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BETTER  DAYS: 


OR, 


A  Millionaire  of  To-morrow 


BY 

THOMAS  FITCH  and  ANNA  M.  FITCH. 


•'Philosophy  consists  not 
In  airy  schemes,  or  idle  speculations; 
The  rule  and  conduct  of  all  social  life 
I  .>  her  great  province.     Not  in  lonely  cells 
Dbscure  she  lurks,  but  holds  her  heavenly  light 
To  Senates  and  to  Kings,  to  guide  their  counsels, 
And  teach  them  to  reform  and  bless  mankind." 


San  Francisco,  Cal.  : 

BETTER  DAYS  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1891. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1891, 

By  THOMAS  FITCH, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress   at  Washington,  I>.  C 


ALL    UKiH  I  s    RESERVED. 


',  PWLSS  P'J\}UStt\UC;>  C  MPMN 


/^v, 


TO   THE 

Eight  Thousand  Millionaires  of  America 
this  book  is  dedicated. 

IF,    THROUGH   A   PERUSAL    OF    ITS    CONTENTS,    ONE   AMONG 
THEM   ALL   SHALL   BE   LED   TO   SO    DISPOSE   OF  A   POR- 
TION  OF   HIS   FORTUNE   AS   TO   HELP  THE   WAGE- 
WORKERS   OF  OUR  LAND   TO  HELP  THEM- 
SELVES,  THEN   THESE  PAGES  WILL 
NOT      HAVE      BEEN     WRIT- 
TEN    IN     VAIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

"The  earth  trembled  underneath  their  feet." 

"Chicago,"  said  Professor  John  Thornton,  "Chi- 
cago, my  dear  doctor,  is  the  typical  American  city. 
New  York  and  San  Francisco  may  be  classed  as  metro- 
politan. Philadelphia,  St.  Louis,  and  New  Orleans 
are  local  to  their  surroundings;  Boston  is — Boston,  but 
Chicago  is  suz  ge?ieris.  Notwithstanding  its  large 
permanent  foreign  population,  and  the  presence  of  the 
throngs  of  strangers  attracted  by  the  Columbian  Ex- 
position, Chicago  remains  intensely  and  distinctively 
an  American  city." 

"I  quite  believe  you,  professor,"  said  Dr.  Eustace. 
"Certainly  in  all  the  world  elsewhere  there  is  no  race 
track  for  locomotives,  no  place  where  iron  horses  are 
speeded,  and  purses  of  gold  and  diamond  badges 
awarded  to  the  winners." 

"  It  is  an  innovation  certainly,  doctor,  but  just  such 
an  one  as  might  have  been  expected  in  Chicago.  The 
people  of  this  city  have  not  yet  passed  the  noblesse 
oblige  period.  You  know  that  in  all  large  cities  there 
is  liable  to  come  a  time  when  the  citizens  divide  into 
separate  communities,  usually  with  separate  interests, 
and  without  any  general  public  spirit.  In  New  York, 
for  instance,  Madison  Square  takes  no  pride  in  the 
East  River  bridge;  Avenue  A  does  not  care  whether 

(5) 


6  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  Grant  monument  shall  ever  be  completed,  and  the 
Statue  of  Liberty  on  Bedloe's  Island  is  as  strange  to 
many  a  resident  of  Harlem  as  if  she  were  planted  on 
the  banks  of  the  Neva.  But  the  people  of  Chicago, 
though  locally  divided  into  Northsiders,  and  South- 
siders,  and  Westsiders,  are  joined  in  interest  for  Chi- 
cago against  the  world.  Any  project  that  promises 
glory  or  profit  for  the  Lake  City  will  cause  her  citizens 
to  open  their  pocket  books.  These  Illinois  Don 
Quixotes  never  tire  of  sounding  the  praises  of  their 
Dulcinea,  and  are  ever  ready  to  break  a  lance  in  her 
honor." 

"  Is  not  this  race,"  said  Dr.  Eustace,  "under  the 
auspices  of  the  National  Exposition?" 

"Not  at  all,"  replied  the  professor.  "As  I  am  in- 
formed, a  party  of  speculators  leased  a  thousand  acres 
of  land  here,  ten  miles  from  the  city  limits.  They 
have,  as  you  see,  inclosed  it  and  provided  it  with  the 
Usual  buildings,  including  seats  for  one  hundred  thou- 
sand spectators.  The  race  course  is  circular  in  form, 
four  miles  in  length,  and  seven  railroad  tracks  are 
laid  around  it.  The  officers  of  the  leading  railroad 
corporations  of  the  country  readily  consented  to  send 
locomotives  and  engineers  here  to  compete  for  the 
prizes  offered,  and — you  witness  the  result.  This  is 
the  third  day  of  the  races,  and  still  the  interest  seems 
undiminished." 

It  was  late  in  the  month  of  July,  1892,  and  although 
the  World's  Exposition  was  not  yet  formally  opened, 
tens  of  thousands  of  strangers  thronged  the  hotels  of 
Chicago  and  added  to  the  gayety  of  her  streets.  The 
great  attraction  of  the  day  was  the  locomotive  railroad 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  7 

race,  and  about  twenty  acres  of  people,  representing 
all  nations,  filled  the  benches  and  spread  over  the 
outer  circle  of  the  great  four-mile  track. 

Seven  of  the  largest  locomotives  in  America,  se- 
lected or  constructed  for  this  race,  were  steaming  up 
and  down  the  tracks,  waiting  for  the  signal  to  range 
themselves  under  a  white  cable,  which  was  stretched 
diagonally  across  the  race  course  at  such  an  ang'e*as 
to  equalize  the  difference  of  length  of  inner  and  outer 
tracks.  Each  locomotive  was  draped  with  its  dis- 
tinguishing colors,  worn  also  by  its  attendant  engineer 
and  fireman.  The  favorite  engine  in  the  pool  rooms 
was  the  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  entered  by  the  New  York 
Central  Railroad  Company. 

The  furnishings  of  this  engine  were  of  polished 
silver,  with  draperies  of  blue  silk,  and  the  engineer 
and  fireman  wore  shirts  and  caps  of  the  same  color. 

The  engine  which  most  attracted  the  admiration  of 
the  throng  was  the  Collis  P.  Huntington,  entered  by 
the  Southern  Pacific  Company.  All  the  furnishings  as 
well  as  the  wheels  of  this  locomotive  were  gilded  and 
burnished  for  the  occasion.  The  attendants  wore 
shirts  and  caps  of  crimson,  and  the  drapery  consisted 
of  ropes  of  crimson  roses,  the  freshness  of  which, 
while  coiled  around  smoke  stack  and  boiler,  was  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  they  were  cut  from  asbes- 
tos cloth  made  and  tinted  for  the  purpose. 

The  directors  of  the  railroad  corporations  center- 
ing in  Chicago  had  readily  extended  aid  and  co- 
operation to  the  company  organized  in  that  city  for  the 
construction  and  conduct  of  a  locomotive  race  track, 
for  it  was  conceded  that  no  more  instructive  school 


8  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

for  engineers  and  firemen  could  have  been  devised, 
and  that  there  was  no  better  field  in  which  to  make 
experiments  in  machinery,  tests  of  fuel  consumption, 
and  economical  creation  and  application  of  dynamic 
force.  Almost  every  railroad  company  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  entered  one  or  more  locomotives 
for  the  races,  which  were  advertised  for  the  last  week 
of  July,  1892,  and,  notwithstanding  the  large  sums  of- 
fered for  premiums,  and  the  great  expense  of  building 
and  maintaining  the  race  course,  the  enterprise  proved 
exceedingly  profitable  to  its  projectors. 

Among  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  specta- 
tors of  the  contest  was  Professor  John  Thornton,  of 
Boston,  who,  ten  years  before,  had  been  the  hard- 
working principal  of  the  Denver  public  schools,  but 
who,  through  the  death  of  an  uncle,  inherited  a  fortune 
of  five  millions  of  dollars,  and  was  now  one  of  the  solid 
men  and  social  magnates  of  the  Hub. 

During  the  years  of  poverty  and  struggle  which 
antedated  Professor  Thornton's  introduction  to  the 
ranks  of  wealth,  he  had  grown  to  regard  very  rich 
men  with  aversion  and  contempt.  He  was  fond  of 
quoting  the  aphorism  that  the  Lord  expressed  his 
opinion  of  money  by  the  kind  of  men  he  bestowed 
it  upon,  and  he  was  stout  in  the  belief  that  any  man 
who,  in  this  world  of  human  misery,  could  make  and 
keep  five  millions  of  dollars,  was  too  selfish,  if  not  too 
dishonest,  for  an  associate.  He  did  not  carry  his 
opinions  so  far  as  to  refuse  the  estate  which  fell  to  him, 
but  he  was  exceedingly  generous  with  his  income,  and 
he  never  ceased  to  criticise  the  millionaires. 

Professor  Thornton  was  generally  regarded  by  his 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  9 

friends  as  a  Croesus  with  the  instincts  of  a  Bohemian, 
a  sort  of  gilded  sans-culotte.  with  very  radical  opinions 
and  a  very  conservative  bank  account. 

The  professor  was  accompanied  to  the  race  course 
by  his  family  physician  and  old  friend,  Dr.  Eustace. 
This  gentleman,  unlike  the  professor,  was  optimistic  in 
his  views  of  life.  Pessimism,  according  to  his  be- 
lief, might  be  sometimes  necessary  for  ballast,  but  as 
a  rule  he  preferred  to  throw  the  sand  and  rocks  over- 
board, and  load  up  with  the  silks  and  spices  of  Cathay. 

"What  a  country!"  ejaculated  the  doctor,  as,  amid 
the  cheers  of  the  multitude,  one  of  the  locomotives 
dashed  up  the  track  to  try  her  speed. 

"  It  is  a  great  country, "  said  Professor  Thornton, 
"but  will  its  peace  and  prosperity  endure?" 

"Why  not?"  sententiously  interposed  Doctor 
Eustace. 

"Are  we,"  replied  the  professor,  "so  much  wiser 
than  the  people  of  the  republics  which  once  encircled 
the  Mediterranean,  that  we  can  afford  to  disregard 
the  lesson  imparted  by  their  history?" 

"  Do  you  pretend  to  compare  the  ancient  civiliza- 
tions with  ours?"  queried  the  doctor. 

"It  may  not  be  gainsaid,"  rejoined  Thornton, 
"that  our  civilization  is  superior  to  that  of  the  an- 
cients in  control  and  utilization  of  the  forces  of  nature, 
and  it  is  also  true  that  in  the  relations  of  the  individual 
to  his  government  the  former  has  gained  in  freedom 
and  in  security  of  personal  rights.  But  otherwise  we 
seem  to  be  traveling  the  same  round  of  national  life 
from  infancy  to  decay,  which  marked  the  course  of 
Assyria,  of  Egypt,  of  Greece,  and  of  Rome." 


IO  BETTER    DAYS,   OR 

"But  conditions  were  different  with  them,"  remon- 
strated the  doctor.  "Rome,  even  when  a  republic, 
was  such  only  in  name.  There  was  never  any  basis 
of  universal  suffrage.  The  government  of  Rome  was 
always  a  military  despotism,  and  her  praetorian  guard 
sold  the  imperial  purple,  and  rich  men  bought  it,  and 
she  fell  because  of  her  corruption." 

'  'And  we  have  legislators  and  bosses  who  sell  offices, 
and  ambitious  incapables  who  buy  them,"  answered 
the  professor.  "And  we  are  having  now  the  same 
vast  accumulations  of  fortune  in  individual  hands  that 
have  ever  proven  the  forerunners  of  national  destruc- 
tion elsewhere.  Wealth,  corruption,  weakness,  de- 
cay, the  mob,  and  the  despot  have  been  the  six  stages 
of  national  life  with  other  republics,  and  I  doubt 
whether  by  harnessing  steam  and  electricity  to  our 
chariot  we  shall  do  more  than  expedite  the  journey." 

"Professor,  you  should  go  out  as  a  missionary  to 
millionaires,"  interposed  the  doctor,  "and  preach  to 
them  the  doctrines  of  nationalism. ' ' 

"Doctor,  you  are  satirical,"  replied  the  professor, 
' '  but  I  am  not  so  sure  that  events  are  not  fast  making 
missionaries  of  some  such  doctrine.  Certainly  the 
pressing  problem  of  the  hour  is  that  of  dealing  wisely 
and  justly  with  the  new  and  unparalleled  conditions 
which  vast  wealth  has  created  throughout  the  world, 
and  especially  in  these  United  States." 

"We  shall  prove  equal  to  the  problem,"  said  the 
doctor  cheerfully.  "A  people  who,  North  and  South, 
were  adequate  to  the  achievements  and  sacrifices  of 
our  Civn  War.  will  never  allow  their  government  to  be 
overturned  by  a  mob,  or  their  politics  to  be  always 


A  MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  II 

ruled  by  a  few  thousand  wealth  owners.  And  then 
the  personnels  of  the  pauper  and  the  capitalist  are  ever 
changing.  We  have  no  law  of  entail  by  which  the 
founder  of  a  fortune  can  perpetuate  it  in  his  descend- 
ants. The  vices  and  the  brainlessness  of  the  sons  of 
rich  men  will  come  to  our  aid,  and  in  the  third  or 
fourth  generation  the  boatman's  oar  and  the  peddler's 
pack  will  be  resumed.  Let  the  millionaires  add  to 
their  millions  without  molestation,  say  I.  They  can- 
not take  their  gold  away  with  them.  It  must  remain 
here,  where  it  will  again  be  distributed. 
'   "Doctor,"  said  the  professor  solemnly. 

"Now,  John,"  interrupted  the  doctor,  laying  his 
hand  familiarly  on  his  friend's  shoulder,  "possibly 
the  country  may  be  going  to  ruin,  but  we  shall  have 
time  to  see  the  race  out.  They  are  bringing  the  lo- 
comotives in  line  ready  to  start.  If  they  should  come 
out  close  together  at  the  end,  how  are  they  going  to 
tell  which  wins?" 

"The  judge  of  this  race,  doctor,"  explained  the 
professor,  "is  electrical  and  automatic  and  cannot 
make  a  mistake.  As  soon  as  the  engines  are  arranged 
in  line  for  starting,  a  wire  will  be  stretched  across  the 
track  behind  them.  This  wire  will  connect  with  a 
registering  apparatus,  dial,  and  clock  in  front  of  the 
grand  stand,  and  each  track  is  numbered.  At  the  sig- 
nal bell  for  starting,  the  clockwork  will  be  put  in  mo- 
tion. The  first  locomotive  that  crosses  this  wire  will, 
in  the  act  of  crossing,  telegraph  the  number  of  its 
track,  close  the  circuit,  and  stop  the  clock,  thus  reg- 
istering the  number  of  minutes,  seconds,  and  quarter 
seconds  consumed  in  the  run." 


12  BETTER    DAYS,   OR 

"How  clever!"  said  the  doctor.  "Well,  there 
sounds  the  signal  bell — they  are  off!" 

With  a  shrill  shriek  of  challenge  from  their  throats 
of  steel,  like  unleashed  hounds  the  giants  bounded 
away,  gaining  speed  as  they  ran.  In  thirty-eight 
seconds  they  rounded  the  curve  by  the  half-mile  post 
without  much  change  in  their  relative  positions  The 
next  mile  was  made  in  fifty-five  seconds,  with  the 
Chauncey  M.  Depew,  which  had  the  inside  track, 
fifty  yards  ahead  of  the  Collis  P.  Huntington,  and  the 
others  all  the  way  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  yards  be- 
hind. At  the  third  mile  post  the  Huntington  and  the 
Depew  rounded  the  curve  almost  side  by  side,  with 
trails  of  fire  streaming  from  their  smoke  stacks,  and 
mingling  in  a  luminous  cloud,  which  hovered  above 
their  distanced  competitors. 

Then,  with  thunderous  leaps  and  bounds,  they  came 
down  the  home  stretch,  the  one  a  streak  of  blue  and 
silver,  the  other  a  streak  of  gold  and  crimson,  and  the 
roar  of  the  multitude  fairly  drowned  the  shrieki-ng  of 
the  whistles  as  engineer  James  Flanagan,  of  the  South- 
ern Pacific  Company — his  crimson  cap  gone,  his  black 
hair  streaming  in  the  wind,  and  his  red  flannel  shirt 
open  at  the  breast  and  almost  blown  from  his  massive 
white  shoulders — rode  across  the  signal  wire  five  feet 
ahead  of  his  competitor,  winning  the  first  prize  of 
$10,000  for  his  company  and  the  diamond  badge  for 
himself,  making  the  run  of  four  miles  in  three  minutes 
nine  and  one-quarter  seconds,  or  at  a  rate  of  over 
eighty  miles  an  hour. 

"It  was  nothing,  sor,"  said  Flanagan  to  the  vice 
president  of   the   Southern    Pacific   Company,   who 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  1 3 

climbed  upon  the  cab  of  the  locomotive  to  shake 
hands  with  his  engineer  "  If  it  wasn't  for  the  time 
lost  in  getting  under  way  I'd  engage  tosind  the  Collis 
P.  around  the  four-mile  track  in  two  minutes  and  a 
half.  Sure,  the  machine  was  never  built  that  could 
catch  her  on  a  straight  run.  She's  a  dandy  and  a 
darlin'  and  a  glory  to  old  California,"  and  he  patted 
the  throttle  valve  affectionately. 

"Flanagan,"  said  Vice  President  Crocker,  "the 
owners  of  this  race  track  have  made  one  mistake 
They  give  the  diamond  badge,  worth  $1,000,  to  the 
engineer,  and  the  purse  of  $10,000  to  the  company. 
Suppose  we  trade  and  let  the  company  take  the 
badge  and  you  take  the  purse." 

"Oh,  more  power  to  you,  Misther  Crocker,"  said 
the  delighted  engineer.  "It's  thrade  I  will,  and  may 
you  live  until  I  offer  to  thrade  back,  and  whin  you 
die  may  you  go  straight  up,  wid  never  a  hot  box  to 
delay  you  on  your  run  to  glory.  I'll  give  twinty-five 
hundred  dollars  of  the  money  to  Dan  Nilson,  that 
shoveled  the  coals  unther  the  boiler,  like  the  good 
man  he  is,  and  wid  the  balance  I'll  buy  a  chicken 
ranch  in  Alameda  that  will  be  the  makin'  of  Missis 
Flanagan  and  the  kids." 

On  the  bench  behind  the  professor  and  the  doctor 
two  men  were  seated  engaged  in  earnest  conversation, 

' '  I  am  not  asserting, ' '  said  one,  ' '  that  the  ore  is  so 
very  rich.  It  will  average  fifteen  per  cent  in  copper 
carbonates,  and  that  is  good  enough  for  anybody. 
But  I  do  say  that  the  lode  is  an  immense  one." 

"  How  long  do  you  suppose  it  would  last,  Bob,  with 
a  dozen  forty-ton  furnaces  at  work  on  it?" 


14  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Last?  why,  if  you  had  Niagara  for  a  water-power, 
and  the  State  of  Colorado  for  a  dumping-ground,  and 
hades  for  a  smelting  furnace,  you  couldn't  work  that 
ledge  out  in  a  million  years." 

"Well,  Bob,"  laughed  the  other  man,  "I  will  go 
and  look  at  your  mine.     Can  you  start  to-night?  " 

"Your  time  is  mine,"  was  the  response. 

"Very  good;  shall  we  go  by  the  Iron  Mountain 
route,  or  by  Kansas  City?" 

' '  I  will  have  to  go  by  some  other  route  than  either, ' ' 
was  the  reply.  ' '  I  cannot  cross  the  State  of  Missouri, 
J  am  honorably  dead  there." 

"Honorably  dead?" 

"Yes,  sir.  It  was  this  way:  I  lived  at  Atchison  for 
a  while  when  I  was  a  young  fellow,  and  Abe  Simmons 
and  me  were  always  at  outs  about  something,  and  at 
last  we  quarreled  in  dead  earnest  about  a  girl,  and  he 
sent  me  a  challenge  to  fight  a  duel.  I  always  held 
that  dueling  was  a  fool  way  to  settle  things,  but  I 
wasn't  going  to  take  water  for  no  Missourian,  and  so 
I  placed  myself  in  the  hands  of  my  second,  as  they 
call  it  among  the  chivs, 

"Well,  Abe's  second  and  my  second  were  good 
friends  of  both  of  us,  and  they  were  in  for  a  sort  of  a 
lark,  and  they  fixed  it  up  to  paint  two  life-sized  pic- 
tures, one  of  Abe  and  one  of  me,  on  the  door  of  an 
old  stable,  and  we  was  each  to  fire  at  the  picture  of 
the  other  at  the  word.  They  had  three  doctors  to  ex- 
amine the  wounds  on  the  paintings,  and  if  they  decided 
that  the  wound  was  mortal,  then  the  fellow  whose  pic- 
ture was  killed  had  to  consider  himself  honorably  dead, 
and  was  to  leave  Missouri  and  never  return.     If  the 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF    TO-MORROW.     (^  15 

wound  was  not  mortal,  he  had  to  lay  up  and  keep  his 
bed  for  such  time  as  the  doctors  agreed  would  be 
necessary. 

"Well,  sir,  they  made  a  circus  of  us,  that's  a  fact. 
We  both  signed  a  paper  agreeing  on  honor  to  carry 
out  the  arrangement,  and  we  went  out  one  broiling 
afternoon  in  August  in  pursuit  of  each  other's  gore. 
The  boys  had  passed  the  word,  and  we  played  to  a 
bigger  audience  than  was  ever  at  a  Democratic  barbe- 
cue. I  was  the  best  shot,  but  I  was  getting  ashamed 
of  the  whole  business,  and  I  fired  in  a  hurry,  and  only 
plugged  Abe's  picture  through  its  gambrel  joint.  He 
took  a  dead  sight  and  shot  my  picture  plumb  through 
the  heart.  I  wanted  three  days  to  settle  my  business, 
but  the  doctors  decided  that  the  weather  was  so  hot  I 
wouldn't  keep  more  than  twelve  hours,  and  accord- 
ingly I  lit  out  for  Pike's  Peak — as  it  was  then  called — 
the  next  morning,  and  I  have  never  louched  the  soil 
of  Missouri  since." 

"How  about  Abe? " 

"The  doctors  agreed  that  he  had  to  go  on  crutches 
or  three  months,  and  the  boys  laughed  at  him — so  I 
heard — so  much  that  at  the  end  of  the  second  week  he 
limped  out  to  his  father's  ranch,  and  stayed  there  until 
his  time  was  up,  when  he  went  to  St.  Louis." 

"And  the  girl?" 

"Well,  of  course  I  was  a  corpse,  and  she  had  no 
use  for  me,  and  Abe  had,  before  the  duel,  invited  her 
to  a  dance,  and,  naturally,  being  a  cripple,  he  couldn't 
go,  and  she  allowed  that  she  would  neither  go  to  a 
dance  or  tie  herself  for  life  to  a  man  with  a  lame  leg, 
and  she  married  another  fellow  altogether.     But  you 


1 6  BETTER   DAYS. 

see  I  cannot  honorably  go  into  Missouri  unless  I  can 
travel  on  a  corpse  ticket. ' ' 

"Well,  Bob,  your  remains  shall  not  violate  your 
pledge.     We  will  keep  out  of  Missouri  this  trip." 

"All  right,  Mr.  Morning." 

The  professor  turned  at  the  sound  of  the  name,  and, 
looking  his  neighbor  in  the  face,  exclaimed: — 

"David  Morning,  have  you  altogether  forgotten  an 
old  friend?  True,  it  is  nearly  ten  years  since  I  saw 
you  last,  in  Denver,  but  surely  I  have  not  changed  so 
very  much  since  then?" 

"Forgotten  you,  Professor  Thornton?"  replied  the 
party  addressed,  as  he  shook  hands  warmly,  "for- 
gotten you?  no,  indeed.  I  do  not  need  to  ask  if  you 
are  well — and  your  wife  and  daughter?  Are  they  both 
with  you?" 

' '  Both  are  in  Boston,  and  well,  thank  you.  Do  you 
remain  long  in  Chicago?" 

"I  leave  to-night  for  the  West.  Pray  convey  to 
your  family  my  remembrances  and  regards." 

"I  will  not  fail  to  do  so." 

"The  crowd  seems  to  be  going,  professor;  I  suppose 
we  must  say  good-by." 

"Good-by,  then,  and  a  pleasant  journey  to  you." 


CHAPTER  II. 

"The  light  that  shone  when  hope  was  born." 

In  the  early  dawn  of  an  August  day  in  the  year  of 
grace  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-two,  David  Morn- 
ing stepped  through  the  French  window  of  his  bed- 
room out  upon  the  broad  and  sheltered  piazza  of  the 
railroad  station  hotel  at  Tucson,  Arizona. 

A  mass  of  straight  brown  hair  crowned  rather  than 
shaded  a  broad,  high  brow,  over  the  surface  of  which 
thought  and  time  had  indented  a  few  lines  which  gave 
strength  and  meaning  to  the  face.  Eyes  of  sea  gray 
hue,  as  candid  and  as  translucent  as  the  deeps  which 
they  resembled,  were  divided  by  a  nose  somewhat  too 
thick  at  the  base  for  perfect  features  but  running  to 
an  aquiline  point,  with  the  thin  and  flexible  nostrils 
of  the  racer.  A  short  upper  lip  was  covered  with  a 
luxuriant  chestnut  brown  mustache,  shading  a  chin 
which,  though  long  and  resolute  and  firmly  upheld 
against  the  upper  lip,  was  yet  divided  by  a  deep  dim  - 
pie  which  quivered  with  sensitiveness.  A  thick-set 
but  graceful  and  erect  figure,  clothed  in  a  suit  of  dark 
blue  flannel,  completed  the  tout  ensemble  of  the  sub- 
ject of  our  sketch,  who,  with  thirty-two  years  of  hu- 
man experience  behind  him,  had  stepped  five  hours 
before  from  the  West-bound  Pullman  sleeper. 

David  Morning — the  only  child  of  a  Connecticut 
2       -  (17) 


1 8  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

father  and  a  Knickerbocker  mother — was  born  and 
passed  the  days  of  his  boyhood  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  where  he  was  a  pupil  of  the  public  schools, 
and  where  he  was  making  preparation  for  entering 
upon  a  course  at  Yale,  when,  at  sixteen  years  of  age, 
the  sudden  death  of  his  father,  followed  within  a  fort- 
night by  that  of  his  mother,  compelled  him  to  surren- 
der his  studies  and  seek  a  means  of  livelihood. 

A  distant  relative  offered  him  a  place  as  clerk  in  a 
general  merchandise  store  in  Southern  Colorado, 
whither  the  lad  journeyed.  For  two  years  he  faith- 
fully served  his  employer.  Always  of  an  exploring 
and  adventurous  disposition,  he  had,  while  "geologiz- 
ing"— as  he  called  it — in  the  neighboring  hills,  in 
company  with  a  prospector  who  had  taken  a  fancy  to 
"  the  kid,"  discovered  a  quartz  lode,  which  his  com- 
panion located  on  joint  account,  David  being  under 
age.  This  location  was  soon  afterwards  sold  to  an 
Eastern  company  for  the  sum  of  $20,000,  of  which 
the  lad  received  one-half.  Declining  several  friendly 
offers  to  invest  the  money  in  promising  mines,  he 
wisely  determined  to  return  East  and  resume  the 
studies  which  had  been  interrupted  by  the  death  of 
his  parents;  but,  guided  by  his  Colorado  experience, 
and  having  a  strong  inclination  for  the  vocation  of  a 
mining  engineer,  he  determined  to  study  in  special 
lines  which  were  outside  of  the  usual  collegiate 
course.  He  had  not  deemed  it  necessary  to  leave  his 
own  country  to  obtain  the  necessary  instruction,  and, 
four  years  later,  he  found  himself  with  $5,000  left  of 
his  capital,  with  no  knowledge  of  the  Greek  alphabet 
and  but  small  acquaintance  with  Latin,  yet  able  to 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   T.O-MORROW.  1 9 

speak  and  write  fluently  French,  Spanish,  and  Ger- 
man, and  possessed  of  a  good  knowledge  of  geology, 
metallurgy,  chemistry,  and  both  civil  and  mechanical 
engineering,  and  with  a  cultivated  as  well  as  a  natural 
taste  for  politico-economic  science. 

At  twenty-two  years  of  age,  having  completed  his 
studies,  David  Morning  located  in  Denver,  adopted 
the  profession  of  a  civil  and  mining  engineer,  and 
promptly  proceeded  to  fall  in  love  with  the  only 
daughter  of  Professor  John  Thornton,  the  principal 
of  the  Denver  public  schools. 

Ellen  Thornton  at  seventeen  gave  abundant  prom- 
ise of  the  splendid  womanhood  that  was  to  follow. 
Above  the  middle  height,  slender  in  form,  and  grace- 
ful in  carriage,  with  a  broad,  low  brow  crowned  with 
silky,  lustrous,  dark  hair,  and  eyes  of  chestnut  brown, 
that,  in  moments  of  inspiration,  grew  radiant  as  stars, 
she  captivated  the  young  engineer  and  was  readily 
captivated  by  him  in  turn.  An  engagement  of  mar- 
riage followed,  to  be  fulfilled  as  soon  as  the  clientage 
of  Morning  should  be  sufficient  to  warrant  the  union. 

But  business  comes  slowly  to  young  men  of  two 
and  twenty,  and  Ellen's  mother  grew  impatient  of  the 
fetters  which  she  deemed  kept  her  charming  daughter 
from  more  advantageous  arrangements.  Ellen  was 
proud-spirited  and  ambitious,  and,  although  she  was 
earnest  and  conscientious,  she  was  not  so  stable  of 
purpose  as  to  be  unaffected  by  the  arguments  and  ap- 
peals of  her  mother.  At  times  she  was  sure  that  she 
loved  David  Morning,  and  at  other  times  she  was  not 
so  sure  that  her  love  was  of  that  enduring  and  devoted 
character  which  a  wife  should   feel  for  her  husband. 


20  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Her  reading  had  created  in  her  mind  a  conception  of 
an  ideal  passion  which  she  could  not  feel  had  as  yet 
come  into  her  life.  She  believed  that  her  affianced 
had  undeveloped  powers  that  would  some  day  bring 
him  fame  and  fortune,  and  again  she  was  not  so  sure 
that  he  possessed  the  tact  and  persistence  to  utilize 
his  powers  to  the  best  advantage.  This  doubt  would 
not  have  deterred  her  from  fulfilling  her  engagement 
of  marriage  if  she  had  been  entirely  certain  of  her  love 
for  him.  But  she  was  divided  by  doubts  as  to  whether 
the  affection  she  felt  was  really  the  ideal  and  exalted 
passion  of  her  dreams,  or  only  a  strong  desire  for  a 
companionship  which  she  found  to  be  exceedingly 
pleasant. 

She  was  not  quite  certain  in  all  things  of  her  affi- 
anced, not  quite  certain  of  herself,  not  quite  certain  of 
anything,  and  one  day,  yielding  to  an  irresistible 
impulse  of  doubt  and  hesitancy,  she  asked  to  be  re- 
leased from  her  engagement. 

Morning  was  amazed,  indignant,  and  almost  heart- 
broken at  her  request.  Had  he  been  of  riper  age  and 
experience  he  would  have  known  how  to  allow  for  the 
doubts  and  self-questionings  of  a  young  girl  in  her 
first  love  affair,  but  he  was  as  unsophisticated  as  she, 
and  more  secure  in  his  own  possession  of  himself. 
Frank  and  proud,  he  took  her  at  the  word,  which  she 
regretted  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  uttered.  He  neither 
sued  nor  remonstrated,  but  with  only  a  "God  bless 
you"  and  a  "good-by,"  and  without  even  a  request 
for  a  parting  kiss,  which,  if  given,  might  have  opened 
the  way  to  a  better  understanding,  he  hurriedly  left 
the  house. 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  21 

The  next  day  he  was  on  his  way  to  Leadville,  in 
fulfillment  of  a  professional  engagement,  and  when  he 
returned  two  weeks  later  he  found  that  his  former 
affianced  had  accompanied  her  parents  to  Boston, 
where  Professor  Thornton  had  been  suddenly  called 
by  the  death  of  a  relative,  to  whose  large  fortune  he 
succeeded. 

Our  hero  did  not  despair,  and,  having  no  natural  in- 
clination for  dissipation,  did  not  make  his  rejection  an 
excuse  and  an  opportunity  for  self-indulgence.  He 
was  of  an  intense  and  earnest  nature,  and  he  was  really 
in  love  with  the  girl  who  had  discarded  him,  but  life 
was  not  dead  of  duty  or  achievement  to  him  because 
of  her  loss,  which  he  looked  upon  as  final,  for  her 
newly-acquired  position  as  a  wealthy  heiress  made  it 
impossible  to  his  self-respect  to  seek  a  reconciliation. 
He  applied  himself  with  assiduity  and  industry  to  his 
profession,  and  soon  became  an  exceedingly  skillful  and 
reliable  mining  expert. 

Ability  to  comprehend  the  story  written  upon  the 
rocks  cannot  always  be  gained  by  study  or  experience. 
At  last  it  is  a  "faculty,"  rather  than  the  result  of  read- 
ing or  training.  Fire  and  flood,  oxygen  and  electric- 
ity, the  tempests  of  the  air  and  the  volcanic  throbbings 
of  the  earth,  have  been  busy  for  ages  with  the  quartz 
lode,  and  have  left  their  marks  upon  it.  It  is  possible 
sometimes  to  decipher  these  hieroglyphics  so  as  to 
answer  with  a  degree  of  accuracy  the  ever-recurring 
question,  "Will  it  pay  to  work?"  Yet  such  possibil- 
ity cannot  be  reduced  to  a  science.  Professors  of 
geology  and  metallurgy  are  often  wrong  in  their  con- 
clusions, and  even  old  prospectors  are  frequently  at 
fault. 


22  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Go  across  a  piece  of  marsh  land  on  a  spring  morn- 
ing- accompanied  by  a  bull-dog  and  a  Gordon  setter. 
The  former  will  flush  no  snipe  save  those  he  may 
fairly  run  over  as  he  trots  along.  But  the  fine  nose 
of  the  dog  with  the  silky  auburn  coat  will  catch  the 
scent  of  the  wary  bird,  and  follow  it  here  and  there 
around  tufts  of  marsh  grass  and  across  strips  of  meadow, 
until  the  sagacious  canine  shall  be  seen  outlined  against 
earth  and  sky.  It  is  difficult  to  be  certain  of  anything 
in  this  world  of  human  deceptions,  but  one  may  be 
absolutely  sure  under  such  circumstances  that  the  dog 
will  not  lie,  and  that  he  cannot  be  mistaken.  There 
is  a  snipe  within  a  few  yards  of  that  dog  in  the  direc- 
tion in  which  his  nose  is  pointed.  If  the  sportsman 
fails  to  secure  the  bird,  the  fault  will  be  with  his  aim  or 
his  fowling-piece — the  dog  has  done  his  part. 

Some  men — even  among  experienced  miners — have 
the  bull-dog's  obtjiseness,  and  some  have  an  eye  for 
quartz  equal  to  the  nose  of  a  pointer  for  snipe.  David 
Morning  was  of  this  latter  class,  and  to  the  thorough 
training  which  he  had  received  during  his  four  years' 
studies  he  speedily  added  that  practical  knowledge  of 
the  rocks  which,  guided  by  natural  aptitudes  and  in- 
tuitions, will  enable  the  wooer  of  the  hills  to  gain 
their  golden  favors.  His  honesty,  good  judgment, 
and  fidelity  caused  his  services  to  be  eagerly  sought 
by  the  mining  companies,  which — after  the  Leadville 
discoveries — abounded  in  Colorado,  and  at  the  date 
at  which  our  narrative  opens  he  had  acquired  a  fortune 
of  about  $300,000,  which  was  invested  mainly  in 
mortgages  upon  business  property  in  Denver.  But 
he  made  no  attempt   at  further    attendance   on  Cu- 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  23 

pid's  court,  and,  indeed,  gave  but  little  attention  to 
society. 

Yet,  while  the  physical  Ellen  Thornton  thus  passed 
out  of  the  young  man's  life,  there  came  into  his  soul 
instead  an  ideal,  whose  influence  was  ever  an  inspira- 
tion to  higher  thinking,  purer  life,  gentler  judgments, 
and  loftier  deeds.  Well  has  the  poet  said,  "'Tis 
better  to  have  loved  and  lost  than  never  to  have  loved 
at  all."  No  man  can  be  possessed  by  love  for  a  good 
woman  without  being  thereby  moved  upward  on  all 
the  lines  of  existence.  Damps  cannot  dim  the  dia- 
mond; its  facets  and  angles  of  fire  will  never  permit 
the  fog  to  abide  with  them.  From  the  hour  that  his 
heart  is  touched  with  the  electric  passion,  the  lover 
is  in  harmony  with  all  delights. 

The  waters  tinkle  and  the  lark  sings  for  him  with 
sweeter  notes,  while  the  sunlight  is  more  radiant,  and 
the  hills  are  robed  with  a  softer  purple.  The  woman 
who  has  evoked  the  one  passion  of  a  man's  life  may 
become  as  dead  to  him  as  the  occupant  of  an  Etruscan 
tomb,  but  the  love  itself  will  abide  with  him  to  enrich 
his  life,  and  journey  with  him  into  the  other  country. 

David  Morning  found  in  books  the  most  pleasant 
and  absorbing  companionship,  and  those  who  gained 
admittance  to  his  library  were  surprised  to  learn  that 
there  was  a  dreamy,  speculative,  poetical  side  to  the 
busy,  practical  mining  engineer.  All  the  great  authors 
on  mental,  moral,  and  political  economy  were  well- 
thumbed  comrades,  and  the  covers  of  the  leading 
English  and  German  poets  and  essayists  were  free 
from  dust.  Especially  was  he  a  close  and  interested 
student  of  social  science,  and  he  had  his  theories 
concerning  changes  of  various  natures  in  society  and 


2\  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

governments  which  might  ameliorate  the  condition 
and  elevate  the  lives  and  purposes  of  mankind. 

In  religion  Morning  was  neither  an  accepter  nor  an 
agnostic.  His  reading  taught  him  that  all  religions 
inculcate  the  lighteousness  of  truth,  honesty,  and  un- 
selfishness, and  that  any  form  of  faith  in  the  hereafter 
is  better  for  the  world  than  no  faith  at  all.  The  Per- 
sian who  bowed  devoutly  to  the  highest  material  sign 
of  Deity,  the  sun,  was  thereby  filled  with  a  spirit 
which  made  him  readier  to  relieve  the  misery  of  his 
brother.  The  Egyptian  who  brought  tribute  to  the 
priests  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  was  the  better  for  his  self- 
denial.  The  Greek  who  believed  in  Minerva  was  a 
closer  student.  Odin's  followers  scorned  a  lie.  Con- 
fucius taught  love  of  home  and  kindred.  Mahomet 
prescribed  temperance,  and  the  pure  and  gentle  faith 
of  Buddha  in  its  benefactions  to  the  human  race  has 
been  exceeded  only  by  the  benign  power  of  the  relig- 
ion of  Jesus. 

Skeptics  strengthen  their  scoffings  by  recounting 
the  wars  and  cruelties — in  bygone  centuries — of  zealots 
insane  with  fervor.  But  these  are  only  spots  upon  the 
sun.  The  rusty  thumbscrews  of  the  Inquisition,  and 
the  ashes  of  the  fires  amid  which  Servetus  perished — 
fires  unkindled  and  dead  for  three  hundred  years — 
may  be  forgotten  when  one  considers  the  hospitals, 
and  schools,  and  houses  of  shelter  which  now  link 
their  shadows  across  continents. 

A  few  days  before,  while  attending  the  locomotive 
races  in  Chicago,  Morning  had  met  an  old  mining 
friend,  at  whose  earnest  insistence  he  had  been  induced 
to  visit  and  examine,  with  a  view  of  purchasing,  a 
large  and   promising  ledge  of  copper  in   the   Santa 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  2$ 

Catalina  Mountains.     It  was  the  pursuit  of  this  pur- 
pose that  had  brought  him  to  Tucson. 

From  his  seat  on  the  hotel  piazza  David  Morning 
gazed  into  the  little  triangular  garden  beneath,  with 
its  splashing  fountain  guarded  by  fragrant  honey  lo- 
cust trees,  its  close-knit,  dark  green  lawn  of  Austra- 
lian grass,  and  its  collection  of  weird  and  ugly  cacti, 
transplanted  from  their  native  sand  for  the  edification 
of  passing  tourists. 

Then,  raising  his  eyes,  he  beheld  the  ancient  adobe 
pueblo,  with  a  few  belated  saloon  lights  blinking 
through  the  murk,  which  was  now  slowly  changing 
into  ashen  dawn.  In  the  east  a  pencil  line  of  light 
was  beginning  to  glow,  and  to  the  northward  the 
blackish  purple  of  the  Santa  Catalina  Range  upreared 
itself  against  the  night  sky. 

In  yonder  mountains,  as  tenantless,  as  forbidding, 
as  inaccessible,  and  almost  as  unexplored  as  when  they 
were  first  upheaved  from  the  tortured  breast  of  chaos, 
there  reposed  the  golden  power  which,  in  the  hands  of 
David  Morning,  was  to  change  the  economic  and 
social  relations  of  mankind,  and,  possibly,  the  govern- 
ments, the  boundaries,  and  the  history  of  nations. 

Nothing  of  these  ripening  purposes  of  Omniscience 
were  then  revealed  to  the  soul  of  our  hero;  none  of 
them  even  rested  in  his  dreams.  Yet  the  nations, 
weary  of  centuries  of  error,  centuries  of  wrong,  cen- 
turies of  toil  and  tears  and  martyrdom,  were  waiting, 
even  as  he  was  waiting  before  commencing  his  work, 
for  the  light  which  every  moment  grew  brighter  in  its 
scarlet  beauty  against  the  eastern  horizon — the  light 
which  was  to  guide  humanity  to  its  destiny  of  better 
days. 


CHAPTER  III. 

"  The  storm  is  abroad  in  the  mountains." 

The  Santa  Catalina  Mountains,  although  com- 
monly designated  as  a  part  of  the  Sierra  Madres,  are, 
in  truth,  a  small,  isolated  range,  towering  to  a  height 
of  seven  or  eight  thousand  feet  above  the  surround- 
ing plains.  They  are  steep,  rugged,  and  practically 
inaccessible,  except  at  the  eastern  end,  where  they  may- 
be entered  through  a  long,  narrow,  crooked  canyon, 
which  runs  from  the  plain  or  mesa  to  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  summit.  This  canyon  widens  at  in- 
tervals into  small  valleys,  few  of  which  exceed  a  dozen 
acres  in  extent,  and  through  it  the  Rillito,  a  moun- 
tain stream,  carrying,  ordinarily,  about  five  hundred 
miner's  inches  of  water,  tumbles  and  splashes.  Along 
and  above  the  bed  of  this  stream,  at  a  height  of  fifty 
feet  or  more,  in  order  to  avoid  the  freshets  created  by 
the  summer  rains,  runs  a  very  primitive  wagon  road, 
which  was  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  allowing 
supplies  to  be  transported  to  the  miners,  who,  during 
the  era  of  high  prices  for  copper,  were  engaged  in 
taking  ore  from  the  carbonate  lodes  which  exist  in 
abundance  in  a  range  of  hills  half  way  to  the  sum- 
mit and  ten  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  canyon. 

