of the plenipotentiaries then arose and added ; LOOKING AHEAD. 261 "If Islam hatb a more righteous claim, then to Islam must be awarded Palestine's sacred soil. Christianity wants nothing unjustly, and would not wish to hold Palestine unrighteous- ly. The least we can do is to hear Islam* s rep- resentative, and weigh his pleadings as care- fully as we shall weigh the pleadings of other speakers." As he sat down, the commander-in-chief rose and said : "The age of chivalry is not passed if a foe- man places the solution of the very dispute through which he is fighting in the hands of his enemies. Such confidence on his part in us, in our 'Justice, Loving-Kindness and Humili- ty,' and in our honor, should be met with equal chivalry, equal courtesy, and with equal con- sideration." And lastly, the oldest member of the final council, rising, declared: "Mohammedans are children of God, like ourselves. We are here in the name of that God, the Father. Therefore let the pleader for Islam be heard." 262 LOOKING AHEAD. A murmur of approval showed that all his colleagues in the stand of the final council were in accord. But in order to ascertain this publicly and place on record the acquiescence of all, the president said : "Let those who think it righteous and just among you, O chosen judges, to hear the son of Islam, and who will award to his faith the cus- tody of the Holy Places, if he adduce the strongest argument, let such arise!" The whole council rose. Then, turning to the chosen speakers in the tribune, he said: "Are ye, the chosen speak- ers, willing that he shall be heard, and that to him the custody of the Holy Land shall be given if the council shall so decide?" All the speakers stood and answered "Aye." "Son of Islam," answered the president, "thou art free to speak! Thou shalt have jus- tice. Yet before we may hear thee, thou must declare thy credentials — show them not, for we trust thee as thou dost trust us ! But it is right that we know who sent thee. ' ' Ascending the tribune, the Arab chieftain thus commenced : LOOKING AHEAD. 263 "Though fountains flow in far-off lands, and deep be their sources, yet if the sun glows red and the earth lies scorched with his rays of burn- ing anger, so that young ones weep and women wail as they gasp with thirst unslaked because the wherewithal to slake it hath gone, where- fore sing to them of Zemzem's sacred water, wherefore show to them empty water-skins? Is not this a mockery? "Zephyrs kiss the graceful palms. They an- swer back with golden fruit — the dates which hold the distilled honey to gladden the hearts of man! But if storms strip the palms or foe- men hew them, if thus vanished is their beau- ty, and there is no fruit, no sweetness, then to what purpose is it to try to cheer the soul of the hunger-fainting man with only date-stones? Wherefore speak to him of Ulim's seventy palms? Is not this also mockery? "You say to me, 'Speak, son of Islam!' Verily to speak I am come! And yet I pause, for my heart is full ! Deep are the emotions whence springs the fountain of my speech ! But the scorching heat of passion hath beat upon 264 LOOKING AHEAD. me long; passion because I have seen the curses of war, passion because with mine own eyes I have seen your Western civilization, and know how it brings not to man the happiness which the Arab knows, and knowing, resolves to preserve. Passion ! Aye, passion, throbbing, burning, glowing, consuming! "Because in the name of peace and good- will you lay homes waste with war and make bare the pastures whereon the flocks of the Bedouin peacefully grazed; because you bear to us a deathless ill-will, for the reasou that God gave us so long the possession of the stones and dust for which we have fought, for which we have suffered, for which we have the same love which you, my hearers, have. I have heard the cry of the orphan ; I have seen the despair of the widow ; I have tried to soothe the par- ent, to whose weight of years you, my hear- ers, add the weight of the sorrow of bereave- ment of children — sorrow bitterest of all for the aged to bear. Oh, that sorrow! Alas, I have drained the cup, for m} T own first-born lies on the slopes of the Cypress Hills, and my heart is weeping still. LOOKING AHEAD. 265 "Mock me not with empty words, if ye mean not that, be he who he may, to whom ye say the dust of El Khods shall be given, it shall be given ! Mock me not, if ye mean not that war shall cease, and the anguish of mourning be no more increased by increased mourners ! Mock me not ! "The beauty of life, the murmur of content- ment, the sweetness of happiness, these marked many a tent of my people. But through the storm of war there is no beauty, no food for contentment, no sweetness of happiness. The young ones weep, the women wail for the wa- ters of life, for the flow of the fountain of hap- piness, for the gush of the waters of peace. But they get instead only blood. "Yet I thought I would seek you. For I heard of the wishes, the sighings in your lands for peace. "So wish we. So sigh we. "We heard of the sorrow breaking so many hearts in your distant homes. Such sorrow, the sorrow of bereavement, have we in our tents also. We heard of your proposed 'Soiu- 266 LOOKING AHEAD. tion of Social Evils.' M} T own life, passed for many years in one of your universities, hath given me interest in your social crises, and through my studies there I speak now in the tongue ye have chosen for this day's pleadings. "Aye, we heard that ye had decided to make peace where there was war, calm where there was anger, harmony where there was discord among you, by the appointment of a World's Council. Thus ye would seek out a solution of the 'East- ern Question, ' as for generations ye have termed it — even as ye arrived at the 'Solution of Evils,' where wealth and labor warred, where angry violence threatened the calm of law, where discords drowned the harmonies of peace. "But in this solution of the 'Eastern Ques- tion,' in the pleading for the possession of the Holy Places, we of Islam must be heard! Cross and Crescent must both be heard ! Yes, our clashing steel is heard on the battlefield. Our bullets cross each others' paths. Our can- non speak and answer, waking the same echoes. Then in the arena of debate let us also be op- posed. Oh, Justice, strengthen the tongue of LOOKING AHEAD. 267 the right ! Oh, Loving-Kindness, give wings of eloquence to the words of the rightful owners ! Oh, Humility, let thy magic entrance our hearts ! "I said the crusade hath caused too much blood to be shed. Too many tears flow. Too many men fall. Too many women pine away with wasted lives, dark to the end with the shadow of death. "Then spake I to the chiefs of my people in Mecca, as they sat before Caaba, directing this Jehad. "And from my lips these words dropped: " 'Oh, holy men, the tidings come that the sons of the Cross meet with word of Justice, with speech of Loving-Kindness, with accents of Humility.' "And they answered me with wisdom: 'Go plead our cause, for it is Justice that stirs our hearts to fight, it is Loving-Kindness that would make us end widows' weeping, it is Hu- mility that makes us accept the will of Allah. But leat the tidings be like smoke that passeth away, lest their words be like empty bottles 268 LOOKING AHEAD. and their speech be fruitless, and only date- stones, we shall not pause to drive the Franks from our sacred land.' "I heard. Thus I am here. "And I say mock me not when I thirst for peace, with talk of distant fountains. Give me not hard stones to carry home when my soul longs for fruits of consolation for mourners, for Justice and for Love. Fathers — the Moslem world will drink in your words. If they be. true waters of life your speech will be very sweet to the children of my faith ; if they bear indeed sweet fruit to cure two weeping worlds, both worlds will bless you while Time's scroll lasts. "But our captains cease not the war. As I speak, the warriors of /the true prophet are sweeping onward. Said is theirs, and the hills of Moab where sleeps the Nabi is shadowed by the tents of the Crescent. Kerioth is taken, the strongholds are surprised. Damascus is be- sieged and at this moment the troops of the true faith are drinking Jordan's waters in Nazareth and are camped by Galilee." LOOKING AHEAD. 2C9 It is difficult to describe the astonishment of the hearers at this information. They could now understand the sudden departure of the officers from the military stand, just before the president opened the proceedings. Not heeding the sensation his words had caused, the impassioned speaker continued : "But while I rode, I minded me of what your holy book saith, 'O thou sword, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thy sword in thy scabbard, rest and be still!' Thu3 I resolved to seek you and try to help forward peace. Therefore am I come, and your own words are very sweet to me. "You say speak. Like the soft zephyrs come your greetings. Blessed fruits see I, even gold- en fruits of prosperit} r , fruits which like dates drip with sweetness, for the world to enjoy and to rejoice the heart of man. But will there be no storm of jealousy? After what history teaches, will not the jealousies of your govern- ments let loose the storm-winds of contention, and bid war's thunders peal and quake the earth? Where then will be the fruits, the hap- 2?0 LOOKING AHEAD. piness, the honey of contentment, the sweetness of prosperity? But who arn I, a stranger, that I should speak first? Let me not be first to plead. Let me hear what thoughts the plead- ers for the Cross have woven, and let the web of their thoughts be as speech displayed for me to mark. Ay, let these my brothers speak be- fore me, for then shall I know whether their brotherly love for each other, and for me, will bring, keep and continue peace for the world!" While he was speaking another deputation had approached, and had stood motionless un- der the tribune until he ended. The President rose and said : "Well spoken, brother of Islam, and what thou dost wish shall be heeded. Take thou a seat in the tribune. Arise and speak, O pleaders for the Cross, and may we award beloved Palestine to that pleader whom the great Father wills to further His work." A venerable priest, robed in scarlet, was rec- ognized as he rose, and it was known that he represented the Catholic Church. LOOKING AHEAD. 271 CHAPTER XVIII. THE PLEA OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FOR PALESTINE'S HOLY PLACES. Nobles of earth ! Blessed of heaven ! We ask that the Holy Places of the land, every atom of whose dust is so dear, be declared too holy for any man to stand upon as holder who saluteth not the Cross as the emblem of his re- ligion. Give them to the Christian, the land whose sacred soil drank in the lifeblood of Christ, the poetry of whose life has been and is the music whose witchery lifts the soul to pure ideals. Shall I, need I set forth the claims of the Cross? Verily time would fail ! My pleading would end but with my life, and then not a tithe would be said ! Whatever is good in humanity, to the Cross it is owing. "lis the Cross which inspires the pure statesman, which prompts the i}?8 LOOKING AHEAD. martyr, nerves the hero, and strengthens all men with courage, with hope and with faith. Oh, that my voice had power to wake these hills to speak! Every cranny in their sides would, like lips, declare that to the Cross, and to the Cross alone, should be assigned the land where breathed, spake, taught and died the man of Nazareth, the hope of the world, the guide in life earthly, the guide through the shadowed valley, the guide in the realms of bliss immortal ! Let us but humbly ask who has more right to guard the Holy Land and the Holy Places than we of the Cross, we who teach men to be holy. And who has dared more and done more than we, to raise men and women to holy life, and rescue them from all that defiles, all that saps spiritual vigor, all that lowers humanity to brutish plane? Were it not for the Cross, earth to-day were shrouded in darkness, rotted with sin, a seeth- ing mass of foul corruption, wherefrom would spring miasma whose poisoned germs would change the flush of moral health to the pallid LOOKING AHEAD. 273 hue of moral death, whose subtle influence would substitute black crime for white holy innocence. Murdered then would be Virtue! Purity would be stifled, and Honor would be but a plaything ! Picture humanity in its brightest eras, in eras when the Light of the Cross was unknown, and this you will find is what history reveals. In the whirl of life as then 'twas lived, look we not on stately temples, mighty monuments and surging masses of humanity. Karnak's stupendous pile, Parthenon's beauty whereon gazed with pride the sons of Hellas, Babylon's great crowds and Tyre's thronged marts, do not transfix our minds. Rather we mark the vices of the rich, the wretchedness of the poor. Alas for the hopelessness of life in those days ! Alas for the absence of incentive to high and pure life, to life uncolored with superstition, to life un warped with error ! Vice, wretchedness, hopelessness, supersti- tion, error, existed then. Except for Chris- tianity they would fill the world to-day. 274 LOOKING AHEAD. On pagan hearths and in pagan hearts with- ered flowers of virtue alone were seen and proved the absence of spiritual light. That light the Cross to the world hath given. Men and women lived without faith, died without hope. Faith! Hope! These are the actual war-cries of Christianity! The world owes them to the Cross. Fearlessly the missiona- ries of the Cross spake in the streets of cultured Rome, amid her wealth and power, as in the wild glades of a Teutoberg forest. They ten- dered Faith. They proffered Hope. If, as they did, they gave Calvary instead of Olym- pus; if, as they did, they changed Valhalla into Paradise; if, through their patience and love, courage and martyrdom, earnestness and zeal, they transformed Roman citizens and bar- barian freemen into servants of the Cross, men devoted to duty the highest and noblest — does not all this establish Christianity's claim to the highest consideration? Ay, the savages who roamed the woods where fair fields and surging cities now proclaim man's civilization, were re- claimed by the influence of the Cross ! LOOKING AHEAD. 