The  lower  hills  of  the  Santa  Catalinas  are  covered 
(26) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  2f 

with  a  scant  growth  of  mesquite  and  palo  verde,  along" 
the  Rillito  there  is  a  fringe  of  willows  and  cottonwoods, 
and  near  the  summit  is  a  large  body  of  pine  timber, 
but  its  practical  inaccessibility  and  distance  from  any 
available  market  have  protected  it  from  the  woodman's 
ax.  The  absence  of  any  extent  of  agricultural  or 
grazing  land  in  the  Santa  Catalinas  has  proven  a 
bar  to  their  occupation  by  settlers,  and  their  isolation, 
rugged  nature,  and  unpromising  geological  formation, 
have  deterred  prospectors  from  thoroughly  exploring 
them.  Such  searchers  for  treasure  as  visited  them 
always  returned  with  a  verdict  of  "no  good,"  until  a 
quasi  understanding  was  reached  by  the  miners  and 
prospectors  of  Arizona  that  it  was  useless  to  waste 
time  looking  for  gold  or  silver  in  their  fastnesses. 

Above  the  copper  belt  no  prospector  was  ever  able 
to  find  trace  or  color  of  any  metal,  and  the  low  price 
of  copper  and  the  high  charges  for  railroad  freight 
which  prevailed  in  1883  and  succeeding  years,  caused 
abandonment  of  the  rude  workings  for  that  metal,  and 
at  the  date  of  the  opening  of  our  narrative  it  might 
have  been  truly  said  that  the  entire  Santa  Catalina 
Range  was  without  an  occupant. 

At  the  western  and  southern  end  of  the  range  its 
summit  and  rim  consist  of  a  huge  basaltic  formation, 
towering  perpendicularly  one  thousand  feet,  upon  the 
apex  of  which  probably  no  human  footstep  was  ever 
placed,  for  its  character  excluded  all  probability  of 
quartz  being  found  there,  even  by  the  Arizona  pros- 
pector, who  will  climb  to  any  place  that  can  be  reached 
by  a  goat  or  an  eagle,  if  so  be  silver  and  not  scenery 
entice  him. 


28  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

In  the  spring  of  1892  Robert  Steel,  who,  in  years 
gone,  had  acted  as  superintendent  of  a  copper  com- 
pany operating  in  the  Santa  Catalinas,  and  was  famil- 
iar with  the  ground,  had  been  inspired  by  a  consider- 
able advance  in  the  price  of  copper  to  visit  the  scene 
of  his  former  labors  and  relocate  the  abandoned  claims. 
It  was  at  his  solicitation  and  representations  that 
David  Morning,  who  had  known  him  well  in  Colorado, 
was  induced  to  take  a  trip  to  Arizona  to  examine  the 
properties. 

Robert  Steel  was  designated  by  those  who  knew 
him  best  as  "  a  true  fissure  vein. ' '  With  hair  that  was 
unmistakably  red,  and  eyes  that  were  blue  as  the  sky, 
with  the  upper  part  of  his  face  covered  with  tan  and 
freckles,  and  the  lower  part  disguised  by  a  heavy 
brick-red  beard,  his  personal  appearance  was  not  en- 
tirely prepossessing  to  the  casual  observer.  But  under 
the  husk  of  roughness  was  a  heart  both  tender  and 
true,  a  loyalty  that  would  never  tire,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  his  business  as  a  miner,  and  a  tried  and 
dauntless  courage  that,  in  the  performance  of  duty, 
would,  to  quote  the  vernacular  of  the  Arizonian,  ''have 
fought  a  rattlesnake,  and  given  the  snake  the  first 
bite." 

He  carried  his  forty  years  with  the  vigor  of  a  boy, 
and  his  occasional  impecuniosity,  which  he  accounted 
for  incorrectly  by  saying  that  he  ' '  had  been  agin  faro," 
was  in  fact  the  result  of  continued  investments  in  giv- 
ing an  education  to  his  two  young  brothers,  and  fur- 
nishing a  comfortable  home  and  support  for  his  par- 
ents and  sisters  in  Wisconsin. 

There  are  many  Robert  Steels  to  be  found  among 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  29 

the  prospectors  of  the  far  West.  They  are  the  bright- 
est, bravest,  most  generous,  enterprising,  and  ener- 
getic men  on  earth.  They  are  the  Knights  Paladin, 
who  challenge  the  brute  forces  of  nature  to  combat, 
the  soldiers  who,  inspired  by  the  atira  sacra  fames, 
face  the  storm  and  the  savage,  the  desert  and  disease. 
They  crawl  like  huge  flies  upon  the  bald  skulls  of  lofty 
mountains;  they  plod  across  alkaline  deserts,  which 
pulse  with  deluding  mirages  under  the  throbbing  light; 
they  smite  with  pick  and  hammer  the  adamantine 
portals  of  the  earth's  treasure  chambers,  and  at  their 
"  open  sesame"  the  doors  roll  back  and  reveal  their 
stores  of  wealth. 

They  are  readier  with  rifle  or  revolver  than  with 
scriptural  quotation,  and  readier  yet  with  "coin  sack" 
at  the  call  of  distress,  and  they  are  not  always  unac- 
customed to  the  usages  of  polite  society,  though  they 
scorn  other  than  their  occasional  exercise.  Under 
the  gray  shirts  may  be  found  sometimes  graduates 
from  Yale,  and  sometimes  fugitives  from  Texas,  but 
always  hearts  that  pulse  to  the  appeals  of  friendship 
or  the  cries  of  distress,  even  ' '  as  deeps  answer  to  the 
moon." 

Among  these  pioneers  no  one  man  assumes  to  be 
better  than  another,  and  no  man  concedes  his  inferi- 
ority to  anybody.  In  the  last  forty  years  they  have 
carried  the  civilization,  the  progress,  and  the  power 
of  the  nineteenth  century  to  countries  which  were  be- 
foretime  unexplored.  In  their  efforts  some  have  found 
fortune  and  some  have  found  unmarked  graves  upon 
the  hillside.  Some  with  whitened  locks  but  spirits 
yet  aflame  continue  the  search  for  wealth,  and  some, 


30  BETTER    DAYS,    OR. 

wearied  of  the  search,  patiently  await  the  summons  to 
cross  the  ridge.  Wherever  they  roam,  and  whether 
they  spin  the  woof  of  rainbows  upon  this  or  upon  the 
other  side,  they  will  be  happy,  for  they  will  be  busy 
and  hopeful,  and  labor  and  hope  carry  their  heaven 
with  them  evermore. 

Two  days  after  the  arrival  of  David  Morning  at 
Tucson  he  left  for  the  Santa  Catalinas.  The  party 
consisted  of  Morning  and  Steel  and  two  miners  who 
were  employed  for  the  expedition.  A  wagon  drawn 
by  four  serviceable  mules  was  loaded  with  tools,  tents, 
camp  equipages,  saddles  and  bridles,  provisions,  and 
grain  for  the  animals  sufficient  for  a  week's  use.  Late 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  the  site  of  the 
copper  locations  was  reached,  and  a  camp  made  upon 
the  mesa  a  few  hundred  feet  from  and  above  the  bed 
of  the  stream. 

A  cursory  examination  of  the  copper  locations 
made  before  nightfall  satisfied  Morning  that  before 
he  could  form  any  judgment  upon  which  he  would  be 
willing  to  act  in  making  a  purchase,  it  would  be  nec- 
essary to  clean  out  one  of  the  old  shafts,  which  had, 
since  the  mines  were  abandoned,  been  partially  filled 
with  loose  rock  and  earth.  This  work  it  was  esti- 
mated could  be  performed  by  Robert  Steel  and  his 
two  miners  in  about  three  days,  and  while  it  was  be- 
ing done  Morning  proposed  to  explore,  or  at  least 
visit,  the  source  of  the  stream,  near  the  summit  of  the 
range  ten  miles  away.  Assuring  Steel  that  he  was 
an  old  mountaineer,  and  that  no  apprehensions  need 
be  felt  for  his  safety  if  he  did  not  return  until  the  end 
of  two  or  three  days,  Morning  saddled  one  animal, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  31 

and,  loading  another  with  blankets,  camp  equipage, 
a  pick,  a  fowling-piece,  and  three  days'  provisions,  he 
departed  next  morning,  after  an  early  breakfast,  for 
the  trip  up  the  canon. 

Above  the  old  copper  camp  the  wagon  road  came 
to  an  end,  and  only  a  rough  trail  running  along  and 
often  in  the  creek  took  its  place.  Following  the 
trail,  Morning  proceeded,  driving  his  pack  mule  ahead, 
until,  at  a  point  about  six  miles  from  where  he  had  left 
his  companions,  further  progress  with  animals  was 
found  to  be  impossible. 

One  hundred  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
which  here  emerged  with  a  rush  from  a  narrow  gorge, 
was  a  plateau  of  probably  ten  acres  in  extent,  on 
which  were  a  number  of  large  oak  trees,  and  the 
ground  of  which  was  at  this  season  covered  with  a 
heavy  growth  of  alfilaria,  or  native  clover.  Here 
Morning  unloaded  and  tethered  his  mules,  and  made 
for  himself  a  temporary  camp  under  a  huge  live  oak 
tree. 

After  eating  his  luncheon,  he  buckled  a  pistol  about 
his  waist,  that  he  might  not  be  altogether  unprepared 
for  a  possible  deer,  and,  using  a  pole-pick  for  a  walk- 
ing staff,  he  climbed  out  of  the  canon  and  commenced 
the  ascent  of  the  mountain  to  the  southward.  It  ap- 
peared to  be  about  a  thousand  feet  in  height,  and  upon 
its  summit  towered,  one  thousand  feet  higher,  the 
basaltic  wall  which  Morning  recognized  as  that  which 
was  visible  from  Tucson,  and  which  formed  the  south- 
ern and  western  rim  of  the  Santa  Catalina  Mountains. 
His  purpose  was  to  reach  at  least  the  base  of  this  wall, 
and  ascertain  if  there  were  any  means  of  ascending 


32  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

it  to  its  summit,  from  which  it  might  be  possible  to 
obtain  an  extended  view  of  the  country. 

After  half  an  hour's  hard  climbing,  our  adventurer 
gained  this  wall  and  found  along  its  base  a  natural 
road,  with  an  ascent  of  probably  three  hundred  feet 
to  the  mile.  Slowly  plodding  his  way  among  the 
loose  rock  and  debris,  which  had,  during  many  ages, 
scaled  and  fallen  from  the  basalt,  he  soon  reached  an 
opening  about  sixty  feet  in  width. 

Supposing  that  this  might  be  a  canon  or  gorge 
that  would  furnish  a  means  of  ascending  the  wall,  he 
turned  into  it.  In  a  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
it  came  to  an  abrupt  termination.  It  was  a  cul  de  sac, 
a  rift  in  the  wall  made  in  some  convulsion  of  nature. 
It  ascended  very  slightly,  being  almost  level,  and  at 
both  sides  and  at  the  end  the  basalt  towered  for  a 
thousand  feet  sheer  to  the  summit,  without  leaving 
a  break  upon  which  even  a  bird  could  set  its  foot. 
It  was  now  midday,  but  the  rays  of  the  sun  did  not 
penetrate  to  the  bottom  of  this  rift,  and  the  atmos- 
phere and  light  were  those  of  an  autumn  twilight. 

After  ascertaining  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  gorge, 
Morning  turned,  and,  plodding  through  the  sand 
and  loose  rock  to  its  entrance,  resumed  his  journey 
along  the  base  of  the  great  wall.  The  ascent  of  the 
little  ridge  or  natural  road  grew  steeper  and  steeper, 
until  at  length  the  top  was  reached,  and  our  explorer 
stood  upon  the  summit  of  the  great  basaltic  formation, 
a  mile  in  width  and  ten  miles  in  length,  which  forms 
the  southwestern  rim  or  table  of  the  Santa  Catalinas. 
From  near  the  outer  edge  spread  as  grand  a  prospect 
as  was  ever  vouschafed  to  the  eye  of  mortal.     Tucson, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  33 

seven  thousand  feet  below  and  fifteen  miles  away, 
seemed  almost  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  To  the 
southeast  stretched  a  narrow,  winding  ribbon  of  green, 
the  homes  of  the  Mexicans,  who,  with  their  ancestors, 
have  for  more  than  two  centuries  occupied  the  valley 
of  the  Santa  Cruz.  Farther  yet  to  the  southward  the 
lofty  Huachucas  towered.  Northward  a  higher  peak 
of  the  Catalinas  cut  off  the  view,  but  to  the  southwest 
broad  mesas  and  billowy  hills  stretched  for  more  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  until  at  the  horizon  the  eye 
rested  upon  the  blue  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  penciled 
against  an  ashen  strip  of  sky. 

As  Morning  gazed  in  awe  and  delight,  there  ap- 
peared in  the  sky,  scudding  from  the  south,  flecks  of 
cloud,  chasing  each  other  like  gulls  upon  an  ocean, 
and  remembering  that  this  was  the  rainy  season,  and 
feeling  rather  than  knowing  that  a  storm  was  about  to 
gather,  Morning  retraced  his  steps.  He  had  pro- 
ceeded on  his  return  to  a  point  about  five  hundred 
yards  above  the  mouth  of  the  rift  which  he  had  visited 
on  his  upward  journey,  when  the  rapidly-darkening 
clouds  and  big  plashes  of  rain  drops  warned  him  that 
one  of  the  showers  customary  in  that  section  in  August 
was  about  to  fall. 

Such  storms  are  usually  of  brief  duration,  but  are 
liable  to  be  exceedingly  violent,  the  water  often  de- 
scending literally  in  sheets.  It  would  have  been  im- 
possible for  Morning  to  reach  the  camp  where  he 
had  left  the  animals  in  time  to  avoid  the  storm,  and 
a  hollow  in  the  basalt  wall — a  hollow  which  almost 
amounted  to  a  cave — offering  just  here  a  complete 
shelter  from  the  rain,  which  was  approaching  from 
3 


34  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  south,  over  the  top  of  the  wall,  he  sought  the 
opening,  and  was  soon  seated  upon  a  convenient  rock, 
while  his  vision  swept  the  slope  to  the  canon  a  mile 
below,  and  thence  followed  the  meanderings  of  the 
Rillito  until  it  vanished  from  sight. 

And  the  clouds  grew  and  darkened.  Like  black 
battalions  of  Afrites  summoned  by  the  "thunder  drum 
of  heaven,"  they  trooped  from  distant  mountains  and 
nearer  plains  to  gather  upon  the  summit  of  the  Cata- 
linas.  The  south  wind — now  risen  to  a  gale — swooped 
up  the  fogs  from  the  distant  gulf,  and  hurried  them 
upon  its  mighty  pinions,  shrieking  with  delight  at  the 
burden  it  bore  up  to  the  summit  of  the  basalt,  above 
which  it  massed  them. 

Then  the  demons  of  the  upper  ether  reached  their 
electric-tipped  fingers  into  the  dense  black  watery 
masses,  and  whirled  them  into  a  denser  circle,  whirled 
them  into  an  hour  glass,  whose  tip  was  in  the  heavens 
and  whose  base  was  carried  by  the  giant  force  thus 
generated  slowly  along  and  just  above  the  top  of  the 
great  wall. 

Whirled  in  a  demon  waltz  to  the  music  of  the  shaking 
crags,  yet  touching  not  those  peaks,  for  to  touch  them 
would  have  been  destruction,  the  circling  ocean  in  the 
air  sailed,  roaring  and  shrieking,  to  the  eastward,  grow- 
ing denser  and  more  powerful,  and  black  with  the 
blackness  of  the  nethermost  pit,  as  it  journeyed  on. 
At  last  it  reached  the  blind  canon  so  lately  visited  by 
our  explorer.  The  air — imprisoned  between  the  earth 
and  the  clouds — rushed  with  a  tortured  yell  down  the 
rift  in  the  mountain.  The  wall  of  water  sank  as  its 
support   tumbled   from   beneath    it;  its  base  touched 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  35 

the  ragged  rocky  edges  of  the  cleft;  the  compactness 
of  the  fluid  mass  was  broken,  and  the  forces  fled  and 
left  to  its  fate  the  watery  monster  they  had  engendered. 

Then,  with  a  roar  louder  than  a  thousand  peals  of 
thunder,  with  throbs  and  gaspings  like  the  death 
rattle  of  a  giant,  the  waterspout  burst,  and  its  vast 
volume  descended  into  the  gorge,  down  which  it 
seethed  with  the  power  of  a  cataclysm. 

Out  of  the  mouth  of  the  cut  de  sac  a  torrent  issued, 
or  rather  a  wall  of  water  hundreds  of  feet  in  height. 
Down  the  mountain  side  it  sped,  tearing  a  channel 
deep  and  wide,  and  crumbling  into  a  thousand  cata- 
racts of  foam,  which  spread  and  submerged  the  slope. 
A  deep  depression  or  basin  on  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain just  southward  of  the  bed  of  the  Rillito  deflected 
the  torrent  for  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  it  rushed  into 
this  basin  and  filled  it,  and,  leaving  a  small  lake  as  a 
souvenir  of  its  visit,  went  roaring  down  the  canon, 
which  it  entered  again  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below 
the  spot  where  Morning  had  tethered  his  mules. 

Not  more  than  fifteen  minutes  had  elapsed  since  the 
bursting  of  the  waterspout  when  the  storm  was  over, 
the  sun  was  shining,  the  water  had  departed  down  the 
canon,  and  our  awe-stricken  witness  to  this  mighty 
sport  of  elemental  forces  started  to  retrace  his  steps. 
He  had  witnessed  the  deflection  of  the  water  wall,  and 
knew  that  his  animals  were  safe,  and  he  also  knew  that 
no  harm  would  come  to  his  companions  down  the 
canon,  for  their  camp  was  hundreds  of  feet  above  the 
bed  of  the  ravine. 

A  few  minutes'  walk  brought  Morning  to  the  mouth 
of  the  gorge  which  he  had  visited  an  hour  or  more 


36  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

before.  From  it  a  small  stream  of  water — the  remains 
of  the  waterspout — was  yet  running,  and,  being  curious 
to  observe  the  effects  produced  upon  the  spot  which 
first  received  the  fury  of  the  waters,  he  descended  into 
the  channel  which  had  been  torn  by  the  torrent,  and 
again  entered  the  rift. 

The  tremendous  force  of  the  vast  body  of  water 
precipitated  into  the  gorge  had  excavated  and  swept 
through  its  opening  the  fallen  and  decomposed  rock 
and  sand  and  bowlders  which  had  been  accumulating 
for  centuries.  The  channel  rent  by  the  waters  as  they 
emerged  was  quite  twenty  feet  in  depth  and  sixty  feet 
in  width,  and  Morning  found  that  the  floor  of  the  box 
canon  had  been  torn  away  to  a  similar  depth. 

The  waterspout  had  accomplished  in  one  minute  a 
work  that  would  have  required  the  industrious  labor 
of  one  thousand  men  for  a  month.  The  gorge  was 
swept  clean  to  the  bed  rock,  which  showed  blue  lime- 
stone, and  in  the  center  of  this  limestone  bed  there 
now  stood  erect,  to  a  height  of  twelve  feet,  a  ledge  of 
white  and  rose-colored  quartz  of  regular  and  unbroken 
formation,  forty  feet  in  width,  running  from  near  the 
entrance  of  the  rift  to  the  end  of  it,  where  it  disap- 
peared under  the  basalt  wall. 

The  experienced  eye  of  Morning  taught  him  at  a 
glance  that  this  was  a  true  fissure  vein  of  quartz,  and  a 
brief  examination  of  some  pieces  which  he  knocked 
off  with  his  pole-pick  convinced  him  that  it  was  rich 
in  gold.  But  for  the  waterspout  which  had  swept  away 
the  sand,  gravel,  and  loose  rocks  which  ages  of  disin- 
tegration of  the  face  of  the  wall  had  deposited  over 
this  lode,  its  existence  must  ever  have  remained  un- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  37 

discovered,  for  there  were  no  exterior  evidences  of  the 
existence  of  quartz,  to  tempt  a  prospector  to  sink  a 
shaft. 

The  primal  instinct  of  the  miner  is  to  locate  his 
"find,"  and  Morning  proceeded  forthwith  to  acquire 
title  to  "the  unoccupied  mineral  lands  of  the  United 
States"  so  marvelously  brought  to  light.  His  note- 
book furnished  paper  for  location  notices,  and  an  hour's 
\vork  enabled  him  to  build  location  monuments  of 
loose  stone,  in  which  his  notices  were  deposited. 

It  was  now  more  than  two  hours  since  the  water- 
spout had  expended  its  force.  Morning  conjectured 
that  Steel  and  his  miners,  after  the  flood  had  passed 
them,  would  probably  set  out  in  search  of  him,  and  he 
did  not  wish  his  location  to  be  discovered  until  he 
should  have  perfected  it  by  recording  at  Tucson,  and 
possibly  not  then.  But  he  knew  that  it  would  require 
at  least  three  hours  for  the  men  at  the  copper-camp  to 
reach  him,  and,  though  the  light  in  the  canon  was  be- 
ginning to  grow  dim,  he  determined  not  to  leave  there 
without  further  examination  of  the  ledge. 

Accordingly,  he  walked  around  it  and  climbed  over 
it.  From  its  summit  and  its  sides  at  twenty  different 
places  he  broke  off  specimens,  which  he  deposited  in 
his  pockets  until  they  were  full  to  bursting.  It  was 
beginning  to  grow  dark  when  he  emerged  from  the 
rift  and  started  along  the  base  of  the  basalt.  He  had 
not  proceeded  a  hundred  yards  from  the  mouth  of  the 
rift,  when  he  beheld  three  figures  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
distant,  rapidly  picking  their  way  along  the  channel 
which  had  been  worn  by  the  torrent  in  its  descent  of 
the  mountain. 


38  BETTER    DAYS. 

Five  minutes  more  in  the  gorge  and  his  secret 
would  have  been  discovered. 

He  shouted  to  his  friends,  who  responded  to  his  hail, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  they  met  and  descended  the 
mountain  together  to  the  plateau  under  the  trees, 
where  the  tethered  animals,  surfeited  with  alfilirea,  were 
whinnying  loudly  for  human  companionship. 

It  was  too  late  to  attempt  to  return  to  the  copper- 
camp  that  night,  and,  indeed,  daylight  was  needed  for 
the  journey,  for  the  trail  had  been  in  many  places 
washed  away  by  the  flood. 

After  a  supper,  which  made  havoc  with  the  three 
days'  rations,  a  large  fire  was  built*  more  for  cheerful- 
ness than  for  warmth,  blankets  were  divided,  and  all 
retired. 

Morning  slept  less  soundly  than  his  fellows,  for  his 
quick  and  accurate  brain  was  filled  with  an  idea  of  the 
colossal  fortune  and  the  mighty  trust  that  the  events 
of  that  day  had  placed  in  his  hands. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"  Gold  is  the  strength  of  the  world." 
Morning  concluded  it  would  be  unwise  to  make  an- 
other trip  to  his  location,  lest  suspicion  might  be  ex- 
cited and  discovery  follow,  so,  breaking  camp  early 
the  next  day,  he  returned  with  his  comrades  to  the 
copper-lodes,  which  they  reached  before  noon. 

Work  was  resumed  by  Steel  and  his  two  miners  in 
clearing  the  old  shaft,  and  Morning,  taking  a  fowling- 
piece,  avowed  his  purpose  to  look  for  quail  down  the 
ravine.  Having  reached  a  point  where  he  felt  secluded 
from  observation,  he  began  a  critical  examination  of 
the  quartz  specimens,  which  until  now  he  had  not 
dared  to  withdraw  from  his  pockets. 

As  with  his  microscope  he  scrutinized  piece  after 
piece,  he  grew  pale  with  excitement  and  astonishment. 
With  the  habit  of  a  mining  expert,  he  had  sampled  the 
ledge  as  for  an  average,  and  the  average  value  of  the 
twenty  different  specimens  of  quartz,  taken  from 
twenty  different  localities,  enabled  him  to  determine 
the  true  value  of  the  property  with  great  accuracy. 
He  discovered  that  the  amount  of  gold  in  each  one  of 
the  twenty  specimens  would  not  vary  materially  from 
the  amount  of  gold  in  proportion  to  the  quartz  in  each 
and  all  of  the  others.  In  other  words,  the  entire  body 
of  quartz  was  uniformly  impregnated  with  gold,  and, 
therefore,  of  uniform  richness  and  value. 

(39) 


4-0  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

There  was  no  better  judge  of  quartz  in  all  Colorado 
than  David  Morning.  He  had  been  accustomed,  after 
careful  inspection,  to  estimate  within  ten  or  twenty  per 
cent  of  the  value  per  ton  of  free  milling  gold  quartz, 
and  his  accuracy  had  often  been  the  subject  of  amica- 
ble wagers  among  his  friends.  He  was  able  in  this 
instance  to  say  that  each  one  of  the  ore  specimens 
carried  not  less  than  five  hundred  ounces  of  gold  to 
the  ton  of  quartz,  or  that  the  entire  lode  would  yield, 
under  the  stamps,  an  average  of  $10,000  per  ton. 

This  was  marvelous!  unprecedented!  phenomenal! 
No  such  deposit  for  richness  and  extent  had  ever  been 
found  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Ten  thousand  dollars  in  gold,  distributed  through 
two  thousand  pounds  of  quartz,  may  not  make  much 
of  a  showing  in  the  quartz,  for  in  bulk  there  is  fifty 
times  as  much  quartz  as  gold;  but  one  hundred  tons 
of  such  quartz  would  yield  a  million  dollars,  and  the 
ledge  uncovered  by  the  waterspout  was  forty  feet  in 
width  and  thirteen  hundred  and  sixty  feet  in  length 
to  where  it  ran  under  the  basalt  wall.  It  cropped 
twelve  feet  above  the  ground,  and  extended  to  un- 
known depths  below  the  surface.  Thirteen  feet  of  rock 
in  place  will  weigh  a  ton.  In  that  rift  in  the  mountain 
there  was  now  in  sight  above  the  surface,  all  ready  to 
be  broken  down  and  sent  to  the  stamps,  six  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  cubic  feet,  or  fifty  thousand  tons,  of 
quartz,  containing  gold  of  the  value  of  $500,000,000. 

What  was  to  be  done  with  the  vast  amount  of  gold 
which  might  be  extracted  from  the  Morning  mine? 
How  was  it  to  be  placed  in  circulation  without  unset- 
tling values,  reducing  the  worth  of  all  bonds,  inaugu- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  41 

rating  wild  speculation,  and  revolutionizing  the  com- 
merce and  the  finances  of  the  world? 

Would  not  the  nations,  so  soon  as  they  should  be 
made  aware  of  the  existence  of  this  deposit,  hasten  to 
demonetize  gold,  make  of  it  a  commodity,  change  the 
world's  standard  money  to  silver  exclusively,  and  so 
lessen  the  value  of  the  Morning  mine  to  a  compara- 
tively small  amount? 

Under  the  plea  that  increased  production  of  silver 
necessitated  a  change  in  relative  values,  that  metal 
was  demonetized  in  1873  in  Europe  and  in  the  United 
States,  and  its  value  reduced  one-third.  Might  not 
gold  now  be  similarly  dealt  with,  and,  with  such  a  vast 
deposit  known  to  be  in  existence,  be  diminished  by 
demonetization  to  the  value  of  silver  or  less? 

The  entire  production  of  gold  in  the  world  for  the 
last  forty  years,  or  since  the  California  and  Australia 
mines  began  to  yield,  had  been  but  $5,000,000,000, 
and  as  much  might  be  extracted  from  the  first  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  depth  of  the  Morning 
mine.  All  the  gold  money  of  the  world  was  but 
$7,600,000,000,  or  less  than  might  be  excavated  from 
the  first  two  hundred  feet  in  depth  of  this  marvelous 
deposit.  The  total  money  of  the  world — gold,  silver, 
and  paper — was  but  $11,500,000,000,  and  a  similar 
sum  might  be  extracted  from  the  first  three  hundred 
feet  in  depth  of  the  mine. 

If  the  ledge  extended  downward  a  thousand  feet,  it 
contained  as  much  gold  as  three  times  the  sum  total 
of  all  the  gold,  silver,  and  paper  currency  of  the  world, 
and  its  value  was  equal  to  the  value,  in  the  year  eight- 
een hundred  and  ninety,  of  one-half  of  all  the  real 
and  personal  property  in  the  United  States, 


42  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

How  much  of  this  gold  could  be  added  to  the  cir- 
culation of  the  world  with  safety  ?  and  how  could  the 
existence  of  the  vast  quantity  held  in  reserve  be  kept 
secret  ? 

His  studies  in  political  economy  had  taught  David 
Morning  that  gold,  like  water,  if  fed  to  the  land  in 
proper  proportions,  would  stimulate  its  fertility  and 
add  to  its  power  of  beneficent  production,  but  if  pre- 
cipitated in  an  unregulated  and  mighty  torrent,  would, 
like  the  waterspout,  prove  a  destructive  power. 

Knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  gold,  if  gener- 
ally diffused,  would  be  nearly  as  injurious  to  the  world 
as  to  extract  it  and  place  it  in  the  channels  of  finance. 
Yet  how  could  the  secret  be  kept?  The  ledge  as  it 
stood  could  not  be  worked  without  half  a  hundred 
men  knowing  its  extent  and  value.  No  guards  or 
bonds  of  secrecy  would  be  adequate.  The  birds  of 
the  air  would  carry  the  tale.  Even  now  a  vagrant 
prospector  or  wandering  mountain  tourist  might  re- 
veal the  secret  to  the  world. 

Not  in  any  spirit  of  self-seeking  did  David  Morning 
ask  himself  these  questions.  All  his  personal  wants, 
and  tastes,  and  aspirations  might  be  gratified  with  a 
few  millions,  which  could  easily  be  mined  and  invested 
before  knowledge  of  his  discovery  could  destroy  or 
lessen  the  value  of  gold.  But  the  purpose  now  be- 
ginning to  take  possession  of  him  was  to  use,  not 
merely  millions,  but  tens  and  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  millions,  to  bring  peace,  and  progress,  and  pros- 
perity to  the  nations,  to  ameliorate  the  conditions  un- 
der which  humanity  suffers,  to  raise  the  fallen,  to  aid 
the  struggling,  to  curb  the  power  of  oppressors,  to 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  43 

remedy  public  and  private  wrongs,  to  solve  social  prob- 
lems, to  uplift  humanity,  and  comfort  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  men.  To  accomplish  this  work  it  was  neces- 
sary that  he  should  have  vast  sums  at  his  command, 
and  it  was  also  necessary  that  his  possession  of  vaster 
reserves  should  not  be  known. 

The  discoveries  in  California  and  Australia  by  which 
in  ten  years  fourteen  hundred  millions  of  gold  (.ollars 
were  added  to  the  world's  stock  of  the  prcciouo  metals 
was  a  beneficent  discovery.  It  liftea  half  tne  weight 
from  the  shoulders  of  every  debtor;  it  made  possible 
the  payment  of  every  farm  mortgage;  it  delivered 
manhood  from  the  evil  embrace  of  Apathy,  and 
wedded  him  to  fair  young  Hope;  it  invigorated  com- 
merce, it  inspired  enterprise,  it  led  the  armies  of  peace 
to  the  conquest  of  forest  and  prairie;  it  caused  furnaces 
to  flame  and  spindles  to  hum;  it  brought  plenty  and 
progress  to  a  people. 

But  this  addition  to  the  gold  money  of  civilization 
was  gradually  made,  and  the  product  of  forty  years  of 
all  the  gold  mines  in  the  world  was  not  equal  to  the 
sum  which  in  less  than  four  years  might  be  taken  from 
the  Morning  mine. 

If,  as  a  consequence  of  Morning's  find,  gold  should 
not  be  demonetized,  if  it  should  be  permitted  to  re- 
main as  a  measurer  of  all  values,  and  the  extent  of 
the  deposit  should  be  made  known  to  the  world,  the 
inevitable  result  would  be  to  quadruple  the  prices  of 
land,  labor,  and  goods,  and  to  reduce  to  one-fourth 
of  their  present  proportions  the  value  to  the  creditor 
of  all  existing  indebtedness.  The  farmer  whose  land 
was  worth  $10,000  would  find  it  worth  $40,000,  and 


44  BETTZR    DAYS,    OR 

the  man  who  had  loaned  $5,000  upon  it  would  find 
his  loan  worth  but  $1,250  practically,  because  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  his  $5,000  would  be  reduced  to  one- 
fourth  of  its  present  capacity. 

All  government  bonds  of  the  nations,  all  county, 
city,  and  railroad  bonds,  and  all  the  mortgages  and 
promissory  notes  and  book  accounts  in  the  world, 
would,  if  all  of  Morning's  gold  should  be  poured  at 
once  into  circulation,  without  preparation  or  warning, 
be  reduced  at  one  blow  to  one-fourth  of  their  present 
value,  and  all  the  owners  of  land,  and  implements, 
and  horses,  and  cattle,  and  merchandise  would  find 
their  value  at  once  increased  fourfold.  The  laborer 
who  had  only  his  hands  or  his  brains  would  remain 
unaffected.  His  wages  would  be  quadrupled,  and  so 
would  the  cost  of  his  living. 

Knowledge  of  the  extent  of  the  Morning  mine 
would  immediately  enrich  the  debtors  and  ruin  the 
creditors  of  the  world,  unless  the  governments  of  earth 
should  demonetize  gold,  deny  it  access  to  the  mints, 
refuse  to  coin  it,  and  so  degrade  it  to  a  commodity. 

An  illustration  in  a  small  way  of  the  operations  of 
this  immutable  law  of  finance  may  be  found  in  the 
history  of  San  Francisco.  The  foundations  of  some 
of  the  great  fortunes  of  that  city  may  be  traced  to  the 
days  of  the  Civil  War,  when  San  Francisco  wholesale 
merchants  paid  their  Eastern  creditors  in  legal  tender 
currency,  the  while  they  diligently  fostered  a  public 
sentiment  which  made  it  discreditable  to  the  honesty 
and  ruinous  to  the  credit  of  any  California  retailer 
who  should  attempt  to  pay  his  debt  to  them  in 
the  despised  greenbacks.     The  interior  storekeeper 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  45 

glowed  with  pride  when  Ephraim  Smooth  &  Com- 
pany gathered  in  his  golden  twenties,  and  commended 
his  honesty  for  "  paying  his  debts  like  a  man,  in  gold, 
and  not  availing  himself  of  the  dishonest  legal  tender 
law."  But  Smooth  &  Company  paid  their  New 
York  creditors  in  greenbacks,  and  pocketed  the  dif- 
ference. 

Inflation  of  the  currency,  or  an  increase  of  the 
money  of  a  nation,  if  it  can  be  gradually  made,  need 
not  prove  disastrous  to  the  creditors,  and  must  prove 
a  benefaction  to  the  debtors  of  the  world.  The  rela- 
tion of  wages  to  the  cost  of  living,  whether  the  volume 
of  money  in  a  country  be  contracted  or  inflated,  prac- 
tically remains  the  same.  It  may  be  claimed  that  the 
workman  who  receives  an  increase  of  wages,  and 
whose  cost  of  living  is  correspondingly  increased,  is 
no  better  off  at  the  end  of  the  year,  yet  economy 
brings  to  him  larger  apparent  accumulations,  and  he 
is  thereby  encouraged  to  practice  frugality. 

The  American  mechanic  who  wandered  to  the  Ca- 
nary Islands,  where  he  received  $400  a  day  in  the  lo- 
cal currency  for  his  wages,  was  enabled  to  save  $100  a 
day  by  denying  himself  brandy  and  tobacco,  and  but 
for  this  dazzling  inducement  he  might  have  surrendered 
to  temptations  that  would  have  made  him  a  proper 
subject  for  the  ministrations  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 

But  though  an  inflation  of  values  which  should  be 
beneficent  might  follow  the  discovery  and  working  of 
the  Morning  mine,  clearly  the  first  thing  for  the  discov- 
erer to  do  was  to  take  effectual  measures  to  conceal 
from  human  knowledge  the  extent  of  his  discovery. 

David   Morning  remained  for  some   time  in    deep 


\6  BETTKR    DAYS,    OR 

thought,  and  then,  rising  from  his  seat  upon  a  bowlder 
behind  the  manzanita  bushes,  he  tore  into  fragments 
the  paper  upon  which  he  had  been  making  calculations, 
and,  excavating  with  his  foot  a  hole  in  the  sand,  he 
dropped  into  it  and  covered  the  specimens  of  gold 
quartz  which  he  had  taken  from  the  ledge,  and,  retrac- 
ing his  steps,  was  soon  at  the  copper-camp,  where,  in 
answer  to  the  queries  of  his  companions,  he  replied 
truthfully  that  during  his  absence  he  had  not  seen 
a  single  quail. 

Two  days  elapsed,  and,  the  shaft  having  been  cleaned 
out  and  the  copper  lode  thoroughly  exposed,  Morning 
took  samples  of  it,  and  also  of  croppings  of  the  other 
lodes  included  in  the  ground  located  by  Steel,  and  the 
party  broke  camp  and  started  for  Tucson,  where  they 
arrived  early  in  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day. 

Making  an  appointment  with  Steel  for  that  evening, 
Morning  deposited  his  copper  samples  with  an  assayer, 
and,  walking  to  the  Court  House,  he  filed  the  notice  of 
location  of  the  Morning  mine  with  the  county  recorder. 
Two  hours  later  he  had  the  report  of  the  assayer  upon 
the  copper  samples,  showing  an  average  of  twelve  per 
cent  of  carbonate  copper  in  the  ore.  This  was  not  so 
rich  as  had  been  predicted  by  Steel,  but  was  of  suffi- 
cient value  to  warrant  the  purchase  of  the  copper 
prospects  at  the  low  price  which  had  been  fixed  upon 
them,  provided  that  arrangements  could  be  made  for 
economically  working  them,  and  Morning  had  already 
formulated  in  his  own  mind  a  plan  of  action  by  which 
the  working  of  the  copper  lodes  could  be  made  to  ad- 
vance his  project  of  working  the  gold  lode  so  as  to 
conceal  the  extent  of  its  yield. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  47 

Morning  calculated  that  the  amount  of  money  needed 
for  labor,  supplies,  machinery,  and  buildings,  to  work 
the  mines  in  accordance  with  his  plans,  would  be  about 
$300,000,  and  his  first  thought  was  to  obtain  this 
money  by  breaking  down,  and  shipping  to  reduction 
works  in  California  or  Colorado,  about  thirty  tons  of 
the  quartz  before  he  should  commence  the  work  which 
he  projected  for  the  concealment  of  the  ledge. 

With  his  own  hands  he  could  mine  and  sack  such 
an  amount  of  ore  in  a  fortnight,  and  with  the  aid  of 
half  a  dozen  pack  animals,  managed  by  himself,  trans- 
port it  a  mile  or  two  from  the  rift,  where  it  might  be 
thrown  into  the  channel  cut  by  the  waterspout,  and, 
with  a  blast  or  two,  be  covered  with  rocks  and  dirt  un- 
til teams  should  be  brought  from  Tucson  for  it. 

With  this  idea  uppermost,  he  sought  the  freight 
agent  of  the  railroad  company  of  Tucson. 

Then  he  came  in  contact  with  the  system  in  vogue 
on  the  Pacific  Coast — and  possibly  elsewhere — that  of 
a  one-sided  railroad  partnership  with  the  producer,  on 
the  basis  that  the  producer  furnish  all  the  capital  and 
suffer  all  the  losses,  the  railroad  company  providing 
neither  capital,  experience,  nor  services,  but  taking 
the  lion's  share  of  the  profits. 

"What,"  said  Morning,  "will  your  freight  charges 
be  for  three  car  loads  of  ore  to  Pueblo  or  San  Fran- 
cisco? " 

"What  kind  of  ore?" 

"Gold-bearing  quartz  in  sacks." 

"What  does  your  ore  assay?"  inquired  the  agent. 

"What  has  that  got  to  do  with  it?"  questioned 
Morning  sharply. 


48  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Everything,"  answered  the  official.  We  charge 
in  car-load  lots  $12  per  ton  to  San  Francisco,  or  $24 
per  ton  to  Pueblo,  and  $2.00  per  ton  in  addition  for 
each  $100  per  ton  of  the  assay  value  of  the  ore." 

"Very  well,"  said  Morning,  "I  believe  I  will  ship 
thirty  tons  to  San  Francisco." 

"  Have  you  it  here?  "  said  the  agent. 

"  It  will  not  be  ready  for  some  weeks  yet,"  replied 
Morning. 

"You  did  not  mention  its  value,"  said  the  agent. 

"  I  will  state  its  value  at  $100  per  ton,"  said  Morn- 
ing. 

"All  right,"  said  the  agent,  "  we  will  take  it  at  that, 
subject,  of  course,  to  assay  according  to  our  rules  by 
the  assayer  of  the  company  at  your  expense." 

"Well,  I  don't  know  that  I  care  to  trouble  the  as- 
sayer of  your  company,"  replied  Morning.  "In  fact, 
the  ore  is  a  good  deal  richer  than  $100  per  ton.  But 
I  will  ship  it  at  that  valuation,  and  release  the  com- 
pany from  all  liability  for  loss  or  damage  beyond  that. 
In  brief,  I  will  take  all  the  chances,  and  if  the  ore  shall 
be  lost,  or  stolen,  or  tumbled  off  a  bridge,  or  overturned 
into  a  river,  the  company  will  only  account  to  me  for 
it  at  $100  per  ton.    I  suppose  that  will  be  satisfactory? ' ' 

The  agent  shook  his  head. 

"It  looks  as  if  it  ought  to  be  satisfactory,"  said  he, 
"but  my  orders  are  imperative.  The  ore  must  be 
assayed,  and  you  will  have  to  pay  two  per  cent  of  its 
value." 

"But  this,"  replied  Morning,  with  some  heat,  "is 
unreasonable  and  outrageous.  If  the  tax  of  two  per 
cent  is  to  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  charge  for  in- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO:MORRO\V.  49 

surance,  I  am  sure  there  is  not  a  marine  or  fire  insur- 
ance company  in  the  world  that  would  charge  one- 
fourth  of  one  per  cent  for  such  a  risk." 

"  Company's  orders,"  said  the  agent. 

'  'Suppose  you  wire  headquarters  at  my  cost,  and  say 
that  David  Morning  wishes  to  ship  thirty  tons  of  gold- 
bearing  quartz  from  Tucson  to  San  Francisco,  at  a  val- 
uation of  $100  per  ton.  Say  that  he  will  prepay  the 
freight,  and  load  and  unload  the  cars  himself  if  permit- 
ted. Say  that  he  does  not  wish  the  railroad  company 
to  take  any  of  the  risks  of  mining,  transporting,  or  re- 
ducing the  ore,  nor  to  share  any  of  the  profits  of  the 
business.  Say  that  he  will  release  the  company  from 
all  liability  even  for  gross  negligence  or  theft,  beyond 
$100  per  ton.  Say  that  he  does  not  wish  to  acquaint 
the  company's  assayer  or  the  company's  freight  agent 
with  the  value  of  the  ore,  or  permit  either  of  them  to 
form  any  accurate  judgment  for  speculative  or  other 
purposes  as  to  the  value  of  the  mine  from  which  the 
ore  was  taken.  Say  that  he  wishes  the  privilege  of 
conducting  his  own  business  in  his  own  way.  Say 
that  if  the  railroad  company  will  kindly  fix  a  rate  at 
which  it  will  consent  to  carry  the  freight  he  offers, 
without  sticking  its  meddlesome,  corporate  nose  into 
his  business,  he  will  then  consider  whether  he  will  pay 
that  rate  or  refrain  from  shipping  the  ore  at  all." 

"Mr.  Morning,"  said  the  agent,  "if  I  were  to  send 
such  a  telegram  as  that,  it  would  cost  me  my  place,  and, 
indeed,  my  orders  are  not  to  communicate  remon- 
strances made  by  shippers  at  the  company's  rules,  ex- 
cept by  mail.  Of  course  you  can  send  any  message 
you  like  over  your  own  name  to  the  head  office,  but 
4 


50  BETTER    DAYS. 

I  can  inform  you  now  that  they  will  only  refer  you  to 
me  for  an  answer,  and  I  can  only  refer  to  my  general 
instructions,  and  there  the  matter  will  end." 

"Well,  replied  Morning,  "I  will  ship  the  ore  by 
ox  teams  or  not  ship  it  at  all  before  I  will  submit  to 
the  injustice  of  your  general  instructions.  I  suppose 
I  am  without  remedy  in  the  premises?" 

"You  might  build  another  road,  Mr.  Morning," 
said  the  agent,  with  a  slight  tinge  of  sarcasm  in  his 
voice. 

Morning  answered  slowly,  as  he  turned  away: — 

"  I  may  conclude  to  do  so,  or  to  buy  up  this  road, 
and  if  I  do  I  will  run  it  on  business  principles  that 
shall  give  the  shipper  some  little  chance." 

"  When  will  that  halcyon  hour  for  the  public  arrive, 
Mr.  Morning?" 

"  By  and  by,"  rejoined  our  hero,  "and  then  you 
•may  look  for  better  days. ' ' 


CHAPTER  V. 

"The  rich  man's  joys  increase  the  poor's  decay. 

"Forty-five  years  ago,  doctor,"  said  Professor 
John  Thornton  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Eustace,  "do  you 
remember  that,  as  barefooted  boys,  we  fished  for  pick- 
erel together  in  this  very  pond,  and  from  this  very 
spot  ?  ' ' 

"And  caught  more  fish  with  our  bamboo  poles  and 
angleworm  bait  than  we  appear  likely  to  capture  to- 
day with  this  fancy  tackle,"  remarked  the  doctor. 

"Everything  about  this  lovely  little  lake  seems  un- 
changed," resumed  the  professor,  "but  elsewhere  the 
great  world  has  indeed  rolled  on.  Then  there  were 
less  than  one  hundred  millionaires  in  this  republic — 
now,  doctor,  there  are  more  than  eight  thousand." 

"And  then,"  said  the  doctor,  "we  came  here  in  a 
rickety  old  stage  wagon,  and  we  were  ten  hours  in 
making  the  same  journey  which  to-day  we  achieved 
in  an  hour  while  seated  in  a  parlor  car.  Then  the 
telegraph  was  in  its  infancy,  the  electric  light  was  un- 
known, the  great  manufacturing  cities  were  uncon- 
structed,  the  petroleum  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  gold 
of  California  and  Australia  were  undiscovered,  the 
great  Western  railroad  lines  were  unbuilt,  and  the  web 
of  complex  industries  with  which  the  land  is  now 
laced  was  unspun.     The  victim  of  a  raging  tooth  or  a 

(51) 


52  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

crushed  limb  was  compelled  to  suffer  without  relief 
from  chloroform  or  ether,  and  it  was  a  crime  punish- 
able with  social  ostracism  to  question  the  righteous- 
ness of  human  slavery,  the  curative  virtues  of  calomel, 
or  the  beneficence  of  infant  damnation.  I  never  could 
think,  John,  that  the  good  old  times,  whose  loss  you 
are  always  bemoaning,  were  nearly  so  comfortable 
times  to  live  in  as  those  amid  which  we  now  dwell." 

"Dr.  Eustace,"  said  the  professor,  "you  attach 
undue  importance  to  a  few  physical  comforts  and 
conveniences.  If  our  fathers  lacked  the  advantages 
of  our  later  civilization,  they  were  also  without  its 
vices.  In  the  good  old  times  which  you  deride, 
wrecking  railroads,  stealing  railroads,  and  watering 
stocks  were  unknown.  Senatorships  and  subsidies 
were  not  procured  by  bribery;  the  legislator  who  sold 
his  vote  made  arrangements  to  leave  the  country,  and 
bank  burglars  and  bank  defaulters  kept,  in  the  public 
estimation,  the  lock  step  of  fellow-criminals." 

"And  what,  in  your  opinion  was  the  cause  of 
our  descent  from  this  high  estate  of  public  virtue 
and  whale-oil  lamps  ? " 

"The  main  cause,  Dr.,  of  the  corrupticn  of  the 
human  race  everywhere, — gold.  It  was  the  gold 
of  California  that  revolutionized  the  finances,  the 
business  methods,  and  the  morals  of  the  nation. 
After  the  year  1849  the  advance  of  values,  the  aggre- 
gation of  wealth,  the  increase  of  population,  and  the 
magical  growth  of  the  West,  made  additional  facilities 
for  inland  travel  and  transportation  a  necessity.  This 
necessity  caused  the  rapid  construction  of  new  lines  of 
railroad.     The   differences    and   difficulties    of   local 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  53 

management  suggested  the  advantages  of  consolida- 
tion— and  then  the  reign  of  the  centripetal  forces  com- 
menced." 

' '  But  all  the  millionaires  of  the  country  are  not 
railroad  men,  John." 

"Concentration  of  capital  began  with  them,  doctor, 
and  their  example  was  soon  followed  by  others.  The 
Civil  War  broke  down  local  prejudices,  made  East  and 
West  homogeneous,  introduced  communities  to  each 
other  on  the  battle-field,  obliterated  State  lines,  and 
made  individual  effort  in  business,  in  finance,  in  man- 
ufactures, and  even  in  politics,  less  advantageous  to 
the  individual  than  participation  in  aggregated  effort, 
where  his  gains  were  increased,  though  his  personality 
was  submerged." 

"I  have  always  thought  that  our  civil  war  was  a 
moral  education  to  this  people  and  to  the  world,"  re- 
marked the  doctor. 

"War  was  an  educator,"  conceded  the  professor, 
"yet  the  tree  of  knowledge  with  its  crimson  leaves 
yielded  evil  fruit  as  well  as  good.  The  moral  nature 
of  the  American  people  has,  I  fear,  reacted  from  the 
tension  of  generous  and  patriotic  sacrifice  which  war 
evolved.  Some  of  the  very  men  who  helped  to  strike 
shackles  from  black  slaves  have  been  busy  ever  since 
forging  other  shackles  for  white  slaves,  and  in  twenty- 
five  years  from  the  days  when  we  freely  paid  lives  and 
treasure  to  preserve  the  existence  of  the  nation,  and 
free  it  from  the  wrong  of  slavery  and  the  rule  of  a  slave- 
holding  oligarchy,  we  have  passed  under  the  sway  of 
other  despots,  more  selfish,  more  sordid,  more  relent- 
less, and  more   rapacious  of  dominion.     The  dusk- 


54  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

browed  tyrant  of  Egypt  has  been  overthrown,  but  in 
his  place  Plutus  reigns." 

"  I  grant  you,"  interposed  Dr.  Eustace,  "that  the 
wealth  owners  are  the  rulers  of  our  later  civiliza- 
tion, but,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  instead  of  endeav- 
oring to  curb  or  overthrow  them,  we  are  all  doing  our 
best  to  join  their  ranks  and  participate  in  their  power. 
You  appear  to  be  the  only  living  millionaire  who  de- 
claims against  his  class.  I  know  of  no  other  man  who 
is  brave  enough  to  defy  the  power  of  money,  great 
enough  to  ignore  it,  or  strong  enough  to  resist  its  in- 
fluence, and  I  dare  say  you  would  change  your  views 
if  you  were  to  lose  your  millions.  We  all  defer  to  the 
plutocrats.  The  Spanish  nobleman  who,  for  his  an- 
cestor's services,  was  permitted  to  remain  with  his  head 
covered  in  the  presence  of  his  sovereign,  would  have 
been  sure  to  take  off  his  hat  if  he  had  entered  the  of- 
fice of  the  president  of  a  country  bank,  with  a  view  of 
negotiating  a  small  loan  on  doubtful  security.  There 
was  a  great  truth  inadvertently  given  to  the  world  in 
the  programme  of  a  Fourth  of -July  procession,  wherein 
it  was  announced  that  the  line  would  end  with  bank- 
ers in  carriages,  followed  by  citizens  on  foot. ' ' 

"This  subservience  to  King  Gold,  and  pursuit  of  his 
favors,  must  cease,  Dr.  Eustace,  or  this  republic  will 
be  lost.  The  people  must  be  taught  to  assume  a  more 
independent  and  manly  attitude  toward  the  owners  of 
money." 

"Ah,  John,  money  is  so  necessary,  and  it  is  so  hard 
to  turn  one's  back  upon  it!  This  way  lies  comfort, 
ease,  luxury — that  way  deprivation  and  sacrifice. 
This  way  'the  primrose  path  of  dalliance  trends' — 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  55 

that  way  '  the  steep  and  thorny  road. '  This  way  the 
wife  and  children  beckon  and  sue  for  safety  and  peace 
— that  way  only  rocks,  and|  bruises,  and  hunger,  and 
loneliness  summon.  What  wonder  that  the  Christ, 
voicing  the  cry  of  the  human  to  the  infinite  Father, 
placed  as  the  central  thought  of  the  Lord's  prayer  the 
words,  '  Lead  us  not  into  temptation  '  !  But,  John, 
honestly  now,  do  you  think  the  eight  thousand  mil- 
lionaires you  rave  about  are  such  an  utterly  bad  lot  as 
you  make  them  out  to  be?" 

"Individually  I  dare  say  they  are  good  husbands, 
fathers,  and  neighbors,"  replied  the  professor,  "but 
they  conceal  their  selfishnnss  and  rapacity,  and  exercise 
their  despotism  from  behind  the  shields  of  corporations 
which  they  create  and  govern,  and  tyranny  is  none  the 
less  tyranny  because  it  is  decreed  not  by  kings,  but 
by  entities  which  fear  neither  the  assassination  of  man 
nor  the  judgment  of  God." 

"Professor,  pardon  me,  but  you  generalize  a  good 
deal,  and  I  fear  somewhat  loosely.  It  would  make  a 
difference  to  me,  in  my  feelings,  at  least,  whether  I 
was  knocked  down  by  a  ruffian,  or  by  an  electrical 
machine." 

"  Doctor,  your  simile  was  not  considered  as  carefully 
as  are  your  prescriptions.  If  the  machine  be  guided 
by  the  ruffian,  what  matters  it  whether  you  be  struck 
by  his  hand,  or  with  an  electric  current  directed  by 
his  hand?  If  our  great  newspapers,  which  are  influ- 
ential, which  claim  to  be  independent,  and  which 
ought  to  be  free,  are  restrained  from  publishing  articles 
advocating  postal  telegraphy,  or  criticising  the  manage- 
ment of  a  news  corporation,  what  matters  it  that  the 


56  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

freedom  of  the  press  is  choked  by  a  board  of  directors 
rather  than  a  government  censor?  If  the  citizen  dare 
not  give  voice  to  his  views  on  public  affairs,  what 
matters  it  whether  his  utterances  be  choked  by  the 
knuckles  of  a  king,  or  the  polite  menaces  of  an  em- 
ployer? If  the  voter  cast  his  ballot  against  his  own 
convictions,  and  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  another, 
what  matters  it  whether  he  be  coerced  by  a  soldier 
with  a  musket  or  a  station  agent  with  a  freight  bill? 
If  the  settler  lose  his  land,  what  matter  whether  the 
despoiler  be  a  personal  bandit  armed  with  a  rifle,  or  a 
corporate  robber  equipped  with  a  land-office  decision? 
If  capital  exempt  itself  from  taxation,  and  place  the 
burden  of  sustaining  government  upon  the  broad 
back  of  labor,  will  it  alleviate  the  pain  of  the  load  to 
know  that  it  is  not  the  law  of  feudal  vassalage  but  of 
modern  politics  which  accomplishes  the  exaction? 

"Hallo!  I  have  a  bite!  Ah!  ha!  my  boy,  your 
eagerness  to  swallow  that  minnow  has  brought  you  to 
grief!" 

And  the  speaker  lifted  a  twenty-ounce  pickerel  from 
the  placid  waters  of  Nine  Mile  Pond,  and  deposited  it, 
struggling  and  shining,  upon  the  green  turf  at  his 
feet. 

"Well,  John,"  inquired  the  doctor,  "what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  all?" 

' '  We  will  have  him  split  down  the  back  and  broiled 
for  luncheon, ' '  replied  the  professor  absently. 

"  Broil  who?  "   queried  the  doctor,  "Jay  Gould?  " 

"Eh?  No;  the  pickerel  I  mean,  though  I  am  not 
sure  that  similar  treatment  might  not  be  accorded  to 
Gould,  with  advantage  to  the  country." 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  57 

' '  You  ask, ' '  continued  the  professor,  ' '  what  shall  be 
done  about  it  all?  The  wealth  owners  themselves 
should  be  able  to  see  that  existing  conditions  must 
sooner  or  later  find  cessation  either  in  relUf  or  in  rev- 
olution. Monopolies  in  transportation,  intelligence, 
land,  light,  fuel,  water,  and  food — all  concealed  in  the 
impersonality  of  private  corporations — now  sit  like 
vampires  upon  the  body  of  American  labor,  and  suck 
its  life  blood,  and  they  have  grown  so  bold  and  so 
rapacious  that  they  even  neglect  to  fan  their  victims 
to  continued  slumber. 

"  Why,  John,  you  seem  to  have  an  attack  of  anti- 
corporation  rabies.  You  talk  like  a  sand-lot  politician 
who  is  trying  to  sell  out  to  a  railroad  company. 
What  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  What  have  these 
much  berated  entities  done?"  said  the  doctor. 

' '  Done? ' '  replied  Professor  Thornton.  ' '  What  have 
they  not  done  ?  They  have  torn  the  bandages  from 
the  eyes  of  American  justice  and  fastened  false  weights 
upon  her  scales.  They  have  turned  our  legislative 
halls  into  shambles  where  men  are  bought  and  honor 
is  butchered.  They  have  written  the  word  'lie' 
across  the  Declaration  of  our  fathers.  They  have 
struck  the  genius  of  American  liberty  in  her  fair 
mouth,  until,  with  face  suffused  with  the  blushes  and 
bedewed  with  the  hot  tears  of  shame,  she  turns  pit- 
eously  to  her  children  to  hide  if  they  cannot  defend 
her. ' ' 

"John  Thornton,"  ejaculated  the  doctor,  "your 
remarks  would  be  admirable  in  substance  and  style 
for  an  address  before  some  gathering  of  work  shirkers, 
organized   to   procure   lessened  hours  of  labor   and 


58  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

larger  schooners  of  beer,  but  to  me  you  are  talking 
what  our  transatlantic  cousins  call  'beastly  rot.'  I 
deny  that  a  majority,  or  even  any  considerable  num- 
ber, of  the  capitalists  of  this  country  are  dishonest,  or 
unpatriotic,  or  indifferent  to  the  rights  and  needs  of 
their  fellow-men." 

"I  have  not  said  that  they  were,  doctor,"  replied  the 
professor.  "  Indeed,  if  such  were  the  case,  we  might 
cry  in  despair,  '  God  save  the  commonwealth ! '  for  only 
Omniscience  could  work  its  salvation.  What  I  claim 
is  that  it  is  full  time  for  the  conscientious  millionaires 
who  love  their  country  and  their  kind,  to  seriously 
consider  a  situation  the  perils  of  which  they  are  every 
day  augmenting  by  their  indifference." 

"What  perils  do  you  mean,  professor?  How,  for 
instance,  would  anybody  be  hurt  or  periled  if  I  were 
to  become  a  millionaire?" 

"A  great  fortune  is  a  great  power,  doctor,  and  not 
every  man  is  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  great  power. 
To-day  no  second-class  power  in  Europe  can  nego- 
tiate a  treaty  or  make  even  a  defensive  war  without 
the  consent  of  the  Rothschilds,  while  in  America  the 
owner  of  fifty  millions  is  more  powerful  than  the 
president  of  the  United  States,  and  the  owner  of  ten 
millions  more  influential  than  the  governor  of  a  State. 

'  'And  so  he  ought  to  be, "  interposed  the  doctor. 
"The  man  who  can  by  fair  means  make  $10,000,000 
is  more  useful  to  the  community  in  which  he  lives  than 
a  dozen  governors  of  States." 

"But  look  at  the  danger  to  the  people,  doctor,  of 
these  great  fortunes.  There  are  ten  men  in  the  United 
States  whose  aggregate  wealth  amounts  to  $500,000,- 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  59 

000,  and  who  represent,  and  control,  and  wield  the  in- 
fluence "of  property  amounting  to  $3,000,000,000.  If 
these  men  should  choose  to  settle  their  rivalries  and 
combine  their  interests  and  efforts,  they  could  about 
fix  the  prices  of  every  acre  of  land,  every  barrel  of 
flour,  every  ton  of  coal,  and  every  day's  wages  of 
labor  between  Bangor  and  San  Francisco.  They 
could  name  every  senator,  governor,  judge,  congress- 
man, and  legislator  in  twenty  States.  They  could  rule 
a  greater  empire  than  any  possessed  by  crowned  kings. 
They  could  promulgate  ukases  more  absolute,  more 
despotic,  and  more  certain  of  being  enforced,  than  any 
which  ever  went  forth  from  St.  Petersburg  to  carry 
desolation  to  a  race.  They  could  say  to  the  laborer 
in  the  grain-fields.  '  Henceforth  you  shall  be  reduced 
to  the  condition  of  your  brother  in  England  or  Scot- 
land, and  eat  meat  but  once  a  week.'  They  could 
say  to  the  toiler  in  the  humming  factory  or  over  the 
red  forge,  'Henceforth  you  must  toil  twelve  hours  in 
each  twenty-four.'  They  could  say  to  every  wage- 
worker  in  the  land,  '  Henceforth  we  will  take  all  the  re- 
sults of  your  labor,  and  give  you  only  the  slave's 
share — existence  and  subsistence.'  " 

"All  you  need,  Professor  John  Thornton,"  said 
Dr.  Eustace,  "is  a  long  beard,  a  woman  with  green 
goggles  and  a  tamborine,  a  fat  boy  with  a  snare  drum, 
and  a  pair  of  bellows  in  your  chest,  to  be  a  Salvation 
Army  seeking  recruits  for  the  church  of  Anarch.  You 
know  just  as  well  as  I  do  that  you  are  talking  non- 
sense, and  that  the  capitalists  of  our  country  would  be 
neither  so  inhuman  nor  so  unwise  as  to  push  their 
power  as  you  indicate.' ' 


60  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

' '  Maybe  not,  doctor,  maybe  not,  but  their  ability 
to  so  use  their  power  if  they  choose  is  a  menace  to  a 
free  people,  and  a  standing  inducement  to  disorder, 
and  unless  the  plutocrats  cease  their  aggressions  the 
people  may  invoke  the  motto,  '  Salva  republica  su- 
prema  lex'  and  tax  all  great  fortunes  out  of  exist- 
ence." 

"What  aggressions  do  you  refer  to,  professor?  For 
the  life  of  me  I  cannot  see  that  this  country  or  this 
people  have  any  just  cause  of  complaint.  The  cen- 
sus returns  of  1890  show  that  in  the  preceding  ten 
years  there  was  added  to  our  national  wealth,  values 
amounting  to  nearly  $20,000,000,000." 

"  The  census  returns  tell  only  a  part  of  the  story, 
doctor.  The  cottages  of  the  land  will  tell  you  that 
while  as  a  nation  we  may  have  grown  of  late  years 
very  rich  and  prosperous,  yet  among  the  individuals 
composing  the  nation  its  wealth  is  possessed  and  its 
prosperity  enjoyed  within  a  very  narrow  circle.  The 
value  of  all  the  property  in  the  United  States  in  the 
year  1890  was  $66,000,000,000.  Do  you  know  that 
$40,000,000,000,  or  sixty  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of 
America,  is  owned  by  less  than  forty  thousand  people  ? 
Do  you  know  that  in  the  last  twenty  years  the  labor- 
ers of  the  United  States  have  added  to  the  general 
wealth  of  the  nation,  values  amounting  to  $30,000,- 
000,000?" 

"Well,  what  is  there  to  complain  of  in  that  fact?" 
questioned  the  doctor. 

"The  complaint  is  that  the  money  has  not  been 
divided  among  the  ten  million  workers  who  earned  it. 
The  complaint  is  that  it  has  not  furnished  each  often 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  6l 

million  households  with  a  $3,ooo-shield  against  the 
assaults  of  poverty.  The  complaint  is  that  as  fast  as 
created  it  has  been  seized  by  the  centripetal  tendency 
which  now  dominates  our  civilization  and  hurried  into 
the  strong  boxes  of  ten  thousand  Past- Masters  of  the 
art  of  accumulating  the  earnings  of  other  people." 

"The  complete  answer,  professor,  to  your  diatribe 
is  that  the  accumulations  of  which  you  speak  are  not 
the  earnings  of  other  people.  The  greater  portion 
of  this  wealth  has  been  developed  from  the  bounty  of 
nature  in  ways  which  could  not  have  been  pursued 
without  large  combinations  of  capital." 

"That  is  a  mere  assumption,  doctor." 

"Not  at  all,  professor.  The  money  taken  from 
gold,  silver,  copper,  lead,  iron,  and  coal  mines,  has 
come  from  the  treasure  vaults  of  nature,  and  has  not 
been  filched  from  the  earnings  of  anybody." 

"  Mining  is  the  one  exception  to  the  rule,  doctor." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  professor,  but  it  is  not.  An- 
other avenue  to  wealth  has  been  the  organization  and 
reorganization  of  great  industries  on  unwasteful  and 
remunerative  principles.  For  instance,  the  beef  and 
pork  packing  establishments  of  the  West  supply  the 
retail  butchers  of  the  land  with  meat  at  a  less  price 
than  is  paid  for  the  live  cattle." 

' '  Where,  then,  doctor,  do  these  philanthropists  of 
whom  you  speak  make  their  money?  " 

"They  make  it,  professor,  by  scientific  utilization  of 
the  hoofs  and  horns,  bones  and  blood,  which  in  small 
butcher  shops  are  necessarily  wasted." 

"You  believe,  then,  in  the  rightfulness  of  monopo- 
lies and  trusts,  do  you,  doctor?" 


62  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"John,  there  are  no  monopolies.  No  restrictions 
are  placed  by  law  on  any  man  who  chooses  to  embark 
in  any  reputable  business.  As  for  the  much-abused 
'trusts,'  they  have  all  resulted  in  higher  wages  and 
more  constant  employment  to  the  workman,  and 
lower  prices  and  better  goods  to  the  consumer.  I 
suppose  you  will  not  claim  that  the  capitalists  alone 
are  responsible  for  all  the  crime  and  pauperism  of  the 
land?" 

"No,"  replied  the  professor,  "for  the  ignorant  and 
vicious  poor  play  into  the  hands  of  the  selfish  and 
vicious  rich,  and  between  the  two  the  honest  and  in- 
dustrious body  of  the  people  is  being  ground  as  be- 
tween the  upper  and  nether  millstone.  Indeed,  I  do 
not  know  which  is  the  greater  curse  to  the  country, 
the  stock  thieves,  whose  dens  are  under  the  shadow 
of  Trinity  Church  spire,  and  who  combine  to  corrupt 
courts,  juries,  and  legislators,  or  the  dynamiters  and 
anarchists  who  would  involve  the  innocent  and  the 
guilty  in  one  common  wreck  of  social  order.  I  hope  I 
am  no  senseless  alarmist,  Dr.  Eustace,  but  I  am  sure 
we  must  have  relief,  or  there  will  be  national  ruin." 

"From  what  source,  professor,  do  you  expect  relief 
to  come?"  inquired  the  doctor. 

"Frankly,  I  don't  know,"  was  the  reply. 

"Maybe  your  next  National  Convention  will  relieve 
the  situation,"  insinuated  the  doctor,  slyly. 

"I  am  sure  that  relief  will  not  come,"  said  the  pro- 
fessor, "from  existing  political  parties,  whose  ora- 
tors grow  earnest  and  belligerent  over  the  ghosts  of 
dead  issues,  and  travel  around  and  around  over  the 
same  path,  like  an  old  horse  on  an  arras tra,  forever 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  63 

going  somewhere  and  never  getting  anywhere,  neither 
knowing  or  caring  whether  he  is  grinding  pay  rock 
or  waste  rock,  conscious  only  of  the  whip  of  his  driver, 
and  hopeful  only  of  his  allowance  of  barley. ' ' 

"Why,  John,  I  thought  you  were  a  devoted  par- 
tisan," said  the  doctor. 

"Did  you?"  was  the  retort.  "Well,  you  were 
mistaken.  What  can  be  hoped  from  political  parties 
when  legislators  who  are  not  free  from  suspicion  of 
venality  are  voted  for  and  elected  year  after  year,  be- 
cause Grant  captured  Vicksburg,  or  Lincoln  issued  a 
proclamation  of  emancipation,  or  Stonewall  Jackson 
was  killed  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago  ?  Must 
the  people  forever  submit  to  the  rule  of  brawlers,  and 
vote  sellers,  and  trust  betrayers,  because  such  men 
hurrah  for  some  flag  which  other  men  once  carried 
into  battle?  Must  the  masses  lie  down  in  the  path  of 
Juggernaut  and  invite  him  to  crush  them,  because  the 
evil-visaged  god  parades  his  devotion  to  party  issues 
which  were  long  ago  remitted  to  the  limbo  of  things 
lost  on  earth?" 

"The  people  will  right  all  the  evils  of  which  you 
complain,  professor,  so  soon  as  they  see  that  it  is  to 
their  interest  to  do  so." 

"How  can  they  doubt  that  it  is  their  interest  to 
right  them?  It  is  they  who  suffer  both  in  purse  and 
pride  for  every  unjust  exaction  and  every  dishonest 
evasion.  The  poorest  do  not  escape  the  conse- 
quences; it  all  comes  out  of  their  toil  in  the  end.  It 
depletes  their  pockets  in  a  hundred  unobserved  ways. 
They  pay  for  it  in  enhanced  taxation  of  their  homes, 
in  the  fuel  which  cooks  their  food,  in  a  greater  cost  of 


64  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  necessaries  of  life,  in  a  higher  rent,  in  the  nails 
which  hold  their  houses  together,  and  in  the  increased 
cost  of  the  blows  of  the  hammer  which  drives  them. 
I  do  not  need  to  tell  you,  doctor,  that  labor  must  bear 
the  burdens  of  the  State.  Labor  at  last  pays  all  and 
capital  pays  nothing — all  burdens  of  government,  all 
expenses  of  courts  and  juries,  and  prisons  and  police, 
all  cost  of  armies  and  navies.  The  diamonds  which 
glitter  upon  the  shirt  front  of  the  purchased  legislator, 
the  wine  which  hisses  down  the  throat  of  the  lobbyist, 
the  steel  doors  and  locks  which  guard  watered  stock 
and  stolen  bonds,  the  very  powder  and  bullets  which 
shoot  out  the  life  of  maddened  and  insurgent  labor,  are 
all  paid  for  out  of  the  toil  of  the  laborer. ' ' 

"While  there  is  much  truth  in  what  you  say,  profes- 
sor," observed  the  doctor,  "yet  where  is  the  immedi- 
ate necessity  for  you  to  work  yourself  into  such  a 
state  of  mind  about  it?" 

"Your  remark,  doctor,  is  a  representative  one," 
replied  Professor  Thornton,  "and  the  general  indif- 
ference which  it  expresses  is  the  most  discouraging 
feature  of  the  existing  situation.  Like  the  villagers 
who  cultivate  their  vineyards  at  the  base  of  Vesuvius, 
we  heed  not  the  rumblings  of  the  volcano.  Like  the 
citizens  long  resident  in  Cologne,  we  scent  the  tainted 
air  without  discomfort.  We  cry  with  the  French 
king,  'After  us  the  deluge,'  and  we  seem  to  care 
very  little  what  may  happen  so  long  as  it  shall  not 
happen  to  us." 

"There  is  the  mate  to  your  pickerel,"  said  the  doc- 
tor, as  he  landed  a  fish  upon  the  grass  at  his  feet. 
"Two  of  the  millionaires  of  Nine   Mile  Pond  have 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  65 

succumbed  to  their  own  greed  and  the  patience  and 
cunning  of  intelligent  labor." 

"Many  of  our  millionaires,"  resumed  the  professor, 
not  to  be  driven  from  his  theme,  "and  some  of  the 
most  active  and  powerful  of  them  all,  are  as  selfish,  as 
rapacious,  as  arrogant,  as  ignorant,  as  corrupt,  and  as 
despotic  as  Russian  Boyars  or  Turkish  Bashans.  At 
the  same  time  they  are  unaware  of  their  danger,  are 
utterly  obtuse  to  their  social  and  moral  responsibili- 
ties, and  conceited  with  fhe  invulnerable  conceit  of 
self-made  men.  They  do  not  seem  to  recognize 
that  they  are  unprotected  by  an  army,  or  a  strong 
government,  or  spies,  or  the  machinery  of  despot- 
ism, or  any  traditions  or  practices  of  rule,  and  they 
appear  to  take  no  thought  of  the  infinite  possibil- 
ities of  disaster  which  line  the  path  of  every  to- 
morrow." 

"You  really  fear,  then,  the  fulfillment  of  Macauley's 
prophecy,  professor?" 

"What  thoughtful  man  does  not?  There  is  in 
every  large  city  of  our  land  a  multitude  unindus- 
trious,  un  frugal  of  life,  uncurbed  of  spirit,  undisci- 
plined, uneducated,  fretful  of  small  gains,  accustomed 
to  freedom  of  speech  and  action,  jealous  of  anything 
which  looks  like  oppression  or  class  rule,  unaccus- 
tomed to  restrictions  of  any  kind,  irrreligious,  materi- 
alistic, discontented,  idle,  envious,  and  often  drunken." 

"In  brief,  a  powder  magazine,"  said  the  doctor. 
"Great  cities  have  always  presented  the  same  problem 
to  rulers,  yet  civilization  lives,  nevertheless." 

"Because,"  rejoined  the  professor,  "  in  monarchial 
Europe  the  magazine  is  guarded  by  trained  armies 
5 


66  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

and  watchful  sentinels,  while  in  our  country  it  is  left 
open  and  unguarded,  and  anarchists  with  lighted 
torches  pass  to  and  fro.  In  Europe  the  train  of  gov- 
ernment is  built  of  carefully-selected  materials,  it  is 
officered  by  experienced  engineers,  and  at  every  sta- 
tion the  testing  hammer  rings  against  the  wheels. 
Here  we  put  in  any  piece  of  crystallized  iron  for  wheel 
or  axle,  and  give  the  control  of  the  engine  to  any 
loud-voiced  braggart  who  can  climb  into  the  cab,  or 
any  ambitious  dotard  who  chooses  to  hire  the  trick- 
sters of  the  caucus  to  hoist  him  there.  Then  we 
throw  the  brakes  off,  the  throttle-valves  open,  and 
go  screaming  down  the  grade. ' ' 

"And  how  do  you  propose,  John,  to  avoid  a  smash- 
up?"  queried  the  doctor. 

' '  We  shall  have  passed  the  danger  point, ' '  replied 
the  professor,  ' '  and  entered  upon  an  era  of  safer  and 
better  life  for  the  republic,  only  when  the  great  mil- 
lionaires of  America  shall  elect  to  consider  themselves 
not  merely  as  conquerers  on  the  field  of  finance,  en- 
titled to  the  spoils  of  victory,  but  as  trustees  for  hu- 
manity, as  suns  whose  mission  it  is  to  draw  the  waters 
of  affluence  from  overflowing  lake  and  stream,  not  to 
hold  those  waters  above  the  earth  forever,  but  to  dis- 
tribute them  in  bounteous  and  fertilizing  showers. 

"And  do  you  suppose,  John  Thornton,  that  the 
people  would  either  appreciate  or  respond  to  such  se- 
raphic unselfishness  on  the  part  of  your  regenerated 
and  beatified  millionaires?" 

"Dr.  Eustace,  let  me  tell  you  that  when  the  great, 
industrious,  intelligent,  patriotic  body  of  workers  shall 
be  made  to  feel  that  there  is  no  necessary  conflict  be- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  67 

tween  labor  and  capital, — when  they  shall  be  made  to 
know  that  any  considerable  number  of  our  millionaires 
are  seeking  further  wealth  not  merely  to  add  to  their 
personal  luxury  and  power,  but  in  order  that  labor 
may  be  helped  in  turn  to  higher  planes  of  life,  when 
it  can  be  said  truthfully — 

"  '  Then  none  was  for  a  party, 
Then  all  were  for  the  State  ; 
Then  the  great  man  helped  the  poor 
And  the  poor  man  loved  the  great ' — 

In  that  day  professional  labor  agitators  will  lose  their 
vocations,  the  workingman  who  never  works  will 
be  without  influence  among  his  fellows,  and  the 
brotherhoods  of  beer  and  brawling  which  infest  the 
purlieus  of  our  larger  cities,  and  clamor  for  bread  or 
blood — meaning  always  somebody  else's  bread  or 
somebody  else's  blood — will  find  occasion  to  disband. 
I  do  not  despair  of  relief,  I  know  that  it  must  come. 
Whether  it  shall  come  through  'a  preserving  or  a 
destroying  revolution,'  whether  it  shall  come  in 
wrath  or  in  peace,  is  a  question  which  the  capitalists 
of  this  country  must  answer  and  answer  speedily." 

"John,  you  dear  old  dreamer,"  said  the  doctor, 
"I  know  of  one  millionaire  whose  gold  has  not  cor- 
roded his  humanity.  I  hope  there  are  many  such,  but 
I  fear  that  if  the  world  looks  to  its  wealth  owners  to 
lead  it  in  a  crusade  of  unselfishness,  it  will  wait  a  long, 
long  time.  But  I  do  not  diagnose  the  disease  as  you 
do.  You  resemble  a  boy  who  has  stubbed  his  toe. 
To  him  there  is  no  world  and  hardly  any  boy  outside 
of  that  sore  toe.  Yet  if  the  cure  be  left  to  nature,  in 
time  the  pain  will  abate  and  the  toe  recover.     I  do 


68  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

not  believe  that  any  law  framed  by  man  can  make  a 
pound  of  flour  out  of  half  a  pound  of  wheat,  or  that 
any  scheme  of  government  can  equalize  the  inevitable 
inequalities  of  human  life." 

"Then  you  do  not  believe  in  the  wisdom  and  be- 
neficence of  compelling  the  rapacious  rich  to  aid  the 
deserving  poor?" 

"No;  I  believe  in  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of 
exact  justice.  I  believe  that  the  skillful  and  rapid 
bricklayer  is  entitled  to  higher  wages  and  greater  op- 
portunities of  employment  than  his  stupid  and  slothful 
associate,  and  that  to  deny  the  former  his  rightful  ad- 
vantage is  an  outrage  upon  justice,  whether  such  out- 
rage be  perpetrated  by  an  employer  or  a  trades  union. 
I  believe  that  every  man  is  fairly  entitled  to  all  the 
fruits  of  his  labor,  his  skill,  his  good  judgment,  and  his 
good  luck.  The  pickerel  at  your  feet  came  by  chance 
to  your  hook  and  not  mine,  and  therefore  it  is  your 
fish  and  not  my  fish." 

"But  by  the  law  of  nature,  doctor,  there  is  no  dif- 
ference between  a  beggar  and  a  king. 

"There  is  where  you  are  wrong,  professor.  The 
law  of  nature  is  a  universal  statute  of  equality  of  op- 
portunity and  inequality  of  result,  and  man  distorts 
her  purposes  and  violates  her  statutes  when  he  places 
an  unearned  crown  on  the  head  of  a  king,  or  an  un- 
earned crust  in  the  mouth  of  a  beggar." 

"Do  you  think,  then,  that  man  has  no  excuse  for 
his  shortcomings,  doctor?" 

"He  has  many.  He  is  controlled  by  the  occult 
power  of  race  transmissions,  by  laws  which  he  did 
not   help   to   make,   by   customs   which    he   did   not 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  69 

help  to  form,  by  organizations  and  environments  be- 
yond his  power  to  change  or  combat.  But  because 
of  these  he  should  have  no  license  to  plunder  his 
wealthier  neighbor,  for,  in  this  republic,  it  is  within 
the  power  of  the  people  to  change  laws,  and  alter  cus- 
toms, and  secure  to  every  man  the  result  of  his  own 
toil  and  skill — and  that  is  all  any  man  is  entitled  to." 

"But  the  wealth  owners,  doctor,  have  monopolized 
nearly  all  the  resources  of  nature." 

' '  Nonsense.  There  is  not  a  hungry  idler  in  the  pur- 
lieus of  New  York  City  but  might  catch  fish  enough 
at  the  nearest  wharf  to  keep  him  from  starvation,  or 
find  within  a  day's  walk  a  piece  of  land  he  could 
cultivate  on  'shares.'  The  resources  of  nature  are 
inexhaustible.  If  every  adult  male  in  the  land  were 
to  build  for  himself  a  marble  palace,  there  would 
be  no  perceptible  diminution  in  nature's  supply  of 
marble.  If  every  farmer  were  to  devote  his  energies 
and  his  acres  to  the  production  of  wheat,  until  enough 
wheat  should  have  been  harvested  to  feed  the  world 
for  five  years,  yet  the  capacity  of  soil  and  sun,  water 
and  air  to  produce  more  wheat  would  be  neither  ex- 
hausted nor  impaired.  For  thousands  of  years  the 
men  of  every  civilization  have  been  hewing  forests, 
and  smelting  iron,  yet  the  forests  which  are  untouched 
and  the  mines  which  are  unopened  are  practically 
limitless." 

"Doctor,  a  man  cannot  stir  the  earth  without  a 
spade,  or  cut  down  a  tree  without  an  ax,  or  mine  iron 
ore  without  a  pick,  and  the  owners  of  the  spades,  and 
picks,  and  axes,  exact  from  the  laborer  an  undue  share 
of  his  labor  for  their  use." 


7<3  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Who  is  to  determine  whether  the  share  exacted 
be  an  undue  one?  My  own  opinion  is  that  the  labor- 
er's share  of  results  has  grown  larger,  and  the  capi- 
talist's share  smaller,  during  the  last  twenty  years.  At 
least,  the  rate  of  interest  on  money  is  not  much  more 
than  half  what  it  was  before  the  war.  But  whether 
this  be  so  or  not  it  is  not  nature's  fault.  Nature  is 
not  only  implacably  just,  she  is  impartially  generous. 
No  suitor  is  denied  the  chance  to  gain  her  favors,  and 
none  is  refused  any  favor  he  may  have  earned.  There 
are  floods  and  tornadoes,  frosts  and  fevers,  burning 
suns  and  chilling  winds.  Yet  these,  as  well  as  the 
fruitage  and  the  harvests,  are  the  offspring  of  inexor- 
able law,  and  science  now  interprets  the  law.  It  warns 
us  of  cyclones  ten  thousand  miles  away;  it  predicts 
the  date  of  arrival,  speed,  and  duration  of  hurri- 
canes; it  brings  the  ladybug  from  Australia  to  com- 
bat and  destroy  the  scalebug  in  California;  it  prom- 
ises to  conquer  drought  by  exploding  dynamite  bombs 
in  the  air  or  by  chemical  production  of  rain;  it  restrains 
floods  by  diverting  rivers;  it  destroys  malarial  germs 
by  planting  groves  of  eucalyptus;  it  analyzes  soils;  it 
selects  seeds;  it  fertilizes  with  electric  wires,  and  it 
ploughs  and  plants  and  harvests  fields  with  iron-limbed 
and  steam-lunged  servants.  A  hundred  years  ago 
one  man  with  spade  and  sickle  slowly  wrested  from 
the  earth  the  sustenance  for  his  little  household,  with 
only  sufficient  surplus  to  scantily  compensate  the 
weaver,  who,  with  hand  loom,  constructed  a  few  yards 
of  cloth  between  daylight  and  dark.  Now  a  girl 
guides  the  spindles  and  shuttles  and  makes  thousands 
of  yards  of  cloth  in  a  day,  and  the  labor  of  one  man 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  7 1 

industriously  applied  to  so  much  land  as  he  can  ad- 
vantageously cultivate  with  the  aid  of  improved  ma- 
chinery, will  in  one  year  produce  one  thousand  bush- 
els of  wheat,  or  their  equivalent  in  agricultural  prod- 
ucts— enough  to  feed  fifty  men  for  a  year." 

"  I-grant  you,  doctor,  that  the  production  of  wealth 
has  greatly  increased.  The  problem  of  the  hour  is 
how  to  provide  for  a  more  equal  and  just  distribution 
of  it." 

"John,  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  not  difficult. ' 
Allow  every  man  to  have  that  which  he  earns,  and 
compel  every  man  to  earn  that  which  he  has.  Ac- 
cord every  man  the  opportunity  to  work  or  starve, 
with  the  assurance  that  for  his  work  he  will  receive 
full  value,  and  for  his  idleness  a  hunger  that  no  public 
or  private  charity  will  alleviate.  Hard  labor  and  hard 
fare  for  the  criminal,  generous  diet  and  tender  care 
for  the  sick,  an  ax  or  a  pump  handle  for  the  tramp, 
and  allow  no  healthy  man  to  eat  his  supper  until  he 
has  earned  it.  Consider  sporadic  and  indiscriminate 
charity  as  great  an  evil  as  injustice.  Accord  every 
man  his  dollar  and  demand  from  every  man  your  dol- 
lar, and  give  and  exact  shilling  for  shilling.  Emu- 
late and  copy  the  inexorable  justice  of  nature." 

"Doctor,"  said  the  professor,  "I  am  silenced  but 
not  convinced.  The  sun  is  getting  too  high  for  further 
fishing.     Come,  let  us  go  to  luncheon." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"  No  man  can  tell  what  he  does  not  know." 

"Bob,"  said  Morning,  "as  they  lighted  their  ci- 
gars, and  seated  themselves  after  supper  upon  the 
piazza  of  the  railroad  hotel  at  Tucson,  "the  copper  as- 
says are  not  up  to  your  expectations,  still  I  am  in- 
clined to  buy  the  property  if  I  can  arrange  to  employ 
men  at  rates  that  will  enable  me  to  work  it.  What  are 
miners'  wages  hereabouts?" 