275 When violence stalked abroad, and lust in hearts was unsubdued, it was the Church that offered the cloister's safety and kept womanhood untarnished. Forget not that, O nobles, who listen to my weak pleadings. And as those dark ages rolled away, and men's minds became more responsive to the joys of knowledge, to the beauties of art, to bless- ings of science so long submerged in barbaric flood, it was the Catholic Church that founded Europe's great universities, and established free schools for the people. If the Church was the friend of mental darkness, she had the golden opportunity during the middle ages to display her spirit and scatter to the winds the sources of enlightenment which she once pos- sessed. But what did she? Beneath the folds of her mantle she gathered with loving care the literary treasures of the past — not only the writings of the sacred Scrip- tures, but the writings of her own doctors and all that she could find on the monuments of profane learning from Greece and Rome. In her monasteries were those treasures preserved, 2?6 LOOKING AHEAD. guarded by the faithful monks, perpetuated by their patient pens, "while, without, waged the storm of war, the tempest of human ambition, the scourge of the pestilence. What time was not spent in prayer, those monks spent in tending humanity's needs. If they spent time in copying manuscripts, they nevertheless found time to teach barbarians agriculture. In the ages w T here mental dark- ness shut out the light of virtue and human prayers, 'twas the Church which said to dark- ness "Begone," and to vice "Vanish." And as the great modern states grew out of the wreckage of the Roman world, it was the Church that guided them. But for the Cross, Violence would be universal King, Tyranny his sceptre, and he would be ruling to-day ! Where royal power infringed on people's rights, who was it that threw religion's influ- ence on the side of the latter? Let the echoes of a Runnymede reply ! If there was laid the corner stone of liberty for the great Anglo- Saxon world, forget not that he who headed those early builders of Freedom's bulwark was LOOKING AHEAD. 277 a prelate of the Catholic— the only Church. And by the side of Lanfranc range a Riche- lieu, a Mazarin, if you would see how the princes of the Church have ruled the destinies of nations under Him, who is Supreme over all. Shall I enlarge upon the silent revolution which, the Church has effected? Enveloped as it was with many evils of the times, the truly Christian principle which was at its basis, per- petually vindicated its power, giving rise to numberless blessings in spite of the degrada- tion and wickedness of man. The idea of an ultimate accountability for personal deeds, of which the old European had an indistinct perception, became intense and precise. The sentiment of universal charity was exemplified not only in individual acts, the remembrance of which soon passes away, but in the more permanent institution of establish- ments for the relief of affliction, the spread of knowledge, the propagation of truth. In the shadow of the Cross flourished institutions for hospitality, for almsgiving, for homes for the orphan and widow, for the aged and infirm, hospitals for the sick. 2?8 LOOKING AHEAD. Thus, not over communities and nations alone, but also over individuals, hath the Church displayed influencing power for good. Let this guide your thoughts, O great ones of earth, to the logical conclusion that it is the Church I represent which has done most for humanity, and therefore has most claim to your considera- tion. Never in the world before has there been such a system as ours, the Christian church. From her central seat at Rome her all-seeing eye takes in the two hemispheres at a glance, examines, strengthens the private life of the individual. Her boundless influence envelops kings in their palaces, and relieves the beggar at the monastery gate. In all the world there is no man too insignificant, too desolate for her. Surrounded by her solemnities every one re- ceives his name at her altar. Her bells chime at his marriage, her knell tolls his funeral. In his hour of sickness and troubles, her serv- ants seek him out, teaching him by Lor ex- quisite litanies and prayers to place his reli- LOOKING AHEAD. 279 ance on God, or strengthening him for the trials of life by the examples of the holy and just. To the souls of the dead, her prayers give re- pose. When, even to his friends his lifeless body becomes an offence, into her consecrated ground she receives it, under her shadow to rest until the reckoning day shall dawn. From little better than a slave, she hath raised man's wife to be his equal. Forbidding him to have more than one, man finds his recom- pense in a firm friend ever at his side. Dis countenancing all impure love, the church puts round that fireside the children of one mother and makes that mother little less than sacred in their eyes. In ages of lavishness and rapine, among people but a step above savages,she vin- dicated the inviolability of her precincts against the hand of power and made always, as she makes to-day, her temples, her monasteries, cloisters and convents into refuges and sanctu- aries for the despairing and the oppressed. The history of the world presents no phenomenon so striking as the rise and early progress of Christianity. 280 LOOKING AHEAD. Never could it have progressed but with the blessing of God. Then acknowledge that blessing by recogniz- ing the claim of the faith so blessed. Give Palestine's Holy Places to the Cross ! If the Cross is worthy of the blessing of heaven, it is worthy of Palestine, and you, O mighty princes, will be instruments of God to carry out His blessings to the highest point in your power. Think for a moment of the rise of the Church. Think but for an instant of its progress. Origi- nating in a country at a time when it was not remarkable for any political, commercial or lit- erary influences, emanating from a teacher who occupied a humble sphere in his community, announced to the world by men of mean extrac- tion, of no literary culture, and not endowed with any surpassing gifts of eloquence, it never- theless spread so rapidly that in an incredibly short period of time it has been diffused through the whole civilized world and in the fourth century of its existence, became the recognized and established religion of the LOOKING AHEAD. 281 Roman Empire. Is not this miracle? Respect miracle. Miracle is the work of God. Think of this. No worldly influence to aid it. Learning, wit, power, marshalled against it by the greatest nations of the age. The con- clusion is indeed strongly forced upon us that a power beyond that of man was concerned in its success. I call these eternal hills to witness that its early and unexampled triumphs afford an in- contestable proof of its inherent truth and its divine origin. Can you cast upon it the impu- tation of untruth and of no divine origin, by announcing its claims to the Holy Land to be inferior to those of any other cult? And the blessing shed upon it in its infancy hath been continued. After a revolution of centuries, the religion of the Cross is still pro- fessed by the nations of Europe- -the most dis- tinguished portion of human kindness in art and learning as well as in arms. By the in- dustry and zeal of Europeans it has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa, and by means of their colonies has been 282 LOOKING AHEAD. firmly established from Canada to Chili in a land unknown to the ancients. O but why shall I speak of its progress? It is miracle. It is blessing! And because of that miracle, and because of that blessing I ask for Palestine's Holy Places for the Cross, in the name of God who wrought the miracle and who sent the blessing. On Palestine's sacred soil stood the feet of him who founded Christianity. Its dust drank in his blood. Over its hills and meads his words were wafted. Its sunshine bathed him; its ambient air laved him. Every stone, every blossom, every blade of grass from where the cedars of Lebanon cast their shade to where the lilies of the field display their wondrous glory, is eloquent of him in whose name the Cross is raised. In its sacred glades preached he his blessed truths. On the hills with verdure clad, spake he his wondrous teachings. All nature there tongues the story of his life, all Palestine tongues the claims of the Cross. If right be right, and justice be supreme, your verdict, O great ones of earth, will be Palestine's sacred Places for the Christians. LOOKING AHEAD. 283 And of Christians which sect? Can there be a doubt. Which of the Chris- tian churches conquered the pagan world? Which for centuries brought men to the foot of the Throne of Truth? Which hath remained true to its original creed? Which is the oldest? Which hath preserved the apostolic succession? Far be it from me to criticise other sects or divisions. But the very multitude of divisions of Protestantism, the very subdivisions of her children, who, though Christians, have left the bosom of the mother church, are proofs suffi- cient of error, or of heresy. Let these sects have sway then never can there be union. Brotherhood will be impossible. I have spoken. Born when humanity was sighing for a new faith; given to the world when people were finding their old cults to be myths; sent to the human heart which was crying then as never it cried before for comfort, for strength, for faith and for hope, Christianity hath on her brow the very stamp of Divinity which time cannot ef- face, and which the passing centuries serve but to render more lustrous. 284 LOOKING AHEAD. Give Palestine's Holy Place to the Cross. And of the churches which hail the Cross with reverential awe, I ask whose missionaries first stood alone for centuries, first trod the forest and pierced the desert, first took by the hand the pagan, whether polished as the Roman or savage as the Hun, and said "Lookup and be saved?" Who first gave Faith where Faith was dead, Hope where Hope had never dawned, Charity where Charity was undreamed of? O nobles, O chosen of earth, ask ye your selves, and conscience shall thunder forth "Give Palestine's Holy Places to the Cath- olics." The speaker bowed his head and took his seat, his face pale with emotion, for he had put his very soul into his words. At once the president rose and said: "We will hear the next of the reverend fathers." Whereupon the second prelate rose, and mod- estly advancing to the front of the Tribune, as modestly commenced his presentation of The Plea of the Protestant Church for Palestine's Holy Places. LOOKING AHEAD. 285 CHAPTER XIX. THE PLEA OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH Is a plea which needs no detailed list of vic- tories in the name of human progress. Let me not seek to raise the cause whose unworthy representative I am by lowering others, Let me first speak of Christianity itself and essay to voice its claims. Has it any claims at all? The reverend and gifted speaker who has just addressed you has well declared them. It has. Its history is miracle. Its story is the story of Divine Providence exercised by the Father of mankind. If Revelation is the seed, the Sermon on the Mount is the blossoming. If the prophets are the flowering, the New 286 LOOKING AHEAD. Testament is the fragrance of human hope, human ideal, human excellence. From the moment of its birth Christianity re- ceived the heavenly blessing. If it received it, it was because it was, has since been, and is, worthy of it. We preserve our cult unchanged. Christianity is therefore still worthy of that blessing. Then, O judges of earth, I also plead, give the land to Christian care. Though to me is denied the eloquence of my predecessor in this pleading, let me attempt also to demonstrate how the blessing Divine hath rested on the Cross and bade it progress. Thus, O servants of God, will your hearts surely move you to ac- cept that blessing as proof that what is blessed by God should be supported and furthered by men — by you, by your giving Palestine's Holy Places to the keeping of the Cross. Certainly a force incalculable by man has been exerted by Christianity in the conversion of the Roman Empire from the fierce passions and vices of Paganism to even the partial and qualified acceptance of the pure and austere Christian rule. LOOKING AHEAD. 287 Make all the allowances which the skeptic can ask, for the political and military ambi- tions which consented to or conspired with the spiritual changes introduced by Christianity, and it still remains an astonishing fact, wholly inexplicable by human analysis, that a recent unattractive and foreign religion, hated and fought with the utmost fury by those whose o~ily moral alliance was through their common antagonism to it, should in less than three cen- turies change the gardens of Nero into resorts for Christian worship, should have scattered its assemblies and their institutions over the west- ern civilized world, and have blazoned the Cross on the standards of the empire. It must have had divine energy with it and in it to accomplish so stupendous an effect. On any other hypothesis, the chances were millions on millions to one, as even thoughtful unbelievers admit, against its success, against indeed its continued existence. A power invisible, but also invincible, be- hind the movement is as evident as are the subterranean fires in the shining outbreak of 288 LOOKING AHEAD. volcanoes, or as are the vast subterranean forces beneath the shattering tremble of earthquakes. Almost equally afterward, in the conquest of barbarian tribes; in the fusion, the restraint and the moral education of the savage, nomadic and relentless populations from which have gradually come into being the Christian states of modern Europe; in the immense construc- tive energies which silently wrought, but wrought with effect, amid the mediaeval chaos; in the amazing reformation of religion open- ing the Bible to the study of mankind and us- ing pulpit and printing press for its conquering instruments against the prodigious and majes- tic establishments of hierarchical powers; in the work already accomplished on the continent of Europe and which is swiftly going forward in Europe and the East, in India, Africa, the islands of the Pacific — the same celestial, un- subduable energy presents to us, inhering or- ganically in our religion, while also inseparably associated with it in its cosmical operation. No miracle of the master's time, however fully accepted, shows more distinctly the might LOOKING AHEAD. 