' '  Three  dollars  and  a  half  a  day  for  ten  hours, ' ' 
replied  Steel. 

"And  how  much  for  unskilled  laborers  for  road 
building,  wheeling,  and  aboveground  work?"  said 
Morning. 

"  Two. dollars  and  a  half;  but  for  work  of  that  kind 
you  can  get  Chinamen  at  $1.50  a  day,  Mexicans  at 
$1.25,  and  Papago  Indians  for  $1.00,  if  you  wish  to 
employ  them,  though  I  reckon  you  would  have 
.trouble  about  getting  white  men  to  work  with  either." 

"I  don't  wish  to  cut  wages  on  miners,  Bob,  for 
they  earn  all  they  get,  but  if  I  buy  that  property,  there 
will  be  a  lot  of  road  building,  and  grading  for  furnace 
sites,  and  wheeling,  and  other  work  of  the  same  na- 
ture, and  unless  such  work  can  be  done  cheaply,  it  will 
not  pay  to  hire  miners  for  underground  work,  or,  in- 
deed, to  work  the  copper  mines  at  all.  I  shall  want 
(72>) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  73 

these  unskilled  laborers  for  only  a  short  time,  and  I 
have  especial  reasons  for  not  hiring  either  white  men 
or  Mexicans,  neither  do  I  care  to  employ  Chinamen  if 
I  can  avoid  it.  Could  I,  think  you,  obtain  enough  In- 
dians for  this  preliminary  work?" 

"Plenty  of  them  at  the  San  Xavier  reservation, 
nine  miles  from  here.  I  patter  their  lingo  a  little  and 
can  get  you  a  gang  if  you  want  them." 

' '  I  may  want  to  drill  and  blast  down  a  lot  of  basalt 
rock  to  build  the  foundations  of  furnaces  and  ballast 
the  road  with,"  said  Morning.  "Will  they  do  that 
kind  of  work?" 

"Yes,  until  it  comes  to  firing  the  blasts.  You  will 
need  a  white  man  for  that.  You  will  also  need  a 
white  man  for  blacksmith  work — sharpening  picks  and 
drills.  The  Indians  cannot  work  at  a  forge,  and  they 
are  nervous  about  'big  shoots,'  as  they  call  them." 

"Bob,  if  I  take  those  copper  prospects  of  you  at 
your  price,  will  you  hire  a  gang  of  Papagoes  for  me, 
and  take  them  up  there  and  work  them  for  two  or 
three  months  under  my  direction,  you  and  I  sharpen- 
ing the  tools  and  preparing  and  firing  the  blasts,  I 
paying  you  say  $10  a  day  for  your  services?" 

"Well,  Mr.  Morning,  I  don't  quite  like  such  a  job 
as  that,  but  I  am  anxious  to  sell  those  copper  pros- 
pects, and  I  will  do  it.  But  if  you  are  going  to  hire 
Indian  labor,  I  advise  you  to  do  first  all  the  work 
that  you  intend  to  do  with  it.  I  mean,  it  will  be  best 
to  get  through  with  the  Papagoes  before  you  take  any 
white  men  in  there,  or  else  there  may  be  a  row,  and 
the  white  men  will  drive  away  the  Indians." 

"All  right,  Bob,  I  will  take  your  advice.     You  may 


74  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

consider  the  trade  made.  I  will  take  your  deed  for 
the  copper  locations  and  give  you  a  check  to-morrow 
for  $10,000  on  the  First  National  Bank  at  Denver,  or 
I  will  arrange  to  get  you  the  coin  from  the  bank  here 
if  you  desire  it. ' ' 

' '  Your  check  is  good  enough  for  me,  Mr.  Morn- 
ing." 

"Very  well.  Then  you  can  go  to  the  San  Xavier 
reservation  early  in  the  morning  and  make  a  bargain 
with  the  Papagoes  for  three  months.  Obtain  forty 
good  men  and  agree  to  furnish  them  with  rations  and 
pay  them  $1-25  a  day.  They  have  ponies,  I  suppose, 
and  can  take  their  squaws  along  if  they  choose.  It 
will  make  them  more  contented  to  stay.  You  might 
contract  with  them  also  to  furnish  enough  cattle  to 
supply  themselves  with  fresh  meat.  They  can  drive 
them  along,  and  there  is  now  plenty  of  grass  in  the  ra- 
vines. Don't  let  them  come  to  Tuscon,  for  I  don't 
wish  the  people  here  to  know  what  I  am  doing.  The 
Indians  can  strike  across  from  San  Xavier  by  Fort 
Lowell  and  meet  us,  or  wait  for  us  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rillito.  Yon  can  return  here  as  soon  as  you  start 
them,  and  we  will  buy  teams  and  load  them  with  sup- 
plies, and  drive  them  out  ourselves.  We  will  do  all 
the  blacksmith  work  and  blasting  ourselves.  And, 
Bob,  keep  your  own  counsel  strictly  about  everything. 
I  have  reasons  for  secrecy  which  I  will  explain  to  you 
later." 

"All  right,  Mr.  Morning.  I  don't  clearly  see  what 
you  are  driving  at.  It's  a  queer  way  to  open  a  cop- 
per mine,  but  you  are  the  captain,  and  I've  known 
you  a  long  time,  and  whatever  you  say  goes  with  Bob 
Steel." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  75 

It  was  three  o'clock  the  next  afternoon  before  Steel 
returned  from  San  Xavier.  He  was  well  known  to 
the  Papagoes,  having  often  purchased  grain  and  ani- 
mals from  them  for  mining  companies  with  which  he 
had  been  connected  as  superintendent.  His  mission 
was  successful,  and  Manuel  Pacheco,  a  leader  among 
the  Indians,  had  agreed  to  have  the  necessary  force 
at  the  place  designated  on  the  third  "sun  up." 

Tuscon,  although  not  a  mining  town,  is  a  commer- 
cial center  for  a  dozen  mining  camps,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  the  outfitting  of  a  party  of  miners  calculated 
to  attract  especial  notice.  Two  wagons  and  twelve 
mules  were  purchased,  with  all  needed  supplies,  and 
Morning  and  Steel  drove  away  to  their  destination, 
where  they  met  the  Indians  and  proceeded  to  the 
old  copper-camp.  After  supper  Morning  opened  the 
conversation  which  he  had  determined  to  have  with 
Steel. 

"Bob,"  said  he,  "to  tell  the  truth,  I  do  not  intend 
to  work  this  copper  property  at  present,  though  I 
shall  need  it  by  and  by  for  a  purpose  I  will  not  now 
explain.  I  bought  it  mainly  because  I  knew  you 
intended  to  sell  it  to  somebody,  and  I  wished  to  keep 
others  away  from  this  vicinity.  I  have  another  use  for 
the  powder  and  the  Indians,  and,  if  you  will  accept 
the  offer  I  am  about  to  make,  I  have  another  sen-ice 
for  you.  I  selected  you  because  I  know  you  are  as 
true  and  as  bright  as  your  name.  If  you  will  work 
with  me  and  for  me  in  this  canon  as  I  require,  I  will 
give  you  a  salary  of  $1,000  a  month  for  three  years, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  time  I  will  pay  you — don't  think 
I  am  crazy— I  will  pay  you  Si, 000,000.  What  do 
you  say  to  my  proposition  ? ' ' 


76  BETTER    DAYS,    OR  ^, 

"You  take  away  my  breath,"  rejoined  Steel.  "If 
I  did  not  know  you  so  well,  I  should  say  that  you  had 
been  boozing  on  mescal,  or  were  otherwise  off  your 
nut.  But  you  don't  talk  usually  without  meaning 
what  you  say,  and  I  reckon  you  are  in  earnest.  But 
there  is  nothing  that  I  can  do  to  earn  $1,000,000, 
or  $1,000  a  month  either." 

"Oh,  yes,  there  is,"  said  Morning,  "as  you  will 
agree  when  you  know  all,  or  at  least  all  that  I  intend 
to  tell  you!  Listen:  When  I  was  up  the  canon  while 
we  were  here  last  week,  I  discovered  and  located  a 
rich  gold  quartz  lode  that  was  uncovered  by  the  water- 
spout. It  is  very  rich  and  extensive — indeed,  there 
are  many  millions  in  sight  in  the  croppings.  It  was 
through  my  coming  here  to  look  at  your  copper  lodes 
that  I  was  led  to  its  discovery,  and  in  a  certain  way 
I  consider  you  have  a  right  to  some  profit  from  it,  and 
I  can  well  afford  to  give  you  a  million  dollars  for  your 
services  and  your  silence,  or  several  millions,  if  you 
want  that  much.  The  ledge  is  so  rich  that  the  first 
thing  to  do  is  to  conceal  it.  No  person  but  myself 
knows  its  extent  or  value,  and  I  shall  not  disclose 
these  even  to  you.  When  I  commence  working  it 
and  turning  out  bullion,  people  will  be  curious,  and 
they  will  badger  you  to  tell  them  all  about.  The  elder 
Rothschild  is  credited  with  the  aphorism  that  no  man 
can  tell  what  he  does  not  know,  and  if  you  really  don't 
know  the  extent  of  the  Morning  mine,  it  will  be  a  good 
deal  easier  for  you  to  baffle  the  curious.  I  propose 
that  you  shall  not  look  at  the  ledge  or  go  into  the 
box  canon  where  it  is.     Will  you  agree  to  that  ? ' ' 

"Oh,  I  am  agreeable!"  said  Steel.  "I  appreciate 
your  reasons,  and,  anyway,  it's  none  of  my  business." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  77 

Morning  then  explained  to  Steel  the  situation  of 
the  canon  where  he  had  found  the  lode,  and  the  man- 
ner of  its  discovery,  but  was  silent  as  to  its  dimensions 
or  the  quantity  of  gold  contained  in  the  rock.  He 
informed  him  as  to  his  plan  of  operations,  which  was 
to  pack  all  the  supplies  and  tools  on  the  backs  of  the 
animals  as  far  up  the  canon  as  it  was  possible  thus  to 
go,  and  there  make  a  permanent  camp.  The  Indians 
were  then  to  carry  the  tools,  powder,  and  a  supply  of 
provisions  upon  their  backs  up  to  the  summit  of  the 
basalt  wall  near  the  rift,  where  another  camp  would 
be  made. 

Two  Indians  were  to  be  left  at  the  copper-camp, 
with  directions  if  anyone  appeared  there  to  run  up 
the  canon  and  inform  Steel  or  Morning.  Two  Indians 
were  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  the  permanent  camp 
and  the  animals,  four  Indians  were  to  carry  water  in 
kegs  to  the  top  of  the  wall  for  the  use  of  the  main 
party  there,  two  Indians  to  procure  firewood  and  pre- 
pare food  and  attend  to  the  camp  at  the  summit,  and 
thirty  Indians  to  work  at  drilling  holes  in  the  basalt 
at  the  summit  on  both  sides  of  the  rift,  and  at  a  dis- 
tance of  about  ten  feet  from  the  edge  of  it. 

The  squaws  were  to  be  suffered  to  make  such  dis- 
position of  their  time  as  their  social  and  domestic 
duties  and  inclinations  might  suggest.  Steel  and 
Morning  would  keep  the  drills  sharpened  at  the  port- 
able forge,  which,  with  a  supply  of  charcoal,  would  be 
transported  to  the  summit  camp,  and  as  often  as  the 
drill  holes  were  ready  they  would  place  and  explode 
the  blasts. 

It  was  intended  thus  to  throw  rocks  from  the  sum- 


78  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

mit  down  into  the  gorge,  and  this  was  to  be  repeated 
until  its  bottom  should  be  covered  to  a  depth  of  many 
feet,  and  all  signs  of  the  existence  of  the  quartz  lode 
obliterated.  From  the  height  of  one  thousand  feet  the 
lode  could  not  be  seen  at  all,  unless  one  were  to  crawl 
to  and  look  over  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  and  then  its 
nature  could  not — except  by  an  experienced  miner  or 
geologist — be  discerned  from  that  of  the  neighboring 
rock.  The  Indians  below  would  not  be  apt  to  dis- 
obey orders,  leave  their  posts,  and  go  into  the  canon 
amid  tumbling  rocks,  and  the  general  stolidity  and 
lack  of  interest  of  the  Papagoes  would  lead  them  to 
attribute  the  entire  work  to  the  eccentricity  of  their 
white  employer. 

The  plan  formed  by  Morning  was  carried  into  effect. 
Drills  of  different  length  had  been  provided,  and  the 
work  was  systematized.  At  six  o'clock  each  morn- 
ing the  Indians  commenced  work;  from  eleven  to 
twelve  they  were  allowed  for  dinner  and  rest.  At  five 
o'clock  drilling  was  suspended,  and  the  work  of  pre- 
paring the  blasts  was  performed.  The  Indians  then 
retired  to  a  distance,  and  Morning  and  Steel  would 
explode  the  blasts. 

At  the  end  of  two  months'  hard  labor  the  rift  was 
filled  with  rock  and  debris  to  a  depth  of  thirty  feet,  and 
the  lode  completely  covered  from  view.  Morning 
then  made  a  relocation  of  the  mine  on  the  basalt  wall 
above  and  on  the  mountain  side  below.  He  located 
extensions,  side  locations,  and  tunnel  locations  in  every 
direction  for  a  mile  or  more,  so  as  to  completely 
appropriate  all  approaches  to  the  original  location, 
and  prevent  others  from  obtaining  any  vantage-ground 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  79 

from  which  drifts  might  be  run  under  his  property. 
He  also  located  the  necessary  mill  sites,  the  waters  of 
Rillito  Creek,  and  the  timber  upon  the  mountains. 

The  plateau  where  he  had  tethered  his  horses  on 
his  first  visit  was,  with  the  available  adjacent  slopes, 
chosen  as  a  site  for  buildings  he  intended  to  have  con- 
structed for  the  use  of  the  miners  and  their  families, 
and  a  rock  and  earth  dam  was  built  in  the  Rillito  sev- 
eral hundred  feet  above,  from  whence  the  water  should 
be  piped  to  the  buildings.  The  Indians  were  then  set 
to  work  constructing  a  wagon  road  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Rillito. 

The  work  being  completed,  the  entire  party  now 
journeyed  to  Tucson,  and  the  Indians  were  paid  off 
and  returned  to  the  reservation,  where  they  doubtless 
regaled  their  tribe  with  an  account  of  the  work  they 
had  performed  at  the  instance  of  the  white  lunatic  who 
had  paid  them  over  four  thousand  "pesos"  in  silver 
to  tumble  rock  into  a  hole.  Yet  it  is  doubtful  if  such 
information  ever  extended  beyond  members  of  their 
tribe,  for,  on  parting  with  them,  Morning  presented 
each  worker  with  a  high  silk  hat,  and  each  squaw  with 
red  calico  for  a  gown,  and  Bob  Steel  made  a  speech 
to  them  in  the  Papago  tongue,  and  asked  them  to 
agree  not  to  tell  the  Indian  agent,  or  any  white  man, 
where  they  had  been  working  or  what  doing,  beyond 
the  statement  that  they  had  been  ' '  building  wagon 
road."  The  Indians — naturally  secretive — readily 
gave  the  required  promise. 

Having  recorded  his  new  location  notices,  Morning 
telegraphed  to  San  Francisco  for  a  portable  sawmill. 
He  loaded  the  wagons  with  a  fresh  supply  of  provis- 


8o  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

ions  and  tools  and  sent  them  with  a  gang  of  wood- 
choppers  in  charge  of  Steel  to  the  upper  camp  on  the 
Rillito,  with  directions  to  get  out  logs  and  haul  them 
to  the  site  of  the  proposed  sawmill. 

While  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  sawmill,  Morning 
visited  the  neighboring  mining  camps  of  Tombstone, 
Globe,  and  Bisbee,  and  selected  with  great  care — 
after  watching  them  at  work  and  informing  himself 
as  to  their  habits  and  antecedents — one  hundred  min- 
ers, to  whom  he  agreed  to  give  a  steady  job  for  several 
years,  working  in  eight-hour  shifts,  at  $4-00  per  day. 
He  preferred  and  obtained  married  men,  each  man 
being  promised  a  comfortable  cabin,  with  transporta- 
tion for  his  family  and  effects  from  Tucson. 

In  ten  days  the  portable  sawmill  arrived,  and  with 
it  and  a  full  outfit  of  building  material,  tools,  and 
pipe,  Morning,  accompanied  by  a  gang  of  carpenters, 
was  again  en  route  for  the  mine. 

It  was  busy  times  at  Waterspout,  for  such  was  the 
name  given  to  the  new  camp,  for  the  next  six  weeks. 
By  that  time  the  sawmill  and  shingle  machine  had 
turned  out  sufficient  material,  and  with  the  carpenters 
and  a  number  of  the  wood-choppers  who  were  drafted 
for  the  purpose,  eighty  comfortable  board  houses  had 
been  constructed,  with  large  buildings  for  shops  and 
offices,  and  a  suitable  edifice  for  a  schoolhouse. 
Water  was  piped  to  the  little  plaza  about  which  the 
buildings  were  gathered,  and  all  was  ready  for  the 
miners. 

The  sawmill  was  now  set  to  work  getting  out  tim- 
bers for  a  mill,  and  for  timbering  tunnels.  The  men 
were  all  alive  with  curiosity  to  know  where  was  the 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF  TO-MORROW.  8l 

mine  for  the  working  of  which  all  these  preparations 
were  made,  but  both  Morning  and  Steel  were  reticent, 
and  those  who  were  too  pressing  in  their  inquiries 
were  quietly  given  to  understand  that  a  continuation 
of  questioning  might  cause  their  services  to  be  dis- 
pensed with. 

All  being  ready,  the  teams  were  sent  to  Tucson  at 
the  appointed  time  and  returned  with  the  miners  and 
their  household  effects,  a  number  of  wagons  chartered 
for  the  purpose  bringing  the  women  and  children. 
Twenty  or  more  adventurers  on  horseback  and  in 
wagons  accompanied  the  party,  as  by  this  time  curi- 
osity was  all  ablaze  at  the  proceedings  of  Morning, 
whose  location  notices  had  been  read  by  hundreds, 
and  been  made  the  subject  of  frequent  comment  in  the 
Tucson  papers. 

Numerous  prospecting  parties  were  dispatched  to 
the  Santa  Catalinas  during  the  next  few  months,  and 
their  members  climbed  all  over  the  mountains,  ex- 
amined Morning's  location  monuments,  and  returned 
to  Tucson  with  the  report  that  the  Colorado  man 
was  clean  crazy,  that  there  was  not  a  sign  of  quartz, 
or  any  place  where  quartz  could  exist,  and  that 
Morning's  friends — if  he  had  any — would  do  well  to 
appoint  a  guardian  for  him. 

The  plan  of  production  upon  which  Morning  had 
settled  was  to  extract  sufficient  gold  to  gradually  sub- 
stitute that  metal  for  paper,  or  to  make  it  instead  of 
bonds  or  credits  the  basis  for  paper  money  in  all  the 
civilized  world,  and  to  increase  the  circulation  of  all 
countries  to  the  volume  per  capita  of  the  country 
having  the  largest  amount. 
6 


82  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

He  learned  from  the  statistics  with  which  he  had 
supplied  himself  that  the  money  circulation  of  France, 
the  most  prosperous  and  the  most  commercially  ac- 
tive nation  in  Europe,  was  $42.15  per  capita,  of  the 
United  States  $24. 10,  of  Great  Britain  $20.40,  of  Italy 
$16.31,  of  Spain  $14.44,  and  of  Germany,  $14.23.  In 
the  Asiatic,  semi- Asiatic  and  South  American  coun- 
tries the  money  circulation  was  still  less,  being  but 
$5.20 per  capita  in  Russia,  $3.18  in  Turkey,  $4.02  in 
British  India,  $4.90  in  Mexico,  $4.29  in  Peru,  $1.79 
in  Central  America,  and  $1.29  in  Venezuela. 

Morning  noticed  that  the  greater  the  money  circu- 
lation of  a  country,  the  greater  the  civilization,  pros- 
perity, and  refinement  of  the  people;  and  metallic 
money,  or  paper  currency  calling  for  metallic  money, 
being  the  best  money,  it  would  be  sure  wherever  ob- 
tainable to  drive  out  all  other  currency.  He  pro- 
posed, therefore,  to  increase,  as  rapidly  as  was  possible, 
the  metallic  money  of  the  United  States  and  Europe 
to  the  standard  per  capita  of  France,  beginning  with 
the  United  States,  following  with  England,  and  then 
proceeding  to  the  Continent. 

The  process  of  accomplishing  this  was  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly simple.  He  would  ship  gold  bars  to  the 
mints  of  the  country  whose  currency  he  proposed  to 
increase,  and  ask  that  they  be  coined  into  the  money 
of  the  country.  The  coin  received  he  proposed  to 
deposit  in  the  banks  of  that  country  for  investment 
or  use  therein. 

The  one  danger  against  which  he  had  to  provide 
was  demonetization  of  gold  by  the  nations.  He  could 
only  effectually  guard  against  this  by  withholding  all 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  83 

knowledge  of  the  extent  of  his  mine  until  he  should 
have  accumulated  a  vast  deposit  of  gold  bars — say 
$2,000,000,000  worth — and  then  deposit  these  for 
coinage  suddenly  and  simultaneously  at  the  mints  of 
the  world  before  any  law  could  be  enacted  depriving 
gold  of  its  quality  as  a  money  metal.  Yet  it  would 
take  several  years  for  the  mints  to  coin  so  large  a  sum, 
and  in  the  meantime  gold  might  be  demonetized.  In 
order  for  Morning  to  place  his  gold  beyond  the  reach 
of  such  legislation,  it  was  essential  to  have  it  coined, 
or  put  in  form  of  money  having  a  legal  tender  value. 
A  slight  change  in  the  currency  and  coinage  laws 
would  effect  this.  In  the  United  States  it  might  be 
accomplished  by  an  act  of  Congress  requiring  the 
government  to  receive  gold  bars,  and  to  issue  legal 
tender  gold  notes  thereon,  without  actually  coining 
the  gold  at  all.  The  mints  of  the  United  States, 
working  to  their  full  capacity  on  gold  alone,  could 
not  turn  out  more  than  $50,000,000  in  coin  per  month, 
while  a  government  printing  press  could  issue  $500,- 
000,000  in  a  day. 

Morning  concluded  that  one  of  his  earliest  duties 
would  be  to  visit  Washington  while  Congress  was  in 
session,  and  promote  the  necessary  legislation. 

Of  the  gold  which  he  produced  he  could  ship  to 
the  mints  openly  about  one  bar  in  twenty-five.  The 
other  twenty-four  bars  he  could  keep  at  the  mine  un- 
til he  could  build  a  smelting  furnace  and  manufacture 
pigs  of  copper,  which  should  be  hollow,  and  in  which 
gold  bars  should  be  concealed,  and  thus  shipped  to 
financial  centers,  where  they  could  be  stored  ready 
for  any  occasion. 


84  BETTER    DAYS. 

Morning  estimated  that  the  production  of  $100,- 
000,000  per  month  would  require  the  activity  of  two 
hundred  stamps,  and  that  with  the  aid  of  improved 
machinery  he  could  reach  the  ledge  and  commence 
the  production  of  gold  in  about  three  months.  He 
had  now  expended  for  labor,  machinery,  and  supplies 
about  $25,000,  and  as  much  more  would  be  required 
to  meet  the  labor  expenses  of  the  next  sixty  days, 
while  the  quartz  mills  he  proposed  erecting  would  re- 
quire nearly  $200,000  more.  As  the  business  methods 
of  the  railroad  company  prevented  him  from  keeping 
his  secret,  and  at  the  same  time  realizing  any  money 
by  shipping  ore,  he  determined  to  obtain  the  neces- 
sary funds  by  a  sale  of  his  mortage  securities,  and, 
leaving  Robert  Steel  in  charge  of  the  work,  David 
Morning  departed  for  Denver. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  Sick  to  the  soul." 

On  his  return  to  Denver,  Morning  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  speedily  closing  up  his  business  and  convert- 
ing his  mortgages  into  money.  In  about  ten  days  he 
was  ready  to  depart  for  San  Francisco,  where  he 
intended  purchasing  the  necessary  machinery  for  five 
mills  of  forty  stamps  each.  His  sole  remaining  busi- 
ness in  Denver  was  the  execution  and  delivery  to  the 
purchaser  of  a  conveyance  of  some  city  property 
which  he  had  sold. 

While  breakfasting  at  the  Windsor  that  morning, 
his  appetite  was  not  increased  by  reading  from  the 
Associated  Press  telegrams  the  following: — 
"marriage  in  high  life. 

"Boston,  February  13,  1893. 

"There  was  celebrated  this  morning  at  the  residence 
of  the  bride's  father,  Professor  John  Thornton,  in 
Roxbury,  the  nuptials  of  one  of  Boston's  greatest 
heiresses  and  acknowledged  belles,  the  beautiful  and 
accomplished  Miss  Ellen  Thornton,  to  the  Baron  Von 
Eulaw.  The  happy  couple  will  sail  on  the  Servia 
to-morrow,  and  will  proceed  directly  to  Berlin.  It  is 
intimated  that  our  fair  countrywoman  may  be  restored 
to  us  after  a  season  by  the  appointment  of  the  Baron 
Von  Eulaw  as  envoy  at  Washington  from  the  German 
Empire." 

Forgotten?     Ah,  no!  there  are  experiences  in  life 

(85) 


86  BETTER   DAYS,    OR 

that  may  never  be  forgotten.  Time  rolls  by,  and 
against  the  door  of  the  mausoleum  where  we  buried 
our  dead  out  of  sight  the  years  have  piled  events  and 
emotions  and  distractions,  and  the  passion  which  we 
once  thought  immortal  becomes  now  an  episode,  and 
by  and  by  a  dream,  and  at  last  a  vague  and  shadowy 
remembrance,  and  one  day  some  new  and  mighty 
fact  stalks  forward,  and  sweeps  away  all  obstructions, 
and  the  doors  of  the  tomb  are  reopened,  and  fhe  dead 
of  our  heart  come  forth,  bringing  to  us  sometimes  the 
joys  of  life's  morning,  ahd  sometimes  the  bitterness 
of  a  new  death. 

David  Morning  walked  from  the  hotel  to  his  office 
without  noticing  many  of  the  friendly  greetings  be- 
stowed upon  him,  for  his  thoughts  were  busy  with  the 
past,  and  there  was  a  dull,  dead  pain  tugging  at  his 
heart  strings. 

The  notary  who  had  taken  Morning's  acknowledg- 
ment to  the  deed  whose  delivery  would  complete  his 
business  in  Denver,  brought  the  instrument  to  Morn- 
ing's office,  and,  not  finding  him  in,  slipped  the  paper 
in  the  top  of  a  desk  with  a  circular  cover.  This  desk 
was  one  of  Morning's  first  possessions  in  the  way  of 
office  furniture,  and,  finding  it  convenient  and  com- 
modious, he  had  caused  it  to  accompany  every 
change  of  quarters  which  his  increasing  business  had 
from  time  to  time  rendered  necessary. 

Entering  his  office,  Morning  hurriedly  threw  back 
the  cover  of  the  desk,  not  noticing  the  deed  in  the 
top  of  it  until  it  was  too  late  to  prevent  the  paper  from 
being  carried  by  the  revolving  cover  into  the  interior 
of  the  desk,  where  it  could  only   be  reached  by  re- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  87 

moving  a  portion  of  the  back.  The  services  of  a 
mechanic  from  a  neighboring  furniture  store  were 
procured,  the  back  of  the  desk  was  removed,  and 
Morning  recovered  the  deed. 

He  also  recovered  another  paper.  It  was  an  un- 
opened letter  addressed  to  himself,  which  had  doubt- 
less reached  its  resting-place  in  the  old  desk  through 
the  same  process  as  that  which  carried  the  deed  there. 
The  envelope  was  covered  with  dust;  it  was  post- 
marked "Boston,  Mass.,  February,  1883" — ten  years 
before — and  the  superscription  was  in  the  handwriting 
of  Ellen  Thornton,  now  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw. 

Dispatching  the  recovered  deed  to  its  destination, 
Morning  closed  the  door  of  his  private  office,  and, 
with  breath  coming  thick  and  fast,  proceeded  to  open 
and  peruse  the  missive.     It  read  as  follows: — 

Roxbury,  Mass.,  Feb.  13,  1883. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Morning:  This  letter  may  bring 
you  a  moment  of  surprise;  if  it  be  not  a  surprise  mixed 
with  chagrin,  I  am  less  justly  repaid  than  perhaps  I 
deserve  for  that  which  may  seem  my  instability  of  pur- 
pose. But  I  have  heard  you  say  that  you  scarcely 
knew  which  was  the  weaker,  the  man  who  changed 
his  mind  too  often  or  who  never  changed  it  at  all,  and 
in  this  recollection  I  find  refuge. 

With  men  as  intuitive  as  yourself,  explanations  are 
almost  superfluous.  Nevertheless,  you  will  bear  with 
me  while  I  pass  under  review  a  few  of  the  causes 
which  have  led  to  this  action. 

After  the  change  in  my  father's  fortunes  and  our 
rubsequent  removal  to  Boston,  life  began  to  open  up 
new  possibilities,   and   what  with    the  increased  de- 


88  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

mands  upon  my  time,  and  the  many  beguilements  of 
flattering  tongues,  together  with — let  me  confess  it — 
an  unresting  desire  to  forget  the  act  of  folly  which 
had  shut  out  every  ray  of  sunshine  from  my  heart,  as 
I  found  too  late,  I  at  length  fixed  my  footing  to  the 
artificial  conditions  of  the  situation,  and  for  a  brief  time 
flattered  myself  that  you  were  forgotten. 

My  letter,  if  written  at  all,  ought  to  stop  here.  But 
thus  much  I  have  learned — that  passion  tinctured  with 
sorrow  is  the  greatest  of  egotists,  and  that  the  feeling 
that  brooks  no  measure  of  repression  or  discourage- 
ment inspires  a  degree  of  courage  little  short  of  de- 
fiance. Thus  stimulated,  I  feel  a  growing  joy  in  being 
able  to  surmount  artificial  restraint  and  to  address 
you  as  I  know  you  would  wish  an  honest  girl  who 
loves  you  with  her  whole  heart,  should  speak. 

What  will  you  think  of  me?  Will  you  call  me 
fickle  and  unworthy?  unwomanly?  In  a  word,  will 
you  misunderstand  me?  How  could  I  know  till  my 
eyes  were  opened  that  there  was  but  one  sun  ?  that 
the  whole  world  to  me  was  adjusted  to  your  simple, 
noble  qualities?  How  could  I  know  that  the  music 
of  the  spheres  meant  the  remembered  tones  of  your 
voice,  that  your  face  should  haunt  alike  every  scene  of 
splendor  and  every  secret  shadow,  or  that  I  would  give 
my  patrimony  to  be  able  to  pass  my  fingers  through 
your  brown  locks  for  ever  so  brief  a  moment? 

What  am  I  writing?  I  dare  not  read  it.  How  con- 
fident I  feel,  how  transported  with  the  thought  that 
you  may  in  remembering  me  forget  my  much-repented 
dictum,  or  at  least  relegate  it  to  the  Quixotic  realm  to 
which  it  belongs. 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  89 

As  I  near  the  close  of  my  letter,  I  am  possessed  with 
a  new  fear.  Shall  I  dare  send  it?  What  if  you  shall 
have  discovered  new  powers  in  yourself,  new  persons 
out  in  the  broad  world,  which  shall  make  you  glad  of 
your  escape?  It  is  so  long  since  I  have  heard  of  you, 
and  life  is  so  full  of  new  things,  I  forget  that  you  too 
have  quite  the  right  to  change  your  mind.  If  this  be 
your  condition,  do  not,  I  beg  of  you,  write  me.  I 
could  not  bear  the  humiliation  as  your  great  heart 
bore  yours.  Consign  my  letter,  then,  to  the  great  si- 
lence, and  only  remember  me  as  ever  and  always 
your  sincere  friend,  Ellen. 

What  was  his  colossal  fortune  to  David  Morning 
now?  Out  of  the  past  came  this  message  of  life  and 
love;  of  a  love  gone  forever,  and  a  life  which  now 
seemed  barren  of  purpose  and  hope. 

What  is  time  but  a  name  ?  The  intervening  years 
shriveled  into  nothingness,  and  he  was  again  bathing 
in  the  light  which  shone  from  the  eyes  of  the  woman 
he  loved,  the  one  woman  on  earth  or  in  heaven  for 
him,  yesterday  and  to-day  and  forever.  Again  he 
walked  with  her  under  the  whispering  foliage  along 
the  brow  of  the  hill  which  crowns  the  Queen  City  of 
the  plains,  and  watched  the  burning  sunsets  illumine 
the  lavender  mountains  and  change  the  clouds  into 
embers  of  glory.  Again  he  sat  beside  her,  reading 
some  tender  or  beautiful  or  stirring  passage  from  poet 
or  essayist.  Again,  at  the  good-night  going,  he  felt 
her  dainty  kiss,  thrilling  his  soul  to  ecstasy. 

And  she  was  lost  to  him  now,  lost  through  his  pride, 
lost  through  his  vanity,  lost  through  such  dense  and 
inexcusable   stupidity   as   never   before   possessed  or 


90  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

afflicted  a  man.  He  had  taken  her  girlish  doubts  as 
final.  He  had  thought  to  exhibit  his  manly  pride — 
which  was,  after  all,  only  conceit  of  self — as  an  offset  to 
her  presuming  to  question  the  possibility  of  her  being 
possessed  by  a  great  love  for  him.  Coward  that  he 
was  to  surrender  this  glorious  creature  without  an  ef- 
fort. Dolt  that  he  was  to  so  mistake  her  maidenly 
hesitancy. 

And  she — dear  heart — had  loved  him  after  all.  She 
had  condescended  to  summon  him,  and  he  had  never 
received  the  message.  What  had  she  thought  of  his 
failure  to  respond  ?  What  must  she  have  thought  of 
him,  save  that  he  was  a  cruel,  conceited  creature  un- 
worthy of  her  love?  What  humiliation  his  unex- 
plained silence  must  for  a  time  have  brought  to  her 
gentle  spirit !  What  wreck  and  misery  had  not  this 
miscarriage  of  her  missive  brought  to  his  life! 

If  he  could  have  identified  the  clerk  or  postman 
whose  carelessness  had  misplaced  her  letter,  he  would 
have  beaten  him  in  his  fury,  and  he  wished  for  an  ax 
that  he  might  hew  and  batter  to  splinters  the  inani- 
mate desk  whose  machinery  had  been  instrumental  in 
wrecking  two  lives. 

Were  they  hopelessly  wrecked  ?  He  caught  his 
breath  at  the  thought.  He  at  least  was  free,  and 
whatever  else  might  come  never  would  he  be  other- 
wise. Never  should  wile  of  woman  enchant  him, 
never  should  desire  for  home  and  love  and  perpetua- 
tion of  race  and  name  beguile  him.  He  would  walk 
lonely  to  the  gates  of  the  eternal  morning,  and  wait 
for  her  beyond  the  portal,  and  carry  her  soul  upon 
the  pinions  of  his  immortal  love  to  the  uttermost  con- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  gf 

fines  of  ether,  where  no  entrapments  or  environments 
of  earth  could  follow  or  molest  them,  and  in  the  glow 
of  the  astral  light  he  would  claim  her  as  his  own,  and 
give  himself  to  her  forever  and  ever. 

Ellen's  letter  released  the  passion  which  had  been 
locked  for  ten  years  in  the  silent  chambers  of  David 
Morning's  soul,  and  it  possessed  the  man,  and  mas- 
tered him  with  throes  of  bitter  agony  and  throbs  of 
ecstatic  delight.  His  cheeks  were  wet  with  the  tears  of 
disappointment,  and  again  to  the  very  center  of  him 
he  laughed  with  joy  as  he  covered  the  letter  with 
kisses. 

"She  loved  me,  my  darling,  my  own,  she  loved 
me!"  he  cried.  "Maybe  she  loves  me  yet!"  and 
again  his  heart  beat  wildly.  ' '  For  ten  years  she  re- 
mained unmated.  But  yesterday  she  married  this 
German  nobleman,  this  Baron  Von  Eulaw.  Surely 
love  could  not  have  moved  her  to  the  union.  Surely 
with  her  nature  she  could  not  have  forgotten  her  first ' 
love.  She  was  outraged  and  humiliated  and  in- 
censed at  the  silence  and  seeming  indifference  of  the 
man  she  really  loved,  and  so  she  married,  for  reasons 
common  enough  in  society." 

Was  this  tie  irrevocable  ?  Could  it  not  be  severed  ? 
Might  it  not  be  possible  that  happiness  should  yet  be 
in  store  on  this  earth  for  his  darling  and  himself? 
He  was  now  in  possession  of  the  lever  that  moves  the 
world.  Should  he  not  use  this  power  for  her  and  for 
himself,  as  well  as  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  ? 

Who  was  this  German  baron  that  he  should  stand 
against  him  ?  There  were  hundreds  of  barons,  but 
only   one  owner  of   the   Morning  mine.     He  would 


92  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

use  millions  piled  upon  millions  to  bring  his  Ellen  to 
his  arms. 

Napoleon  divorced  Josephine  and  married  Maria 
Louisa.  Caesar  put  away  one  wife  and  married 
another.  David  placed  Uriah  in  the  front  of  the  bat- 
tle. Many  kings  had  used  their  power  to  readjust  to 
their  liking  their  own  domestic  relations  and  those  of 
their  subjects. 

He  was  a  mightier  king  than  Darius.  He  ruled 
greater  armies  than  any  ever  commanded  by  Bona- 
parte. Not  the  Kaiser  or  the  Romanoff  upon  their 
imperial  thrones  could  exercise  so  great  a  power  as 
David  Morning. 

He  would  bid  his  golden  armies  serve  their  master. 
Walpole  had  truthfully  said  that  ' '  every  man  has  his 
price,"  and  the  Baron  Von  Eulaw  probably  had  his. 
How  many  millions  would  this  titled  Dutchman  take 
for  his  wife  ?  ten  ?  fifty  ?  a  hundred  ?  a  thousand  ? — 
he  should  have  them  multiplied  again  and  again. 

Morning  smiled  grimly  at  the  grotesque  fancy. 
Von  Eulaw  aspired  to  the  American  embassy.  May- 
hap he  was  not  covetous  but  ambitious.  Very  well, 
he  would  ask  the  Hohenzollern  to  name  his  figures 
for  offices  and  ribbons  and  rank  to  be  accorded  to  the 
baron  in  exchange  for  a  surrender  of  his  American 
wife.  He  would  pay  off  the  national  debt  of  Ger- 
many if  necessary.  Or  he  would  buy  the  baron  a 
kingdom.  There  were  always  thrones  for  sale  for 
cash  or  approved  credit  in  the  Danubian  country. 
That  of  Servia  was  just  now  in  the  market,  and  even 
that  of  Spain  or  Portugal  might  be  purchased. 

Maybe  the  baron  loved  his  wife.     How  could  he 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  93 

help  loving  her  ?  Curse  him,  what  right  had  he  to 
love  her  ?  What  if  Morning  emulated  the  example 
of  the  Psalmist  and  caused  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw 
to  be  made  a  widow?  Money  would  accomplish  this, 
and  none  be  the  wiser. 

None?  Ah,  what  of  the  God  that  rules  worlds  and 
directs  the  eternities,  the  God  that  was  in  and  a  part 
of  David  Morning,  the  God  that  punishes  and  pities, 
the  God  that  smote  David,  that  struck  down  Caesar, 
that  gave  Napoleon  to  an  exile's  death,  and  Henry 
Tudor  to  centuries  of  infamy? 

If  Morning  gained  his  Ellen's  arms  through  wrong 
to  another,  through  wrong  to  his  own  imperial  and 
impartial  conscience,  there  would  be  bitterness  in  her 
kisses,  and  misery  in  his  soul;  they  would  go  maimed 
and  chained  to  the  gates  of  death,  and  in  the  other 
land  they  should  meet  not  again. 

And,  inch  by  inch  and  minute  by  minute,  Ohromades 
and  Ahriman  fought  for  the  soul  of  David  Morning. 
The  ebon-plumed  spirit  of  darkness  and  the  silver- 
armored  essence  of  light  battled  along  the  lines  of 
heaven  and  hell,  and  the  light  triumphed,  and  dark- 
ness was  hurled  from  the  battlements,  and  peace  and 
strength  came  to  the  aching  soul. 

He  would  wait.  He  would  not  even  jeopardize  her 
peace  by  righting  himself  in  her  esteem.  He  would 
offer  no  explanation.  He  would  wait,  wait  for  the 
decree  of  the  Father,  wait  for  the  hour  of  meeting  in 
honor.  If  it  came  on  earth,  well;  if  it  came  only 
through  the  help  of  death,  still  well,  for  "life  is  short 
but  love  immortal."  In  the  other  land  there  would 
be  readjustments,  and  each  soul  not  mated  truly  here 


94  BETTER    DAYS. 

would  find  its  true  mate  there,  in  a  mating  that  should 
be  prevented  by  no  power,  and  limited  by  no  death, 
but  should  endure  so  long  as  the  planets  circle  in  their 
orbits. 

How  did  he  know  this  ?  Not  through  any  evidence 
presented  to  the  material  senses,  nor  through  any 
logic  of  the  schools.  It  is  the  spiritual  sense  of  man 
that  perceives  his  spiritual  life.  No  priest  can  give 
him  his  intuitions,  no  scoffer  can  take  them  from  him, 
and  the  querulous  questionings  of  science  are  but  as 
the  babblings  of  infancy  in  the  august  presence  of  the 
soul. 

And  for  full  five  minutes  David  Morning  sat  with 
his  face  between  his  hands,  then  rose  and  went  forth 
a  conqueror. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

"  Conceal  what  we  impart." 

Before  leaving  Colorado  Morning  employed  a  force 
of  skilled  workmen,  necessary  for  the  successful  con- 
duct of  both  quartz  mills  and  copper-smelting  furnaces. 
It  was  his  design  to  make  Waterspout  a  little  world 
in  itself,  the  members  of  which  should  consent  to  re- 
main in  the  canon  for  three  years,  communicating 
with  the  world  outside  only  by  mail.  To  this  end 
physicians,  school-teachers,  and  a  clergyman  were  se- 
cured, and  a  library,  musical  instruments,  and  the- 
atrical scenery  purchased,  with  the  confident  expecta- 
tion that  local  histrionic  talent  would  be  developed;  for 
where  is  the  American  community  of  five  hundred 
souls  which  does  not  contain  the  material  both  for 
Hamlet  and  burnt-cork  opera? 

From  Denver  Morning  proceeded  directly  to  San 
Francisco,  where  the  leading  iron  works  were  soon 
busy  constructing  quartz-crushing  machinery.  By  the 
15th  of  April  everything  was  on  the  ground,  and  in 
one  month  thereafter  the  stamps  were  ready  to  drop. 
This  result  was  achieved  by  working  nights  by  electric 
light,  the  Rillito  furnishing  power  for  the  dynamos. 

In  ordering  the  mining  work  Morning  had  ar- 
ranged for  a  double-track  tunnel,  which  would  reach 
the  lode  at  a  depth  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 

(.95) 


96  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

feet  from  the  surface,  and  there  was  now  a  broad,  well- 
ventilated  and  well-lighted  underground  road  to  and 
along  the  entire  length  of  the  quartz  lode,  at  a  point 
five  feet  from  it.  From  this  tunnel  Morning  could 
cause  to  be  run  as  many  crosscuts  into  the  lode  as  he 
desired,  and  thus  control  the  amount  of  quartz  ex- 
tracted, and  keep  within  his  exclusive  knowledge  the 
true  dimensions  of  the  mineral  deposit. 

Conjecture  was  rife,  and  the  general  opinion  ques- 
tioned the  sanity  of  a  man  who  made  such  costly  and 
elaborate  preparations  for  extracting  and  reducing 
quartz  in  a  place  where  no  quartz  or  sign  or  promise 
of  quartz  was  visible.  But  Superintendent  Robert 
Steel  kept  his  own  counsel,  the  wages  of  the  men 
were  paid  promptly,  all  bills  were  cashed  on  presen- 
tation, and  the  prevailing  sentiment  was  voiced  by  big 
Jim  Stebbins,  the  boss  of  shift  No.  3,  who  interrupted 
and  terminated  a  discussion  among  his  men  as  to 
Morning's  movements  by  saying: — 

"Dave  Morning  is  no  mining  shark  or  stock-board 
stiff.  His  money  is  clean  money;  he  dug  it  out  of  the 
ground;  and  if  he  chooses  to  buck  it  off  agin  a  syenite 
dike,  a  payin'  you  fellers  $4.00  for  eight  hours'  work, 
which  is  a  sight  more  than  some  of  you  is  worth,  why, 
I  reckon  it's  nobody's  business  but  his  own.  It's  only 
five  minutes  to  shift  time;  put  out  your  pipes,  and  get 
a  move  on  you." 

The  mills  were  built  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  be- 
low the  tunnel,  and  were  inclosed — as  was  the  entrance 
to  the  tunnel — with  a  high  fence,  within  which  none 
were  permitted  except  workmen  on  duty. 

A  light  narrow-gauge  road  was  built  from  the  mill 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  97 

yard  at  Waterspout  down  the  canon,  past  the  copper 
smelters,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rillito.  The  wagon 
road  was  destroyed,  and  the  stream  dammed  in  sev- 
eral places,  so  that  the  only  means  of  reaching 
Waterspout  was  by  rail;  and,  without  a  pass  from 
Superintendent  Steel,  no  person  was  permitted  to 
ride  on  the  cars.  Tourists,  prospectors,  and  seekers 
for  information  who  should  overcome  these  difficulties, 
and  walk,  climb,  or  swim  to  Waterspout,  would  need 
to  carry  also  their  own  provisions  and  bedding,  for 
they  would  find  neither  shelter,  food,  nor  welcome, 
and  could  not  gain  access  to  mine  or  mill. 

These  discouragements  stained  the  reputation  of 
Morning  for  hospitality,  but  they  helped  to  keep  his 
secret,  and  proved  effective  against  everybody  except 
a  special  reporter  of  a  San  Francisco  journal,  who,  dis- 
guised as  a  Papago  Indian,  journeyed  to  Waterspout, 
and  remained  there  several  days.  He  might  have 
made  a  longer  stay,  but  a  Papago  squaw,  hearing  of 
his  presence,  sought  him  with  a  view  to  connubial  fe- 
licity. The  reporter  would  have  faced  death  for  his 
journal,  but  he  drew  the  line  at  matrimony  and  fled. 
He  did  not  gain  access  to  mine  or  mill  while  there, 
but  he  picked  up  considerable  information,  the  publi- 
cation of  which  might  have  proved  damaging  to  Morn- 
ing's plans. 

It  happened  that  the  sagacious  manager  of  the  great 
daily,  before  ordering  publication,  frankly  communi- 
cated with  Morning — who  happened  to  be  in  San  Fran- 
cisco— and,  being  persuaded  by  that  gentleman  that 
the  public  interest  would  be  subserved  by  silence  con- 
cerning the  great  gold  mine  in  the  Santa  Catalinas, 
7 


98  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  notes  of  the  reporter  were  not  sent  to  the  compos- 
ing room. 

At  last  all  was  in  readiness.  The  men  whose  duties 
ended  wi:h  the  construction  of  mills,  furnaces,  railroad, 
and  buildings,  were  sent  with  the  teams  to  Tucson  and 
paid  off.  All  idle,  dissatisfied,  and  unsatisfactory  men 
were  discharged,  and  their  places  supplied  with  others. 
The  best  mining  and  milling  machinery  obtainable 
was  in  place  and  ready  to  run.  Supplies  of  all  kinds, 
sufficient  for  months,  were  in  the  storehouses,  five 
crosscuts,  twenty  feet  apart,  had  been  run  to  within 
one  foot  of  the  ledge,  and  the  doors  of  the  treasure 
caverns  were  ready  to  open,  when  the  owner  of  the 
mine  directed  that  all  the  men  assemble  on  the  little 
plaza  at  Waterspout  in  front  of  the  company's  offices. 

"My  friends,"  said  David  Morning,  "I  have  called 
you  together  that  we  may  have  a  more  perfect  under- 
standing before  entering  upon  the  most  important  part 
of  the  labor  that  lies  before  us.  You  have  doubtless 
felt  surprised  at  the  extent  of  the  work  which  has  been 
done  in  this  canon  without  there  being  any  ore,  or  in- 
dications of  ore,  in  sight.  But  your  surprise  will  change 
to  astonishment  when  you  know,  as  you  soon  must 
know,  how  extensive  and  rich  a  body  of  gold  quartz 
is  here.  It  has  been  and  still  is  my  desire  to  withhold 
from  the  world  any  knowledge,  or,  at  least,  any  accu- 
rate knowledge,  of  the  amount  of  gold  that  will  be  pro- 
duced. I  conclude  that  the  best  method  for  securing 
secrecy  is  to  make  it  in  the  interest  of  all  concerned  to 
keep  the  secret,  and  I  desire  to  say  now  that  each  one 
of  you,  whether  miner,  millman,  mechanic,  laborer, 
teacher,  clerk,  clergyman,  or  physician,  every  man  who 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  99 

is  or  who  may  be  on  the  pay-rolls,  who  shall  faithfully 
discharge  the  duties  for  which  he  was  employed,  and 
shall  remain  in  such  employment  for  one  year,  with- 
out in  the  meantime  leaving  this  canon,  and  who  shall 
not  by  letter,  or  otherwise,  communicate  any  informa- 
tion concerning  the  working  or  yield  of  the  mine,  will 
be  presented  by  me  at  the  end  of  the  year  with  the 
sum  of  $5,000  in  addition  to  his  pay.  Those  who  re- 
main until  the  end  of  the  second  year  will  receive  a 
further  present  of  $10,000,  and  those  who  remain  un- 
til the  end  of  the  third  year  will  receive  a  still  further 
present  of  $15,000.  Those  who  choose  to  go,  or  who 
may  be  compelled  to  leave  here  because  of  either  mis- 
conduct or  misfortune,  will  receive  nothing  but  their 
pay.  Should  any  die,  the  present  for  that  year  will, 
at  the  expiration  of  the  year,  be  paid  to  his  family — 
if  here.  If  strangers  visit  this  canon,  I  shall  expect 
you  not  to  entertain  them  or  converse  with  them. 
Those  of  you  who  correspond  with  friends  will  please 
say  nothing  whatever  as  to  any  facts  concerning  this 
property,  or  any  opinions  you  may  have  about  it  or 
about  me.  It  is  only  with  your  co-operation  and  good 
faith  that  the  secrets  of  this  mine  can  be  kept.  Any  one 
of  you  may,  to  a^  certain  extent,  betray  those  secrets. 
Should  he  do  so,  he  will  not  only  defeat  my  plans  but 
deprive  himself  of  the  fortune  which  I  expect  to  pay 
each  of  you  as  the  price  of  three  years  of  work  and 
reticence." 

The  proposition  of  Morning  was  agreed  to  with 
unanimity,  and  with  an  enthusiasm  and  gratitude 
which  can  be  comprehended  when  it  is  understood 
that  even  the  sum  of  $5,000  represented  to  the  most 


IOO  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

industrious  and  frugal  workman  the  savings  of  from 
five  to  twenty  years. 

Three  days  afterwards  the  crosscuts  were  in  ore, 
cars  loaded  with  the  yellow-seamed  quartz  began  to 
discharge  into  the  chutes  and  feeders,  and  the  music 
of  two  hundred  stamps  resounded  in  the  Santa 
Catalinas. 

Morning's  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  ore,  which 
he  made  from  the  specimens  taken  by  him  at  the  time 
of  the  discovery,  proved  singularly  accurate.  The 
quartz  contained  $10,000  in  gold  per  ton,  of  which 
amount  ninety-five  per  cent  was  saved  in  the  mill. 
The  reduction  power  was  two  tons  to  each  stamp  per 
diem,  and  the  yield  of  the  mine  was  quite  $4,000,000, 
or  eight  tons  of  gold,  each  day.  The  necessity  of 
resting  one  day  in  seven  was  observed  at  Waterspout, 
both  as  a  sanitary  measure  and  because  of  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  race  germs  that  Morning  had  received 
from  his  Connecticut  ancestors. 

The  disposition  of  the  gold  bars  produced  was 
made  in  accordance  with  Morning's  plans  previously 
made.  Each  day  the  product  of  the  copper  furnaces, 
cast  in  hollow  moulds,  was  brought  upon  the  railroad 
to  the  lower  part  of  the  mill  yard,  where  were  situated 
the  gold-melting  furnaces.  Under  the  personal  su- 
pervision of  Steel,  assisted  by  a  few  men  specially 
selected  for  the  work,  a  gold  bar  was  placed  inside 
each  copper  mould,  the  slight  spaces  filled  with  dry 
sand,  a  half  inch  of  dry  sand  placed  upon  the  end  of 
the  gold  bar,  and  the  mould  then  filled  with  melted 
copper. 

When  completed  there  was  to  all  appearance  a  pig 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-SlORROW.  IOI 

of  black  copper  or  copper  matte  worth  commercially 
$18  or  $20.  In  truth  there  was  a  gold  bar  worth 
$40,000,  which  a  few  minutes'  work  with  a  cold  chisel 
would  release. 

The  gold  bars  intended  for  open  shipment  were 
cast  one-half  the  size  of  those  intended  for  imprison- 
ment in  the  copper  pigs.  Of  these  small  bars  Morn- 
ing had  eight  prepared  each  day,  making  the  ostensi- 
ble yield  of  the  mill  and  mine  $160,000  per  day,  or 
about  $4,000,000  per  month.  Of  the  large  bars  he 
had  eighty  prepared  each  day,  which  were  shipped  as 
copper  pigs.  Their  real  value  was  about  $4,000,000 
per  diem,  or  $100,000,000  per  month.  These  were 
allowed  to  accumulate  in  the  warehouse  at  Rillito 
Station  until  Morning  should  procure  suitable  places 
for  their  deposit  in  Eastern  cities. 

On  the  1st  of  August,  1893,  everything  had  been 
running  smoothly  for  several  weeks,  and  gold  ship- 
ments amounting  to  millions  had  been  made.  Morn- 
ing concluded  that  the  running  of  the  mill  and  mine 
no  longer  required  his  personal  attention,  while  his 
projects  demanded  his  presence  at  the  great  financial 
centers.  Robert  Steel  was  in  full  possession  of  the 
plans  of  his  friend  and  employer,  who,  leaving  every- 
thing in  his  charge,  bade  good-by  to  all  and  departed 
for  Tucson  to  take  the  train  for  the  East 


CHAPTER    IX. 

"And  then  hid  the  key  in  a  bundle  of  letters." 

From    the   Baroness     Von    Eulaw    to   Mrs.    Perces 

Thornton. 

Berlin,  March  iS,  1893. 

My  Dear  Mother:  Really  I  hardly  feel  equal  to  a 
detailed  description  of  our  trip  over  the  ocean.  Why 
is  it  that  I  remember  only  the  painful  things  about 
our  journey?  Surely  there  were  pleasant  people, 
cultivated  men  and  graceful  women,  such  as  one  al- 
ways meets  in  these  days  of  free  interchange  between 
different  nations.  But  I  have  observed  that  some 
temperaments  catch  first  and  make  most  visible  the 
shadows  upon  the  landscape.  Much  as  I  love  the 
hues  and  tints  of  the  changeful  waters,  I  seem  to  re- 
member only  the  rolling  ship,  and  between  me  and 
the  thought  of  the  blue  skies  and  the  splendid  sunsets 
which  I  would  have  carried  away  as  a  treasured 
memory,  comes  some  trifling  but  harassing  recollec- 
tion. So  narrow  and  individual  is  the  composing- 
stone  upon  which  our  impressions  are  made  up. 

I  assume,  dear  mother,  that  you  remember  our 
serious  conversation  that  last  night  before  my  mar- 
riage, as,  sitting  upon  my  couch  and  looking  into  my 
sleepy  eyes,  you  half  chided  me  for  that  which  you 
called — for  want  of  a  better  term — indifference. 
(102) 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  IO3 

Pardon  me,  'tis  a  word  with  a  sex.  A  woman 
may  love,  she  may  hate,  she  may  dissemble,  but,  pose 
as  she  will,  there  is  no  profile  in  her  passion.  I  do 
not  deny  I  am  going  to  school  to  my  own  heart.  I 
am  honestly  endeavoring  to  follow  your  advice.  I  am 
learning  to  love.  Let  me  say  in  the  beginning  it  is  a 
mistake  to  believe  that  men  love  deeply.  If  ever  they 
do,  the  object  of  their  passion  is  themselves.  Is  this 
a  sound  foundation  to  build  domestic  faith  upon? 
However,  as  I  have  said,  I  shall  try  very  earnestly 
to  do  my  part. 

The  baron  told  me  this  morning  that  as  Ameri- 
cans were  a  nation  of  plebeians,  I  would  naturally 
suffer  many  disabilities  even  as  the  Baroness  Von 
Eulaw,  to  which  I  replied  rather  hotly  that  honor 
and  courage  required  no  purple  swaddlings  to  hide 
their  proportions,  and  that  we  Americans  sprang  full 
created  from  the  brain  of  regenerate  thought, 
whereupon  his  manly  fist  gathered  muscle  for  a 
moment,  then  as  speedily  relaxed,  and  he  only 
slammed  the  door  of  his  dressing-room  between  us. 
Believe  me,  my  dear  mother,  I  was  very  sorry  for  the 
scene,  and  I  have  no  excuse  to  offer  save  the  gaping 
wound  to  my  patriotism,  which  I  find  much  more 
sensitive  over  here  than  at  home. 

We  have  constant  engagements,  and  I  feel  a  little 
worn,  though  otherwise  quite  well.  Can  you  pardon 
a  letter  wholly  devoted  to  myself?  and  in  return  will 
you  not  tell  me  all  about  yourself,  dear  papa,  and 
everybody  you  know  ? 

Always  faithfully  your  own,  ELLEN. 


104  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

From  Mrs.    Perces    Thornton   to   the   Baroness    Von 

Eulaw. 

Roxbury,  Mass.,  April  2,  1893. 

My  Dear  Daughter:  I  have  your  first  letter  writ- 
ten from  Berlin,  but  how  sad  !  That  dreadful  sea  must 
have  made  you  bilious.  It  has  always  just  such  an 
effect  on  your  father;  he  sees  the  whole  earth  through 
smoked  glasses. 

But  I  can  only  imagine  you  as  in  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  raptures.  Such  a  marriage  for  an  Ameri- 
can girl!  A  baron  with  such  deportment,  and  such  a 
delightful  accent!  I  have  no  doubt,  too,  he  is  much 
richer  than  he  represented.  I  assure  you,  the  young 
ladies  of  Boston's  high  circles  have  turned  all  hues  of 
the  rainbow  with  envy,  and  you  ought  to  find  great 
pleasure  in  that  recollection  alone.  Besides,  such  op- 
portunities as  you  are  having  to  meet  crowned  heads, 
and  feel  yourself  as  one  among  the  titled  people  of  Eu- 
rope! What  elevation!  What  distinction!  You 
must  not  forget  to  make  the  most  copious  notes,  so 
that  you  will  be  able  to  impress  your  superiority  upon 
the  world  of  society  when  you  return. 

Really,  you  should  be,  as  I  know  you  are,  very 
happy.  Of  course  "scenes"  are  unpleasant  to  one 
like  yourself,  not  foreign  bred.  But  I  am  told  that 
such  experiences  are  the  real  thing  with  nobilitv,  es- 
pecially if  there  is  an  American  wife.  And  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  high  blood  should  feel  intol- 
erant toward  all  forms  of  assertiveness  on  the  part  of 
women,  especially  American  women. 

Therefore,  be  a  little  discreet,  my  dear,  and  remem- 
ber what  an  English  woman  said  to  you,  that  it  is  not 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  I05 

good  form  to  be  either  clever  or  artistic,  and  above 
all  patriotic. 

You  speak  of  shadows  in  your  life.  It  was  only  the 
other  day  I  read  from  one  of  your  own  books  on  the 
Newtonian  theory  of  color,  that  dark  objects  were 
such  as  absorbed  the  light  and  reflected  only  somber 
tints,  and  I  am  sure  it  is  so  with  your  life;  it  is  hold- 
ing the  light  within  itself. 

I  will  not  write  more  to-day,  for  your  correspond- 
ence will  be  large,  and  time  precious  with  you. 
How  radiant  you  must  look  with  your  graceful  gowns 
and  your  classic  face;  almost  equal  to  a  born  princess! 
Believe  me,  my  dear  child,  I  am  very  proud  of  your 
noble  marriage  and  of  your  dutiful  conduct  in  making 
such  an  one  largely,  let  me  confess,  to  please  me. 
And  of  all  things,  do  not  trouble  yourself  too  much 
about  the  love  business — that  will  all  come  about  in 
good  time,  and  if  it  does  not — well,  I  can  only  say 
you  will  have  a  majority  with  you. 

Greet  your  noble  husband  with  the  pride  and  joy 
that  I  feel  in  him,  and  present  your  loving  father,  who 
so  seldom  writes.  Send  fresh  photos  of  your  dear  self, 
the  baroness,  and  the  baron,  and  do  not  permit  them 
to  exaggerate  his  nose,  which  is  quite  full  enough  at 
best,  though  a  true  sign  of  the  blood. 
Your  devoted  mother, 

Perces  Thorntox. 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  April  20,  1893. 
My  Dear  Mother:  So  far  from  the  monopolizing 


106  BETTER   DAYS,    OR 

effect  of  minor  matters  of  which  I  complained  in  my 
last,  I  seem  to  be  losing  my  individuality  altogether. 
Have  you  ever  possessed  your  mind  of  one  subject  or 
object  to  the  absolute  exclusion  of  even  yourself? 
What  an  unpleasant  condition  of  mind  it  is!  The 
baron  I  find  to  be  a  man  most  peculiarly  constituted. 
The  somewhat  dominant  manner  which  you  suppose 
to  be  foreign  breeding,  as  you  expressed  it,  seems  to 
have  developed  into  an  engrossing  self-consequence, 
which  appears  to  draw  its  vitality,  if  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  saying  so,  largely  from  his  new  marital  connection. 

For  instance,  at  the  opening  of  the  season  we  at- 
tended the  Emperor's  Easter  ball.  According  to  our 
customs,  after  concluding  the  first  dance  with  the  baron, 
I  accepted  a  waltz  with  an  English  nobleman,  whom 
I  had  met  on  some  previous  occasion.  We  were 
resting  for  a  moment  after  a  round  of  the  spacious 
ballroom  when  I  felt  my  arm  seized  from  behind,  and 
with  a  muttered  oath  the  baron  commanded  my  in- 
stant release  and  return  home. 

What  should  I  have  done?  Disregard  him  and 
precipitate  a  scandal?  Impossible.  I  made  excuse  in 
some  hypothetical  disarrangement  of  my  dress  and 
retired.  I  am  only  able  to  write  because  it  is  my  left 
arm  which  suffered  the  accident.  The  subsequent  ex- 
planations of  the  baron  were,  of  course,  frivolous,  but  I 
was  too  relieved  by  any  form  of  apology  to  add  words, 
which,  without  reference  to  their  significance,  always 
irritate  him.  I  mention  this  little  incident  in  order  to 
show  you  how  it  is  that  my  visible  life  is  subordinated, 
albeit  my  spirit  is  in  no  way  depressed  though  severely 
harassed. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  107 

As  I  write  I  am  doubtful  if  I  ought  to  speak  of  these 
thing's  at  all.  I  do  not  ask  myself  what  is  due  to  my 
rank  here,  for  that  was  conferred  by  him,  but  is  it 
womanly  to  stand  before  the  world  an  intelligent 
and  willing  indorser  of  his  character  and  conduct, 
having  given  my  public  vows  for  better  or  worse,  and 
then,  cowering  behind  his  faults,  denounce  such  acts  as 
only,  at  worst,  affect  me?  Indeed,  I  must  exercise 
more  courage  and  less  candor.  One  thing  is  certain, 
I  am  constantly  looking  for  the  better  traits  in  his 
nature,  and  am  making  every  effort  to  call  them  forth. 
Thus  I  escape  self-reproach  at  least.  But  I  am  self- 
abashed  at  my  attitude,  for  I  abhor  dissembling.  The 
baron  loves  to  taunt  me  with  this  trait,  which  he  calls 
rudeness,  and  declares  it  to  be  the  result  of  my  "  Yan- 
kee training."  I  only  smile  at  this,  for,  as  I  have  said, 
he  cannot  brook  discussion. 

But,  my  dear  mamma,  enough  of  this,  for  you  will 
think  my  marriage  a  failure,  and  contribute  my  expe- 
riences to  the  building  up  of  Mona  Caird's  theories. 
By  the  way,  how  shocked  I  felt  at  reading  them,  al- 
though I  now  divine  some  meanings  that  I  had  over- 
looked! But  never  can  I  tolerate  the  thought  that 
there  are  not  people — ideal,  if  you  please — whose  mar- 
riages might  be  too  sublimated  for  earthly  contract, 
and  are,  therefore — according  to  the  proverb — made 
in  heaven.  Dear  mother,  pardon  me,  there  is  some- 
thing wanting  in  your  letters.  You  promised  me  to 
mention  everybody  we  ever  knew,  or  something  to 
that  effect.  I  am  absolutely  famishing  for  news  of  our 
old  friends.  By  the  way,  how  peculiar  it  is,  I  seem 
to  remember  with  singular  pertinacity  the  peopk    we 


lo8  BETTER   DAYS,    OR 

knew  before  we  came  to  Boston,  and  dear,  beautiful 
Denver  is  ever  before  my  eyes.  Please  remember 
everything,  and  above  all  your  affectionate 

Ellen. 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  to  Miss  Fanny  Field- 
i)ig,  Denver^  Colorado. 

Berlin,  May  i,  1893. 

My  Dear  Old  Schoolmate:  Your  kind  letter 
makes  me  homesick.  Can  you  imagine  a  homesick 
bride  ?  Even  before  fruitage  appears  from  the  orange 
bloom,  dismated  for  the  decking  of  my  nuptial  robes, 
or  even  the  fragrance  departed  from  the  yellowing 
buds  on  the  garniture  laid  away  to  rest  and  rust,  I 
am  sitting  with  an  unwilling  face  to  the  open  door  of 
the  future,  and  groping  with  a  blind  but  eager  hand 
among  the  rustling  leaves  of  a  near  past,  for  some  fa- 
miliar touch  or  sound  to  summon  back  the  half-tasted 
joys  which  I  so  ruthlessly  flung  away. 

You  ask  me  for  some  advice  concerning  marriage, 
illumined,  as  you  tersely  put  it,  by  experience.  My 
sweet  friend,  what  a  useless  task  you  impose  upon  me. 
Whenever  was  woman  directed  by  the  experiences 
of  others,  however  wise  or  however  bitter  such  expe- 
riences may  have  been?  Always  some  suggestion  or 
exception  to  change  the  verdict.  ' '  Mine  has  black 
eyes,  yours  has  blue,  which  makes  all  the  difference." 
Or,  ' '  one  is  fat,  the  other  lean. ' '  Or,  ' '  this  one  walks, 
the  other  rides" — so  infinite  the  variety  of  excuses, 
so  single  the  faith  of  woman. 

What  else,  then,  shall  we  call  marriage  but  destiny  ? 
The  heart  knows  its  wants  and  we  know  its  plaintive 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  IO9 

cry,  as  a  mother  knows  the  wail  of  her  famishing  babe; 
yet  for  some  frivolous  fancy  or  conceit,  some  wound 
to  our  vanity,  some  plethoric  ambition,  or  some  glit- 
tering paste  or  bauble,  we  stifle  the  natural  cry  of  the 
human  heart,  and  wait  for  the  mystic  note  upon  which 
is  to  be  constructed  the  music  of  our  future.  Alas  !  in 
the  metaphor  you  understand  so  well,  we  too  often 
touch  only  the  diminished  seventh,  and  the  sure,  com- 
plete, resolving  chord  is  never  sounded. 

Somewhat,  too,  our  institutions  of  marriage  are  at 
fault,  or  at  least  the  laws  and  customs  which  control 
them.  With  a  nation  of  men,  free,  rational,  and  lib- 
eral, we  have  a  nation  of  women  enslaved,  dishonest, 
and  miserable,  and  it  is  among  her  noblest  and  most 
common  phases  of  fate  that  she  goes  mutely  to  her 
grave,  a  victim  of  such  weak  social  prejudices  as  have 
grown  to  be  even  a  subject  of  satire  among  Europeans. 

Conscientiousness  is  a  boasted  virtue  among  Boston 
people  of  certain  high  cult,  yet  how  many  of  her  beau- 
tiful women  go  to  the  altar  with  a  lie  upon  their  maid- 
enly lips?  Why? — For  the  reason  that  there  is  some 
man  whom  she  loves  and  dares  not  declare  it.  For  the 
reason  that  society  sets  a  seal  upon  her  lips  and  turns 
her  life  into  a  drain-channel  for  misbegotten  vows. 
For  the  reason  that  she  cannot  break  the  frost-bound 
usages  of  cowardly  error  with  one  stroke  of  her  puny 
.  fist,  and  openly  propose  to  join  fortunes  with  the  man 
after  her  own  heart  and  her  own  high  convictions. 
And  so  she  rakes  over  the  cold,  unfruitful  soil  in  her 
own  soul,  and  plants  the  germ  of  a  falsehood  or  a  folly, 
and  waits  for  the  accident  of  some  quickening  power, 
in  slavish  and  unheroic  patience. 


IIO  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Witness  the  result:  Some  masculine  hand,  more  or 
less  clumsy  or  more  or  less  cunning,  little  matter  if  it 
bring  a  wedding  ring,  sheds  ephemeral  warmth  upon 
the  unsanctified  ground,  and  the  victim  starts  upon 
her  lonely,  loveless  journey  toward  race  building  and 
sacrifice. 

As  I  indicated,  dear  Fanny,  I  have  not  drawn  for  my 
picture  largely  upon  individual  experiences,  neither 
are  my  opinions  stimulated  by  any  observations  taken 
from  this  side  the  water.  Indeed,  I  even  prefer,  of 
kindred  evils,  the  insipid  method  which  leaves  the 
marriage  question  in  the  hands  of  the  parents.  But 
let  me  leave  this  for  subsequent  discussion,  for  my  let- 
ter is  already  too  long,  and  I  have  not  gossiped  at 
all,  and  I  remember,  dear  girl,  how  you  do  love  inno- 
cent gossip. 

Write  to  me  often  and  I  will  fill  my  letters  with  the 
sweetest  of  nothings  if  you  will.  Love  and  adieu  and 
think  of  me  as  your  devoted  friend,  Ellen. 

From  the  Baroness  Vo?i  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  May  10,  1893. 
Dearest  Mother:  "Let  fate  do  her  worst,  there 
are  moments  of  joy,"  and  such  moments  I  owe  to  my 
fondness  for  music.  What  would  have  been  all  these 
dreary  weeks  and  months  of  shallow  acting,  if  the 
depths  of  my  soul  had  not  been  stirred  by  the  genius 
of  that  creative  force  which,  mocking  at  our  own 
crude  disguises,  rehabilitates  pain  with  the  fair  seem- 
ing of  pleasure,  which  relegates  near  sorrows  to  the 
realms  of  tradition,  and  illusionises  common  care? 
Art,  in  any  form,  I  conceive  to  be  the  benefactor 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  Ill 

of  the  human  race.  If  truth,  shorn  of  its  infinitude 
of  possibilities,  constitutes  the  religion  of  the  civilized 
world,  if  the  deux  et  machina,  as  vEschylus  some- 
where has  it,  unlyrical  and  unleavened  by  beauty  of 
device,  by  rhetoric  or  action  and  climax,  be  persuasive 
and  instructive  and  inspiring,  then  how  ineffably  shall 
truth  have  gained  by  the  development  of  its  powers 
through  visible  forms  of  dramatic  conceit,  through  as- 
sociation with  the  elements  of  art,  through  character- 
ization, through  skillful  adaptation,  through  harmon- 
ized mediae  of  appeal  to  the  sense  or  the  sentiment, 
the  sympathies  or  the  imagination? 

I  am  reminded  here  of  an  incident  which  occurred 
in  our  box  at  the  Grand  Opera  House,  during  a  late 
performance  of  Die  Meistersinger,  which  resulted — as 
is  not  unusual  in  these  days — unpleasantly.  My  hus- 
band, as  you  may  remember,  affects  music  solely  for  the 
paraphernalia  of  the  stage,  for  the  glitter  and  show  of 
boxes  and  stalls,  for  the  exposed  shoulders  of  the  dia- 
monded dames  of  fashion,  for  the  numbers  of  men  with 
eyeglasses  and  uniforms — anything,  in  fact,  but  the 
music,  which  rather  bores  him. 

Therefore  it  is  I  apprehend  that  he  discusses  music 
so  incomprehensibly — to  say  the  least — I  would  not 
say  irrationally.  Somewhere  during  the  development 
of  the  plot  I  was  struck  with  the  similarity  of  the  dra- 
matic motive  with  that  of  the  Greek  tragedies,  espe- 
cially the  choral  odes,  where  occurs  the  element  of 
transition  which  some  scholars  call  the  evolutionary  or 
perhaps  the  re-incarnating  period  of  the  ancient 
drama.  This  similarity — in  some  ways  identical — I 
inadvertently  alluded  to  in  a  more  or  less  critical  re- 


112  BETTER    DAYS,     OR 

view  of  the  opera  and  its  construction,  which  I  ven- 
tured between  acts,  in  the  presence  of  a  party  of 
Americans  who  were  our  guests  for  the  occasion. 

Suddenly  as  thought,  the  baron's  face  was  aflame. 
But  "what  it  were  unwise  to  do  'twere  weaker  to  re- 
gret," and  I  prepared  to  defend  my  position  as  best 
became  me.  "  You  call  my  divine  countryman  a  pla- 
giarist," he  hissed  between  his  teeth.  Our  male  guest 
glowered,  and  the  ladies  with  heightened  color  looked 
at  the  orchestra. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  said  I,  with  an  assumed 
smile,  "I  did  not  say  so,  though  I  admit  that  my 
suggestion  was  unfortunate  in  its  inference." 

The  baron  sprang  to  his  feet  and  stood  over  me, 
his  arms  akimbo  and  the  well-known  look  of  sup- 
pressed rage  upon  his  face. 

"  You  called  my  divine  countryman  a  plagiarist,'' 
he  repeated,  gazing  out  over  the  audience,  and  feeling 
for  my  slippered  foot  with  his  heel,  which  he  settled 
firmly  upon  my  silken-clad  instep.  The  hurt  made 
me  wince,  but  I  could  not  remove  my  foot  from  the 
vise.  ■  Then,  in  order  to  mollify  his  temper,  which  I 
had  grown  to  know  too  well  how  to  deal  with,  I  added 
laughingly,  though  half  wild  with  pain  as  he  deadened 
his  weight  upon  my  poor  instep: — 

"  If  your  countryman  were  amenable  to  the  charge 
of  plagiarism,  so  also  is  our  Shakespeare,  for  in  the 
comedy  of  Trinummus,  Megaronides  says,  'The  evil 
that  we  know  is  best.  To  venture  on  an  untried  ill, ' 
etc.,  and  Shakespeare,  two  thousand  years  later,  said, 
1  Rather  bear  the  ills  we  have  than  fly  to  others  that  we 
know  not  of. '  " 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  It$ 

"  You  call  my  divine  countryman  a  plagiarist,"  half- 
childishly,  half-insanely  repeated  my  noble  lord,  grind- 
ing my  foot  beneath  his  heel.  A  cry  of  pain  escaped 
me,  which  a  timely  crash  of  cymbals  in  the  orchestra 
had  the  effect  to  drown. 

"Well,  what  of  it?  "  blurted  the  American,  throw- 
ing his  full  weight,  as  if  by  accident,  against  the 
baron's  shoulder,  and  then  turning  to  me  with  an 
apology  resumed  his  place.  Now  while  I  never  take 
refuge  in  my  sex  for  at  least  a  verbal  retaliation  of  the 
wrongs  I  receive  from  my  husband»it  goes  without 
saying  that  the  man  who  visits  brutality  in  any  form 
upon  a  woman  is  a  coward.  But  I  had  never  seen  the 
baron  insulted,  and  was  therefore  wholly  unprepared 
for  the  profuseness  with  which  he  apologized  to  our 
guests,  and  the  blandness  with  which  he  offered  his 
hand  as  he  bade  them  good-night.  But  the  most 
humiliating  part  of  this  humiliating  affair  was  the  fact 
that  I  was  forced  to  repeat  an  apology  fashioned  by 
himself,  the  entire  length  of  our  journey  home,  even 
until  the  carriage  ^stopped  at  the  door. 

It  is  not  clear  to  me,  my  dear  mother,  that  I  am 
justified  in  rehearsing  to  you,  or  to  anyone,  details  of 
my  life,  which  may  seAi  trivial,  but  for  which  I  am 
able  to  offer  no  other  excuse  than  your  own  solicitous 
insistence.  I  am  always  promising  myself  that  every 
next  letter  shall  be  dictated  in  more  cheerful  spirit. 
Till  then  adieu.  Present  me  with  kindest  love  and  beg 
papa  to  write  me.  I  do  so  long  for  a  sight  of  his  let- 
ters.     Love  to  those  who  love  me. 

As  ever,  devotedly  yours,  Ellen. 

8 


114  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  June  21,  1893. 

My  Dearest  Mother:  How  shall  we  account  for 
our  various  moods?  Yesterday  I  was  miserable;  to- 
day I  am  joyful;  to-morrow  I  may  be  hopeful  or  heart- 
broken, according  as — oh!  I  forgot  to  say  I  am  all 
alone;  the  baron  has  gone  to  St.  Petersburg.  I  am 
supposed  to  have  accompanied  him,  and  so  nobody 
comes.  But  I  am  not  lonely;  now  that  I  am  left  to 
myself  I  see  ho\*  beautiful  is  the  world  about  me. 

This  morning  I  looked  from  my  windows  upon 
the  river.  The  sharp  lights  I  had  watched  so  often 
swiftly  changing  to  shadows,  the  warring  glances  sug- 
gestive only  of  inner  strife,  with  all  its  complexity  of 
passion,  were  lost  in  the  soft  peaceful  flow  of  the  wa- 
ters as  they  hurried  on  to  the  ultimate  sea.  And  I 
thought  how  much  of  this  mood  is  due  to  fancy,  that 
untenable,  mercurial,  and  sublimated  quality  of  the 
mind,  half  trickery,  half  truth,  and  altogether  elusive 
as  vapor.  But  how  profligate  of  that  precious  sense 
of  pleasure  so  steadily  withheld  from  my  heart  these 
later  months!  Too  precious,  indeed,  for  the  operations 
and  experiments  of  the  mental  laboratory  to  which  I 
seemingly  so  recklessly  submitted  it,  and  so  I  dis- 
missed analysis  and  clung  to  my  fancies,  which  at  least 
made  me  happy  in  the  present. 

After  my  breakfast  I  prepared  myself  for  a  walk, 
with  only  my  little  fox-terrier  for  a  companion.  Poor 
little  Boston,  how  grateful  he  seemed!  I  could  see 
him  laugh  with  joy  as  his  little  brown  lips  quivered 
with  flexible  feeling.     Notwithstanding  his  many  years, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  1 15 

he  could  scarcely  find  footing  for  his  bounding  steps 
for  looking  back  at  me  to  search  my  laughing  eyes. 
You  remember  who  gave  me  my  terrier,  away  out 
in  Denver?  how  he  was  brought  to  me  in  two  strong, 
guardful  arms,  a  little  loose-skinned,  wise-eyed  puppy, 
so  quiet  and  serenely  happy  in  the  warm  embrace — 
where  was  I?  oh,  yes!  talking  about  Boston — so  we 
pulled  some  roses,  Boston  and  I.  But  never  looked 
roses  so  red,  or  green  so  tender  or  so  vivid,  and  I 
longed  to  find  the  secret  of  their  voluptuous  bloom 
and  half-suffocating  fragrance,  but  that  I  guessed  all 
was  again  fancy;  only  an  easy,  translatable  pinch  of 
dust  and  a  resolvable  stain;  a  simple  stroke  of  creative 
power  and  a  dash  of  ether — only  a  rose. 

How  easy  seem  the  processes  of  nature  with  har- 
monized material  for  working  out  the  thought !  Nature 
never  experiments;  gravitation  is  her  law,  deflection 
is  anarchy,  and  defiance  a  destroyer.  Love,  I  deem,  is 
only  obedience  to  this  law.  Obscure  as  are  it*  oper- 
ations and  subtle  as  its  teachings  are,  any  smallest 
portion  of  scholarship,  leveled  at  the  finding  out,  di- 
vested of  preconceived  ideas  and  personal  bearings, 
but  persistently  and  conscientiously  agitated  by  scien- 
tific and  organized  effort,  might  revolutionize  a  world 
of  error,  and  establish  a  sure  basis  for  sentiment  and 
social  reform. 

For  I  believe  that  unhappy  marriages  are  a  direct 
result  of  ignorance.  Passions  called  by  various  names 
go  to  make  up  the  system.  Sordidness,  vanity,  in- 
terdependence, weak  abeyance  to  custom,  contribute 
to  the  sum  of  human  misery.  But  ignorance  is  the 
basis  of  the  organized  error.     For  what  manner  of 


Il6  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

men  or  women  would  deliberately  entail  upon  them- 
selves the  shackled  conditions  of  a  loveless  marriage, 
which  has  no  alternative  but  subordination  or  rebel- 
lion? For  only  in  love — another  name  for  harmony — 
may  be  found  that  unity  which  leaves  no  room  for  sac- 
rifice or  misconceit. 

But,  dearest  mother,  what  can  you  think  of  my  let- 
ters ?  I  began  to  tell  you  of  my  one  happy  day  and 
have  spread  my  speculations  over  the  whole  human 
race.  I  started  to  take  you  for  a  promenade  along 
Unter  den  Linden,  and  to  rest  by  the  cool  fountain 
in  the  Lustgarten,  and  have  ended  with  a  few  feeble 
remarks  upon  the  possible  sources  of  sentiment  and 
sorrow. 

But  Boston  is  waiting  for  his  dinner,  for  he  dines 
with  me  to-night.  What  a  jolly  day  we've  had,  eh, 
Boston?  and  we  will  sleep  and  dream  of  you,  dear 
mamma,  and  many  more,  for  none  but  bidden  guests 
must  fill  my  room  to-night.  By  the  way,  I  do  wonder  if 
the  poor,  weak  brain  of  my  little  terrier  is  in  any  de- 
gree susceptible  of  being  stirred  by  memories  of  his 
old  friends?  In  any  event,  I  envy  him,  for  he  is  not 
amenable  to  the  necessities  of  a  false  life,  ' '  a  liar  of 
unspoken  lies." 

Dear  mamma,  a  sweet  good-night.  I  am  sending 
you  a  few  pictures  picked  up  at  Lepkes.  The  group  I 
am  sure  you  will  enjoy,  though  I  like  better  the  por- 
trait by  Van  Dyck.  There  is  a  haunting  sort  of  look 
about  it,  reminding  me  of  someone  I  have  known 
somewhere.  I  wonder  if  you  will  discern  it?  Prob- 
ably it  was  only  a  passing  fancy,  one  of  such  as  have 
filled  my  brain  all  day  long. 

Again  love  and  good-by.         Ellen. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  1 17 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Mentone,  Italy,  August  10,  1893. 

Dearest  Mother:  How  rebellious  my  heart  and 
impatient  my  pen  as  I  take  it  up  to  write  words  which 
only  your  mother's  ear  should  catch  from  my  lips! 

Where  shall  I  begin  to  tell  you  the  history  of  the 
past  month?  Really,  my  memory  seems  too  sur- 
charged with  a  sense  of  bitterness  and  wrong  to  do  me 
service.  But  I  must  lead  you  step  by  step,  reluctant 
as  I  know  you  are  to  follow  me  behind  the  gilded 
arras. 

After  his  return  from  St.  Petersburg,  the  baron 
developed  more  pronounced  signs  of  jealousy  than 
had  ever  appeared  hitherto.  Perhaps  this  feeling  was 
stimulated  by  my  last  letter  to  you,  which  I  inadvert- 
ently left  unmailed,  and  which  he  opened  and  read. 
Suspicious  husbands  you  know  are  as  jealous  of 
moods  as  of  men,  and  not  to  be  miserable  "when  the 
Sultan  goes  to  Ispahan"  is  indeed  a  crime.  I  believe 
there  are  few  jealous  husbands  who  are  themselves 
guiltless.  I  do  not  think,  however,  that  this  test  ap- 
plies to  my  own  sex,  albeit  I  do  not  take  refuge  in  the 
exception — Heaven  save  the  mark! 

But  the  baron  came  home,  as  I  said,  quite  con- 
firmed in  many  unpleasant  ways  I  had  remarked  be- 
fore. Without  any  apparent  cause  he  stole  about  my 
room  in  unslippered  feet,  and  listened  furtively  at  the 
keyholes.  He  locked  the  doors  whenever  he  passed 
through,  and  spoke  to  the  servants  through  a  crevice. 
Instead  of  his  usual  violence  he  whined  his  complaints 
of  my  demeanor  toward  him  in  the  weakest  and  most 


Il8  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

supine  fashion.  But  that  which  exasperated  me  most 
was,  and  is  still,  his  unaccountable  pertinacity.  He 
would  place  his  chair  close  by  me  and  hold  his  knee 
against  mine,  or  his  elbow,  or  his  foot,  while,  with  pur- 
pling face  and  hanging  mouth,  he  entreated  me  not  to 
leave  him,  until,  in  half  insane  protest,  I  would  break 
clear  of  him  and  throw  open  a  window,  or  bathe  my 
hands  and  face  in  utter  exhaustion,  or — I  had  almost 
said — sense  of  contamination.  In  his  fits  of  rage  there 
is  something  genuine  from  an  animal,  if  not  from  a 
manly,  point  of  view.  But  how  shall  I  deal  with  this 
new  phase?  Ah,  well!  let  me  get  on  with  my  letter, 
for  I  have  much  to  say,  and  that  is  why  I  am  dallying. 