289 of God under the human muscle which it clothed, than do these vast developments of his- tory His intervening thought and will. One sees sometimes in studios or galleries a veiled statue, every characteristic line of form and face visible beneath what seems a thin film of lace work, which itself, however, is wrought in marble. So the very earth on which we stand is com- ing to show the face of the Christ, wrought into it from above, and revealed through all the reticulated hardness of its slowly yielding civ- ilization. And the mind of Him from whom sprang the genius of the sculptor is supremely declared in this effect. There is something more, there- fore, in the history of Christendom, than phi- losophy teaching by experience. It unfolds and expresses the Christian religion, working itself into partial, difficult, but progressive exhibi- tion, through intractable materials, against stubborn opposition, with a power unyielding and undecaying because it is of God. This histor} T is, in fact, a kind of secondary ru- 290 LOOKING AHEAD. bricated Scripture, vast in extent, covering the continents, written in colossal Gothic and Ro- man characters, the initial letters stamped some- times in gold and sometimes in blood, but the vast confused and tangled text holding in it still the song of angels, the benedictions of the mount, the story of Bethlehem, Capernaum and the Cross, the illustrious ascension and the ter- rible triumphs of the Apocalypse. To one who reads it with reverent heart 'the voice of the Master still sounds amid the uproar of passionate tempests and still commands the final calm." To carry on this miracle, let our hands be strengthened. To develop this glorious web of human prog- ress, deny us not that which will increase be- yond measure our power for good. In the name of justice, in the name of a just recognition of what the Cross hath done, is d > ing, and is destined to do for manhood and wo- manhood, for progress and sanctification of life, for love and for duty, give Palestine's sacred sites to the children of the Cross. LOOKING AHEAD. 291 But to which sect? To the Catholic who hath been enthroned for centuries on the hills of Rome? To the majes- tic Greek church whose sway extends from the frozen North to the slopes of Lebanon, to the ends of Morea? O princes, O mighty ones of earth ! O cho- sen of the world ! What the last speaker has said of Christianity that say we all. Right well spake he then — he could not speak too well. With all he said we do agree, to all his arguments say we "Amen," until he sets forth superior claims for the Catholic Church. Far be it from me to underrate the record of that great church. Far be it from me to decry it so that mine may in such way be elevated. Truly the conquest of the world is due to those who kiss the cross. But for vigor and enterprise, energy and in- domitable spirit, seek we the land of the Protes- tant. There find we the greatest victories of human progress. Teuton and Saxon have for the world per- formed far more than Frank or Latin. 292 LOOKING AHEAD. What our brothers of the Catholic Church have attempted and accomplished in missionary work, that have we also. Do not our faithful missionaries labor in far off Cathay, in the wilds of Thibet, in the isles of Malay, and in great Africa, by stream- side, under mountain shade, in forest, in des- ert ! Aye, and as bravely as did the early ser- vants of the Catholic Church who braved fever and pestilence, savage surprise and weapons whose speech is death. Our servants brave them now. Have only Catholics built cathedrals or reared universities? Far be it, I repeat, from me to belittle their sacred structures — those triumphs wrought in "frozen music" by architect's skill or their halls of learning, which raise the human mind to the su blime. Be it forever away from my mind to hold in other than the highest esteem their noble efforts to strengthen learning's bulwarks and to achieve the triumphs of art. But have we Protestants no cathedrals? Have we no universities of renown? Have we done noth- LOOKING AHEAD. 293 ing for art or gained no victories in science? And wherefore should papal claim be the stronger because it declares its system conse- crates life from the baptismal font to the grave? Does not the system for which I so feebly plead, also soothe the wounded heart, dry the tear, strengthen for life's trials and make its votaries look upwards for guidance to where the church-spires point? "Not boastfully do I say it. I will not, I can- not defile this hallowed spot with passion vile, with thought impure. "But that which the Catholic Church hath done, that have we done, that do we, and that shall we do until the crack of doom. "And let me ask— what were the dark ages? "The ages when the Catholic Church was su- preme ! "What were the middle ages? "The ages when, in the shadow of that church first were heard those mutterings of religious freedom which announced the brewing storm. "Loud crashed the thunder of papal denuncia- tion! Swift, fierce and lurid were the lightnings 294 LOOKING AHEAD. of Roman wrath. Sweeping and pitiless was the tempest of hate, and sad was the fate of those who braved that storm ! u O my hearers, doth the world owe nothing to them, to the grand hearts that protested against papistic error. "O the noble spirits of those noble martyrs whose Puritan souls fled their prison of flesh at the pyre, under knife or halter, in Inquisi- tion chamber, or under privations of exile! What is modern history? It commences from the day when Wycliff, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Luther, Melancthon, Erasmus, Reuchlin worked, spoke, wrote. In other words, from the day when freedom of conscience, freedom in religion, with God and His holy book, the Bi- ble, to guide and the Man of Sorrows to strengthen — from the day when men protested against error and wished to purify the Chris- tian faith to be in accord with the life and teachings of its founder, from that day com- menced the true history of human progress, hu- man happiness. — When Protestantism was born mankind's true progress began. LOOKING AHEAD. 295 "It is we who have done most to advance hu- manity. "Look at the lands where still the church rules supreme! Behold their backwardness. "Look at the lands where the pure flag of Prot- estantism is dominant. The psalm of life as there 'tis heard is the whir of machinery, the song of labor, the hymn of progress. "If the holy dust is to be trodden by those who by work have accomplished most and have achieved victories most necessary for human ad- vancement, now and in the future — then not the scarlet priest shall sway the sceptre here, but the ministers of Protestantism, the faith which burst the fetters of ignorance and of priestly government, through which Europe's intellect was and would be enchained. Again I say, we have done all that Catholicism hath done. And not only have we done as much more, are doing as much more for the progress in art, in science, in all that tends to human happiness, but I maintain that Catholicism has, if history speaketh trulj T , clogged the wheels of progress — Protestantism never has done so. 296 LOOKING AHEAD. "To sum up — what the Catholic Church hath done for humanity, to teach it Faith, Hope and Charity, that hath the Protestant Church also done. But for progress, for civilization it hath done more. "Therefore, if work achieved for mankind's progress and happiness constitutes a claim to the holy hills of Palestine beside religion's holy work, then justice cries out and righteousness echoes: Give Palestine's Holy Places to the Protestants!" He bowed and took his seat. Whereupon the champion of the Catholic Church rose and asked "To which of the Pro- testant sects?" and then sat down as if not ex- pecting an answer. The president of the council, without notic- ing the interruption, rose and said : "We will hear the next of the reverend fa- thers." People did not need to ask what sect the next speaker represented. For on his magnificent robe was embroidered a Greek cross. The in- terest of the listeners deepened. The nature of LOOKING AHEAD. 297 the debate was absorbing enough of itself. Now it was evident from the calm look and thoughtful demeanor of the aged priest slowly- moving to the front of the Tribune, that not unchallenged would be the demands of the two great churches whose children filled the world of the Cross outside the land whose claims were now to be heard. With intense interest the audience listened to the Plea of the Greek Church for Palestine's Holy Places. 298 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER XX. THE PLEA OF THE GREEK CHURCH. Thus her champion spoke: "Princes and grandees, hear ye me: "I am the least heard in the Western-Christ- ian world, the least known among all Christian sects outside the realms where my church's teachings rule. Yet I am doing the good work which all Christians do, laboring like them in the vineyard. "What better right hath any other sect than mine? "I know not. "What be the triumphs they boast of? "Those triumphs share I. "Worlds have they conquered, and where were fens, morasses, forests and wastes, there under the shadow of the Cross as they have held it, LOOKING AHEAD. 299 throbbing cities and laughing fields truly to- day are found. "Verily, Christianity, as my Catholic and Protestant brothers have demonstrated, must, if right be right, and justice be justice, have assigned to her faithful keeping the scenes where wept and spoke, healed and strove the wondrous figure whose immortality rests on the heart-homage of mankind. "To Christian effort, civilization owes its vi- rile strength. "To that effort discovery, science, art and en- lightenment owe their glowing beauties. "In lands beneath the Cross progress is the law. In lands beneath the Crescent it is de- crepit misrule and miasmatic stagnation. "Vast, grand is Christianity's achievement. But have I not performed my equal share? "Fjords which once heard but the cry of war forays now hear the thud of the machine driven boat. Rivers, plains, mountains, dales, which once were stained with human blood, now echo but the sounds of peace. Where Tartars raced to slaughter, and Cossack sped with fire 300 LOOKING AHEAD. and sword ; where Rnss grasped crime as his pole wherewith to climb to high ambition, and wheie Finn fought to live; where Greek was sunk in pagan slime and Syrian was dazed w T ith Magian thought-drug, there have I, the Greek Church, conquered, and in conquering, have done that which my brothers have done. Thus my claim stands as strong as theirs, if victories of civilization constitute the claim. And if members count, my claim ranks high. "If to Catholicism, to the throne in Vatican, you adjudge the sacred hills, who shall enter the Heaven which that St. Peter shall guard? If to Protestantism you will assign the holy land, to which sect will you give it, and why is one sect better than any other? The weakness of Protestantism is its secta- rian differences. "If the Catholic or Protestant receive the land we love, will they not shut each other out? Will not both shut out me? How can a Catho- lic in land beneath his jurisdiction tolerate a worship which condemns his? How can a Prot- estant power tolerate in this day a system LOOKING AHEAD. 301 which in former days occasioned the breach? Far different is it with me, with holy Russia, the champion of the Greek Church. She will tolerate all, provided they observe rules laid down for peace. "When did Russia ever break her word? There, installed with the world's consent, we will protect all in the Holy Land we rule. "When did Russia abuse confidence reposed in her? "When the world does Russia justice and history paints her truthfully, her figure shall be drawn with eyes upturned to heaven, with her face marked with tears shed at the ingratitude of those who have rejected her proffered friendship, and shed because having had, at times, to use force to persuade peoples to do what she, in superior wisdom, knew was to their benefit. Ay, with her hands stretched out over the world she wants to render happy, shall holy Russia be recognized. "By the work which the Greek Church — headed by Russia, hath done — by its countless followers, by its promised toleration, our claim 302 LOOKING AHEAD. of Palestine ranks not only equal to that of any other faith, but it ranks superior. ' ' For j r ears, for centuries I have kept my eyes on this Holy Land. ' ' I plead also as representing the Church of the Eastern Empire, formed when that of high and mighty Rome was rived. For years, for centu- ries I have made the land of the sacred dust the dream of my existence, the one thought of my life, the goal of my ambition. For the holy hills I have fought, for the sacred valleys I have spared nor treasure, nor thought, nor life- blood, nor care. Thus, then, viewed from the standpoint of work accomplished for the Cross, Palestine belongs to me. "Viewed from the standpoint of geographi- cal position, Palestine between Greece and Sy- ria, belongs to me. So speaks justice. "Viewed from the standpoint of earnestness of desire, disinterestedness of aim, steadfastness of purpose, honesty of heart, and purity of ef- fort, Palestine belongs to me. So speaks Lov- ing-kindness. "Viewed from the standpoint of history, the LOOKING AHEAD. 303 land was his who sat on Byzantine throne, and that was where the Greek Church swayed — ■ thus again Palestine belongs to me. "Restore me then the land the Greek Empire once ruled, the Protestant never, the Catholic but for the brief days when the throne was gained by crusading swords which so soon by Moslem arms were blunted, bent and broken. So speaks Humility. "Therefore, in the name of Justice, Loving- kindness, Humility, give Palestine's Holy Places to the Greek Church." In silence he was heard, in silence he ended. But the eager look of the Russian plenipoten- tiaries and accompanying diplomatic agents, and the illy-suppressed excitement of the officers of the white czar showed that he spoke with many a one ready to indorse by the sword the argument of his tongue. It was noted. "Brothers," said the president of the coun- cil, rising, "we have heard the pleaders of the Cross. Right zealously have they spoken. Champion of the Crescent, come thou forth and declare thou in the ears of thy brothers why the 304 LOOKING AHEAD. Crescent should light the groves of Palestine." Bowing, the warrior moved from his seat in the Tribune, under which was his escort still on horseback. He stepped forward, and thus began the plea of Islam for Palestine's Holy Places. LOOKING AHEAD. 305 CHAPTER XXI. THE PLEA OF ISLAM. "Hear, O ye powers, and I speak. Listen, O ye great ones, and I answer. Wild are the winds which sweep across my deserts, but not wilder are they than the thoughts which sweep my heartstrings at this moment, waking there tumultuous sounds which my feeble voice can- not convey to your ears, as I would your ears should hear. "Oh, what shall I say, and where shall my words commence? "The cascade falls forever, and the rivers flow, pausing never. So my words could fall and my thoughts could flow, and never would my pleading end. "Shall I plead? "Wherefore plant the seed if the winds are 306 LOOKING AHEAD. unloosed and rushing to uproot the growth the moment it starts to view? Wherefore sharpen the arrow if the hammer is already raised which is to break the bow before the arrow is put to string? "Shall I speak? "Wherefore speak if my words weigh naught? And what can they weigh, not in your ears, O noble princes of the council, but in the ears of the Christian world, if the men whom I have heard voice Christian opinion? "They love not one another. "Will they love me? "They will not consent to each other's kissing the stones they each of them love with equal love. "Will they consent to my holding the cave where my father sleeps, the hills where my prophet trod? "The sentiment from which were born their words augur ill for the peace of the world. Swords saw I grasped, in yonder stand, while the last man spake. "Eyes gleam even now at me, as they LOOKING AHEAD. 