I  consented  to  come  to  Mentone  on  account  of  my 
health.  Finding  myself  growing  weak  and  failing,  the 
physicians  ordered  an  immediate  change,  and  recom- 
mended the  old  cure  virtually — to  take  myself  out  of 
their  hands.  The  baron  loves  to  play,  and  I  suspect 
is  a  little  too  well  known  in  gaming  circles  in  Berlin. 

Therefore  when  he  proposed  Mentone  so  early  in 
the  season,  or,  indeed,  altogether  out  of  season,  I — 
quite  knowing  that  it  meant  Monte  Carlo — accepted, 
and  with  valet  and  maid  and  dear  old  Boston  we  came. 

Result,  financial  ruin!  The  baron  played  reck- 
lessly. Each  time  when  I  saw  him  he  was  feverish 
and  abstracted.  I  did  not  ask  the  cause,  whether  he 
were  winner  or  loser,  for,  like  most  women,  I  believe 
that  everybody  finally  loses,  but  I  was  not  prepared 
for  the  denouement,  for  he  has  absolutely  lost  not  only 
all  his  ready  money,  but  is  heavily  in  debt,  and  will 
need  to  resort  to  further  mortgage  of  his  landed  es- 
tates. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  II9 

Weak  and  foolhardy  as  he  was,  I  pity  him,  for  what 
must  have  been  his  feelings  as,  driving  down  the  Cor- 
niche  road  overhanging  the  old  sea,  he  reflected  how 
many  men  had  sought  forgetfulness  for  just  such  acts 
of  folly  in  the  tideless  waters.  Only  that  the  baron 
has  other  ideas  about  reparation,  for  he  came  home 
and  first  proposed  that  I  write  my  father  for  money 
to  make  good  his  losses.  Taking  courage  from  my 
silence,  he  suggested  that  I  cable  my  message  at  once. 

This  latter  I  proposed  not  to  do,  as  I  informed  him 
in  very  few  words.  He  has  left  the  hotel  in  a  terrible 
fit  of  rage,  vowing  revenge  with  his  last  accents.  And 
I  am  writing  this  letter  while  I  wait,  meanwhile  won- 
dering how  much  I  ought  to  blame  myself  for  my  un- 
happy life,  or  if  I  ought  not  to  lock  the  secret  in  my 
own  breast,  even  from  you,  my  mother.  But  a  secret 
is  a  dumb  devil,  and  so  long  as  there  is  another  hand 
to  glance  the  dart,  it  rarely  wounds  to  death.  I  will 
mail  this  at  once  in  order  that  it  shall  not  fall  into  his 
hands. 

Dearest  mamma,  are  these  letters  never  to  cease  ? 
I  think  I  notice  that  your  replies  are  more  reserved, 
and  I  have  thought  full  of  pain  and  discouragement. 
But  do  not  feel  discouraged.  I  realize  the  resources 
within  me,  and  I  have  a  fund  of  reserved  power  which 
I  may  summon  in  an  exigency.  I  have  not  fairly  con- 
templated anything  in  the  future;  to  deal  with  the 
present  has  been  my  purpose.  Each  joy  and  each 
sorrow  in  its  turn,  so  shall  no  preconceived  action 
operate  to  the  ends  of  injustice  or  unfairness.  I  close 
this  in  haste  but  lasting  love. 

As  always  your  daughter,  Ellen. 


120  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

From  the  Baroness   Von  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Mentone,  Italy,  September  i,  1893. 

0  My  Beloved  Mother:  While  I  feel  always 
sure  of  your  earnest  sympathies,  how  shall  I  expect 
you  to  appreciate  the  sentiment  of  horror  which  this 
new  and  fiendish  device  for  torturing  my  feelings  visits 
upon  me!  How  can  I  write  it? — my  poor  little  Bos- 
ton is  dead. 

That  fact,  with  a  few  silent  tears,  and  a  day  or  two  of 
depression,  I  could  have  borne  as  the  end  of  all  things 
mortal.  But  he  was  as  foully  murdered  as  ever  was 
the  victim  of  the  most  infernal  plot,  for  he  was  given 
no  poorest  or  most  unequal  chance  to  fight  for  his  life, 
which  was  as  dear  to  him  as  mine  to  me — and  that  is 
the  least  possible  to  be  said.  I  am  in  no  condition  of 
mind  to  discuss  ethics,  or  to  philosophize  upon  the 
events  which  led  to  this  tragical  termination  of  differ- 
ences, of  which  poor  little  Boston's  life  paid  the  forfeit. 

It  may  be  that  I  was  wrong,  certainly  I  would  have 
made  any  terms  to  have  saved  my  poor  terrier  from 
his  terrible  fate,  few  as  were  the  years  he  would  have 
jived  at  most. 

1  am  not  unaware  that  there  are  certain  conces- 
sions, and  certain  acts  of  graciousness,  which,  in  a 
limited  sense,  may  properly  be  expected  of  every 
wife  toward  a  reasonable  husband.  Not  his  boasted 
superiority  by  any  means,  but  the  fact  that  she  is 
measurably  relieved  from  financial  stress  or  responsi- 
bility, constitutes  an  unwritten  law  among  well-think- 
ing wives  everywhere,  I  believe,  and  makes  the  demand 
upon  her.     But  I  considered  nothing  but  the  enormity 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  121 

of  my  husband's  exactions,  and  erred  in  my  estimate 
of  the  possibility  of  my  husband's  brutality.  I  wish 
there  were  a  stronger  word  which  I  might  politely  use. 

Shall  I  give  you  briefly  the  harrowing  details  of 
this  ruffianly  act  of  cowardice?  I  think  I  told  you  in 
my  last  how  the  baron  had  left  the  house,  filled  with 
vindinctive  rage  at  my  refusal  to  demand  of  my  father 
large  sums  of  money  for  his  gambling  losses.  In 
about  an  hour  he  returned  and  renewed  his  proposi- 
tion with  increased  violence,  at  the  same  time  seizing 
a  pen  and  writing  a  cablegram,  which  he  commanded 
me  to  sign. 

Remembering  that  I  had  given  him  considerable 
sums  of  money  from  time  to  time,  amounting  to  many 
thousands  of  dollars,  I  entreated  him  to  wait  for  a 
day,  while  he  should  make  me  understand  the  condi- 
tion of  his  financial  affairs.  This  proposition  he  re- 
ceived with  the  most  frightful  oaths.  He  declared 
that  he  would  take  my  life,  and  would  begin  by  killing 
my  pet  dog.  No  sooner  said  than  done.  He  rushed 
to  the  veranda,  where  poor  little  Boston  lay  stretched 
upon  his  cushion  asleep  in  the  sun,  and,  seizing  him 
by  the  neck,  he  dashed  him  violently  to  the  ground 
below.  A  few  minutes  later  my  little  friend  was 
brought  to  me  still  feebly  conscious,  but  mangled, 
bleeding,  dying. 

How  can  I  ever  forget,  who  ever  did  who  has 
ever  witnessed  it  forget  that  last  questioning,  beseech- 
ing look  of  affection  and  dumb  fright  which  a  dying 
animal  turns  upon  the  face  of  someone  he  has  loved  ? 
Is  it  less  than  human  or  more?  Not  till  the  mists 
gathered  across  his  pretty  brown   eyes  was  that  last 


122  BETTER    DAYS. 

eloquent  appeal  swept  away.  ' '  What  have  I  done  ? ' ' 
"What  have  I  done?"  was  the  question  he  was  asking 
of  me.  Who  shall  say  whether  he  received  his  answer 
in  some  later  and  easier  translatable  speech  than  mine, 
in  some  new  and  disenthralled  state  of  being  ?  Who 
shall  say  that  he  did  not  carry  away  with  him  a  love 
which  was  all  love,  with  no  taint  of  selfishness  or  ulterior 
thought,  quickened  by  no  new  speculation,  or  tradi- 
tion, or  sanction,  or  human  edict?  Who  shall  say 
that  the  attributes  of  faith,  and  self-surrender,  and 
charity,  and  forgiveness,  and  loyalty  are  lost  because 
in  one  incarnation  they  were  tongue-tied?  For  my- 
self I  want  to  see  my  dogs  again.  They  were  my 
loved  companions,  as  are  my  books  or  my  works  of 
art.  And  if  the  fire  destroy  them,  are  their  contents 
naught  or  worthless  because  an  unlettered  man  could 
not  read  them  ?  At  best  an  after  life  is  a  problem, 
but  let  us  put  the  problems  together  and  one  may 
help  to  solve  the  other,  for  half  a  truth  is  oftenest  a 
lie. 

I  have  sought  distraction  in  these  comments,  but 
my  sorrow  returns  to  me,  dear  mother,  and  my  eyes 
are  too  full  of  tears  to  be  able  to  see  the  lines.  Vale, 
poor  Boston,  and  a  grateful  throb  of  gladness  that  I 
have  a  dear  mother  to  whom  I  can  tell  my  grief. 

Your  loving  but  unhappy  Ellen. 


CHAPTER   X. 

"  Lo!  the  poor  Indian." 

Imperfect  definition  and  classification,  followed  by 
hasty,  inaccurate,  and  unwarranted  generalization,  are 
fruitful  sources  of  popular  error.  To  the  misinformed 
or  uninformed  mind  the  Indian  is  a  noble  savage, 
whose  hunting-grounds  and  corn-fields  have  been 
taken  from  him  by  the  ruthless  paleface,  and  who 
passes  his  time  pensively  leaning  upon  his  rifle,  with 
his  face  to  the  setting  sun,  the  while  he  makes  touch- 
ing appeals  to  the  Great  Spirit,  and  mourns  the  disap- 
pearance of  his  race. 

In  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
south  of  Green  River,  the  sentimental  Indian  with  whom 
Cooper  doped  American  literature,  has  absolutely  no 
existence.  Uncas  and  Chingacook  never  journeyed 
so  far  westward  as  the  Rio  Grande,  and  prosy  old 
Leather  Stocking,  with  his  Sunday-school  soliloquies, 
and  his  alleged  marvelous  marksmanship  on  knife 
blades  at  three  hundred  yards,  would  have  been 
elected  president  of  the  Arizona  Lying  Club  by 
acclamation. 

Many  tribes  of  Indians  in  that  section  of  the  coun- 
try have  scarcely  any  belief  in  a  future  state  of  exist- 
ence, and  no  words  in  their  jargons  to  represent  the 
ideas  of  gratitude,  of  female  chastity,  or  of  hospitality. 


124  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Their  opportunities  of  obtaining  food  have  been  in 
nowise  lessened  by  white  occupation  of  the  land. 
There  never  were  any  buffalo  there,  they  never  hunted 
bears  or  any  combative  animal,  the  fish  and  small 
game  and  pine-nuts  are  nearly  as  plentiful  as  ever, 
and  the  bacon-rinds  and  decayed  vegetables  to  be 
found  near  every  mining  camp  furnish  the  noble  reds 
with  a  food  supply  more  agreeable  to  their  indolent 
habits  than  the  hard-won  trophies  of  the  chase. 

Yet  there  are  Indians  and  Indians,  as  there  are 
Christian  bank  presidents  and  unsanctified  bank  rob- 
bers, and  it  is  as  incorrect  to  class  the  devilish  Chiri- 
cua  Apache  with  the  dirty  but  gentle  Yuma  as  it 
would  be  to  similarly  couple  a  hook-nosed  vender  of 
Louisiana  lottery  tickets  with  a  blonde-haired  solicitor 
for  a  church  raffle. 

In  the  mountains  of  Eastern  Arizona  and  Western 
New  Mexico,  occupying  a  country  hundreds  of  miles 
in  area,  a  country  which,  for  their  benefit,  has  been 
reserved  from  miner,  settler,  and  grazier,  live  the 
White  Mountain  Apaches  during  the  winter  months, 
when  they  are  not  "on  the  war  path,"  as  their  pil- 
laging and  murdering  expeditions  are  somewhat 
bombastically  designated. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  other  savages  in  other 
localities,  the  Arizona  Apaches  are  without  a  single 
just  cause  of  complaint  against  the  government,  or 
against  any  of  the  Caucasian  race.  No  cruel  white 
men  have  ever  invaded  their  hunting-grounds,  or 
given  them  high-priced  whisky  in  exchange  for  low- 
priced  peltry.  Red-handed  and  tangle-haired  have 
these  marauders  and  their  ancestors  lived  for  centuries 
in  their  mountain  lair. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  125 

Since  the  United  States  of  America  became,  forty 
years  ago,  the  nominal  suzerain  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  these  peripatetic  "vermin  ranches,"  they 
have  been  unprovoked  invaders,  thieves,  and  assassins, 
and  their  summer  raids  upon  the  miners,  teamsters, 
and  cattle  rancl^ers  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  have 
been  as  regular  as  their  winter  acceptance  of  the 
bacon  and  blankets  with  which  a  generous  but  mis- 
taken policy  feeds  and  warms  them,  at  a  cost  equal  to 
that  ot  providing  each  savage  with  a  suite  of  rooms 
at  a  fashionable  hotel. 

It  is  but  a  few  years  since  a  small  party  of  the  most 
vicious  and  untamable  of  these  bandits,  who  were 
captured  with  the  scalps  of  their  victims  at  their  belts, 
were  declared  by  the  authorities  at  Washington  to  be 
not  answerable  to  trial  or  punishment  by  the  courts  of 
the  Territory  whose  people  they  have  robbed  and  mur- 
dered with  impunity  for  many  years.  But,  partly  in 
deference  to  outraged  public  sentiment,  and  partly  in 
apprehension  of  the  acts  of  a  possible  committee  of 
vigilance,  these  Indians  were  condemned  for  their 
crimes  to  imprisonment  in  a  government  fortress  in 
Florida. 

Unlike  white  prisoners  who  were  condemned  to 
labor  and  isolation,  these  tawny  murderers  were  allowed 
to  be  accompanied  in  their  journey  across  the  country 
by  their  wives  and  concubines,  who  were  transported, 
fed,  clothed,  and  made  comfortable,  at  government  cost. 
Arrived  at  their  destination,  it  was  found,  after  a  few 
months'  sojourn,  that  the  humid  air,  lower  altitude, 
and  uncongenial  surroundings  of  Florida,  and,  later,  of 
North    Carolina,    disagreed   with    the   digestion    and 


126  BETTER    DAYS.    OR 

disgruntled  the  disposition  of  the  noble  reds,  and, 
upon  a  proper  showing  that  their  health  demanded  a 
return  to  their  former  homes,  lest  confirmed  nostalgia 
should  set  in,  and  possibly  remove  them  permanently 
from  the  scene  of  human  activities,  they  were  surrep- 
titiously returned  by  the  government  to  their  old  res- 
ervation, where  they  promptly  expressed  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  clemency  accorded  them  by  breaking 
out  once  more  and  heading  for  the  Mexican  Sierras, 
marking  their  track  with  burning  ranch  houses  and 
murdered  settlers. 

In  the  summer  of  1893  a  party  of  about  forty  of 
these  Apaches,  headed  by  the  most  cruel,  malignant, 
and  treacherous  of  savages — the  thrice-pardoned  and 
faith-breaking  Geronimo — left  the  reservation  for  their 
annual  raid.  The  military  post  at  Fort  Lowell  having 
been  abandoned  and  the  troops  removed  in  the  inter- 
est of  government  parsimony,  the  savages  found  it 
convenient  to  make  a  detour  by  the  valley  of  the  Santa 
Cruz,  so  as  to  cross  the  railroad  track  in  the  vicinity 
of  Tucson,  and  reach  their  mountain  fastnesses  in 
Sonora  by  the  Arivaca  Pass. 

It  chanced  that  David  Morning,  on  his  departure 
from  Waterspout  for  New  York,  while  riding  from  the 
Rillito  station  into  Tucson,  and  riding  by  night,  to 
avoid  the  heat  of  an  Arizona  sun,  was  seen  by  the  In- 
dians, who,  having  emerged  from  a  defile  in  which 
they  had  been  concealed  during  the  day,  were  now 
stealthily  and  swiftly  journeying  in  the  same  direction. 
The  opportunity  to  murder  a  white  man  was  one  not 
to  be  neglected,  but  the  report  of  a  rifle  might  attract 
attention  and  instigate  speedy  pursuit,  so  two  of  Ge- 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  1 27 

ronimo's  followers  were  detailed,  armed  only  with  bows 
and  arrows,  to  follow  the  wayfarer  through  the  dusk, 
and  bring  back  a  scalp,  that  might  be  obtained  without 
danger  and  without  noise. 

If  Morning  had  been  riding  a  horse,  this  tale  might 
have  had  sudden  ending,  but  he  had  found  for  his  nec- 
essarily frequent  journeys  between  the  mine  and  Tuc- 
son no  such  convenient  and  comfortable  mode  of  trans- 
portation as  a  seat  upon  the  back  of  Julia.  The 
equine  in  question  was  a  large  jet  black  saddle  mule 
bred  at  the  ranch  of  Senor  Don  Pedro  Gonzales, 
which  was  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Rillito  Valley,  about  three  miles 
from  the  road. 

The  mule,  as  an  animal,  is  often  both  misrepre- 
sented and  misunderstood.  No  creature  tamed  by 
man  has  keener  instincts  or  greater  sagacity,  or  is 
governed  to  so  great  an  extent  by  intelligent  self-inter- 
est. A  mule  is  always  logical.  His  ordinary  reason- 
ing is  a  syllogism  without  a  flaw.  A  horse  impelled 
by  high  spirit,  and  patient  even  unto  death,  will  travel 
until  he  drops  from  exhaustion,  and  will  pull  or  carry 
without  complaint  a  load  that  causes  his  every  muscle 
to  pulse  with  the  pain  of  weariness. 

But  where  lives  the  man  who  was  ever  able  to  im- 
pose upon  a  mule?  Strap  an  unaccustomed  or  unjust 
load  upon  the  back  of  this  animal  of  unillustrious  pa- 
ternity, and  he  will  not  move  except  in  the  direction  of 
lying  down.  Attempt  to  ride  or  drive  him  past  his 
rightful  and  usual  resting-place,  and  there  may  be 
retrogression,  and  there  may  be  a  circus,  but  there 
will  be  no  advance. 


128  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

In  addition  to  his  other  virtues  a  mule  has  an  ex- 
ceedingly keen  scent.  He  seeks  no  close  acquaintance 
with  either  grizzly  bears  or  Indians.  He  will  get  the 
wind  of  either  of  his  aversions  as  quickly  as  a  hound 
will  whiff  a  deer,  and,  like  the  hound,  he  will  give 
his  knowledge  to  the  world,  in  a  voice  that  is  resonant, 
magnetic,  and — on  the  whole — musical.  The  bray  of 
an  earnest  mule  is  not  after  the  Italian  but  the  Wag- 
nerian school.  It  is  not  the  sweet,  tender  tenor  of 
Manrico,  it  is  Lohengrin  sounding  his  note  of  power. 
It  is  not,  perhaps,  equal  to  an  orchestra  of  nightingales, 
but  it  has  a  rhythm,  and  passion,  and  power,  and  sweet- 
ness, nevertheless. 

The  quick  instinct  of  Julia  caught  the  scent  of  the 
Apache  assassins,  and  as  they  crept  up  she  was  en- 
gaged in  a  struggle  with  her  rider,  who,  with  voice  and 
spur,  was  vainly  endeavoring  to  induce  and  compel 
her  to  proceed  along  the  usual  road. 

"Why,  Julia,"  soliloquized  Morning,  "you  must 
have  been  browsing  on  rattle-weed!  What  is  the 
matter  with  you?" — and  he  tugged  vainly  at  her 
bridle. 

Whizz!  whizz!  went  the  arrows.  With  one  shaft 
quivering  in  her  flank,  the  mule  fairly  sprang  into  the 
air,  while  the  other  transfixed  the  left  arm  of  David 
Morning,  and  pinned  it  to  his  side. 

And  then  his  question  was  answered,  and  he  knew 
what  was  the  matter  with  Julia. 

The  frenzied  animal  leaped  the  Rillito  at  a  bound, 
and  swept  across  the  valley  to  the  corral  adjoining  the 
Gonzales  ranch  house.  Once  within  the  inclosure, 
she  stopped  and  uttered  her  most  melodious  notes  of 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  129 

delight.  With  a  crescendo  of  welcome  a  dozen  of 
her  kindred  greeted  Julia,  and  the  swarthy  major- 
domo  of  the  ranch,  accompanied  by  half  a  dozen 
vaqueros  with  lights,  rushed  out,  and  Morning,  weak 
from  pain  and  loss  of  blood,  was  half-led  and  half- 
carried  into  the  ranch  house. 

The  Senor  Don  Pedro  Gonzales  a  year  before  had 
journeyed  into  Paradise,  from  the  effects  of  an  attack 
of  mountain  fever,  aggravated  by  too  copious  use  of 
mescal,  and  left  his  ranch  houses  and  corral,  his  two 
hundred  mules  and  horses,  his  two  thousand  cattle, 
his  brand  of  G  on  a  triangle,  and  his  rancho  Santa 
Ysbel  to  his  sefiora,  the  Donna  Maria,  who,  with  her 
family,  continued  to  occupy  the  place. 

Messengers  dispatched  to  Tucson  returned  with 
physicians,  who  cut  out  the  arrow  and  found  that  the 
wound  was  severe,  and  its  result  might  be  fatal.  They 
agreed  that  for  Morning  to  endeavor  to  travel  with  such 
a  wound  would  be  simply  suicide,  and  that  he  must 
not  attempt  to  leave  the  shelter  and  care  which  the 
hospitable  Gonzales  family  were  glad  to  accord  him. 


CHAPTER   XL 

"  It  is  only  mirage." 

A  long,  low,  adobe  building,  roofed  with  tiles  of 
pottery  clay,  situated  near  the  banks  of  the  river 
Santa  Cruz.  Long  rows  of  cottonwood-trees  spread 
their  branches  nearly  over  the  little  stream,  and  the 
graceful  masses  of  pepper,  combed  to  a  fringe,  drop 
their  courtesied  obeisance  to  every  passing  breeze, 
and  throw  their  uneasy  shadows  well  over  the  walls, 
neatly  stuccoed  with  cobblestones. 

The  air  curdles  with  the  heat  rising  from  the  arid 
plain,  and  hangs,  a  shimmering  sheet  of  translucent 
vapor,  between  the  eye  and  the  ever-lengthening  dis- 
tance, which  softly  melts  into  the  Santa  Rita  Moun- 
tains. 

Is  that  a  lake  out  of  which  rises  the  well-outlined 
range  of  nearer  hills?  or  a  sea,  throwing  up  billows  of 
foam  and  shadow,  with  islands  of  green  glimpsing 
their  shapes  in  the  placid  waters  that  encircle  their 
feet  ?  And  ships,  with  well-fashioned  hulls  and  wide- 
spreading  sails,  and  pictured  rocks,  and  beating 
breakers,  and  lifeboats  with  men  tugging  at  the  oars. 
No!  it  is  only  mirage,  a  pretty  picture  written  with 
the  electric  pen  of  nature  upon  the  parchment  hot 
from  the  press  of  her  untongued  fancies.  In  her  lur- 
ing tale  strong  men  have  trusted  themselves  to  fatal 
(130) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  131 

deception,  and  beasts,  with  lapping  tongues,  and 
knotted  with  water  greed,  have  gnashed  their  teeth  at 
her  beautiful  garments  of  fateful  film,  and  lain  down 
to  die.  Art  has  been  outvied  in  pictorial  effects,  for 
she  filters  her  shadows  from  daintiest  clouds,  and 
borrows  her  bath  of  oscurial  glints  from  the  unfath- 
omed  deeps  of  heaven.  Even  austere  science  hides 
his  forged  shackles  shamedly  away,  and  turns  with 
unsatisfied  scorn  from  the  flitting  gleam  of  her  mock- 
ing brow. 

"It  is  only  mirage,  one  of  nature's  cleverest  tricks; 
and  what  more  is  life?"  comes  once  and  again 
from  parched  lips  and  longing  eyes.  For,  although 
water,  sweet  and  cool,  drips  from  an  olla  near  at 
hand,  yet,  stretched  upon  a  bed  carefully  prepared  of 
finely-stripped  rawhide,  placed  upon  the  well-beaten 
and  smooth  earth,  under  the  sheltering  roof  of  a 
ramada  connecting  two  sections  of  the  Gonzales  casa, 
lies  David  Morning,  hot  with  fever,  and  still  unable  to 
leave  his  couch. 

A  little  apart,  and  softly  swaying  in  her  hammock 
of  scarlet  and  gold,  one  foot  lightly  touching  the 
ground,  half  reclines  the  small,  undulating  figure  of 
Murella  Gonzales. 

The  ancient  blood  of  Castile  had  never  been  suffered 
by  the  Gonzales  family  to  mingle,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  church,  with  ignobler  currents.  The  late  Sefior 
Don  Pedro,  although  only  possessed  of  the  estate  of 
a  prosperous  Mexican  cattle  rancher,  was  yet  a 
Hidalgo  of  Hidalgoes,  who  could  have  covered  the 
walls  of  his  casa  with  his  quarterings.  As  for  his 
wife,  was  she  not  an  Alvarado  ?  and — Santa  Maria! — 


132  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

what  more  would  you  have  in  the  way  of  blood  ? 
Certainly,  from  her  arched  instep  to  her  wealth  of 
blue-black  hair,  the  Senorita  Murella  was  a  wondrously 
beautiful  maiden. 

"Murella,"  spoke  the  sick  man,  turning  his  ema- 
ciated face  toward  the  girl,  ' '  during  the  early  days  of 
my  illness,  I  gave  you  a  letter  to  mail,  do  you  remem- 
ber?" 

"Si,  sen  or." 

' '  Do  you  remember  how  many  days  ago,  Murella  ? ' ' 

"Si,  sefior,  seventeen  day,"  and  the  small  ears 
deepened  red  behind  the  creamy  oval  face. 

' '  Did  you  give  Jose  the  letter  to  post  ? ' ' 

"Si,  sefior." 

"You  are  very  kind,   senorita,  and  I  thank  you." 

The  girl  glanced  swiftly  across  the  court  at  an  open 
door  wherein  stood  the  madrona,  the  customary 
shawl  of  black  Spanish  lace  drawn  tightly  across  her 
mouth,  leaving  two  shining  black  eyes  fixed  steadily 
upon  her. 

"A  few  days  more,  and  I  shall  be  leaving  your 
hospitable  roof, "  continued  Morning. 

"Why  will  you  not  take  a  me  with  you?"  said 
Murella,  with  imperturbable  gravity,  and  with  no 
change  of  expression. 

The  man  illy  concealed  his  look  of  surprise,  as  he 
tucked  the  richly  embroidered  pillow  more  firmly  be- 
neath his  head,  and  replied  kindly: — 

"  Such  a  thing  could  not  possibly  be,  little  girl,  for 
more  reasons  than  your  pretty  head  could  contain." 

"Then  you  do  not  a  lof  me,  and  you  told  a  me  a 
lie,"  and  the  dark  eyes  lit  with  a  flame  of  Vesuvian 
fires  like  the  red  light  in  those  of  a  tiger. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  1 33 

"What  do  you  mean,  senorita?"  and  a  faint  flush 
overspread  his  own  pale  face. 

,  "I  mean  you  call  me  your  beloved  Ella,  such  name 
as  Americans  give  a  me,  and  you  hold  me  close  in  your 
arms,  and  say  you  will  never  part  from  me,  not  for 
one  hour — only  ten  day  ago — and  now  you  leave  a 
me! " 

This  was  an  awkward  situation,  and  Mr.  Morning 
recognized  its  full  significance  upon  the  moment.  In 
his  delirium  he  had  used  the  too  familiar  name,  and 
had  coupled  with  its  use  endearments  which  had  been 
compromisingly  misappropriated.  He  reflected  a 
moment.  There  was  nothing  left  but  to  tell  the  truth 
and  accept  the  consequences.  Another  girl  would 
laugh.     What  would  Murella  do? 

"Senorita,"  he  began  slowly,  "I  have,  as  you 
kn6\v,  been  very  ill,  and  on  several  occasions  have 
lost  my  way  in  delirium,  and  have  been  wandering 
over  scenes  belonging  to  other  days.  Can  you  not 
forgive  me  if  I  have  called  you  by  a  name  which  you 
mistook  for  your  own  prettier  one?  Can  you  not 
pardon  me  if  in  my  fevered  imagination  I  gave  you 
for  the  moment  a  place  long  ago  sanctified  and  dedi- 
cated to  forgetfulness?" 

' '  Then  why  cannot  you  lof  a  me  ?  Am  I  not  as 
lofely  as  she  ? ' ' 

"You  are  very  beautiful,  Murella." 

"Machacha!"  shrieked  the  duenna  from  the  en- 
trance to  the  ramada,  "what  are  you  saying?"  and 
then  followed  invective  in  every  key,  and  words  of 
scorn  in  every  cadence,  until,  pale  with  anger  and 
chagrin,  the  girl  sprang  from  her  hammock  and  ran 
swiftly  away. 


134  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

For  a  long  time  our  hero  lay  lost  in  speculation. 
After  all,  it  was  only  a  misunderstanding,  and  not  lia- 
ble to  be  remembered  overnight.  In  any  event,  he 
had  not  compromised  the  maiden,  and  finally  he  con- 
cluded— as  was  indeed  the  truth — that  the  cunning 
senorita  was  all  the  while  cognizant  of  the  situation, 
and  not  at  all  deceived,  and  so  he  dismissed  the  sub- 
ject from  his  mind. 

And  what  was  the  first  move  of  the  panic-stricken 
maiden?  Speeding  swiftly  over  the  ground,  she  sank 
in  the  shadow  of  the  ocotilla  hedge  inclosure,  which 
formed  the  corral,  and  drew  cautiously  from  her 
pocket  the  letter  committed  to  her  care  by  Morning. 
Reopening  it,  for  the  envelope,  sealed  only  with  mu- 
cilage, had  been  carefully  broken,  she  drew  forth  a 
picture  of  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw,  older  by  many 
years  than  the  name  she  now  bore,  and  much  thumbed 
and  worn  beside. 

This  unconscious  incendiary  Murella  first  regarded 
disdainfully  for  an  instant,  and  then  deliberately  spat 
upon  it.  She  then  proceeded  to  possess  herself  of  the 
contents  of  the  letter,  which  was  brief,  and,  regarded 
as  a  wholesome  irritant  for  a  recent  wound,  rather  in- 
effectual. She  spelled  it  out  laboriously,  and  it  read 
as  follows: — 
To  the  Baroness   Von  Eulaw,  Berlin. 

You  may  have  forgotten  that  several  years  ago,  and 
through  wholly  legitimate  means,  let  me  say  in  self- 
defense,  a  specimen  of  art,  of  inestimable  value  to  me, 
came  into  my  possession.  I  have  hitherto  deemed  it 
no  breach  of  honor  to  retain  it.  Finding  myself  very 
ill,  however,  and  warned  by  my  physicians  of  the  prob- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  I35 

able  fatal  termination  of  my  malady,  I  esteem  it  pru- 
dent and  not  less  just  to  return  to  you  the  last  token 
of  a  mutual  recognition  which  I  have  the  faith  to  be- 
lieve is  among  the  things  that  are  undying. 

It  is,  perhaps,  unwillingness  to  pass  the  veil  which 
enshrouds  the  great  mystery,  without  first  vindicating 
myself  in  your  esteem,  that  impels  me  to  tell  you  that 
which  I  have  heretofore  thought  to  keep  secret — that 
your  letter,  written  in  February,  1883,  was  accidentally 
mislaid  in  an  old  desk,  and  was  never  opened  or  pe- 
rused by  me  until  the  day  after  you  became  the  Bar- 
oness Von  Eulaw.  Always  yours  sincerely, 

David  Morning. 

Murella  spread  the  letter  upon  the  ground  and  pon- 
dered. Plainly  it  was  not  a  love  letter,  as  she  had  ex- 
pected— almost  hoped!  for  she  missed  the  ecstasy  and 
exhilaration  of  that  desire  for  vengeance  which  is  the 
stimulus  to  passion  in  the  breast  of  any  true  scion  of 
the  Spanish  race,  and  devoid  of  which  life  has  little 
zest. 

It  might  have  been  written  to  his  grandmother  for 
all  she  could  gather  from  its  contents,  and  the  thought 
suggested  the  duenna,  with  her  cruel  eyes  and  hard, 
wrinkled  mouth,  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch  her  from 
all  points  of  the  compass.  So  she  folded  the  letter, 
and,  taking  up  the  picture,  again  scrutinized  it.  "Devil! 
devil!  devil!"  she  broke  out,  as  she  smote  the  paste- 
board with  her  tiny  soft  fist.  Then,  folding  it  away 
with  the  letter,  she  slipped  them  into  her  pocket,  and, 
gliding  around  the  ocotilla  palings,  she  entered  her 
apartment  through  an  outer  door,  where  she  resealed 
the  missive,  and,  summoning  the  messenger  Jose,  bade 


I36  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

him  forthwith  journey  to  Tucson,  and  deposit  it  in 
the  post  office  there. 

The  sun  was  sinking  behind  Tehachape  Mountains, 
and  its  parting  rays,  full  of  the  color  of  leaf  and  bough  . 
fell  brightly  upon  the  prostrate  form  of  the  invalid, 
and  as  Murella  dropped  softly  to  the  ground  before  a 
low  window,  which  opened  upon  the  ramada,  she 
parted  her  muslin  curtains  and  gazed  devouringly 
upon  the  well-knit,  shapely  form,  and  the  broad- 
browed,  tinted  face,  while  the  light  faded,  and  soft 
voices  grew  higher  as  the  family  supper  hour  ap- 
proached, and  tinkling  sounds  from  mandolin  and 
guitar  filled  the  night  with  music.  Then,  taking  a 
last  look,  she  arose,  and,  stamping  her  foot  upon  the 
ground,  impatiently  she  ejaculated: — 

"Oh,  bah!     He  too  good  for  anyting." 

She  joined  the  family  group  at  supper  with  a  look 
of  high  disdain  on  her  beautiful  face,  but  otherwise  un- 
dismayed, and  ate  her  frijoles  and  tortillas,  and 
scrambled  for  the  whitest  tomales  among  her  younger 
brothers,  very  much  as  if  David  Morning  had  overruled 
his  physicians,  and  departed  for  Tucson  in  an  ambu- 
lance the  day  after  he  was  wounded,  as  he  had  once 
determined  to  do,  instead  of  having  lain  there  for  a 
month,  drawing  first  upon  her  pity,  and  then  upon 
her  fancy,  and  stirring  things  in  her  imagination  gen- 
erally. 

Late  in  the  moon-lit  night,  the  soft  summer  winds 
still  busy  among  the  boughs,  a  sweet  girlish  voice, 
melodiously  attuned  to  the  notes  of  the  mandolin,  ran 
through  the  dreams  of  David  Morning,  carrying  the 
passionful  refrain,   "Oh,   illustrissimo  mia,"  and  he 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  137 

awoke,  and  still  the  sweet  refrain,  "Oh,  illustrissimo 
mia." 

Several  days  went  by,  summer  days  full  of  work  and 
growth  and  promise  outside,  and  still  Morning  was 
unable  to  leave  the  Gonzales  ranch.  His  pulse,  which 
the  doctors  declared  had  never  regained  its  normal 
beat,  was  low  and  intermittent,  and  the  hectic  flush 
never  left  his  cheek.  At  length  typhoid  fever  was 
developed,  and  for  weeks  he  lay  at  the  verge  of  death, 
and  for  as  many  weeks  Murella  Gonzales  sat  at  his 
head  by  day,  and  made  her  bed  at  the  foot  of  his 
couch  by  night.  The  sefiora,  the  madrofia,  even  the 
cocoanut  brown  machacha  of  all  work,  each  brought 
fruit  and  drink  and  delicacies  to  dissuade  him  from  his 
delirium  and  tempt  him  back  to  health,  but  Murella 
sat  always  with  her  graceful  head  resting  lightly  against 
his  pillow,  silent,  languid,  and  lovely. 

Sometimes  the  doctors  remonstrated  and  begged  her 
to  leave  him,  but  she  only  said,  "Maiiana,  manana" 
and  to-morrow  never  came.  But  it  proved  to  be  only 
a  question  of  time,  and  before  the  gray  linings  of  the 
poplar  had  slid  into  umber,  or  the  pomegranate  had 
gained  its  full  meed  of  sweet  juices,  David  Morning 
was  brought  a  picturesque  basket  of  Indian  workman- 
ship, quite  filled  with  letters  which  had  found  him  out, 
calling  him  back  with  the  imperative  voices  of  business 
demands,  to  take  his  place  again  with  the  rank  and  file 
of  affairs. 

So  the  last  day  came,  and  Murella,  abandoning  her 
customary  hammock,  sat  all  the  morning  upon  a  thick 
rug  spread  upon  the  ground,  exhibiting  her  irritable 
feeling  by  nervously  tossing  the  clinging  folds  of  her 


I38  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

lace  mantilla  back  over  her  shoulder,  or  tracing  the 
figures  of  the  rug  absently.  Morning  seemed  lost  in 
reverie  for  a  long  time;  finally  he  spoke,  evidently  a 
little  doubtful  where  to  begin. 

"I  do  not  need  to  tell  you,  senorita,"  said  he, 
' '  that  I  feel  the  greatest  gratitude  toward  the  inmates 
of  this  household,  and  I  ask  you  to  tell  me,  not  what 
you  would  wish  me  to  do  for  you,  but  what  is  the  wish 
most  dear  to  you  if  I  were  not  in  the  world?  " 

"  Oh,  if  Sefior  Morning  die,  I  shall  die  too." 

"Oh,  no!  if  some  fairy  should  wave  its  wand,  or 
some  Fortunatus  should  drop  uncounted  gold  at  your 
feet,  what  would  you  do  first?" 

The  soft  eyes  of  Senorita  Gonzales  flamed  as  never 
eyes  of  Saxon  maiden  burned,  and  she  quickly  re- 
plied, rising  and  drawing  nearer: — 

"  I  would  have  a  casa grande." 

"And  where  would  you  have  a  grand  casa,  here?" 

"No,  no!"  giving  her  hand  a  truly  Delsarte  sweep 
of  motion.  "Long  time  ago  my  mother  take  a  me  to 
Yuma,  and  there  I  hear  much  talk  about  Castle  Dome; 
it  is  twenty,  thirty  miles  up  the  great  river  Colorado. 
One  time  we  sail  up  there  in  steam  a  boat,  and  such 
a  rancheria — beautiful!  Great  trees,  and  rocks,  and 
the  Indians  have  been  show  how  by  the  padres  long 
time  ago,  and  they  have  beautiful  trees  of  figs,  and 
oranges,  and  lemon,  and  great  vines.  And  I  have 
tink  about  it  always.  When  I  am  rich  a  I  shall  drive 
the  Indians  away,  and  give  money  for  make  a  them 
not  hungry,  and  make  a  casa  all  like  a  same  in  pic- 
ture." 

"  We  all  have  our  castles  in  Spain.     Why  not  you, 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  139 

Murella?"  and  he  drew  forth  a  pencil,  and,  spreading 
paper  upon  the  table,  asked  her  to  sit  down. 

"Now,"  said  he,  "we  will  build  this  fine  house 
upon  paper.     What  shall  we  do  first  ?  " 

"We  shall  have  a  dance-house." 

Morning  smiled  grimly;  the  mining  camps  enjoy  a 
monopoly  of  literary  phrasing,  and  the  compound 
word  was  familiar,  so  he  only  said,  ' '  All  right,  a 
salon  for  dancing." 

"Si,  senor,  saloon,"  repeated  Murella  gravely, 
' '  and  a  grande  saloon  for  beautiful  flowers. ' ' 

"A  conservatory,  of  course,  though  that  will  be  su- 
perfluous," he  added,  "in  a  country  itself  a  hotbed 
for  tropic  bloom.  Why  not  hanging  gardens  like 
those  of  Babylon  ? ' ' 

"Oh,  beautiful!"  clasping  her  little  fingers  in  ec- 
stasy. 

"Very  well,"  looking  into  her  face,  pencil  sus- 
pended. 

"And  a  beautiful  room  for  a  you,"  and  she  paused 
for  a  moment,  "with,  with  what  you  call,  wall  like 
the  sky  before  the  sun  a  come,  and  morning  glory 
flower  go  all  around  the  top,"  pointing  to  the 
frieze,  "a  like  a  your  name,  Senor  Mia." 

Morning  suddenly  discovered  something  upon  the 
toe  of  his  boot,  and  the  girl  struggled  on  in  very  bad 
English,  but  with  charming  enthusiasm.  She  planned 
and  he  interpreted.  They  first  laid  out  the  grounds, 
availing  themselves  of  the  groves  already  planted  by 
the  Indians.  They  covered  acres  of  ground  with 
rare  exotics,  studding  them  with  statuary  in  creamiest 
marble,  chiseled  from   designs  of  their  own,  with  a 


140  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Psyche  and  Cupid  to  guard  the  main  entrance  to  the 
park. 

"What  is  that  ting  she  a  hold  in  her  hand?" 

"  That  is  a  torch,"  explained  Morning.  "Psyche 
is  the  soul,  and  Cupid  is  love,  and  she  is  going  in 
search  of  him." 

"And  did  she  find  a  him?"  archly  questioned  the 
girl. 

"I  think  not,"  said  Morning,  gloomily  drawing 
forth  a  fresh  sheet  of  paper. 

"And  about  the  casa  grande,"  continued  Morning, 
' '  of  what  shall  it  be  built  ? ' ' 

The  sefiorita  rested  her  pretty  chin  between  her 
two  palms  and  meditated.  Finally  she  decided  it 
should  be  like  the  cupids,  of  shining  marble,  with  agate 
or  onyx  for  columns,  and  garnets — found  in  quanti- 
ties in  Arizona — for  smaller  decorations.  This  most 
elaborate  plan  having  been  at  length  crudely  com- 
pleted, Mr.  Morning  folded  it,  quietly  saying  he 
would  submit  it  to  an  architect. 

' '  Not  truly  ? ' '  said  the  girl,  springing  to  her  feet 
with  shining  eyes  and  hands  crossed  upon  her  breast. 

' '  Yes,  really  and  truly,  for  your  own  sweet  self,  and 
for  your  hospitable  family;  and  with  my  kindest  re- 
gards and  deepest  gratitude." 

Murella  turned  very  pale.  Dreams  were  not  dreamed 
to  be  so  realized.     Was  he  teasing  her? 

Hitherto  her  self-love  had  made  her  the  central 
figure  in  her  own  mind.  All  things  about  her  had 
been  dwarfed  and  become  inconsequent  in  her  egotis- 
tic life,  because  she  was  wholly  ignorant  of  any  possi- 
bilities outside  of  the  power  she  wielded  through  her 
beauty  and  her  grace. 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO.-MORROW.  141 

But  a  new  element  had  been  added  to  her  limited 
experience,  and  it  had  developed  into  a  magician, 
or  had  it  done  so  really?  The  doubt  took  momen- 
tary possession  of  her,  and  she  arose  in  an  atti- 
tude of  defiance,  her  flashing  eyes  resting  upon  the 
amused  but  open  countenance  of  David  Morning. 

Then  she  knew  that  she  looked  into  the  face  of  her 
god,  and  she  fled  to  her  room,  and,  sinking  upon  the 
floor,  she  covered  her  face  with  her  mantilla,  and 
sobbed  convulsively. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

"Secrecy  is  the  soul  of  all  great  designs.' 

It  was  October  when  Morning  arrived  in  New  York 
City.  Steel  had  been  prompt  in  shipping  the  gold 
not  covered  with  copper,  and  Morning's  bank  accounts 
in  New  York  now  amounted  to  sixteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars, while  the  fame  of  the  Morning  mine  as  a  pro- 
ducer of  four  millions  of  gold  bars  per  month  had 
already  created  a  marked  sensation  in  financial  and 
business  circles,  and  in  the  newspaper  world,  but  none 
suspected  the  immense  actual  production. 

Morning  visited  Washington,  and  bought  a  stone 
warehouse  near  the  foot  of  Sixth  Street.  He  pur- 
chased a  similar  building  in  Philadelphia,  near  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  freight  depot,  and  he  bought  a 
third  warehouse  alongside  the  track  of  the  New  Jersey 
Central  at  Hoboken.  He  caused  switches  to  be  con- 
structed into  each  of  these  warehouses,  and  provided 
each  of  them  with  heavy  iron  shutters  and  doors. 
He  employed  four  watchmen  for  each  building,  divided 
into  day  and  night-watches  of  six  hours  each.  He 
arranged  that  the  copper-pigs  containing  gold  should 
be  loaded  on  the  cars  at  Tucson  by  his  own  men, 
who  were  themselves  unaware  that  they  were  handling 
anything  but  copper,  and  the  cars  locked  and  sent  in 
train-load  lots  through,  without  change  or  rehandling, 
(142) 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  143 

to  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  where 
they  were  run  into  his  warehouses  and  there  unloaded. 
It  was  given  out  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  copper 
syndicate,  and  was  storing  the  surplus  product  of  the 
mines  for  higher  prices.  His  plans  worked  with  per- 
fect smoothness,  and  his  wealth  accumulated  openly 
at  the  rate  of  four  millions  per  month,  and  secretly  at 
the  rate  of  one  hundred  millions  per  month,  with  a 
vast  amount  of  newspaper  comment  concerning  the 
four  millions,  and  no  suspicion  anywhere  as  to  the 
real  sum. 

The  advocates  of  free  coinage  of  silver,  who  were 
defeated  in  the  Congress  of  1889-90,  renewed  their 
contest  in  the  Congress  of  1891-92,  and  in  February, 
1892,  a  free  coinage  law  passed,  but  it  was  vetoed 
by  President  Harrison.  The  silver  men  carried  the 
fight  into  the  presidential  election  of  1892,  and  were  so 
far  successful  that  Congress,  in  February,  1894,  enacted 
a  law  the  text  of  which  was  as  follows: — 

"From  and  after  July  1,  1894,  any  person  may  de- 
posit at  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  in  Washing- 
ton, or  at  either  of  the  sub  treasuries  in  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St  Louis,  New  Orleans, 
Denver,  or  San  Francisco,  gold  or  silver  bars  of  stand- 
ard fineness,  and  receive  the  coined  value  thereof  in 
United  States  treasury  notes.  The  secretary  of  the 
treasury  is  authorized  and  directed  to  prepare  and 
keep  on  hand  a  sufficient  amount  of  treasury  notes  to 
comply  with  the  provisions  of  this  act." 

The  influence  of  Morning  as  the  largest  single  pro- 
ducer of  gold  in  the  world,  as  the  owner  already  of 
thirty  millions  of  dollars,  and,  if  his  mine  should  hold 


144  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

* 

out  for  five  years,  of  a  sum  that  would  cause  him  to 
outrank  any  millionaire  in  the  world,  was  very  great, 
and  that  influence,  legitimately  exercised  in  behalf  of 
free  coinage,  proved  very  potent  with  senators  and 
representatives,  and  did  much  to  reconcile  the  adher- 
ents of  a  single  gold  standard  to  the  overthrow  of 
their  system. 

It  was  argued  that  if  the  gold  supply  of  the  world 
was  to  be  increased  forty  per  cent  per  annum  by  the 
yield  of  the  Morning  mine,  that  would  diminish  rela- 
tively the  production  of  silver,  and  the  ancient  parity 
of  the  metals  might  be  restored  ' '  without  danger  to 
our  financial  interests,  Mr.  Speaker." 

Thus  reasoned  the  Honorable  Senile  Jumbo,  who 
represented  a  New  England  district  in  the  House. 
Jumbo  was  a  banker  at  home,  and  because  he  was 
a  banker  was  supposed  to  know  something  about 
finance,  and  was,  in  consequence,  accorded  a  leading 
position  on  the  House  Committee  on  Banking  and 
Currency. 

In  fact,  Jumbo  only  knew  a  good  discount  from  a 
poor  one.  His  definition  of  a  banker  would  have  been 
that  of  the  Indiana  editor,  who  described  such  a  func- 
tionary as  "a  gentleman  who  takes  the  money  of  one 
man  without  interest,  and  loans  ifc  to  another  upon  in- 
terest, and  places  both  depositor  and  borrower  under 
obligations." 

By  his  small  shrewdness  Jumbo  had  gained  a  large 
fortune,  and  secured  a  seat  in  Congress;  but  of  the 
laws  which  govern  finance  in  its  politico-economic  re- 
lations he  had  no  more  knowledge  than  has  a  locomo- 
tive fireman  about  the  law  of  dynamics,   or  a  dry- 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  145 

goods  clerk  about  the  culture  of  the  silkworm.  Yet 
the  Honorable  Senile  Jumbo  looked  wise,  and  talked 
from  the  pit  of  his  stomach,  and  respected  the  views 
of  other  rich  men,  and  as  a  congressman  he  averaged 
with  his  colleagues. 

What  strange  distortion  of  brain  is  it  that  causes 
men  conspicuously  unfit  for  public  life,  to  seek  eleva- 
tions which  can  only  expose  their  intellectual  poverty? 
One  who  does  not  comprehend  the  French  tongue  or 
know  anything  about  science,  would  be  laughed  at  for 
seeking  to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  yet  senatorial  togas  and  congres- 
sional seats  are  constantly  sought  by  gentlemen  whose 
previous  pursuits  have  unfitted  them  to  "shine  in  the 
halls  of  high  debate,"  and  who,  indeed,  would  be  puz- 
zled to  put  together,  while  on  their  feet,  ten  sentences 
of  grammatical  English. 

The  great  and  growing  wealth  of  Morning  caused 
his  society  to  be  courted,  and  many  a  managing 
mamma  was  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  "Ari- 
zona Gold  King,"  as  he  began  to  be  called,  was  a 
bachelor.  This  man  did  not  "wear  his  heart  upon 
his  sleeve, ' '  and  did  not  proclaim  that  his  bachelor- 
hood was  confirmed,  or  had  any  special  reason  for  its 
existence,  but  all  plotting  against  him  was  in  vain,  for 
the  Ellen  lost  to  him  was  the  constant  companion  of 
his  thoughts,  and  to  all  movements  and  plans  and  pur- 
poses of  life  he  applied  instinctively  the  test,  "What 
would  she  think  of  it?" 


10 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

"Hopeless  grief  is  passionless." 

It  was  the  anniversary  of  one  of  the  great  victories 
achieved  by  Germany  in  the  war  of  1870,  and  Berlin 
had  scarcely  known  a  day  so  filled  with  noise,  and 
glitter,  and  color,  and  esprit  as  this  day  had  been. 

The  Baroness  Von  Eulaw,  the  beautiful  American, 
was  more  sought  for  than  ever,  and  the  too  arduous 
round  of  social  duties  and  engagements  were  begin- 
ning to  tell  upon  her  delicate  constitution.  Cards 
had  been  received  by  the  baron  and  his  wife  for  a  re- 
ception at  the  palace,  and  such  an  invitation  could 
scarcely  be  overlooked,  especially  as  no  entertainment 
seemed  acknowledged  by  her  friends  to  be  complete 
without  the  presence  of  the  baroness.  Therefore,  re- 
tiring a  little  earlier  this  evening  than  was  usual  from 
her  own  drawing  rooms,  the  baroness  was  well  ad- 
vanced with  her  toilette  when  she  discovered  letters 
which  the  footman  had  left  upon  her  table  during  her 
absence,  and  among  them  one  bearing  the  postmark  of 
Tucson,  Arizona,  and  addressed  in  a  well-known  hand. 

She  felt  too  excited  to  trust  herself  farther,  and,  be- 
fore tearing  the  envelope,  she  sent  her  maid  with  a 
message  of  her  sudden  indisposition,  which  she  begged 
the  baron  to  deliver  in  person  to  the  emperor,  and 
asked,  furthermore,  not  to  be  disturbed- 
(146; 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  147 

It  was  all  one  to  the  baron  at  this  hour,  and  though 
he  speedily  departed  for  the  imperial  palace,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  high  officials  in  waiting  deemed 
it  advisable  to  admit  him  to  the  imperial  presence. 

Dismissing  her  servants,  the  baroness  was  left  alone 
for  the  night.  Then  she  turned  to  her  dressing-table 
and  stood  while  opening  the  letters,  glancing  hurriedly 
at  their  contents,  all  but  one,  and  this  she  turned  over 
many  times.  What  was  the  burden  of  its  mission, 
and  what  did  it  contain?  Finally  her  trembling  fin- 
gers picked  absently  at  the  envelope,  as  if  she  had 
forgotton  how  to  proceed.  She  might  be  unafraid, 
for  there  was  his  own  handwriting  before  her. 

With  this  thought  a  thrill  went  through  her  heart, 
and  with  a  sudden  motion  she  tore  the  envelope  quite 
apart,  and  her  own  photograph  fell  to  the  floor.  She 
did  not  stoop  for  it,  for  her  eyes  were  fixed  upon  the 
page.  Slowly  she  read  word  by  word,  lingering  over 
the  last,  and  cutting  it  away  from  its  context,  as  if 
fearful  that  another  word  should  overwhelm  her  rea- 


son. 


She  finished,  and  an  awful  silence  fell  upon  her. 
She  could  hear  her  heart  beat  against  her  rich  corsage, 
and  her  breath  crackled  as  it  came  through  her  dry 
lips.  What  was  the  purport  of  that  letter?  She  had 
already  forgotten.  Something  surely  had  left  a  heavy 
pain  at  her  heart.  Just  as  slowly  she  read  it  through 
again. 

Then  he  was  not  dead— or,  stay,  he  might  be,  for 
did  he  not  say  ' '  probably, "  not  "  possibly ' '  ?  Then, 
still  standing  before  the  dressing-table,  she  leaned  for- 
ward, and,  putting  her  face  close  to  the  mirror,  she 


I48  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

muttered,  looking  into  her  own  deep  eyes  the  while, 
"Great  God!  what  did  I  do?"  For  a  full  moment 
she  slood  thus,  then,  lifting  the  powder-puff  from  the 
jeweled  case,  she  mechanically  swept  her  cheeks  and 
brow  and  sat  down.  Then  she  caught  the  letter  and 
read  it  again,  this  time  more  clearly  and  calmly,  "the 
probable  fatal  termination,"  and  again,  "until  the 
day  after  you  became  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw." 

She  looked  at  her  toilette.  What  was  she  doing 
bejeweled  and  brocaded  that  night  ?  Where  were  the 
sackcloth  and  ashes  she  had  earned?  She  arose  and 
pulled  the  diamonds  from  their  places,  and  the  beau- 
tiful robe  from  her  lovely  shoulders,  and  put  on  a 
gown  of  creamy  plush,  bordered  with  some  dark,  rich 
fur,  and,  slowly  tying  the  cords,  her  eyes  fell  upon  the 
picture  at  her  feet. 

She  took  it  between  her  fingers  as  if  it  were  a  dead 
thing,  and  thought  at  the  moment  that  it  weighed  a 
pound  at  the  least.  And  this  was  Ellen  Thornton! 
Then  she  thought  how  old-fashioned  her  dress  looked, 
and  for  a  moment  she  felt  glad  that  she  had  gotten 
the  picture  back.  Another  revulsion  of  feeling  as  she 
looked  upon  the  torn  envelope.  What  would  she  not 
suffer  for  the  hope,  the  uncertainty,  she  had  clung  to 
when  she  tore  that  paper  half  an  hour  ago? 

If  only  the  doctors  could  have  said  "  possibly,"  not 
"  probably;"  perhaps  that  was  what  they  meant,  and 
not  ' '  probably,"  she  repeated.  Doctors  are  so  clumsy 
— especially  some — and  they  do  so  exaggerate  in 
order  to  magnify  the  importance  of  their  case,  and 
for  a  moment  she  took  unction  in  such  logic. 

Suddenly  a   new   thought   took   possession.     The 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  I49 

baron — "where  did  he  come  in?"  as  he  himself 
would  have  expressed  it,  and  she  half  smiled  at  the 
grotesqueness  of  the  thought.  Was  she  not  married? 
and  did  she  not  owe  him  allegiance  as  a  woman  of 
honor?  If  she  had  told  him  all  that  her  soul  held  in 
keeping  for  another,  would  he  have  made  her  the 
Baroness  Yon  Eulaw? — Very  likely,  but  she  was  not 
prepared  to  believe  it.  She  had  no  right  to  hold  him 
responsible  for  offenses  against  her  while  she  was 
holding  perfidy  to  her  heart,  and  she  marveled  that 
she  had  failed  to  make  this  argument  a  shield  against 
the  shafts  of  her  great  sorrow  and  her  almost  greater 
chagrin. 

She  would  destroy  both  the  letter  and  the  picture, 
and  put  away  all  thought  of  the  unhappy  occurrence. 
But,  examining  the  picture  again,  she  discovered  two 
little  punctures  just  through  the  pupils  of  the  shadowy 
eyes,  and  she  thought  and  queried  for  the  cause  of 
such  an  accident. 

Finally  she  concluded  that  her  old  lover  had  made 
them  inadvertently  in  fastening  the  picture  to  his  wall 
or  mirror  frame,  and  so,  pressing  her  lips  warmly  to 
the  tinv  wounds  on  the  unconscious  paper,  where  she 
fancied  his  fingers  had  rested,  she  locked  both  the 
photo  and  letter  in  her  desk,  and,  just  as  daylight 
broke,  long  after  the  clanging  of  the  locks  had  ceased 
and  the  brightness  was  withdrawn,  she  braided  her 
hair  as  she  had  worn  it  so  many  years  ago  when  the 
image  was  made,  and,  with  a  long  look  in  the  mirror 
to  find  a  trace  of  her  old  self,  she  turned  away  to  her 
couch,  and  disposed  herself  for  an  hour  of  sleep. 

But  the  last  among  her  sea  of  speculations  was  this: 
"I  wonder  who  made  those  pin-holes  in  my  eyes!" 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

'  In  the  name  of  God,  take  heed." 

The  Hod- Carriers'  Union  and  Mortar- Mixers'  Pro- 
tective Association,  of  San  Francisco,  adopted  a  reso- 
lution in  February,  1894,  to  fix  the  rate  of  wages  of 
its  members  at  $3.00  per  day,  and  admitting  no  new 
members  for  a  period  of  one  year.  The  immediate 
cause  of  this  resolution  was  the  letting,  by  certain  cap- 
italists, of  contracts  for  the  construction  of  several 
blocks  of  buildings  on  Market  Street,  including  the 
new  post-office  building. 

Phelim  Rafferty,  in  proposing  the  resolution,  said: 
"The  owners  and  the  contractors,  Mr.  Prisident 
and  gentlemen,  are  min  of  large  means,  sor,  yit  they 
propose  to  pay  us,  the  sons  of  honest  toil,  sor,  widout 
whose  brawny  muscles  they  could  not  build  at  all,  sor, 
they  propose  to  pay  us  a  beggarly  $2.00  a  day,  sor. 
Why,  the  min  in  the  public  schools  who  taich  the  pi- 
anny  to  our  gurls,  sor,  recaive  more  nor  that !  Now, 
sor,  if  we  pass  this  risolution  we  put  our  wages  to 
$3.00  a  day,  and  hould  them  there.  We  have  the 
mortal  cinch  on  the  contractors,  sor,  for  if  any  mim- 
ber  of  our  union  works  for  less  than  $3.00  we'll  expel 
him;  and  by  passin'  this  risolution  we'll  keep  min 
from  the  East  away,  and  keep  the  mimbership  in  San 
Francisco  shmall,  and  we'll  be  sure  of  a  job. 
(150) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  151 

"  Faith !  the  bosses  will  have  to  be  mighty  civil  to  us 
to  git  us  at  all,  sor.  And  if  they  thry  to  put  to  work 
min  who  are  not  mimbers  of  the  union,  their  buildings 
will  niver  rise  out  of  their  cellars,  sor,  for  the  other 
thrades  are  compilled  to  sthand  by  us,  sor. ' ' 

Mr.  Lorin  French,  the  millionaire  contractor  and 
owner  of  the  great  San  Francisco  Iron  Works,  read 
in  the  journal  next  morning  an  account  of  the  action 
taken  by  the  Hod-Carriers  Union  and  Mortar-Mixers' 
Protective  Association,  and  he  smiled  a  grim  smile. 
That  day  he  sent  invitations  to  a  number  of  capitalists 
and  contractors  to  attend  a  meeting  at  his  offices,  and 
the  result  of  the  conference  was  the  formation  of  a 
Manufacturers'  and  Builders'  League,  of  which  Mr. 
Lorin  French  was  chosen  permanent  president. 

The  daily  papers  the  next  morning  contained  the 
following  advertisement: — 

WANTED. 
On  the  first  day  of  next  month,  two  hundred  hod-carriers 
and  mortar-mixers  to  work  on  the  new  post-office  block# 
Three  dollars  per  day  will  be  paid  until  further  notice. 
Men  who  have  applied  for  and  been  refused  admittance  to 
membership  in   the  Hod-Carriers'  Union  will  be  preferred. 

Lorin  French. 
1099  Market  Street. 

This  base  attempt  of  capital  to  coerce  or  bribe  the 
worker  into  allowing  another  worker  an  equal  chance 
of  obtaining  employment,  was  denounced  by  Rafferty 
the  next  night  in  a  ringing  speech  at  a  special  meet- 
ing of  the  Hod-Carriers'  Union,  which  meeting  re- 
sulted in  a  convention  of  the  Federated  Trades  being 
ordered. 


I52  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

At  this  convention  it  was  resolved  by  a  three-fourths 
majority,  after  a  hot  debate,  that  no  member  of  any 
trade  organization  would,  on  penalty  of  expulsion,  be 
permitted  to  work  in  or  upon  or  in  aid  of  the  construc- 
tion of  any  building,  or  in  any  shop,  mill,  foundry,  or 
factory,  or  in  or  upon  any  work  where  any  person 
not  a  member  of  some  trade-organization  was  em- 
ployed, or  where  any  material  was  used  which  had 
been  manufactured  by  non-union  labor. 

' '  My  frent  from  the  Plumbers'  Association  speaks 
of  this  resolution,  Mr.  President,  as  a  poomerang," 
said  Gustave  Blather,  a  labor  lecturer,  who  on  this 
occasion  represented  the  Dishwashers'  Lagerbund. 
"I  don't  know  as  such  languitch  is  quite  broper 
coming  from  him,  for  a  goot  many  beople  haf  their 
doubts  whether  plumbing  is  really  a  trate  or  only  a 
larceny.  But,  my  fellow  pret-winners,  if  the  resolu- 
tion is  a  poomerang,  it  is  one  that  will  knock  the  ar- 
rogance out  of  the  ploated  Wealth-owners,  and  teach 
them  that  in  this  republic — established  by  the  ploot  of 
our  fathers  [Blather's  great-grandfather  was  a  Hessian 
soldier  in  the  British  army,  and  returned  to  Darmstadt 
after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis] — in  this  republic 
the  time  is  close  at  hand  when  suppliant  wealth  will 
be  compelt  to  enture  the  colt  and  hunger  it  has  gifen 
to  labor  for  many  years."  And,  amid  a  storm  of  ap- 
plause, Blather  sank  to  his  seat. 

The  post  office  block  was  begun  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed, with  a  force  of  men,  all  of  whom  were  mem- 
bers of  the  trade  organizations,  and  the  work  pro- 
gressed steadily  for  a  week.  At  the  Saturday-night 
meetings  of  the  several  trade  organizations,  the  mem- 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  I53 

bers  congratulated  themselves  that  "old  French  "  had 
concluded  not  to  carry  out  his  programme,  and  in 
several  lodges  it  was  proposed  to  signalize  the  mag- 
nificent victory  of  labor  over  capital  by  demanding  a 
general  advance  of  twenty  per  cent  in  the  wages  of 
all  mechanics;  but  some  of  the  wiser  heads  discour- 
aged the  movement  as  premature,  and  one  pessimistic 
house  carpenter  observed,  amid  expressions  of  dissent 
from  his  colleagues,  that  if  all  the  mechanics  followed 
the  example  of  the  hod  carriers,  it  would  ' '  bust  wide 
open  every  builder  and  contractor  in  Frisco,  or  else 
put  a  stop  to  all  building." 

On  the  next  Monday  morning  there  appeared  on 
the  scene  ten  men  clad  in  blouses  and  overalls.  Three 
of  them  worked  at  mixing  mortar,  three  of  them  car- 
ried hods,  three  of  them  commenced  laying  brick, 
while  the  tenth  man  directed  the  labors  of  the  other 
nine.  Each  had  buckled  about  his  waist  in  plain 
sight  a  cartridge  belt  from  which  hung  a  dragoon  re- 
volver. 

As  soon  as  their  presence  and  labors  became  known, 
word  was  sent  to  labor  headquarters,  and  Delegate 
Brown  was  deputed  to  interview  the  strangers  and 
ascertain  the  situation. 

Pap  Brown  was  a  journeyman  stone  cutter  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sixties,  who  did  not  often  work  at 
his  trade.  The  salary  he  received  from  the  trade 
unions  was  sufficient  for  his  support,  and  he  fully 
earned  his  salary.  He  was  shrewd,  suave,  and  per- 
sistent, and  his  fatherly  way  with  "the  boys,"  and 
deferential  manner  to  employers,  often  secured  to 
the   former  favorable    adjustments    of    contests    that 


154  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

would   have   been   denied   to   the    "silver-tongued" 
Raffertys  and  Blathers. 

Pap  Brown  approached  one  of  the  men  who  was 
engaged  in  mixing  mortar,  and  inquired  whom  he  was 
working  for.  The  man  addressed  made  no  reply, 
but  signaled  the  foreman,  who  came  forward  and 
curtly  answered : — 

"We  are  all  working  for  Mr.  Lorin  French." 

"What  wages  do  you  get?  "  asked  Brown. 

' '  Well, ' '  replied  the  foreman  after  a  pause,  ' '  strictly 
speaking,  I  don't  know  as  that  concerns  you,  but  I 
have  no  objection  to  telling  you.  The  mortar-mix- 
ers and  hod-carriers  get  $3.00  a  day,  the  bricklayers 
$4.00,  and  I  get  $5.00." 

"Them's  union  wages,"  said  Brown,  approvingly. 
"You  are  strangers  in  Frisco,  I  jedge?  " 

"  We  arrived  last  Friday  night  from  Milwaukee," 
replied  the  foreman. 

' '  Have  you  got  your  cards  as  members  of  the  un- 
ion?" said  Brown. 

"No,"  replied  the  party  addressed,  "we belong  to 
no  union." 

"Hum!  I  suppose  you  are  calkilatin'  to  jine  the  un- 
ions here?  "  inquired  Brown  in  a  persuasive  accent. 

"I  am  told,"  replied  the  foreman,  "  that  so  far  as 
the  Hod-Carriers'  Union  is  concerned,  we  cannotjoin  if 
we  wish  to;  that  they  have  resolved  to  admit  no  new 
members." 

Pap  Brown  slowly  revolved  his  tobacco  quid  in 
his  mouth,  and  rapidly  revolved  the  situation  in  his 
wise  old  brain.  ' '  Hum ! ' '  said  he  at  length,  ' '  I  reckon 
that  can  be  arranged  for  ye,  so  that  ye  can  all  jine." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  I55 

"Well,"  replied  the  man  from  Milwaukee,  "I  may 
as  well  tell  ye  that  we  don't  calculate  to  jine  anyhow. 
We  don't  much  believe  in  unions  nohow — too  many 
fellers  a  settin'  around  drinkin'  beer,  which  the  fellers 
that  work  have  to  pay  for. ' ' 

"Mebbe  you  don't  know,"  said  Pap  Brown,  "that 
only  union  men  will  be  allowed  to  work  here." 

"  Who  will  stop  us?  "  said  the  stranger. 

' '  There  are  a  good  many  thousand  of  the  brother- 
hood in  this  city,"  said  Delegate  Brown,  still  persua- 
sively, "and  there  are  only  ten  of  you. " 

"Well,  we  ten  are  fixed  to  stay,"  said  the  foreman, 
glancing  significantly  at  his  cartridge  belt. 

"Hum!"  remarked  Pap  Brown,  as  he  walked 
away. 

That  night  there  was  a  conference  at  the  labor 
headquarters  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Fed- 
erated Trades,  and  Delegate  Brown  was  called  upon 
to  report. 

' '  I  find, ' '  said  he,  ' '  that  these  ten  men  have  all 
worked  at  their  trades  somewhere,  and  our  watchers 
say  that  they  are  good  workmen;  but  clearly  they 
have  been  hired  more  as  fighters  than  as  hod  carriers 
or  masons.  I  jedge,  from  what  I  hear,  that  there  is 
an  organized  force  behind  them.  They  sleep  and 
take  their  meals  in  old  French's  building  on  Market 
Street,  and  don't  go  out  to  the  saloons,  and  we  can't 
very  well  get  at  them.  Old  French  is  as  cunning  as 
Satan,  and  he  has  fixed  the  job  upon  us,  and  put  these 
men  to  work  to  bring  things  to  a  point.  There  is  a  big 
force  of  Pinkerton'smenin  the  city  all  ready  to  be  sworn 
in  as  deputy  sheriffs  in  case  of  a  row,  and  I  reckon  it 


I56  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

is  put  up  to  call  in  the  soldiers  at  the  Presidio  and  from 
Alcatraz  in  case  of  trouble,  for  the  post-office  building, 
where  the  men  are  working,  is  government  property." 

"What  action  do  you  suggest  we  should  take,  Mr. 
Brown?  "  said  the  chairman. 

Pap  Brown  rolled  his  quid  from  one  cheek  to  the 
other,  and  then  solemnly  deposited  it  in  the  cuspidor. 

"  It  won't  do,"  he  replied,  "to  monkey  with  Uncle 
Sam;  my  jedgment  is  to  jist  let  them  ten  men  alone. " 

"But,"  interposed  a  member  of  the  committee, 
' '  old  French  will  never  stop  there.  Those  ten  men 
are  merely  the  small  end  of  a  wedge  with  which  he  in- 
tends to  split  our  labor  unions  to  pieces.  He  will  not 
give  us  the  sympathy  of  the  people  by  lowering  wages, 
but  he  will  put  on  scabs,  a  dozen  at  a  time,  and  dis- 
charge our  members,  until  the  city  is  filled  with  new 
workmen,  the  unions  broken  up,  and  we  can  all  emi- 
grate to  Massachusetts  or  China." 

"I  shouldn't  wonder,"  said  Pap  Brown,  "but  vio- 
lence to  them  ten  men  would  simply  be  playin'  into 
old  French's  hand.  He  has  figgered  for  a  fight,  but 
we  mustn't  give  it  to  him." 

"We  will  carry  out,"  said  the  Chairman,  "in  a 
peaceful  way,  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  Congress 
of  Federated  Trades. ' ' 

"That,"  said  Pap  Brown,  "means  a  gineral  strike 
and  an  all-around  tie-up,  that's  what  it  means,  jest  at 
the  beginnin'  of  the  buildin'  season,  with  our  union 
treasuries  mostly  empty,  and  our  brethren  East  in  no 
fix  to  help  us,  for  the  coke  strikes  and  the  shettin' 
down  of  the  cotton  factories  and  iron  foundries  this 
winter  have  dreened  them  all.     I  was  a?in  that  reso- 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  1 57 

lution  of  the  Federated  Trades  at  the  time,  and  I'm 
mighty  doubtful  about  it's  workin'  any  good  to  us 
now.  It  was  well  enough  for  a  bluff,  but  if  we  are 
called  down  we  haven't  got  a  thing  in  our  hands,  that's 
a  fact. ' ' 

"Well,  what  can  we  do,  Mr.  Brown?" 

"I  believe  that  the  best  thing  all  around  would  be 
to  give  in  to  old  French  now,  repeal  that  fool  resolu- 
tion, and  wait  for  a  better  time  to  strike." 

"What!  surrender  without  a  blow?  That,  Mr. 
Brown,  we  can  never  do." 

"Well,  then,"  rejoined  Pap  Brown,  "I  reckon 
we've  got  a  long  siege  ahead." 

The  Executive  Committee  appointed  a  delegation 
to  wait  on  Mr.  Lorin  French  and  inform  him  that  un- 
less the  employment  of  the  ten  non-union  men  was 
discontinued,  the  resolution  of  the  Federated  Trades 
would  be  enforced,  and  all  Trade  Union  members  work- 
ing for  him,  or  for  any  member  of  the  Manufacturers' 
and  Builders'  Union,  would  quit  work. 

Mr.  French  received  the  committee  very  curtly. 

"Those  ten  men,"  said  he,  "  will  continue  their  la- 
bors though  they  shall  be  the  only  ten  men  at  work  in 
the  city  of  San  Francisco.  If  one,  or  one  thousand,  or 
ten  thousand  of  you  are  fools  enough  to  quit  work  at 
the  high  wages  you  have  yourselves  fixed,  simply  be- 
cause I  have  given  work  at  the  same  wages  to  men 
who  don't  choose  to  join  one  of  your  bullying  unions, 
why,  you  can  quit.  You  can't  hurt  me  by  quitting  as 
much  as  you  will  hurt  yourselves.  My  money  will 
keep  and  your  work  won't.  But  take  notice  that 
every  man  who  does  quit  work  will   be  blacklisted, 


158  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

and  he  can  never  get  another  job  in  this  city  from  me, 
or  any  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  members  of  the  as- 
sociation of  which  I  am  president,  and  we  include 
about  all  the  large  employers  of  labor  in  this  city." 

"You  know,  Mr.  French,"  said  the  Chairman  of 
the  committee,  that  if  you  insist  on  keeping  these  ten 
non-union  men  at  work  we  can  order  a  general  strike." 

"Yes,  I  know  it,"  replied  French.  "I  know  that 
you  can  bite  off  your  own  noses  to  spite  your  own 
faces.  I  feel  sorry  for  you  workingmen  at  times,  you 
are  such  unreasoning  and  unreasonable  and  everlast- 
ing fools.  When  you  order  a  strike,  you  order  the 
absolute  destruction  of  the  only"  property  you  have — 
your  labor — and  you  do  this  in  order  to  prevent  a  few 
men  from  selling  their  labor;  a  few  men  whose  only 
offense  is  that  they  don't  believe  with  you  in  the  wis- 
dom of  harassing  and  plundering  capitalists." 

"Well,  I  suppose  we  have  a  right  to  strike,  haven't 
we  ? ' '  said  the  Chairman  angrily. 

"No,"  said  French,  "you  have  not.  The  worker 
who  joins  a  strike  faces  at  least  the  possibility  of  capi- 
tal closing  its  works  and  retiring  from  the  field,  and 
the  men  who  have  been  extravagant,  idle,  unthrifty, 
or  unfortunate,  and  most  of  you  have  been  one  or  the 
other,  have  no  moral  right  to  bring  upon  themselves 
or  those  dependent  upon  them,  either  suffering  or 
mendicancy." 

"Mr.  French,"  said  the  Chairman,  "you  know  a 
good  many  things,  but  you  don't  know  the  power  of 
the  labor  organizations  of  the  land.  If  we  willed  it, 
we  could  in  one  day  stop  production  and  transporta- 
tion all  over  the  United  States." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  I59 

"You  would  do  well  to  think  three  or  four  times," 
replied  French,  "before  exercising  any  such  power  as 
that.  You  workingmen  are  overstepping  the  bounds 
not  only  of  moderation,  but  of  common  justice  and 
common  sense.  Suppose  you  should  do  what  you 
threaten,  what  do  you  suppose  the  capitalists  would 
do  in  turn?  You  don't  know?  Well,  I  can  tell  you. 
We  would  say  that  we  were  weary  of  your  exactions, 
your  interference,  and  your  airs.  We  would  say  to 
you:  'You  have  stopped  the  wheels;  very  well,  we 
will  not  start  them.  You  have  extinguished  the  fur- 
nace fires,  we  will  not  rekindle  them.  You  have  dis- 
abled the  engines,  we  will  not  repair  them.  With  the 
downward  stab  of  your  vicious  knife  you  have  cut  our 
surface  veins,  but  you  have  received  the  force  of  the 
blow  in  your  own  vitals— bleed  to  death  at  your  leisure. 
We  will  retire  for  a  while  and  nurse  our  scratches.' 

"You  don't  know  what  you  are  talking  about," 
continued  the  old  man.  "You  don't  conceive  the 
misery  and  ruin  that  would  result  from  sixty  days' 
stoppage  of  labor  in  the  fields  and  foundries  and  facto- 
ries and  furnaces,  and  sixty  days'  suspension  of  traffic 
over  the  railroads  of  our  land.  With  the  disabled 
engines  in  the  roundhouses,  and  the  cars  covered  with 
dust  in  the  deserted  yards;  with  ships  and  steamers 
lying  idle  at  the  wharves  or  sailed  away  to  trade  between 
the  ports  of  other  lands,  whose  governments,  wiser  or 
more  powerful  than  ours,  would  not  suflfer  the  moral 
law  to  be  violated  by  either  individuals  or  societies; 
with  moss  gathered  upon  the  turbines;  with  chimneys 
towering  smokeless  to  the  skies;  with  the  music  of 
lorge   and  anvil   hushed;  with  almshouses   crowded, 


l6o  -BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

• 

asylums  filled,  and  jails  overflowing;  with  men  suf- 
fering and  women  growing  gaunt  from  hunger,  and 
little  children  sobbing  themselves  to  the  fevered  sleep 
of  famine;  with  the  furniture  in  the  auction  room, 
trinkets  and  clothing  in  the  pawn  shop,  and  families 
once  comfortable  wandering  shelterless  under  the 
stars;  with  even  disease  welcomed  as  a  friend  who  should 
pilot  the  sufferer  to  the  deliverance  of  death,  would 
you  find  consolation  for  it  all  in  the  reflection  that  you 
had,  maybe,  carried  your  point  and  prevented  non- 
union men,  who  are  as  good  as  yourselves  in  every 
way,  from  working  alongside  you  at  the  same  wages 
you  demanded  for  yourselves?" 

"Mr.  French,"  said  the  Chairman,  "what  do  you 
wish  us  to  do  ?  " 

"I  don't  care  what  you  do,"  was  the  response, 
' '  but  if  you  have  any  sense,  you  will  go  home  and  re- 
peal your  fool  resolution  to  strike  if  non-union  work- 
ers are  employed." 

' '  That,  Mr.  French, ' '  said  the  spokesman,  ' '  we  can- 
not and  will  not  do." 

"  No?"  replied  the  millionaire.  "Well,  you  must 
go  to  destruction  then  in  your  own  way.  Good- 
morning." 

At  noon  the  next  day  the  hod-carriers  dropped 
their  hods,  not  only  at  the  post-office  block,  but  at  all 
buildings  in  process  of  construction  by  any  capitalist 
or  contractor  belonging  to  the  Builders'  and  Manufac- 
turers' Union.  The  brick-masons  stopped  work  be- 
cause they  would  not  lay  brick  with  mortar  mixed  or 
carried  by  a  non-union  laborer.  The  house  carpen- 
ters declined  to  drive  a  nail  in  aid  of  the  erection  of 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF  TO-MORROW  l6l 

any  building  in  which  a  brick  should  be  laid  by  one 
not  belonging  to  the  Bricklayers'  Union.  No  plumber 
or  gasfitter  would  carry  his  tools  to  a  building  whose 
timbers  had  been  put  in  place  by  a  scab  carpenter. 
The  teamsters  would  not  haul  sand,  brick,  lime,  or 
lumber  for  use  in  any  building  to  be  erected  by  any 
member  of  the  association  of  which  Lorin  French  was 
president.  The  iron-moulders  abandoned  in  a  body 
the  great  shops,  rather  than  work  on  columns  or  fronts 
which  had  been  ordered  for  the  tabooed  buildings. 
Engineers  and  firemen  struck,  rather  than  attend  to 
the  running  of  machinery  in  factories  where  non-union 
men  were  employed,  and  all  workers  engaged  in  any 
factory,  foundry,  mill,  shop,  or  business  owned,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  by  any  member  of  the  Builders'  and 
Manufacturers'  Union,  joined  the  general  strike,  while 
the  railroads  were  compelled,  in  self-protection,  to  re- 
fuse freight  offered  by  any  member  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  which  Lorin  French  was  president. 

No  attempt  was  made  by  French  or  his  colleagues 
to  supply  the  places  of  the  strikers  with  non-union 
workers,  although  every  mail  from  the  East  brought 
hundreds  of  applications  for  employment,  but  each 
factory,  foundry,  and  shop  was  closed,  one  after  the 
other,  as  the  workers  joined  the  strike.  The  ten  men 
whose  labors  on  the  post-office  building  had  begotten 
all  this  commotion,  continued  steadily  at  work.  They 
were  surrounded  each  day,  while  at  their  labors,  by 
hooting  thousands,  who  gathered  in  the  vicinity,  but 
any  near  approach  to  them  was  prevented  by  a  com- 
pany of  Pinkerton's  men,  armed  with  Winchesters, 
who  had  been  sworn  in  as  deputy  sheriffs,  and  who 
ii 


1 62  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

escorted  them  to  and  from  their  labors,  to  French's 
building,  No.  1099  Market  Street,  where  they,  as  well 
as  their  guards,  were  accorded  quarters,  and  in  the 
upper  story  of  which  Mr.  Lorin  French  had,  under 
existing  circumstances,  deemed  it  expedient  to  estab- 
lish his  residence  as  well  as  his  offices. 

After  a  fortnight  had  elapsed  these  ten  men  were 
withdrawn  from  their  labors,  in  deference  to  the  re- 
quest of  the  Mayor  of  San  Francisco  and  the  gover- 
nor of  California. 

A  committee  from  the  Federated  Trades  then  waited 
upon  Lorin  French,  and  informed  him  that,  as  the 
causa  belli  had  been  removed  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
ten  obnoxious  non-union  laborers,  the  strikers  were 
willing  to  resume  work.  His  reply  was  that  when- 
ever work  should  be  resumed  generally,  the  ten  ' '  ob- 
noxious" men,  as  well  as  all  other  non-union  men  he 
might  see  fit  to  employ,  would  resume  work;  and 
so  negotiations  came  suddenly  to  an  end. 

At  the  close  of  the  third  week  of  the  strike  the  Con- 
gress of  Federated  Trades  assembled  and  declared  a 
boycott  against  all  members  of  the  Builders'  and 
Manufacturers'  Union,  and  against  all  who  should  vi- 
olate the  boycott;  the  boycott  to  run  also  against  any 
railway  or  steamship  line  that  should  accord  them  or 
their  families  transportation  out  of  San  Francisco. 

It  was  expected  that  this  last  and  most  drastic  meas- 
ure would  bring  the  capitalists  to  terms,  for  its  enforce- 
ment would  deprive  them  and  their  families  of  the 
necessities  of  life.  Their  employes  left  them  under 
the  pressure,  and  their  offices  and  places  of  business 
were   closed.       Their   house   servants  departed,   and 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF' TO-MORROW.  163 

they  were  unable  to  obtain  substitutes  even  among 
the  Chinese,  for  the  Celestial  who  should  labor  for  a 
boycotted  household  was  given  his  choice  between 
exile  and  death.  Hotel  proprietors  were  compelled 
to  refuse  a  boycotted  person  as  a  guest,  or  lose  their 
own  waiters,  cooks,  and  chambermaids.  The  res- 
taurant proprietor  who  should  serve  one  of  them  with 
a  meal  would  be  compelled  to  close  his  doors  for  the 
want  of  help;  and  the  grocer,  fruiterer,  butcher,  baker, 
or  provision  dealer  who  sold  supplies  for  their  use, 
would  be  posted,  and  lose  his  other  customers,  for  the 
boycott  was  declared  against  all  who  violated  the 
boycott. 

Mr.  French  was  equal  to  the  exigency.  He  caused 
representations  to  be  made,  and  influence  exerted  at 
Washington,  and  the  United  States  steamer  Charles- 
ton was  detailed  for  special  service.  The  members  of 
the  Builders'  and  Manufacturers'  Association,  with 
their  families,  were  taken  on  board  of  the  war-ship, 
guarded  by  the  Pinkerton  men,  and  carried  to  Van- 
couver, where  they  were  dispatched  East  over  the  Ca- 
nadian Pacific  Railroad.  Lorin  French,  with  a  few  of 
his  fellow-members,  refused  to  go,  but,  establishing 
themselves  comfortably  on  the  upper  floor  of  the 
building  No.  1099  Market  Street,  they  managed  to 
provision  themselves  and  their  guards,  despite  the 
boycott,  and  announced  their  determination  to  see 
the  contest  out. 

It  was  the  last  week  in  April,  1894,  and  the  tenth 
week  of  the  great  strike.  Business  was  almost  sus- 
pended in  San  Francisco.  Thousands  of  the  strikers 
had  wandered  out  into  the  country,  and  every  farm- 


164  BETTER    DAYS,  OR 

house  within  a  hundred  miles  of  San  Francisco  was 
besieged  by  men  glad  to  work  for  food  and  shelter, 
while  the  highways  were  crowded  with  tramps.  In  the 
city  the  streets  were  filled  with  idle  thousands,  and  at 
the  daily  meeting  at  the  sand  lots  twenty  or  thirty 
thousand  auditors  were  addressed  by  favorite  speakers. 

The  orators  made  no  appeals  which  were  calculated 
to  incite  violence,  and  there  was  no  police  interference 
with  the  meetings.  Indeed,  there  seemed  logically  no 
place  or  opportunity  for  violence.  The  offending 
employers  had  done  absolutely  nothing  that  the 
workers  could  even  denounce.  They  had  discharged 
nobody,  and  they  had  not  attempted  to  fill  the  places 
of  those  who  reluctantly  left.  They  had  simply  sus- 
pended operations.  They  had  accepted  the  refusal  of 
the  workers  to  work,  apparently,  as  final.  They  had 
locked  up  their  factories  and  places  ol  business,  and, 
with  their  families,  had  left  the  State. 