307 gleamed at each of the grave and reverend pleaders. And in those eyes I read little will- ingness to yield to peaceful argument, if my pleadings should show that to the Moslem be- longs the land for which Christianity has for centuries fought, which the Cross fain would shadow — the land, the soil from which the faith you revere sprang, soil on which the Cross first was planted, soil dyed with Christian blood. Ah, no. "Reverend fathers of the nations sitting in the final council, hear me. "On your honor I trust implicitly. Right well know I that]a righteous verdict ye will an- nounce. If you say, to such and such a sect of Christianity the land is awarded, the Christians will not acquiesce. Already they have shown that they will fight one the other for possession of the land which all covet. See this wound," said he, pointing to a cut over his forehead, " 'twas received when I fought in the ranks of France, when Europe was ranged in the two hostile divisions of combined and allied camps. How came that fearful war to be waged? It 308 LOOKING AHEAD. was through dispute as to Palestine, though ye had in conference solemnly agreed to settle- ment. "The warriors of the Cross heeded not states- men's settlement. Will they heed the settle- ment of priests, for priests most of you are, who sit in the great council? Will they heed the settlement of lawyers, professors and financiers, for that are the rest of your number, O my fa- thers. Not one warrior is among you, not one of these statesmen of the nations. "You have agreed to hear me. Oh, the leaves of Vallambrosa, were they each a tongue, could not thank you sufficiently for your high souled justice. But will public opinion in the lands of the churches indorse your verdict, or indorse your permission for me to speak, if my words should sway your hearts to whisper 'give the land to Mohammed's children?' "Yet speak I, though I know that from no fault of yours, O my fathers, my words are as vain as are the efforts of the ocean to break the barriers of the Bab-ul-Mandeb. "Brothers," said he, turning to the former LOOKING AHEAD. 309 speaker 8) "ye spake as if your faith alone had wrought the victories of peace; as if ye alone had won the wreaths whose leaves are redolent of human happiness, scented with contentment, progress, prosperity. Have ye alone won those wreaths? Have only you turned the sounds of human error to songs of praise to the Most High? Have none but you called towns into being and waked the echoes of the hills with the happy hum of active life? "What folly, what wrong, what injustice I "Speak, O history, and unfold thy scroll! Show to these, my brothers, formed like me of the dust and like me destined therein to sleep, what light Islam hath given to the world ! Spirit of the past, create in the vision of their memory the scenes of noble life where Moslem ruled when Europe groaned and wildly tossed in the black night of the Dark Ages. Draw thou the veil which hides the distant days,show to these, my brothers, the brilliancies of life once displayed by the rills of Granada, in the vales of Andalusia, and where, like the laugh- ter and tears of childhood, the lights and shad- ows come and go on the heights of Morena. 310 LOOKING AHEAD. "Speak to them of Haroun's glory; be not si- lent of Saladeen's greatness. To the halls of learning where Moslem taught all that gives wings to the mind and culture to the soul, where man was taught to pierce the secrets of nature and wring from her mysteries long hid, but where, above all, man's thoughts were di- rected God ward that he might know his own nothingness and so learn humility, that he might strive after right-thinking and so arrive at right-doing — to those halls, I say, came the sons of Allemagne and Francia, the children of Italia and the scions of the mighty races from the isles that guard the Northern seas. But in those halls it was we who were the teachers. For you were groping in your Dark Ages. Gloom clothed your minds, except ye dreamed. And when you did dream in that long night, what dreamed ye that was a worthy birth of human thought? When ye heard the soft sound of the names of towns where flow Guadiana or Guadalquiver, then ye knew it meant the names of towns where the glories of universi- ties, the glories of libraries, the glories of LOOKING AHEAD. 311 crowded ports and thronged streets were to be found. But to whom belong those glories? To the Moslem ! "Ye, ye were sleeping in the night of the Dark Ages, or were but passing into the centuries when your slumbers seemed to be but little less deathly. "With us Life was beautiful, character strengthened, enterprise was encouraged, cul- ture developed, virtue expanded, learning fos- tered, yes, when the Crescent shone in Spain. "There treasured we the learning of the more distant past. Through us spread the philosophy and whatever was beautiful in Classic lore. "For we made all live again in the schools of the Moslem, when Greek thought, through us, was clothed in Moslem tongue. "Owes Christianity's progress, culture or in- tellect nothing to the Moresque brain? Owes the Eastern world naught to Al Raschid's be- nevolent rule? "We ask no thanks. "We ask but for justice; though as we ask we almost feel the words choked back with refu- 312 LOOKING AHEAD. sal. Ye say ye won souls and showed man how to weave a web of life which angels may love to look down upon and at the sight sing for joy. What Christianity has done for Eu- rope, for the child of the snows of Tromsoe, for the child where the Tuscan grape drinks in the sunshine, for the human race from Behring to Finisterre, holding up the Cross and so, as with magic, turning savages into men — that have I done for the myriads who drink in the des- ert blast and answer the Muezzin, from Tigris to Socotra, from Niger to Meinam. "If millions and myriads of the human race bow no more to idols and tremble no more at what their fathers quaked to think upon — it is to Islam that the praise is due. "Yet ask we of you no thanks for winning souls to the same Great Father who is wor- shipped by servants of Cross and Crescent. We do but ask justice — that when our name ceases to be writ on the scroll of Time, men may think of us not altogether unkindly, not al- together ungratefully. "You spoke of decrepit misrule and stagna- LOOKING AHEAD. 313 tion as marking life when lived beneath the teachings of Koran. Is the feverish energy which marks life so oft beneath the shadow of the Cross, is that progress? Do the striv- ings after wealth, the cravings of gold-thirst from which ye seem so many of you to suffer, bring happiness to you? "If we lack that feverish energy, if we betray not the madness which results from gold-thirst, if, instead of strife for advancement, we of the Orient prefer contentment, are we unhappy? "If we have not what you call the atmos- phere of civilization.neither have we its curses. With us, men yield not their souls to the de- mon of strong drink. With us, men quench not the hateful thirst for burning waters, while knowing as they do that they shorten their lives, as surely as touching fire burns the hand that touches. ' 'With us, men love their children too much to wish to leave them ere it is the willed day of death. "With us, men are upheld with too much manhood to wish to make their wives widows a day before their death hour comes. 314: LOOKING AHEAD. "No, nor with us have we the strife of labor- ers. Men work, eat their little, and give praise to Allah who gives all to all. "Nor with us, do you find the curses of specu- lation and wicked finance. "Nor with us do you find men who laugh at God, hut who, without God, cannot explain the pivot and lens of an insect's eye, the majestic ebb and flow of the tides which in air waft the clouds, in the ocean roll the wave, and in earth set in motion the quakings of terror. You find not with us men who cannot say of the hoar frost "Who formed thee?" nor to the flame, 'Who colored thee?" but who dare to dethrone God and to enthrone in His place piti- ful human reason, which a mere fever distorts or a passing passion warps. We are reverent and our reverence is real. "But are we less happy? No. "Reverence of God — that is a mark of the Oriental mind. "Can the Oriental mind then be said to be stagnant? From stagnation comes death, dis- ease. From reverence comes life that is earnest, LOOKING AHEAD. 315 life that is prayerful, and life for duty thrilled. Ye sons of Japhet, when the Muezzin calls to prayer, the whole Moslem world obeys, and the whisper of human hearts rises to mix with the voices of those who on high proclaim Allah's glory. When Ramadan reigns, a whole world of human beings obey ! Can you show the same in a Christian town, much less in the whole Christian world. Is there a day, an hour, a moment, when all Christians bend in rever- ence and with no low playhouse or drink-den of degradation to proffer counter attraction? With my own eyes I have seen the so-called Sabbath day in Catholic lands. With my own eyes I have read, and firmly do I believe, that thousands, ay, hundreds of thousands of men and women — Protestants also — think not of God, nor visit His fanes from end to end of the passing years. "Wherein then consists the superior holiness of the followers of the Cross, that to them should be awarded the Holy Places, sacred to the Holy God, who is One, whom I, with them worship; and the knowledge of whom I, like them, have planted in myriads of hearts? 316 LOOKING AHEAD. "When Hattin's soil drank in your and our blood, and El Khods, or, as ye call it, Jerusa- lem, fell to Saladeen, thus he spake to Richard, Coeur de Lion: 'Jerusalem is as holy to us as to you — nay, more so, for there our prophet made his ascent to Heaven.' "Oh, my veins are bursting, and my heart leaps within me in mighty effort to keep the time-beat with the wild music of thoughts yet wilder, which memory wakes from my heart- strings. "For I mind me of Islam's passing glories, of the days when, as from the crescent-moon streams forth soft light, so from the crescent of Islam streamed the light of intellect for men to read by ; and as the crescent of the moon, ris- ing to bright effulgence is seen to appear be- tween the clouds it dispels, so the crescent of Islam rose, and as it rose the clouds of doubt, superstition and idolatry were dispelled from the minds of men wherever the Crescent shone. "But now? "Though to the earth bow all of Islam when, at sun's parting kiss, the west horizon blushes ; LOOKING AHEAD. 317 though faith yet lives in the Moslem heart, Kis- met's iron grasp seems crushing out the M03- lem life, "The students of Sunna speak of the coming end of the faith for which I plead. Lo! the "well-known signs come — are being fulfilled ! "Long hath Japhet dwelt in the tents of Shem, and his wild liberty according ill with respect for the restrictions of religion, hath weaned of our young from their father's stern sense of duty. "Men of low degree rule. Slave- women reach power, and by witchery lure the faithful to ruin and to death. Tumults and seditions! Strife of Othman against his brothers in faith I In Irak and in Suria revolt! On earth sor- row ! Of these things we hear, and these things we are taught are signs of the end."* The speaker paused a moment, and then, as if utterly oblivious of those listening, seemed to become lost in the current of thought which * These and the following, are the signs accepted by the Mohammedan world as announcing the end of Islam. 318 LOOKING AHEAD. possessed him and which rushed from his lips in impassioned words. "Comes the end?" he continued. "Not yet are all the signs fulfilled. "For the sun risethnotin the West; Mecca's earth hath not birthed the brute, though Stam- boul's walls lie broken and breached by Cross and thunder. From Irak not yet rides Messiah ed Dajah, nor yet from Damascus' minaret preaches the Nazarene so revered by the hearts which are loyal to the Cross. No, nor yet hath he reddened Lydda's gate with the blood of ed Dajal, no, nor yet hath Gog-u-Magog drunk Gallilee dry. No, nor yet have their hosts met defeat from the man of Nazareth! "These are the signs of Yom ed Din. We know them, but they have not come all. "And until all is fulfilled, to us comes the duty to pray for Islam, to plead for Islam, to fight for Islam ! "To pray, to plead, to fight — and to these ends we dedicate our strength, 'tis all we have to live for, 'tis all we have to die for. "As I speak the countless bands of my broth- LOOKING AHEAD 319 ers gather. As the wind is hushed but to burst forth in greater strength and wilder fury, so the Moslem ardor, checked for a moment, now bursts forth, yet more mighty. As I speak". . . the report of a guu at this moment startled every one, though all were used to the sound. It was from Jerusalem, and a courier was seen riding at breakneck speed to the council. Unconsciously the whole assembly fell on their knees. The Moslems dismounted and all touching the earth with their foreheads, moved their lips in prayer, while the speaker, who stood erect, his face turned to heaven, was also praying. All guessed important news — the Christian audience prayed their surmise might be incor- rect, the Moslem prayed that the rider brought tidings of Moslem victory. When they rose, the president gravely signed to the speaker to continue. "When are fulfilled the signs of the end; when smoke fills the world and Arab turns the idols; when Phrat gives up its water-hid treas- ures and the son of Hanum destroys the holy 320 LOOKING AHEAD. Caaba; when stones give utterance, and in Yemen tongues of fire speak ; when bin Kah- tan wields his rod, and the ice-wind, sweeping from Damascus, blows the Koran to high heaven — then know we that the end is come, that it is the Yom ed Din ! "Then bow we to Kismet! "Then want we naught but the mercy God will show us. But until then, O sons of the Cross, we sons of the Crescent have as much right as you to Palestine's revered dust. Ay, and more right. "For thus speak I in the name of Islam : "Palestine is dear to you, so it is dear to us. Ye think ye have Divine mission, so think we that we have. Ye think ye have Divine bless- ing in conquering pagan worlds, so have we. Ye say the lamp of intellect burns and has burned brightest in your tents, we say the lamp hath burned in ours with equal glory, for it burned when most 'twas needed, and your lamp was lit at its flame — forget not that! But we think we have more proof of Divine blessing than you, since God hath given to the LOOKING AHEAD. 321 Crescent for these many centuries, the actual possession of the Holy Land, possession which we wrung from you, but which we never could have conquered and never could have held un- less it was the will of God that the Cross should be driven from the coasts and plains of Pales- tine, and that the Crescent should shine su- preme. "Would God have allowed us to hold the land so long, if He wished us not to hold it? "Would God have cast forth your mighty armies if He wished j 7 ou to hold the holy places? "No! Then rebel not against His will. Wish not for what He has given to us. Stretch not the impious hand to drive away the Crescent which God ordained should here shine resplen- dent. Will ye say ye have gained it now, and therefore it is God's will that the land pass from us to you? "Have ye gained it? "The waves rush o'er the sands and think they are victorious because they dash in flood impetuous, and for a moment ride over the strand they fight against. 322 LOOKING AHEAD. "But by the law of God the waves are made to fall back, and the sands retain ultimate vic- tory. "So now, by the law of God, your waves of warriors invading fall back, and the Crescent shines, glorious and potent. "In the name of Justice, Loving-kindness and Humility, Palestine's sacred dust has been asked for by the champions of the Cross. "So I demand it for the sons of Mohammed, in the sacred name of justice, loving-kindness and humility. "But above all, solemnly I adjure you, in the name of obedience to the manifest will of God — I say — give Palestine's holy hills and sacred glades to the Moslem, for the signet of the Al- mighty hath sealed it ours already!" The speaker bowed, added simply, "I have done," and slowly descended the steps of the Tribune to his horse, on which he mounted and remained for the rest of the sitting. It is difficult to describe the sensation which his words created. At first he spoke as if he hesitated, but soon all hesitation was lost and LOOKING AHEAD. 323 the burning words poured forth, while his eyes seemed lit with the fire of inspiration, and his figure vibrated with passionate fervor. All felt that he spoke from his heart. All acknowledged force in his words. A cheer broke out, grew, and woke the echoes of the valley, but like a statue the speaker sat. Yet had they been able to see his face closely, they would have seen a tear roll down his cheek as he recognized in the cheers the evidence that he had spoken not unavailingly altogether, and for that he thanked his God in his heart. By this time the courier was nearing the scene, and in order to give him time to ap- proach and to give a rest to the strained atten- tion of the audience, a recess for fifteen minutes was announced. But nobody moved from his place, so intense was the interest, so intense also was the expectation as to what the cannon signal meant, and what news the messenger brought. He arrived at last, and handed the message to the president. It was evidently serious news, and as the reader's face showed deeper anx- 324 LOOKING AHEAD. iety, so the hearts of the Moslems beat higher. He pencilled a few words and handed them to the messenger to take to the military stand. All he wrote was: "At the next sound of gun- shot, all the officers of the divisional and gen- eral staff will return to the city and report at the quarters of the commander-in-chief without loss of time. ' ' The paper was passed around the stand. The Moslems would have given much to know what had been written in either note, but they betrayed not the slightest sign of interest. Neither was it permitted that the diplomatic corps should receive the tidings. A few minutes and the president rose and said: "Brothers, we will resume the pleading. Let speak the last of those whom I see in the Tri- bune, the day yet holds and night falls not for still two hours and more. Rise then, O brother, whose words have not yet been heard, and let us hear the Free-Thinker at the Bar of the World. LOOKING AHEAD. 325 CHAPTER XXII. PLEA OF THE FREE-THINKER, In response, the fourth speaker advanced and commenced : "If not a human being existed, the sun would continue to shine, and tempest would now and then devastate the earth, and rain would fall in pleasant showers; violets would spread their velvet bosoms to the sun, the earthquake would devour, birds would sing, and daisies bloom and roses blush, and volcanoes fill the heavens with their lurid glare. The procession of the seasons would not be broken, and the stars would shine as serenely as though the world were filled with loving hearts and happy homes. But man saw cruelty and mercy in nature because he imagined that phenomena were produced to punish or to reward him. 326 LOOKING AHEAD. "It was supposed that God demanded wor- ship; that He loved to be flattered; that He de- lighted in sacrifices; that nothing made Him happier than to see ignorant faith upon its knees; and above all things He hated and de- spised doubters and heretics, and regarded in- vestigation as rebellion. "What has what you call religion accom- plished for the world? "You say in effect that it has done much. The church came and her light penetrated the moral darkness. Like a new sun she covered the globe with institutions of mercy. "Know ye not that the church is spattered with blood? Know ye not that the Cross is wet with tears? Was there not a time when the church was infinitely corrupt, when crime was crowned and virtue scourged, when the minds of men were saturated with superstition, when miracles, apparitions, angels and devils had possession of the world? "The nights were filled with incubi and suc- cubi, devils clad in wondrous forms, and imps in hideous shapes sought to fright, or tempt, or fight the soldiers of the Cross. LOOKING AHEAD. 327 "The maddened spirits of the air sent hail and storm. Sorcerers wrought sudden death and witches worked with spell and charm against the common weal. In every town the stake arose. Faith carried fagots to the feet of philosophy. Priests, not politicians, fed and fanned the eager flames. The dungeon was the foundation." All the champions in the Tribune now rose and attempted to interrupt the speaker. But the Protestant and Greek- Church digni- taries gave way to the Catholic churchman, whose age appeared to warrant the respect. The latter continued the interruption by de- manding in the name of his colleagues, in the Tribune, and in his own, permission to address the president. In courtesy both the president and the cham- pion of the Free-Thinkers bowed acquiescence. •'Mighty chief of mighty chiefs," said he, "we are here in the name of God. If the last speaker is not here also in the name of God, he may not speak. Not illiberal are we. Or we would not have allowed him to begin to 328 LOOKING AHEAD. plead, or Islam's orator to begin and end." Then he quoted words which thrilled all, for they were the well-remembered words of the unknown clergyman, and were engraved on the tablets of each one's memory — "Swiftly and surely the institutions of men become the means of curse and not blessing, unless the reverence of God or religion considered as personal conduct, not as a system of dogma or belief — is the foundation-stone, walls, pillars, rafters and roof of whatever the institution is. "We are here, worthy president, on these lines. Can the last speaker acknowledge them?" ''Let him reply," observed the president. 'I do not acknowledge," said the champion of the Free- Thinkers in response, "I do not ac- knowledge that human institutions fail without reverence for God. Who is He? What " ''Peace!" interrupted the president. "Thou hast no place here. When we will try to solve humanity's problems without a God, then thou mayst be heard." A burst of applause showed that these words indorsed the opinion of all. The pleader retired LOOKING AHEAD. 329 to his seat, and the president was about to rise, when, from among figures that had stood at the foot of the Tribune, one advanced. "Princes, mighty princes — may I be heard? I am a Jew. "My whole religion is the reverence of God! "May I not plead for the ancient land of the Hebrew? "Verily I am a man who am a Jew. "Justice, Loving-kindness, Humility — in these sacred names, let me speak." At once the champion of the Greek Church rose and said : "Sir President, we have heard the Moslem champion. Was not that enough? This Jew may not plead. Certes, let him apologize for daring to intrude ! That he, whom we spurn, since his very God hath spurned him, should voice a claim for Christian places! Shame upon him would I say, if it were possible for him to be conscious of shame's emotion! Again I say, rather lee him apologize!" But the president remarked: "We are here in the name of justice. The same reasons by 330 LOOKING AHEAD. which we allowed Islam to speak, obtain in favor of the Jew." He then took the vote as before. All as- sented, save the Greek Church champion, and accordingly all now listened to the plea of the Jew for Palestine's Holy Places. LOOKING AHEAD. 331 CHAPTER XXIII. THE PLEA OF THE JEW. Amid a silence that was oppressive, the aged rabbi commenced : "Nobles of earth, hear me. Hear the peti- tion of the outcast nation; give ear, I pray yon, to pleadings nourished in our hearts for two thousand years. "The land is mine — for the Jewish nation I speak. 'To thee I give Canaan's land' so spake God to Israel — God, who alone can give the land he wishes. "It was given to me for all eternity. "Will you, would you nullify the gift of the God you worship? "Ah, when I remember the centuried pil- grimages I have endured, one long via dolorosa of twenty centuries, and when I look upon the 332 LOOKING AHEAD. white flag of Justice, unfurled at last, is it any wonder that I breathe with hope, or that I am thrilled with the thought that justice is to be done to me — to me — O hear it heaven — justice to the Jew at last ! "O, tell me, O my brothers, for 'have we not all one Father?' Shall I quiver with fear because I plead at the bar of the world, know- ing that the world villifies me, scorns me, aye, ye all h ate me ! "Too well do I know that ye esteem me, as the prophet of my people foretold I would be, 'despised and rejected of men.' Verily I have been bruised and wounded through others iniq- uities, that by my wounds and bruises 'ye,' my brothers, sons all of God , who called me His firstborn, 'might be healed' of all the diseases which choke the heart's pure aspirations and strangle the soul with the clutch of moral death. "O hearers, O men, O brothers! Shall I plead as an equal, or shall I beg as a suppliant? Shall I hold my head high, as becomes me, standing as I do on the land my free fathers trod, or shall I, in deference to the wish of LOOKING AHEAD. 333 him who wears the Greek Cross, humbly 'apolo- gize for presuming to intrude?' " Then, half-turning his head that all might see that he was specially desirous of being heard by the Greek-Church champion, he con- tinued in a tone which, though subdued, seemed towing each word with cutting irony — "Apolo- gize? As I unfold history's scroll and read the story of the past, much do I find for which me- thinks I ought to apologize. I crouch, I grovel in the dust in mine abject humiliation before you. I shrink from your contact, nay, from even the glance of your eyes, lest I defile you by my touch, lest I offend and pollute you by even the sight of me, for truly, I am 'marred more than any.' Apologize! Aye — 1 apolo- gize — I apologize — for giving the world (lie Bible!" He paused to give full effect to his cutting satire as with louder voice and intense scorn he uttered these words. Then, as if he thought the pleader for the Greek-Church too contemptible for further no- tice, he faced the president, and in a clear voice resumed : 334 LOOKING AHEAD. "When history was young and nations were few, I first commenced my world-work. I pro- tested against bridling the noble and holy emo- tions of the soul. "Mankind sought to please the great Creator by yielding to Him that which to itself was dearest. I mean the life of the child, and espe- cially if an only child, born to gladden the pa- rents' hearts and light the night of those sor- rows, the gloom of those disappointed hopes, the dispelled dreams of life's ambitions, the saddening memories which so oft gather thick in the shadow of advancing years. Fathers gave their consent to slay their infants, for was it not grand to surrender such treasures to pro- pitiate their god? Mothers stifled their emo- tions, and with hearts breaking, with tears with difficulty restrained, they themselves placed their loved ones on the pyre and bravely heard the shrieks of their darlings, the crackle of the little limbs, the rejoicing roar of the cruel flames. "Over the Syrian world, and where colonies, the daughters of Phoenicia, settled, that faith LOOKING AHEAD. 335 was spreading which could successfully move the human heart to forget human emotions, which could cause parents to choke down love, women to forget their purity, all humanity to tear out chastity gentleness, mercy, pity, yea, the whole of the heart's soft feelings in the name of religion ! ''But that faith my prophets proclaimed a crime. And thus they continued the protest of good father Abraham, founder of my people's religion. "For it was he who began our religion of protest against all error, protest against all superstition, protest against all vice. Was it not he who dared priestly wrath and populace hate by building in the face of their horrible religion altars to his God — to the God who refused the sacrifice of his 'son, even an only son,' and who summoned him to per- form that awful sacrifice, in order the more publicly to publish His hatred of it?" Suddenly, half -turning to the Greek-Church archimandrite, he changed his tone, and in a low but distinct voice, slowly said: "For pro- 336 LOOKING AHEAD. testing against child-sacrifice and prostitution I must humbly apologize!" Quickly turning his face to the president, he resumed : "And this protest against soul-death I have ever since continued. "But for such teaching the world would have been with morality poisoned, with every noble emotion uprooted, with only the bestial in man- kind nourished. It was he who sat at Abra- ham's feet and who thus had imbibed his teach- ing, who protested against Sodomite wicked- ness with his'I pray yon, my brethren, do not so wickedly. 3 " Again half-turning to the archimandrite, and in a spirit that showed he resented not only the insult received, but the bitter treatment of his race by Russia, he changed his voice, and with all his former irony exclaimed : "For my blindness in not per- ceiving the beauty of Sodomic licentiousness, immorality, bestiality, prostitution, and if pos- sible worse, I do most humbly apologize." It seemed but a natural pause to those out of hearing as he said this, but it was heard by LOOKING AHEAD. 337 those he wished to hear it. Again raising his voice to proper and easy pitch, he continued : " "lis true some of my race at times bent the knee to Baal or spread their palms on the hills of Ashtaroth, in punishment for which my ex- iled nation wept by the rivers of Babylon. But in exile, aye, in all my people's wanderings from Nile to Euphrates, from the isles of Greece to the most distant post where Rome's cohorts stood on guard throughout the classic world, it was the silent force of the Jew that was work- ing to prepare humanity for better things. What would be humanity's condition to-day had the Jew merged in Babylon's peoples, or exchanged his Taleth — the symbol of God and human purity — for the Pallium of Greece, the toga of Rome? In his journeyings far and wide he clung fast to his scroll, the law, the very Bible which you, my brothers, revere. "Picture the world to-day without the Bible of the Jew? Instead of to Mythos' gods full of passion and practicing crime, the Jew pointed to, and to-day points to the God who is a holy God, compassionate, tempering justice with 338 LOOKING AHEAD. mercy, who desires Justice, Loving-kindness and Humility, who loves righteousness, virtue and purity. Instead of to heroes whose glory was blood-lust, the Jew points to an Abraham, to a Joseph, to the son of Amram, to the son of Hannah. Instead of epics that sing of con- quest, violence and immorality, the Jew gives the world the models of Pentateuchal laws, the inspiring and consoling words of the Hebrew Psalmist, the wisdom of Hebrew sages, the ideals of Hebrew prophets. Does the world, then, owe nothing to the Jew? "Trace the wanderings of the Jew, the race of the never -resting foot. "Trace the Hebrew to the east, trace him to the west. "He had found a Syria adoring Tseva's vast hosts as her sons had done for ages passed. He had seen men bowing before the sun, the ma- jestic splendor of whose royal robes of beauty, glowing with purple and scarlet and gold, challenged admiration. Ay, he marked them bowing before its power to bid earth produce the purple grape, the heavy ear of corn, the LOOKING AHEAD. 339 ripened produce, which it with witchery painted, and bear the burden of flocks and herds that gave food and raiment to all. The voice of the Hebrew prophets proclaimed against that adoration of the sun, of Baal, of Ashtaroth, for it cloaked immorality. "Wandering farther east, he found Siva's worship on the hills, Vaishnava's worship on the plains. He saw that too oft the votaries esteemed vice naught if they could but paint face, breast or arm, chant hymns to Vishnu, or repeat his name, or die with Hari, Rama or Krishna on their lips. He went to the land of Ham. In the land of the Nile, where the false gods had been humbled ages before, and in the shriek of Egypt's agony, his own nation had been born, he found the masses dazzled with an Isis, an Osiris, a Thoth, a Horus. "He traversed the deserts. There found he men worshipping the Wadd and Sawa; there he saw men tremble before Yaghuth, Yauk or Nasr. "He passed to classic or western land. "He sat beneath Olympus, scaled great Ida, 340 LOOKING AHEAD. walked by Tiber's banks; threaded the groves of Egeria, inhaled the perfumes of Tusculum. He gazed upon temples whose worshippers loved to hear the lays of Homer and Hesiod in Hellas, the songs of Ennius and Virgil in Italia. But his purer law attracted the finer minds and comforted even the lowly. Against the Greek philosophy which lost itself in laby- rinth, or turned men into sensual brutes, his law protested. Was it any wonder that men and women of even royal degree embraced the Hebrew faith? Against a system which crushed hope, debased man into all that classic slavery meant, degraded womanhood, and fostered vice, the Hebrew's purer system protested! Have I the Jew then done naught for Right, for Light, for Good, for God? "You say Christianity's progress was mir- acle. Yes, but it was the Jew who prepared the pagan world for it — by the teachings and example of the purer lives of Jewish settlers. "If Christianity sprang from Judaism, if those great and pure ideals preached by Zoroaster or Confucius are borrowed from those of the Jew; LOOKING AHEAD. 341 if Jewish thought, carried from Babylon where Buddha's priests were known, helped to teach Gotama, the Buddha, how to sing of peace uni- versal, war's end, strife's cessation, crimes van- ishing, and such bright ideals which Hebrew prophets had long before voiced ; if it was Jew- ish teachings which chiefly helped to launch Mohammed on that career which has made the faith of the myriads of Islam to-day, you have but indications of what the Jew has done for humanity. "And in the rise of Islam's might, when in truth her universities and schools proved the salvation of human knowledge, O let truth be heard, how many of the professors were Jews ! How many philosophers, poets, scientists, phy- sicians, merchant-princes, careful agricultur- ists, were Hebrews? "True, the Mohammedan taught the Chris- tian in those universities, from Salerno to Gra- nada in the so-called Dark and Middle Ages. But who taught the Mohammedan? The Jew! The Jew ! True, the Mohammedan carried Greek philosophy and poetry to Christian 342 LOOKING AHEAD. minds. But who gave the Greek writings to the Mohammedan? The Jew! The Jew! "True, the Christian Church won the pagan world. But what were the first Apostles? Jews. What was the founder of the faith? A Jew. What was his teaching? That not one bit or tittle of the Jewish law should be changed. "True, if you say so, Catholic father, that the Catholic Church continues in Apostolic succession, then should not the Catholic Church be Jewish as were the apostles? Should it not respect Jewish law, which was respected and was proclaimed permanent in the sermon on the mount? And when those Christian apostles went forth were they ever charged to hate the Jew? If the Jews were enemies, was there no command : 'Love ye your enemies?' "Yet, where in all history have the Jews treated Christians as enemies with fire and sword, dungeon or exile? Answer, O Truth. Bear witness, O Christian Honor. c 'True, if you, Protestant reverend, say so, that modern history commences when your great reformers worked, spoke and wrote. LOOKING AHEAD. 343 "But who taught your reformers? "The Jew. "To what book did they turn in their return to first principles? "To the book of the Jew, the Bible! "You call yourselves by the holy name of Protestants because you 'protested against pa- pal errors.' But from whose book of protest against all error drew ye your protests? "From the book of the Jew, the Bible! "Proud is your name of Puritan. "But whose psalms sang the Puritans as they went forth to battle for their sacred cause? Whose book gave them courage? "The Psalms of the Bible. The prophets of holy writ. The book of the Jew ! "Never can the world requite the Jew for preserving intellectual light, for rescuing clas- sic learning, for sending teachers to save man, woman, slave, all society, so rotten, so unholy, for giving the world law, the Torah which Moses taught, which Jesus observed, and which Mohammedan wove in Koran's embroidery. And does Christianity claim the Holy Land 344 LOOKING AHEAD. on the plea of what she has worked for hu- manity? "True it is that through her, paganism's gods and goddesses, fauns and satyrs, giants and enchantresses have vanished. "Centaurs, cyclops, sirens, furies, fates, muses — all have gone. Charon and Circe are forgotten. "Scylla and Chary bdis, Styx and Purphle- gethon no more have terrors for the human soul. "True it is that through her Valhalla has faded in oblivion with Thcr and Wodin, Freya and Odin, who once were so mighty. "No more sit they in court under vast Ygdras- sil. No more do elfs, gnomes, pixies or fairies disport m the leas that edge the woods the were- wolves were said of old to haunt. "But who was it that put the spade in the hand of Christianity, wherewith to dig the grave of paganism and set the mighty temple- ruins of Greece and Rome, the cairns and crom- lechs of other lands, for Mythos' crumbling tombstones? LOOKING AHEAD. 345 "It was I, the Jew, who did it. "It was Judaism. Take away our Jewish Scriptures from Christianity, and Christianity would fade, would die. "Hebrew prophets first sang man's ideals of universal peace and brotherhood, Justice, Lov- ing-kindness and Humility. Hebrew psalmists first whispered courage, consolation, hope and faith. Hebrew law first inculcated charity, justice and holiness. For being the mother of Christianity, for giving her legislator, psalmist and prophet to teach and console and to inspire, I do most humbly apologize." As he ended this, he turned round full on the Greek-Church priest, and uttered the words in ringing tones. Then he rose to his full height. As if in- spired, he broke out into more exalted strain, too proud any more to notice the archiman- drite. As if oblivious of everybody and every- thing he continued : "Drop down, ye heavens, when my race, called by the great Creator 'His servant,' dies 346 LOOKING AHEAD. — when the name of the Hebrews is expunged from Time's record. For then shall be hu- manity's end, and then shall earth be waxed old as a garment, yea, it shall vanish in smoke, and sky-space shall melt in chaos ! " 'From the beginning I was called. My Bible to be all nations' blessing, and Palestine to be mine.' Thus are the words of God in his promise to Abraham. "Ye, my brothers, find it in the Bible which ye revere. "Has not my Bible been nations' blessing? "Is not Christianity my daughter? Is not her heart-blood my heart-blood? "True, O ye nations, that the Cross now stands as the emblem of religion where erst the savage roamed and slew. "But the wood of the Cross grew in Judea. "True it is that Islam claims triumph in many a land. But the war-cry which heralded that triumph is the war-cry of the Jew — it is 'The Lord is One!' "All of that Divine promise to Abraham, promise which I respect, ye also must respect, LOOKING AHEAD. 34? if ye respect the God who gave it. It is ful- filled, except the possession of the Promised. Land. For my race is spread west, east, north and south. Verily, the families of the earth through my Bible have been blessed. "Praise be to you if you have helped, as ye have, the spread of the blessing. But ye and your fathers have been but instruments used by what a champion of the Cross hath rightly called 'a Power invisible but also invincible.' "It remains for you to be now the instrument of the 'Power invisible but also invincible,' to fulfill that promise which declared that the Holy Land should belong to Abraham's seed 'forever.' Can ye, will ye, would ye limit where the Holy One says 'forever?' "Princes, nobles, great ones of earth, the orbs of day and night, those silent stars above us which soon will gleam, I call to witness to the eternity of my nation, and to the eternity of that promise. Give us the national home God gave our nation's founder. "It is the shuttle of Time which weaves des- tinies of nations after the pattern designed by 348 LOOKING AHEAD. Him, whose servant is Time and who is Lord of eternity. "Ye but do His will in giving to the Hebrew the land He gave us for ever — ye do but help to weave the pattern of His design. "Pardon if my words grow many. I voice the pleadings of Hebrew hearts, pent-up plead- ings that have thrilled us for near two thou- sand years — two thousand years during which we have suffered. Ah, that suffering! "If this be the bar of justice, ye will in jus- tice, called forth by the sufferings to which your centuried injustice consigned us, make now reparation by restoring our land. Proudly I say, the flowers of virtue which ye have planted in the word are redolent with zephyrs of Judea; they gained their beauty and drank in their fragrance from the dews of Zion. Take from your work that which ye have accomplished through teachings and inspirations from He- brew sources, and what is left with which ye could have conquered pagan worlds? Do us this justice to acknowledge your debt, surely you have no wrong pride on the day sacred to Humility. LOOKING AHEAD. 349 "Proudly I point to the world-work of the Jew for humanity's happiness. Proudly I point to God's gracious promise of Palestine to be ours forever. Proudly I say that if a new era dawns for humanity, and in the tears of human agony the rainbow of hope is to be born, glowing with all the colors of human happiness, it will be, it must be, through the spiritual light from Him enthroned on high, from Him who said: 'Let there be light,' and whose spiritual light first was made known to the world by the Jew. "Enough. And yet how can I ever say what moves me still? Let me thank you for your patience, and ask for but a moment more." Changing his tone he continued : "There is a 'power invisible but invincible,' yes, and He who holdeth it speaketh thus : "'My power, invisible but invincible trans- mits the light of the stars to the earth, but ye mortals cannot understand how to earth they carry the light of heaven. It bringeth forth their hosts by number, not one faileth, but ye know not how I summon them, It giveth them 350 LOOKING AHEAD. their courses wherein they swing, but ye wist not the law, My scepter, which restrains and yet impels them. " 'My power invisible but invincible buildeth from the grains of sand the cliff, the rock, the continent. Ye cannot guess at the forces which hold the grains together and build the struc- ture. It maketh these into marble, those into stone — ye cannot tell how. It giveth them power to resist the storm and to say to the waves,"thus far and no further shall ye come." "Ye wonder thereat, but ye cannot explain. " 'My power invisible but invincible biddeth the dust use its alchemy and produce the growths which beautify and render fragrant, which nourish and which heal. Ye see the daily miracles of color and form and odor. The least of these miracles ye can never com- prehend. "'Lo, these are but the whisperings of My ways — but how little a fragment thereof is per- ceived by you — then the thunder of My power — invisible and invincible — who can under- stand?' " LOOKING AHEAD. 351 "0 brothers, He who wields power, invisible but invincible, hath chosen His son, His first- born, Israel, to save the world. Like the stars to carry heavenly light to earth, to light the way for man, to perform a God-ordained duty, to obey His law — thus are we Hebrews 'like the stars of heaven." "He hath chosen us, He, the Mighty One, to build up human institutions on the one sure foundation of reverence for God and respect for the reign of law, to origin a Christianity beau- tiful as marble, an Islam strong as stone to re- sist the storms of human passion and to hurl back the waves of human error. Thus are we 'like the sands of the sea.' "Ay, He, the Holy One, hath chosen us to produce for man the spiritual growths which beautify human life, which render fragrant hu- man character, which nourish human thoughts and which heal human errors. Thus are we 'like the dust of the earth.' "The Jew is the humble instrument of that power, invisible but invincible, but ye do not understand him, ye do not know him, ye 352 LOOKING AHEAD. cannot tell how he worketh God's will, nor can he himself. "I have done. I have but to ask you to think of one thing more — your treatment of my race as the lead-footed centuries sped by. Has it been in accord with the mildness of him whom ye call Saviour? He preached to you 'Peace and good will to all men. ' Where is the peace ye have given us? Where is the good will ye bear us? "Ye impute to us a crime we did not com- mit. In the face of his 'Father, forgive them,' ye forgive us not. "And he is the one ye worship, he is the one ye love, he is the one ye honor. "O worship! O love! O honor! What a mockery when ye treat the race ye say he pleaded for as ye do. "O brothers, conquer, in your humility, your centuried hate of the Jew. Do you owe us nothing for what we have done as the instru- ments, the very humble instruments of God, for your treatment of us? Can time ever efface the foul story of how you have wronged us? How can ye make amend? LOOKING AHEAD. 353 "Id His name who said: 'The earth is mine, I give it to whom I will,' in His name who gave Palestine to Abraham's seed, in the name of the 'invisible but invincible Arbitrator of Human Destiny,' repair your past cruelty, atone for the wrongs you have done us, recog- nize our work on earth, fulfill the holy word in holy promise and covenant given — give Pales- tine's Holy Places to the Hebrews. God gave the land to us, to whom else may ye give it?" 354 LOOKING AHEAD. CHAPTER XXIV. THE DECISION. Scarce had be ended when a thunder of ap- plause announced the impression he had made. It was checked for a few moments. Slowly the president rose, and conscious of the solem- nity of the moment, he paused in his emotion and said, in a voice that rang in the stillness of the evening swiftly coming: "If my tongue rightly interprets my brother counsellors' hearts, the Holy Places, the Holy Places are thine, O Hebrew." A mighty shout from the multitude an- nounced the agreement. Only the champion of the Greek Church and the Russian soldiery be- trayed by their faces that they were not in accord. The formal vote was then taken. LOOKING AHEAD. 355 The council was unanimous. The president so announced it. Its voice was "the cry of History shall be heeded, the voice of Justice shall be obeyed, the will of God, His promise, and the phrase 'Pal- estine's Holy Places for the Hebrews,' shall be actually fulfilled." The scenes in the cities, towns, villages throughout the world at the announcement beg- gared description. The decision of the council, like the first pub- lication of the "Solution of Evils," created dis- appointment. But the sense of justice pre- vailed, the sense of loyal fidelity to the coun- cil, the sense of relief from war, for now the Mohammedans would withdraw from Palestine — all these things rapidly changed the disap- pointment into contentment. It was helped by the publication next morn- ing of the following, signed by the noms de plume of Macaulay, Zola, Conybeare, Peters, men who a century or more before had demanded justice for the Jew. The article was copied in every city the next 356 LOOKING AHEAD. morning, and all the world cried "amen" to it. It was as follows: "A curse of shame, of falsity, of treachery- forever on the Christian name, if it fail to rec- ognize the council's decision. "Calm judgment, loyalty to justice,the voice of history alike proclaim 'tis time we did justice to the Jew. "What has been the cause of any injustice? "You say the cause is the fact that the Jews killed Christ. "They did not. The Romans did. O grand irony of history, that makes Christianity en- throne herself in glory in the very capital of the race whose sons killed Christ. "The Jews were in no way responsible for the killing of Jesus. "It was against Jewish law to hold a court at night. Jesus was tried at night. "It was against Jewish criminal law to con- demn except in full major court. Jesus was condemned in a minor court. "It was against Jewish law to execute a criminal until the sentence was revised the next morning in full court. There was no revision of Jesus' sentence on the morrow or on any other day. LOOKING AHEAD. 357 "It was against Jewish law to hold the court in any place except the Lischat Hagazith. It was held in Caiphas' house. "It was against Jewish law to sentence to death, except by one of four methods of capital punishment. Crucifixion was not one. "It was against Jewish law to condemn any one to death for calling himself or allowing himself to be called a son of God, for accord- ing to the Jewish law as written by Moses, all are sons of God. (Deut. ) "The whole passage is an interpolation, for it is historically impossible. "The Jews had no power to put to death in those days. Only the Romans had. "And if it be true that Jesus exclaimed: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,' how dare we refuse to forgive them, how dare we refuse his dying request? "And if it be true that the Jews were in any way responsible for Jesus' death, what had the Jews in Spain, in Italy, in France, in Africa, in Syria, in Babylon, in all Palestine outside of Jerusalem, to do with it? How can we tell whether the Jews of to-day are descended from the comparatively few who happened then to be in Jerusalem, and only some of whom were cognizant of his trial. 358 LOOKING AHEAD. '•The chances, the certainties are, they are not. For only thirty-seven years afterward the Romans captured Jerusalem, which the Jews had seized in mad rebellion, and practically ex- terminated them. If the Jerusalem Jews killed Christ in the year 33, those very few Jews were practically exterminated in the year 70. "As for the alleged cry of 'Crucify him, crucify him,' how is it possible that the mob that hailed him as King of the Jews should next day cry 'Crucify him,' when he had done nothing meanwhile to turn their hearts, and no demagogue had spoken a word against him ! "O, the folly, the wickedness, the cruelty of that lie that the Jews killed Jesus. Nicolas of Damascus, the historian living in that era, has not a word about it. Josephus, another his- torian, living in those days, has not a word about it — yes, there is a clumsy interpolation which no scholar accepts, but which hints at the policy of interpolation perpetrated by pious frauds. "The words that Josephus writes concerning John the Baptist apply to Jesus. "He says as follows: "Now when others came in crowds about him (John) for they were greatly moved (or pleased) by hearing his words. Herod who LOOKING AHEAD. 359 feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and in- clination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything they should advise), thought it best by putting him to death, to pre- vent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. "This is precisely the fact. The Romans knew that the Jews were writhing under cruel, shameful oppression, and were ready for revolt! Pontius Pilate was just the man to crush in the bud any sign of outbreak. History proves him to have been cruel and heartless. Did he not cut down the misguided men and women of Samaria? Was not John the Baptist put to death by Herod as we read 'to prevent any mischief he might cause,' etc., 'not to spare a man who might make him repent when it should be to late, ' etc.? Was not Theudas, an alleged Messiah, chased and put to death by Fadus?' Did not Felix capture Eleazar 'an arch-robber,' attack those who went before them into the wilderness as pretending that God would show them the signals of liberty; but Felix thought this procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt,' etc. 360 LOOKING AHEAD. "How then should the Pontius Pilate spare Jesus if Herod, Fadus or Felix spared not? "As a matter of history the Jews did break out in revolt only thirty-five years after, and their fight for liberty is one of the grandest in history's annals. They were crushed, but they fought grandly. "No, the treatment of the Jews by Chris- tians has been most unchristian. "Would that we could tear out of human history the story thereof. To our eternal shame it stands to condemn us in the eyes of all true men, as in the name of Him who said: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' "That they can take care of Palestine. Yes. "Catholics in charge of the Holy Places would wish for images therein. "Protestants would be offended. "Protestants would object to prayers to Vir- gin Mary, and much that is dear to Catholics. "The world has drunk in enough blood. Justice is not dead. We acquiesce in the giv- ing of Palestine's Holy Places to the Jew. We extend the right hand of fellowship to the Jew. We welcome him as our brother. We apologize for the past. We hope for a happy future." In the desire to do justice to the Jew it was LOOKING AHEAD. 361 suggested that instead of making Palestine a neutral state and giving only the custody of the Holy Places to the Jews, since the final council had decided in their favor, Palestine should be made a Jewish state, for after all, next to the Mohammedans, they were far more numerous in Palestine than Catholics, Protestant and Greek Church combined. And they were by education, morality, love of peace, capability of self-government, industry and business ability fully qualified to administer any state. "Had there not been Jewish premiers, Jew- ish state-ministers enough m Christian gov- ernments to prove the ability of the Jewish race?" it was pertinently asked. The idea gained ground, mass meetings held in great cities caused governments to act. A meeting of plenipotentiaries of the Powers at Paris adopted it. Within twenty-four hours the great Jewish societies, such as the Alliance, the Anglo-Jew- ish, the Zionists, the American Boards of For- eign Affairs, had arranged for their presidents, secretaries and delegates, to meet in London, to 362 LOOKING AHEAD. arrange to govern Palestine by a provisional cabinet, with the president of the Anglo- Jewish Society as temporary head. For many years Jewish colonies had been planted, and had been growing in Palestine. Railways crossed and recrossed the country. Three large ports had been constructed on the coast, like the railways,mainly by French capi- tal. But for the wars and the rule of the Turk, the railways of Egypt, India, Syria and Rus- sia would long ago have been linked with the Palestine railroads and Palestine ports. The Jews in many lands were poor, unfitted for the duties of government and far behind in the light of modern social advance. The Jews in other lands were rich and pow- erful and ready to exploit all products handled through Palestine, whether products of Pales- tine, or taken there for sale or transhipment. Arrangements were perfected by the conven- tion of heads of Jewish societies as soon as it met, by which Palestine was to be governed by a cabinet appointed by them. Pending its or- ganization, a message was flashed all over the LOOKING AHEAD. 363 world to the effect that immigration into Pal- estine was to be regulated, to prevent any movement there from emotional or speculative reasons, and that until the regulations were per- fected and published, no people were to go there. Meanwhile, the chief rabbis were convened to regulate any religious affairs, and to promote by their influence the decisions of the cabinet. They were to meet in Amsterdam until prepara- tions could be completed in the Holy City for their proper reception. The cabinet was at once named and was de- spatched to Jerusalem. At its first meeting in that sacred city a col- lective note signed by all the great powers was presented, declaring that they guaranteed the neutrality and existence of Palestine, and offei*- ing all help in transportation or preservation of order. It created immense enthusiasm. Hardly was this read when a greater cause for excitement became known. A declaration was made that in order to gain the adhesion of the great majority of Jews, 364 LOOKING AHEAD. known as the orthodox Jews, Messiah must appear before a Jewish state could be es-« tablished. It was announced that only two families of the house of David were known : one the Abar- banel and one the Frankel. The president of the cabinet, formerly known as the president of the Anglo-Jewish Associa- tion, was observed to grow pale. He asked to be excused, as he felt faint. He was led out. He begged to be left alone, and requested that the cabinet should continue its work without him. In deference to his wishes the vice-president took the chair. "This scroll of genealogy has been sent to us," said one of the secretaries. "It is the ge- nealogies of both the families named. The di- rect descendant of both families is in yonder room!" The members of the cabinet rose to their feet, or grasped the table in their excitement. Faces paled, flushed, paled and grew aglow again. The situation was dramatic. It is impossible to describe the scene. LOOKING AHEAD. 365 A deathlike silence pervaded the room. No one dared to speak — as if the moment were too sacred to be broken by sound. It seemed to last some minutes. Suddenly some cried out in ringing tones : "The Lord reigneth!" "Blessed be His name forever," exclaimed the vice-president. Then they seemed to re- cover themselves. The president was of world-wide reputation for probity. His administrative ability and persuasiveness were recognized and had caused his nomination by acclamation for the presi- dency of the cabinet. Above all, he was known as most religious and observant, and cultured in the highest degree. But how to establish his descent? "Whence came the scroll?" was asked. "It is certified by the Rabbis of Pisa," re- plied the secretary. "They declare as follows: 'It was committed to our care before the expul- sion from Spain. Each chief-rabbi has in turn been sworn to secrecy as to its existence ; sworn to keep it buried in a vault, the pcsition of which was to be imparted by one chief -rabbi to 366 LOOKING AHEAD. the next ; he was sworn also to add the names of sons as they were born to these two families; he was sworn also to keep knowledge of them by trusty agents in Germany, especially in Eng- land, West Indies, North and Central America, whither the branches of the families had gone. The necessary funds have been provided by the establishment of a treasury, founded, curiously enough, in the very year of the first council of Elvira, as if the year of anti-Jewish legislation was destined to be the year for the commence- ment of a something to be connected with pro- Jewish legislation. "Up to that date private resources had suf- ficed to maintain the genealogy. But that year it was decided that inasmuch as no man could foresee the end of anti- Jewish legislation if once commenced, provision ought to be made for the safe keeping and maintenance of the pre- cious genealogy. "The treasury was established, first at El- vira. In the reign of King Sisebut it was moved to Pisa, where it has remained since. "Every fifty years confidential agents have LOOKING AHEAD. 367 been despatched to the chief Sephardic commu- nities in Spain, France and Italy, whose duty it was to present credentials to the leaders, rab- bis or Parnassim — swear them to s-ecrecy and obtain contributions. Never have they been refused. Never has the secrecy been violated. The duty has been faithfully performed through all these centuries. "We hereby certify that the genealogy we send you is a faithful copy of the genealogy in our possession. The original we are bound to keep until he who alone has the right to it de- mands it. "Sealed and signed" — here followed the sig- natures and seals. Continuing, the secretary said : "It appears that a little more than a hun- dred years ago a German and an English branch of these families met. A Frankel and an Abarbanel married. Thrice this was done, surely not by chance, though none but the Pisa Rabbis could guess the significance. "The great-grandson of the first Frankel and Abarbanel intermarriage is the man in the next room. 368 LOOKING AHEAD. "His grandparents and parents were cousins. "His own birthplace is here written. "The Pisa chief -rabbi has sent it. "The man in the next room does not know of the scroll." So saying, the secretary unlocked a cylinder. It parted, and each half swung back on hinges. The cylinder was of royal purple enamel, with gold and diamond ornamentation. The familiar shield of David was on the top in large rubies and flamed as if on fire. Inside the cylinder and displayed when it was opened was the scroll, fastened so as to be wound on two spindles, one spindle in each half cylinder. It was closely written, but in beautiful script. A committee was appointed to examine it. The first name was Zerubabel. A quick eye caught the name of Hillel much further down the column. Presently the names of Ibn Daud and Abra- vanel were noticed. There seemed no reason to doubt the guaran- tee sent by the rabbis of Pisa, a guarantee sealed and certified in regular form. LOOKING AHEAD. 369 The cylinder was closed and locked. The cabinet declared the president must be brought in. He was found on his knees, in intense emo- tion burying his face in the pillows of a sofa, at the side of which he was kneeling. "Does Saul hide among the household stuff?" said one of those who came to fpitch him. "Art not thou he to whom turn the eyes of all?" said another. He rose, and it was seen that his paleness had fled, "and he was of ruddy appearance." He was led into the council chamber. All rose. "My friends, what means this?" he asked. "Thou art to be the anointed of the Lord," was the solemn answer of the vice president. "Who am I and what am I? I am of the least in Israel," he slowly declared. "Nay, this scroll saith not," respectfully an- swered the vice-president. He naturally turned his eyes to the cylinder. He caught sight of the quaint lock, and pecu- liarly shaped keyhole. 370 LOOKING AHEAD. He put his hand in an inner pocket just over his heart, and produced a curiously wrought key. It fitted exactly. "This key was given to me by ray father on his death-bed, and so he received it from his father. He bade me keep it until God moved for Israel. And so was he bidden, he said, by his father. "God is moving for Israel. He is moving now all the nations to restore His people to their land, even as nursing fathers would care for their children, and He is moving the Gen- tiles to send His children back as an offering acceptable to Him." "But who am I and what am I?" he ex- claimed slowly, and almost as if in a dream. "Thou art to be the annointed of the Lord," was the solemn answer of the vice-president. He swooned away. That night the news was flashed all over the world. "The Lord bareth the arm of His holiness in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of LOOKING AHEAD. 371 earth see the salvation of our God." So sang the Hebrews in all countries. And all the watchmen of Israel, all the min- isters, all the true-hearted Hebrews, men and women, lifted up their voices together; they sang for joy, and one gazed into the very eyes of the other and said : "The Lord hath restored Zion." The meeting of the cabinet adjourned until the morrow. The next morning the cabinet telephoned to all the large cities that each community should elect a Jewish consul. Despite all attempts to regulate immigration, no sooner did the governments offer free trans- portation to all accredited by the Jewish con- suls in all cities or towns, than Zion's sons and daughters were brought from afar in such num- bers that the prophet's words were seen to be literally true, for it seemed as if her borders would not contain them. Happily the governments and the Jewish communities had taken care to provide against any failure of food in Palestine. 3T2 LOOKING AHEAD. Immense stores were forwarded. And strange to say, newcomers seemed to find work as soon as they landed. There were no crowds of hungry immigrants as some people prophesied there would be. The cabinet was fully prepared to cope with any number of arrivals. The newcomers were met and housed, and then divided into mechanics and agriculturists. Those who were neither, that is to say, those who were traders, had to make a choice and join either the me- chanics' division and learn a trade in the trade schools prepared for them in Hebron or Luz, Rammah, Anatoth or Debir, or else they were despatched to the depots for agriculturists at Aslaroth and Lebanon, Gi lead -town and Ba- shan, where they were drafted off to the various colonies. Only those of the "traders" who were found fit were retained for the civil service in its many branches. Before three months passed, the cabinet gave proof that it could cope with all emergencies. The first enthusiasm was guided safely by their prudent measures. LOOKING AHEAD. 373 The Hebrews in other lands had at the cabi- net's second sitting been notified that they were to remain in the country of their present resi- dence if they were in any way occupied there. They were ordered to consider themselves citizens of the country of their residence; to render temporal obedience to that country, and only spiritual obedience to Palestine. Tbey were further instructed to remember it was part of the Hebrew destiny to be scattered among all peoples; that only thus could the Hebrew nation by personal example, teach mankind high ideals of conduct. All the Hebrew communities obeyed. Of course some of the wealthy ones threw in their lot with the Palestinian Jews. Nat- urally all of the poor Hebrews wished to go, and as we have seen, very many did go despite the efforts of the Jewish consuls. And as fast as the commercial advantages of Palestine were revealed, Jewish capitalists invested in Pales- tine, and Jewish merchants in other lands opened branches in the land of mercantile prom- ise. 374 LOOKING AHEAD. The three months became six months, and quickly enough a year passed. Roads were made, villages were rebuilt, en- larged into towns, watercourses were constructed, fields were planted, and the growth of the towns into cities bade fair to rival the miracles of Chicago and San Francisco. Factories sprang into existence. Immense coal fields were found toward Euphrates, petro- leum to the south, metals in the Midian Hills. Railways, as if by magic, branched from Jeru- salem, Damascus and Lebanon, and met rail- way systems of other lands. The produce of Siberia, "the Chinas," as the German, English, French, Italian and Russian provinces of China were collectively called, In- dia and Further India, the Russian and Eng- lish "stans," as Afghanistan and Beloochistan were popularly named, flowed into Palestine on the east. Southward, Arabia, as of old, sent her spices, stones, gums, timber, and the Egyptian rail- way discharged all the wealth of Central Af- rica into Palestine, now recognized as the fu- ture emporium for the world. LOOKING AHEAD. 375 Northward came the commerce of West Eu- rope, Russia and Armenia. To the Western borders, the coast, went the maritime commerce of Europe and America. Each month the traf- fic increased. To the Red Sea ports, such as Elath and Eziongeber, went the traffic of Aus- tralia and New Zealand, and even of Western South America. From the walls of Jerusalem to Jaffa grew one immense city thirty miles long, uniting the two cities like Athens and the Piraeus of old were joined. The docks, floating and fixed, were as many miles up and down the coast. French engi- neering had dredged out a huge port; and dar- ing but efficient American engineering had built magnificent breakwaters to protect it. Tyre was as popular as of old. The wand of a magician touched it. The outer and inner ports were reconstructed. Even its mole was restored. Its docks and storehouses spread for miles. Sidon was revived, and her friendly rivalry with Tyre was keen. The country seemed 376 LOOKING AHEAD. ready for all, and able to accommodate all. For three years only able-bodied Hebrews were al- lowed to land. All others were shipped back. After that time, only those aged who had chil- dren or friends who would guarantee their sup- port were admitted The temporal government was most success- ful. Its attitude to Jewish commuities abroad we have already noticed. Its organization of Pal- estinian communities was effected by one order — "judges and notaries shall ye appoint for yourselves in all your gates." These attended to all local administrative duties. Spiritual government was arranged by the ministers in Sanhedric assembly, convened by the cabinet under wise and satisfactory regula- tions, first, as we have seen, in Amsterdam, then in Jerusalem. It was arranged as follows : The spiritual heads of the Hebrews in each community abroad were to take charge of the spiritualities of such community. These spir- itual heads were to be elected by men and wo- men above the age of twenty, under pioper LOOKING AHEAD. 377 regulation, one head for every thousand voters. These heads in each state or country had to meet annually and pass upon any innovation in ritual doctrine or custom. No congregation in their district could adopt any innovation with- out consent of the state convention. The find- ings of these conventions, passed by two-thirds of those present, and similarly confirmed in three months, made it legal. But any "find- ing" passed by less than two-thirds was to be submitted to the Central Consistory at Jerusa- lem. Any innovation not opposed to the Bible was to be permitted. All Talmudic decisions were to be revised by the Sanhedrin and to be indorsed or rejected. The activity of the Palestine cabinet exceeded all expectations. There was no hitch. It seemed as if the government had been estab- lished for years. The Great Powers helped in every way. Their officials were placed at the disposition of the cabinet. It was not long before the purple flag of Pal- estine was seen on every sea. 3T8 LOOKING AHEAD. Not only the commerce of Palestine, but the world's commerce seemed to increase remarka- bly. The Jewish communities in all parts of the world throve, and the events of the day quick- ened the religious fervor to such an extent that many reformed their lives and homes and lived the real Jewish life, observing Sabbath, reviv- ing the study of Hebrew and the use of He- brew in the liturgy, and no longer eager to live as Christians. Most Christians kept Saturday- Sabbath instead of Sunday-Sabbath, declaring the former to be logical and proper, for, said they, "Christ kept it." But why continue? And why pause to de- scribe Russia's mad attempt to invade Pales- tine, the awful war of Rosh, Mesech and Tu- val, as some called Russia, Moscovy and To- valsk-Siberia? It was not long before rumors of a new war between Russia and France were heard. Their alliance had long ago come to an end. Vast preparations were made when arbitra- tion was proposed in accordance with the Solu- tion of Evils. LOOKING AHEAD. 379 Common sense as well as humanity indorsed the proposition. For new war-machines were so terrible, that every preacher in both countries opposed appeal to arms. Thus, the electric gun would discharge a long shell containing one thousand pounds of a substance which exploded on contact, and which blew to pieces anything and everything within a radius of nine miles. War-halloons were now dirigible, and so were submarine vessels. These were armed with electric-guns, and all guns had patent "sights," that took the range automatically. Thus war was simply annihilation. The political entanglements or interests of the Great Powers prevented the choice of any of them as arbitrators acceptable to the two parties. But when William Ewart Gladstone, great- grandson of England's great statesman, sug- gested as arbitrating body the Palestinian cabi- net or Sanhedrin, both nations acceded— a significant acceptance indeed from two coun- tries who not so many years before had had no 380 LOOKING AHEAD kind thought for the Hebrew. When all the Powers sent in the necessary note, the cabinet convened the Sanhedrin to act as a Court of Arbitration, in conjunction with a commission composed of the three senior judges of the su- preme court of each nation. The whole court was altogether neutral. Its findings was acknowledged to be alto- gether just. It created a precedent. Henceforth Palestine should be the bar of ar- bitration for the world. A meeting of the cabinets of all the great powers was convened to legalize it. They did so, binding each of them to declare war against any of their number that should fail to obey the findings of that court. It was seen that this was less expensive than fighting. And it was more humane. From that moment standing armies, and con- scription became unnecessary. The United States militia system was adopted by which all brains and all hands could engage LOOKING AHEAD. 381 in labor, and be called to the colors only when liberty or morality was endangered. And humanity awoke, as if from a long dream of blood and tears. "The mission of Israel is peace," became the watchword. No need to describe how the Uni- versity of Zion became an influence for good, so that human happiness became measurably nearer, and humanity learned that restoration of Palestine to the Jews meant really the resto- ration of all men to the love of the common Father of all. No need to speak of the world's progress since then. No need to speak of what we all taste to-daj" — universal peace, universal brotherhood, uni- versal happiness. THE END.