The  strikers  generally  regarded  Lorin  French  as  the 
prime  mover  against  them,  but  his  property  they  could 
not  reach  for  the  purposes  of  destruction  if  they  had 
been  so  inclined.  It  consisted  of  mines  in  Nevada  and 
Utah  and  Montana,  of  sheep  and  cattle  in  New  Mex- 
ico and  Arizona,  of  vineyards  and  orchards  and  grain- 
fields  in  California,  of  mortgages  and  bonds,  and  of 
unimproved  real  estate  in  San  Francisco.  On  this 
latter  he  was  now  preparing  to  erect  business  blocks. 
But  the  buildings  were  in  embryo.  The  mob  could 
neither  burn  nor  dynamite  an  unbuilded  structure, 
and  there  was  no  visible  property  upon  which  to 
wreak  vengeance. 

Yet  the  most  ample  provisions  had  been  made  against 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  165 

any  mob  uprising.  Two  batteries  of  artillery,  with 
guns  shotted  with  grape  and  canister,  two  companies 
of  cavalry,  and  four  companies  of  infantry  of  the  Cali- 
fornia National  Guard,  were  in  readiness,  a  portion  be- 
ing under  arms,  and  signals  were  arranged  for  calling 
the  entire  force  together  at  the  armories,  ready  for 
action,  on  less  than  half  an  hour's  notice. 

On  Saturday  night,  late  in  April,  1894,  the  Con- 
gress of  Federated  Trades  again  met,  and,  after  a 
short  debate,  it  was  sullenly  resolved  to  accept  the 
situation.  The  strike  was  declared  at  an  end,  and  all 
the  resolutions  adopted  since  the  preceding  February, 
including  the  original  resolution  of  indorsement  of 
the  action  of  the  Hod-Carriers'  Union,  were  rescinded, 
and  it  was  enacted  that  hereafter  the  employment  of 
non-union  workers  should  not  be  a  cause  of  strike 
except  by  workers  associated  in  the  same  work,  and 
against  the  same  employer. 

A  committee  of  three,  to  consist  of  the  President  of 
the  Congress  of  Federated  Trades,  the  Mayor  of  San 
Francisco,  and  the  Chief  of  Police,  was  appointed  to 
wait,  early  next  morning,  upon  Mr.  Lorin  French, 
communicate  to  him  the  action  taken  by  the  Feder- 
ated Trades,  and  receive  his  reply. 

It  was  surrender  on  the  part  of  the  workers — abso- 
lute and  unconditional.  It  was  a  blow  to  their  pride, 
and  a  relinquishment  of  that  which,  with  many  of  them, 
was  a  cherished  principle;  it  was  brought  about  by 
hunger  and  suffering,  and  they  gave  up  the  contest 
utterly,  and  placed  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  the 
conqueror.  Only  a  brute  could  have  misused  the 
vanquished,  but  Lorin  French  had    worked   himselj 


1 66  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

into  a  relentless  fury  during  the  progress  of  the  strike, 
and,  unfortunately,  he  had  been  left  in  full  charge  and 
invested  with  plenary  power  by  the  departed  members 
of  the  Builders'  and  Manufacturers'  Association. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning,  in  the  sunshine 
of  an  April  Sabbath,  the  committee  appointed  by  the 
Federated  Trades  was  permitted  to  pass  the  Pinker- 
ton  guard,  and  mount  the  five  flights  of  stairs — for  the 
elevator  service  had  long  been  discontinued — which 
led  to  the  top  story  of  the  building  No.  1099 
Market  Street,  where  they  were  received  by  Lorin 
French,  who  arose  from  his  breakfast  table  to  greet 
them.  He  listened  without  changing  his  countenance 
while  the  Mayor,  as  Chairman  of  the  committee,  com- 
municated to  him  the  substance  of  the  resolution 
adopted  the  night  before  by  the  Congress  of  Federated 
Trades. 

"I  expected  exactly  such  a  result,"  said  French; 
' '  it  would  have  saved  a  great  deal  of  money  and  a 
great  deal  of  suffering  to  these  Federated  fools  if  they 
had  adopted  a  similar  course  two  months  ago." 

"Well,  Mr.  French,"  said  the  Mayor,  "these  mis- 
guided men,  with  their  families,  have  been  the  greatest 
losers  and  the  severest  sufferers  by  it  all.  I  will  not 
discuss  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  it  with  you.  There 
is  more  than  one  side  to  it,  and  we  might  not  agree. 
I  am  rejoiced,  for  their  sake  and  yours,  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  city  and  State,  that  it  is  all  over,  and  that 
the  workers  can  now  return  to  their  work,  and  busi- 
ness resume  its  usual  channels." 

"These  misguided  men,  as  you  call  them,  Mr. 
Mayor,"  said  French,  "  will  be  compelled  to  transfer 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  167 

their  opportunities  for  future  misguidance  to  some 
other  locality.  They  are  all  blacklisted  here.  Their 
own  signatures  to  receipts  for  wages  when  they  quit, 
constitute  the  blacklist.  Not  one  of  them  shall  ever 
earn  another  day's  wages  in  this  city  in  any. enter- 
prise owned,  controlled,  or  influenced  by  me." 

' '  But,  Mr.  French, ' '  remonstrated  the  Mayor,  ' '  this 
is  unworthy  of  you.  These  men  have  homes  here; 
they  have  families  to  support;  the  long  strike  has 
left  many  of  them  utterly  without  resources,  either  to 
go  away  with  or  to  establish  themselves  elsewhere. 
The  industries  of  San  Francisco  need  them.  Why 
bring  in  others  to  take  their  places?  They  have  aban- 
doned their  strike.  They  have  already  been  suffi- 
ciently punished  for  that  which  was,  after  all,  only  an 
error  of  judgment.  If  work  be  refused  them,  they  will 
starve." 

"Let  them  starve,"  savagely  replied  the  millionaire; 
"not  one  of  them  shall  ever  get  a  job  of  work  from 
me." 

The  President  of  the  Congress  of  Federated  Trades, 
who  was  one  of  the  committee,  had  hitherto  been 
silent.  He  was  an  iron  worker  by  trade,  who,  in 
twenty  years  of  residence  in  San  Francisco,  had  almost 
lost  the  Scotch  burr  which,  as  a  lad,  he  had  brought 
with  him  from  Glasgow.  In  moments  of  feeling  or 
excitement  it  returned  to  him.  He  addressed  himself 
to  French: — 

"Oh  mon,"  said  he,  "but  thou  art  hard;  and  thou 
art  a  fool  as  well !  'Tis  a  mad  wolf  that  cooms  oot  of 
the  mountain  shingle  to  make  a  trail  through  the 
heather  for  the  hoonds.      Gin  ye  hae  no  mercy  for 


l68  *  BETTER    DAYS,     OR 

God's  poor,  hae  ye  no  fear  frae  the  divil's  dogs  that 
your  words  may  loosen  on  ye  ?  Dinna  ye  ken  there 
be  ten,  aye,  twenty  thousand  men  on  the  sand  lots  this 
blessed  Sabbath  morn,  who  love  ye  not,  and  who,  if 
they  get  your  words  just  spoken,  and  get  them  they 
maun,  unless  ye  recall  them,  would,  if  they  but  reach 
ye,  and  reach  ye  they  will,  for  a'  your  guards  and 
guns,  would  send  ye  to  God's  throne  wi'  your  bad 
heart  a'  reekin'  ?" 

"Go  and  tell  the  loafers  and  brawlers  of  the  sand 
lots  exactly  what  I  have  said,"  shrieked  French.  "It 
is  what  I  mean  to  say,  and  mean  for  them  to  hear. 
If  you  don't  take  the  message  I  will  send  it  through 
the  press.  Let  them  do  their  worst.  I  do  not  fear 
the  blackguards,  and  I  am  ready  for  any  who  choose 
to  visit  me, ' '  and  the  old  man  snapped  his  fingers  as 
the  members  of  the  committee  sorrowfully  departed. 

Half  an  hour  later  a  speaker  who  was  addressing 
an  audience  of  thirty  thousand  people  from  the  cen- 
tral stand  at  the  sand  lots,  paused  as  he  saw  the 
President  of  the  Congress  of  Federated  Trades  making 
his  way  through  the  crowd.  The  orator  had  been 
commenting  on  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
Workers'  Congress  the  previous  night,  and  had  been 
congratulating  the  people  upon  the  approaching  end 
of  the  distress  occasioned  by  the  long  strike,  and  on 
the  days  of  peace  and  plenty  which  were  in  store  for 
them,  and  it  was  with  beaming  faces  and  glad  shouts 
that  the  multitude  welcomed  the  man  who  was  to  an- 
nounce to  them  a  resumption  of  their  labors  in  factory 
and  shop. 

"My   friends,"   said  the  tall  Scotchman,    "I  have 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  169 

just  come  from  an  interview  with  Lorin  French,  and  I 
am  vara  vara  sorry  to  bear  you  the  message  with  which 
I  am  charged.  He  bids  me  tell  you  that  the  notice  he 
gave  to  us  all  before  the  strike  begun  shall  be  carried 
out,  and  that  no  man  who  quit  work  then  shall  ever 
again  have  work  in  this  city,  if  he  can  help  it." 

The  temper  of  the  vast  multitude  changed  in  an 
instant.  Shrieks  and  yells  of  anger  filled  the  air,  and 
for  many  minutes  the  crowd  gave  way  to  demonstra- 
tions of  rage  and  indignation.  All  at  once  there  walked 
to  the  front  of  the  central  platform  a  tall,  angular 
woman  dressed  in  a  gown  of  plain  black  stuff.  Her 
features  were  unprepossessing,  to  the  verge  of  ugliness, 
but  a  wealth  of  white  hair  crowned  a  low  brow,  sur- 
mounting eyes  of  fierce  blue.  As  she  stretched  forth 
a  long  arm,  the  multitude  hushed  to  silence,  for  they 
recognized  the  renowned  female  agitator,  Lucy 
Passmore. 

"Friends,  brethren,  men,"  said  she,  in  a  voice 
whose  magnetic  quality  vibrated  to  the  farthest  edges 
of  the  crowd,  "it  seems  that  it  is  the  malignant  will 
of  one  man  which  savagely  condemns  thousands  to 
suffering  and  starvation.  If  the  rattlesnake  is  coiled 
for  ye,  will  ye  strike  first  or  wait  for  him  to  strike? 
If  the  wolf  is  waiting  upon  your  doorstep,  will  you  feed 
to  him  the  babe  he  is  seeking  or  will  ye  give  him  the 
knife  to  the  hilt  in  his  hot  throat?  The  death  of  Lorin 
French  would  end  this  struggle,  and  your  wives  would 
cease  to  weep  and  your  children  to  cry  with  hunger. 
Men,  since  God  has  so  far  forgotten  you  as  to  suffer 
this  devil  to  live  so"  long,  why  do  you  not  remedy 
God's  forgetfulness?  Are  you  ready  to  march  now 
or  do  you  want  an  old  woman  to  lead  you  ? ' ' 


170  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

A  yell  arose  from  the  surging  crowd,  as,  with  one 
mind,  thousands  comprehended  and  were  ready  to 
act  upon  the  suggestions  of  Lucy  Passmore. 

Most  of  the  men  had  long  before  furnished  them- 
selves with  arms  of  some  sort,  and  their  lodge  organ- 
izations had  provided  them  with  elected  leaders,  who 
usually  attended  the  sand-lot  meetings.  As  if  by 
magic  they  formed  themselves  into  companies  and 
battalions  and  marched,  an  orderly  and  almost  an  or- 
ganized army,  forth  from  the  sand  lots,  and  down  to  the 
building  No.  1099  Market  Street,  which  they  speedily 
surrounded. 

The  iron  shutters  of  the  upper  story  were  at  once 
closed,  and  the  muzzles  of  rifles  pushed  through  loop- 
holes previously  prepared  for  such  purpose.  An 
attempt  was  made  from  the  inside  to  close  the  iron  gate 
in  front  of  the  main  staircase,  but  the  mob  surged  past 
the  guard,  took  possession  of  the  lower  hall,  and 
started  up  the  stairs.  They  were  met  at  the  top,  just 
below  the  first  landing,  by  twenty  Pinkerton  men 
standing  upon  the  top  five  steps — four  on  each  step — 
who,  after  vainly  warning  the  ascending  crowd  to  de- 
sist, at  last  lowered  the  muzzles  of  their  Winchesters, 
and  opened  a  murderous  fusillade,  which  covered  the 
stairs  with  dead  and  dying. 

The  mob  hesitated  for  an  instant,  but  only  for  an 
instant,  for  those  below  pushed  forward  those  who 
were  above.  A  hundred  revolvers  were  fired  at  the 
Pinkerton  men,  half  of  whom  fell,  and  the  other  half 
were  borne  down,  shot,  clubbed,  and  stabbed  as  the 
mob  rushed  past  and  over  them,  and  gained  the  first 
landing.     The  crowd  continued  to  push  from  below. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  171 

and  in  the  same  way,  with  great  loss  of  life  on  each 
side,  they"  gained  successively  the  third  and  fourth 
stories.  By  this  time,  however,  the  forces  on  the  fifth 
floor  had  opened  fire  on  the  mob  outside.  Two  rifle- 
men at  each  of  the  eighteen  windows  commanded  the 
main  entrance  to  the  building,  and  such  a  rapid  and 
accurate  fire  was  maintained  that  Market  Street  for  a 
hundred  feet  on  each  side  of  the  entrance  was  piled 
with  bodies,  and  further  re-inforcements  prevented 
from  reaching  those  within  the  building. 

At  this  juncture  Battery  X  came  galloping  into 
Market  Street  from  Fourth.  Two  guns  were  placed  in 
position,  and  one,  loaded  with  grapeshot.  was  fired 
just  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd.  The  whistling  of 
the  shot  in  the  air  above  them  gave  notice  to  the  mob 
of  what  was  coming,  and,  with  cries  of  terror,  they  fled, 
panic-stricken,  into  the  adjacent  streets.  The  assail- 
ants inside,  the  building,  hearing  the  noise  of  the  can- 
non, followed  by  the  triumphant  shouts  of  the  Pinker- 
ton  men  in  the  upper  story,  and  finding  no  further 
pressure  or  re-inforcements  from  below,  desisted  from 
further  assault,  and,  turning  from  the  fourth  landing, 
fled  down  the  stairs. 

Lorin  French,  from  a  loophole  in  an  iron  shutter, 
watched  the  firing,  and  the  dispersion  of  the  mob  out- 
side, and  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  informed  by  a  Pin- 
kerton  sergeant  that  the  contest  was  over. 

"It's  a  sorry  day's  work,  sir,  said  the  officer;  "we 
have  lost  over  thirty  of  our  best  men,  and  there  must 
be  two  hundred  rioters  dead  and  wounded  on  the 
stairs  and  in  the  halls,  beside  those  killed  in  the  street." 

"I  will  help  you  with  the  wounded,"  said  French, 
starting  for  the  passage. 


IJ2  BETTER    DAYS. 

"Better  remain  here,  sir,"  said  the  officer.  "It 
may  not  be  quite  safe  for  you  yet  in  the  lower  halls." 

"  Nonsense, "replied  French,  "the  fight  is  over," 
and  so  saying,  he  walked  out  into  the  hall,  and  de- 
scended the  stairs  to  the  fourth  story.  He  paused  in 
horror  at  the  sight  which  met  his  eyes.  The  floor  was 
wet  and  slippery  with  blood,  and  the  cries  of  the 
wounded  pierced  his  ears.  He  stood  for  a  moment  as 
if  dazed,  and  then,  turning  his  back  upon  the  scene, 
prepared  to  ascend  the  staircase  and  gain  his  room. 

And  as  he  turned,  a  man  who  was  sitting  propped 
up  against  the  wall  twenty  feet  away,  raised  a  revolver 
which  had  been  lying  in  his  lap,  and,  clearing  with  his 
left  hand  the  blood  which  obscured  his  eyes,  took 
rapid  yet  careful  aim  and  fired. 

The  bullet  struck  Lorin  French  in  his  backbone, 
which  it  shattered,  and,  with  a  cry  of  agony  and  fear, 
the  owner  of  $20,000,000  fell  forward  upon  his  face  on 
the  stairway. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

"  Is  this  law?     Aye,  marry  is  it  ?  " 

"In  the  matter  of  the  estate  of  Lorin  French  de- 
ceased, the  application  ol  Louis  Browning  for  letters 
executory  is  before  the  court.  Who  represents  the 
applicant?  " 

"The  firm  of  Bruff  &  Baldwin,  your  honor,"  re- 
plied a  tall  gentleman  with  spectacled  nose  and  a 
beardless  face. 

"Are  there  contestants?"   said  the  Court. 

Then  from  their  seats  within  the  bar  of  the  court 
room  there  arose  a  rlecorous  multitude  of  lawyers, 
short  and  tall,  old  and  young,  fat  and  lean,  the  white- 
bearded  Nestors,  and  the  complacent,  chirping  chip- 
munks of  the  bar,  and  in  various  forms  of  expression 
it  clearly  appeared  that  there  were  contestants. 

"I  think,"  said  his  Honor  with  a  weary  smile, 
"that  my  associates  might  have  sent  this  case  to 
another  department,  for  I  have  had  a  surfeit  of  con- 
tested will  cases.      Proceed,  Mr.  Bruff." 

"In  behalf  of  the  Society  of  Bug  Hunters,  who  are 
legatees  under  a  former  will,"  said  a  sepulchral  voice, 
proceeding  from  the  rotund  diaphragm  of  a  bald- 
headed  and  full-bearded  gentleman,  "  I  have  twenty- 
three  objections  to  offer*  to  the  admission  to  probate 
ol  the  alleged  will  of  Lorin  French,  and — " 

"  Will  my  learned  brother  Lester  permit  me  to  in- 

(i73) 


174  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

terrupt  him  for  a  moment,"  twanged  a  catarrhal  tone, 
"while  I  state  that  I  wish  my  appearance  entered 
here  on  behalf  of  the  recognized  natural  son  of  the 
deceased,  and  I  protest — " 

' '  On  the  part  of  the  Australian  cousins  of  Lorin 
French,"  shrieked  a  lean  man  with  red  hair,  "I  have  a 
preliminary  objection  to  offer  to  the  will  being  read  in 
court  at  all,  and — " 

"I  object!" 

"I  except!" 

' '  Will  your  honor  please  note  the  exception  of  the 
Nevada  heirs?" 

' '  I  demand  to  be  heard ! ' ' 

Then  from  the  entire  front  of  the  bar  came  cries  of 
excited  counsel,  learned  in  all  law  save  that  of  de- 
corum, while  the  Court  rapped  for  order. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "you  will  all  please  be 
seated.  The  Court  itself  would  like  to  be  heard. 
The  will  of  our  deceased  fellow-citizen,  Lorin  French, 
who  was  never  more  regretted  by  me  than  at  this 
moment,  or" — and  the  Court  smiled  deprecatingly — 
"the  paper  which  purports  to  be  his  will,  is  presented 
here  by  our  Brother  Bruff.  Now,  unless  some  gentle- 
man denies  the  death  of  Lorin  French,  it  occurs  to 
me  that  the  reading  of  the  paper  offered  as  his  will 
can  but  tend  to  our  common  enlightenment — " 

The  deep-voiced  Lester,  with  his  twenty-three  ob- 
jections, sustained  by  a  "brief"  which  covered  ninety 
pages  of  manuscript,  arose. 

"I  have  not  yet  finished,"  'said  the  Court.  "It  is 
apparent  that  many  of  the  objections  urged  will  be 
against  the  reading  of  the  will.     Such  objections  may 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  1 75 

be  discussed  more  intelligently  if  the  Court  can  be 
suffered  to  gain  some  knowledge  of  the  contents  of 
the  paper  offered,  and  I  shall  ask,  gentlemen,  that  you 
suspend  argument  or  motions  while  the  clerk  reads 
the  will.  It  will  then  delight  the  Court  to  devote  the 
remainder  of  the  term  to  hearing  arguments  why  the 
will  ought  never  to  have  been  read.  Mr.  Clerk,  pro- 
ceed, and  I  will  send  to  jail  for  contempt  any  member 
of  this  bar  who  shall  interrupt  you  until  the  reading 
shall  be  completed." 

There  was  silence  in  the  crowded  court  room  as  the 
clerk  opened  and  read  the  document: — 

In  the  name  of  God,  Amen,  I,  Lorin  French,  of 
San  Francisco,  California,  being  of  sound  and  dis- 
posing mind  and  memory,  but  being  assured  by  my 
physicians  that  the  wound  received  by  me  must  within 
a  few  days  prove  fatal,  do  make,  publish,  and  declare 
this  my  last  will  and  testament,  revoking  all  wills  pre- 
viously made  by  me. 

The  free  use  of  my  hand  enables  me  to  make 
this  will  holographic,  and  this  labor  I  undertake  in 
order  to  more  completely  demonstrate  to  the  court 
where  it  may  be  offered  for  probate,  that  it  is  alto- 
gether my  own  act,  and  that  I  am  sane,  clear  of  mind, 
and  fully  possessed  of  my  own  memory  and  judgment. 

The  near  approach  of  the  world  into  which  my 
spirit  is  about  to  journey,  brings,  possibly,  a  clearer 
judgment,  and  I  think  now  that  if  my  decision  to  em- 
ploy no  strikers  had  not  been  communicated  to  the 
mob,  I  should  have  reconsidered  such  decision. 
However,  my  approaching  death,  which  will  incident- 
ally result  from  that  decision,  afflicts  me  less  than  the 


I76  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

fate  of  those  who  fell  in  the  affray,  for  my  own  life 
was  drawing  to  a  close. 

If  the  example  I  shall  offer  in  attempting  to  adjust 
the  relations  of  capital  and  labor  shall  be  followed  by 
others,  it  will  result  in  advantage  to  the  workers  of 
this  land,  and  great  permanent  good  may  thus  grow 
from  the  bitter  struggle  which  ended  with  the  wound 
which  will  terminate  my  life  on  earth. 

I  am  unmarried  and  childless,  and  my  nearest 
living  relatives  are  cousins  of  remote  degrees,  with 
whose  names  and  places  of  residence  I  am  scarcely 
acquainted.  No  relation  of  mine  has  any  moral  or 
rightful  claim  upon  my  estate,  and  the  disposition  I 
am  about  to  make  of  my  property  will  work  injustice 
to  no  living  creature. 

I  appoint  as  executor  of  this  my  last  will  and  testa- 
ment, my  friend  Louis  Browning,  to  serve  without 
bonds,  and  I  direct  that  for  his  services  as  executor, 
and  in  lieu  of  all  commissions,  he  receive  the  sum  of 
$50,000  out  of  my  estate. 

I  direct  my  said  executor  to  forthwith  pay  to  the 
widows,  or  next  of  kin,  of  each  man  slain  in  the  late 
riot,  the  sum  of  $10,000,  to  each  man  permanently 
disabled  by  wounds  received  therein,  the  sum  of  $5,- 
000,  and  to  each  man  wounded  but  not  permanently 
disabled,  the  sum  of  $1,000. 

I  direct  my  said  executor  to  proceed  as  speedily  as 
possible  to  prudently  dispose  of  all  my  estate,* and 
convert  the  same  into  money,  to  be  paid  over  by  him 
to  the  corporation  hereinafter  named. 

I  request  that  my  said  executor,  Louis  Browning, 
shall,  in  co-operation  with  the  Governor  of  California, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  1 77 

the  Mayor  of  San  Francisco,  and  my  friends  David 
Shelburn,  Lawrence  Slayter,  George  Morrow,  and 
Francis  Dalton,  proceed  forthwith  to  form  a  corpora- 
tion under  the  laws  of  this  State,  to  be  entitled  the 
'  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company, '  to  which  cor- 
poration, when  organized,  I  direct  that  the  proceeds 
of  my  estate  be  transferred,  to  be  used  by  it  in  provid- 
ing capital  for  the  use  of  such  co-operative  and  profit- 
sharing  corporations  as  may,  from  time  to  time,  be  or- 
ganized to  avail  themselves  of  its  aid. 

The  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company  will  not 
itself  engage  in  any  industrial  enterprise,  but  will  con- 
fine itself  strictly  to  loaning  money  at  three  per  cent 
per  annum  to  such  organizations  of  mechanics  as  may 
seek  its  assistance  and  comply  with  its  rules.  Those 
rules  must  require  that  one-fourth  of  the  wages  and 
all  the  profits  of  the  members  of  the  borrowing  cor- 
poration shall  be  paid  to  the  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid 
Company,  until  the  debt  due  the  latter  is  discharged, 
and  that  the  borrowing  corporation  shall  be  organized 
and  conducted  in  accordance  with  certain  conditions 
and  rules. 

My  meaning  may  be  made  more  clear  by  the  fol- 
lowing illustration: — 

Suppose  that  five  hundred  men  shall  desire  to  es- 
tablish a  co-operative  foundry.  They  will  make  a 
preliminary  organization  and  apply  to  the  officers  of 
the  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company  for  the  capital 
necessary  to  conduct  the  enterprise.  Those  officers 
will — after  careful  inquiry — ascertain  that  the  buildings, 
land,  machinery,  and  plant  of  such  a  foundry  will 
cost  $900,000.  and  that  it  will  require  a  cash  capital  of 
12 


I78  BETTER    PAYS,    OR 

$100,000  to  carry  the  current  business.  They  will  pur- 
chase such  a  foundry,  taking  title  in  the  Lorin  French 
Labor  Aid  Company  in  trust,  and  will  select  a  general 
manager,  who  will  employ  and  discharge  men,  fix  the 
rate  of  wages  and  hours  of  labor,  and  have  full  charge 
of  the  works.  After  the  indebtedness  of  the  Foundry 
Company  to  the  Aid  Company  shall  have  been  fully 
paid  with  interest,  the  members  of  the  Foundry  Com- 
pany may  elect  their  own  general  manager,  but,  ur.til 
then,  that  officer  shall  be  chosen  by,  and  be  subject  to 
the  control  of,  the  directors  of  the  Aid  Company. 

Each  man  employed  in  the  works,  from  the  general 
manager  to  the  lowest-paid  helper  in  the  yard,  must 
be  a  shareholder,  the  number  of  shares  to  be  held  by 
each  being  regulated  by  his  wages.  If  a  workman 
should  die,  or  leave  employment,  either  on  his  own 
motion  or  because  of  his  being  discharged,  his  shares 
would  be  turned  over  to  his  successor,  who  would 
be  required  to  make  good  to  the  outgoing  man  or  his 
widow  or  heirs  whatever  amount  had  been  paid  upon 
the  shares,  and  the  money  for  such  payment  might 
be  advanced  when  necessary  out  of  a  fund  for  such 
purpose  provided  by  the  Foundry  Company,  the 
shares  standing  as  security  for  the  advance.  No 
shares  could  be  transferred  except  to  a  successor — 
employed  in  the  foundry. 

A  portion,  say  one-fourth,  of  the  shares  of  the  cor- 
poration should  be  reserved  for  allotment  to  workmen 
whose  employment  might  be  required  by  the  growth 
of  the  works,  though  it  will  be  the  object  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company  to  en- 
courage the  continued  organization  of  new  co-opera- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  179 

tive  labor  corporations  rather  than  the  enlargement  of 
old  ones.  Yet  such  encouragement  must  be  prudently 
granted,  having  reference  to  the  natural  growth  of 
business  and  the  demands  of  a  healthy  trade,  and  over- 
production must  not  be  stimulated,  for  it  is  my  main 
purpose  to  help  the  laborer  to  rid  himself  of  the  pay- 
ment of  high  interest  and  large  commissions,  to  bring 
him  as  nearly  as  possible  in  direct  communication 
with  the  consumer,  to  save  him  the  waste  of  strikes, 
and  the  salaries  of  the  brawlers  who  foment  difficulties 
between  laborers  and  their  employers,  to  make  him 
his  own  employer  and  his  own  capitalist,  to  encourage 
him  in  sobriety  and  thrift  and  the  possession  of  such 
high  manhood  as  of  right  belongs  to  citizenship  of  our 
republic. 

The  capital  stock  of  such  an  iron-workers'  co-opera- 
tion might  be  fixed  at  the  sum  borrowed  from  the 
Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company,  say  $1,000,000, 
divided  into  shares  of  the  par  value  of  $10  each. 

Thus,  five  hundred  men  properly  managed,  work- 
ing industriously,  and  allowing  one-fourth  of  their 
wages  and  their  entire  profits  to  accumulate,  might  be 
able  in  five  years  to  own  a  plant  of  the  actual  value  of 
$1,000,000,  with  the  good-will  of  a  business  worth  as 
much  more,  and  thereafter  the  worker  might  receive 
full  wages  and  an  additional  income  from  dividends, 
which,  if  placed  in  endowment  insurance,  or  in  similar 
safe  investments,  would  enable  him  to  retire,  if  he  wish, 
in  fifteen  years  with  an  assured  competence. 

The  $20,000,000  which  will  be  received  from  the 
sale  of  my  property,  all  of  which  I  hereby  give,  devise, 
and  bequeath  to  the  Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Com- 


l8o  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

pany,  ought  to,  and  I  doubt  not  will,  be  sufficient  to 
establish  co-operative  iron  foundries,  sawmills,  woolen 
factories,  glass  works,  brick  yards,  and  other  indus- 
trial enterprises,  in  San  Francisco,  sufficient  to  provide 
remunerative  employment  for  fifteen  thousand  men. 
The  fund  will  be  invested  safely,  for  it  will  be  based 
upon  the  security  which  is  the  creator  and  conserva- 
tor of  all  property  and  property  rights,  industrious  and 
intelligent  labor.  The  accretions  to  the  fund,  even  at 
the  moderate  rate  of  interest  of  three  per  cent  per 
annum,  will  add,  probably,  a  thousand  workers  each 
year  to  the  number  of  its  beneficiaries,  while  the  re- 
payment and  re-investment  in  similar  ways  of  the 
original  fund,  will  add  several  thousand  more  each  year. 

The  practical  operation  of  the  plans  I  have  endeav- 
ored to  outline  will  work  no  injustice  to  the  owners  of 
existing  manufacturing  establishments,  for  it  will  be  in 
the  interest  of  the  workmen  to  purchase  such  plants 
and  business  at  their  value,  rather  than  to  build  up 
new  and  rival  establishments.  It  is  true  that  some 
persons  now  making  a  profit  off  the  labors  of  others 
will  be  compelled  to  enlist  their  capital  and  energies 
in  other  lines;  but  this,  if  a  hardship,  will  not  bean  in- 
justice, and  individual  convenience  must  be  subser- 
vient to  the  general  good. 

' '  I  think  I  have  made  clear  the  purposes  to  which  I 
hereby  devote  the  fortune  I  have  accumulated  by  fifty 
years  of  toil  and  care — yet  in  the  accumulation  of 
which  I  have  found  great  enjoyment.  The  details  of 
my  plans  I  must  leave  to  those  who  now  are,  or  who 
hereafter  may  be,  charged  with  the  execution  of  this 
trust.     In  the  life  upon  which  I  am  about  to  enter — for 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  181 

I  have  never  so  questioned  the  wisdom  of  the  Origina- 
ting and  Ultimate  Force  of  the  Universe  as  to  suppose 
that  the  death  of  this  body  of  flesh  will  be  the  end  of 
all  conscious  individual  existence — in  the  life  upon 
which  I  am  about  to  enter,  I  hope  to  derive  satisfaction 
from  the  fulfillment  of  the  objects  of  this  my  last  will 
and  testament,  to  which  I  hereby  affix  my  signature 
and  seal,  this  thirtieth  day  of  April,  eighteen  hundred 
and  ninety-four.  Lorin  French  [seal]. 

We,  William  Jelly  and  Thompson  Blakesly,  declare 
that  Lorin  French,  in  our  presence  and  on  the  thirti- 
eth day  of  April,  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-four, 
in  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  California,  signed  the 
foregoing  document,  which  he  then  declared  to  each 
of  us  was  his  last  will  and  testament,  and  we  then,  at 
his  request  and  in  his  presence,  and  in  the  presence  of 
each  other,  sign  our  names  hereto  as  witnesses. 

William  Jelly, 
Thompson  Blakesly. 
The  voice  of  the  clerk  ceased,  and  for  a  few  sec- 
onds there  was  a  hush  in  the  court  room,  which  was 
broken  by  the  harsh,  cold  tones  of  Counselor  John 
Lyman. 

"I  submit  to  your  Honor,"  said  he,  "in  behalf  of 
the  Public  Administrator  for  whom  I  appear,  and  who 
asks  that  he  be  accorded  administration  of  the  estate 
of  Lorin  French.  I  submit  that  this  so-called  will, 
although  rhetorically  and  otherwise  a  very  interesting 
attempt  at  unpractical  philanthropy,  is — as  a  will — 
simply  waste  paper.  In  spirit  and  in  letter  it  is  an 
utter  violation  of  two  sections  of  the  civil  code  of  Cal- 
ifornia.    Section  1275  of  that  code  provides  that  'cor- 


182  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

porations — except  those  formed  for  scientific,  literary, 
or  educational  purposes — cannot  take  under  a  will, 
unless  expressly  authorized  by  statute.'  The  proposed 
Lorin  French  Labor  Aid  Company  is,  in  its  plan,  a 
corporation,  neither  scientific,  literary,  nor  educa- 
tional. Considered  as  a  benevolent  corporation,  it  is 
not  now  in  existence,  and  is,  of  course,  not  authorized 
by  statute  to  receive  this,  or  any  bequest — ' ' 

"How  is  it,"  interrupted  Mr.  Bruff,  "that  the  Soci- 
ety for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  the 
Sisters'  Hospital,  and  other  corporations,  have  re- 
ceived bequests  ? ' ' 

"Simply  because  they  have  been  expressly  author- 
ized by  act  of  the  Legislature  to  do  so,"  was  the  reply. 

' '  Then  if  I  wish  to  leave  a  sum  of  money  to  found 
and  support  an  asylum  for  one-lunged  lawyers,  or 
one-eyed  baseball  umpires,  I  am  unable  to  do  so,  am 
I?"   said  Bruff. 

1 '  You  can  go  to  Sacramento  and  have  a  law  passed 
to  enable  your  one-eyed  and  one-lunged  corporations 
to  take  your  bequest,"  said  Lyman. 

"How  much,"  said  Bruff,  sarcastically,  "would  I 
probably  be  obliged  to  pay  the  statesmen  for  passing 
such  a  law  ?  ' ' 

"  My  party  is  not  in  power,"  rejoined  Lyman.  "I 
do  not  know  the  latest  market  quotations  for  votes  in 
your  caucus." 

"  Order,  gentlemen,  order,"  said  his  Honor,  grimly. 

"And  suppose,"  said  Bruff,  "the  Legislature  were 
not  in  session,  would  it  be  necessary  that  I  wait  a  year 
or  two  before  I  could  make  a  valid  will,  with  the 
chance  of  dying  in  the  meantime?" 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  T83 

"Possibly,"  replied  Lyman,  "you  might  make  a 
bequest  to-  a  corporation  not  empowered  at  the  time 
of  such  bequest,  to  receive  it,  but  which  might  subse- 
quently be  expressly  authorized  by  statute  to  do  so." 

' '  I  have  led  my  learned  friend  to  the  very  point 
desired,"  said  Bruff.  "Why,  then,  I  ask  him,  can  the 
corporation  which  the  will  of  Lorin  French  proposes 
shall  be  created,  not  be  authorized  by  the  California 
Legislature,  at  its  next  session,  to  receive  his  bequest? 
I  do  not  apprehend  that  the  most  docile  Democratic 
lamb,  or  the  most  fearless  Republican  boodle  hunter, 
would  dare  to  refuse  his  vote  for  such  a  law. 

"But  the  corporation  proposed  by  the  late  Lorin 
French,"  said  Lyman,  "  is  not  only  unempowered  to 
receive,  it  is  not  yet  in  existence  as  a  corporation.  It 
may  never  be  created,  and  a  bequest  to  either  a  natural 
or  an  artificial  being,  not  even  quickened  with  incipient 
life,  not  even  conceived  at  the  time  of  the  bequest, 
may  be  questioned  as  of  doubtful  validity.  But  it  is 
profitless  to  discuss  these  questions,  because  there  is 
another  section  of  the  civil  code  which  disposes  com- 
pletely of  this  so-called  will.  I  refer  to  section  num- 
ber 1313.  Thirteen  is  certainly  an  unlucky  number 
for  the  workers  of  San  Francisco.  By  that  section  it 
is  provided  that  no  will  devising  property  for  charitable 
or  benevolent  uses,  shall  be  valid  unless  made  at  least 
thirty  days  before  the  death  of  the  testator,  and  that 
[n  no  event  can  a  man  bequeath  more  than  one-third 
of  his  estate  for  such  purpose,  if  he  have  natural 
heirs.  It  is  also  provided  that  all  dispositions  of 
property  made  contrary  to  the  statute  shall  be  void, 
and  the  property  go  to  the  residuary  legatee,  next  of 
kin,  or  heir,  according  to  law." 


184  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

' '  That  was  one  of  the  wise  laws  that  the  sand-lot 
statesmen  gave  us,"  said  Bruff,  sarcastically. 

"Deed,  and  it  wasn't  a  sand-lot  law  at  all,"  inter- 
rupted a  stalwart,  red  bearded  attorney  with  a  slight 
Milesian  accent.  "It  was  passed  away  back  in  the 
seventies.  Old  Moriarty  was  down  with  typhoid  fever, 
and  Father  Gallagher  was  pressin'  him  every  day  to 
save  his  soul  by  lavin'  his  millions  to  the  Jesuit  College 
and  Hospital.  But  before  the  priest  could  get  the  old 
man  in  condition,  Mike  Moriarty  slipped  Nat  Bronton 
— the  king  of  the  lobby — up  to  Sacramento  with  $20,- 
000  rint  money  that  Mike  collected  while  his  father 
was  ill,  and  the  bill  was  rushed  through  under  suspin- 
sion  of  the  rules.  Two  days  after  the  bill  became  a 
law,  Father  Gallagher  coaxed  and  dhrove  old  Moriarty 
into  signing  a  will  that  cut  Mike  off  wid  $50,000,  and 
left  $3,000,000  to  the  church,  and  the  next  week  they 
buried  the  old  man,  with  masses  enough  to  put  him 
through  purgatory  in  an  express  train.  They  say 
that  there  was  a  scrappin'  match  between  Father  Galla- 
gher and  Mike  when  the  priest  found  that  he  had  been 
outgeneraled,  and  Mike  lost  the  top  of  his  left  ear, 
but  he  saved  his  father's  estate.  Sure,  the  whole  case 
is  reported  in  the  fortieth  California,  under  the  title  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus  against  Moriarty,  and  it  decides 
this  will  of  French's  sure  enough." 

When  the  ripple  of  laughter  which  this  interrup- 
tion provoked  had  subsided,  Mr.  Lyman  resumed: — 

"My  learned  friend  Casey  is  right,  your  Honor;  the 
case  he  quoted  does  decide  this  one.  If  this  will  had 
been  made  more  than  thirty  days  before  the  death  of 
Mr.  French,  it  could  at  most  have  disposed  of  but  one- 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  1 85 

third  of  his  property.  But  it  was  made  only  two  days 
before  his  death,  and,  under  section  131 3  of  the  code, 
is  utterly  void,"  and  the  speaker  resumed  his  seat. 

The  Court  turned  to  the  attorney  who  had  offered 
the  will  for  probate. 

"  What  have  you  to  say  to  this,  Mr.  Bruff?"  he  in 
quired.  '  'All  the  claimants  for  the  estate  will  doubtless 
agree  with  the  position  taken  by  the  attorney  for  the 
public  administrator.  They  are  joined  in  interest  in 
overturning  the  will.  You  alone  defend  the  beneficent 
purposes  of  the  dead  man.     What  have  you  to  say?" 

"What  can  I  say,  your  Honor?"  said  Bruff,  bitterly. 
"It  is  another  instance  of  a  man  conceited  and  obsti- 
nate enough  to  attempt  making  his  own  will.  If  my 
old  friend  French  had  called  me  in,  I  would  have  told 
him  that  courts  aud  juries  in  California  seldom  allow  a 
man  to  dispose  of  his  own  estate,  if  it  be  a  large  one, 
and  he  must  give  his  savings  away  in  his  lifetime  it 
he  wishes  to  prevent  his  sixth  cousins  from  rioting  on 
them.  I  would  have  had  Lorin  French  convey  his 
vast  property  to  trustees  to  carry  out  his  plans,  and 
have  affected  the  transfer  completely  while  he  was  yet 
alive.  But  he,  great  and  simple  soul,  supposed,  nat- 
urally enough,  that  he  had  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleased 
with  his  own,  and  that,  being  without  near  kindred, 
and  no  person  having  any  claim  upon  him,  he  could 
help  the  poor  with  the  money  it  had  taken  him  half  a 
century  to  accumulate.  He  was  originally  educated 
to  the  law,  and,  although  he  had  been  out  of  practice 
for  thirty  years,  he  knew  how  to  formulate  a  will. 
But  he  was  not  aware  of  the  ravages  committed  by  a 
California  Legislature  among  the  time-honored  princi- 


l86  BETTER    DAYS,  OR 

pies  of  the  common  law.  Mark  the  result  of  legisla- 
tive folly  and  individual  inadvertence.  Twenty  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  which  their  owner  proposed  to  devote 
to  a  grand  and  comprehensive  experiment  for  adjust- 
ing the  vexed  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  will  now 
be  consumed  in  court  costs  and  witness  fees,  divided 
among  a  horde  of  attorneys,  and  finally  scattered  in 
selfish  enjoyment,  and  in  ways  unuseful  to  man,  all 
over  the  world  from  Australia  to  Elko.  It's  the  law, 
I  suppose,  and  neither  your  Honor  nor  I  can  help  it, 
but  it's  an  accursed  shame,  nevertheless." 

And  Mr.  Bruff,  pale  with  excitement,  resumed  his 
seat. 

"The  Court  can  not  only  pardon  your  emphatic 
language,  Brother  Bruff,"  said  his  Honor,  "but  in- 
dorses it.  If  I  could  discover  any  loophole  which 
might  be  crawled  through,  or  any  way  by  which  I 
could  break  down  or  climb  over  the  legislative  barrier, 
and  validate  the  bequest  of  Lorin  French,  I  would 
certainly  do  so.  I  will  reserve  for  further  considera- 
tion the  question  of  the  validity  of  the  legacies  to  the 
wounded,  and  the  families  of  those  killed  in  the  riot. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  portion  of  the  will  may  be 
good,  and  so  carry  with  it  the  right  of  Louis  Brown- 
ing to  letters  testamentary.  For  the  present,  however, 
I  am  reluctantly  compelled  to  sustain  the  objection  of 
the  attorney  for  the  public  administrator,  and  refuse 
the  will  admission  to  probate.  It  is  ordered  accord- 
ingly. Mr.  Clerk,  note  the  exception  of  Mr.  Bruff  to 
my  ruling.  I  will  take  my  summer  vacation  now,  and 
go  fishing.  I  shall  adjourn  court  for  one  month,  and 
the  further  hearing  of  this  case  for  two  months.      In 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  187 

the  meantime,  if  the  gentlemen  who  represent  the  vari- 
ous applicants  for  letters  of  administration,  will  leave 
their  papers  with  the  clerk,  I  will,  upon  my  return, 
give  them  careful  attention." 

"Does  your  Honor  desire  that  I  leave  all  my  pa- 
pers?" queried  the  sepulchral- voiced  Lester. 

"All,"  replied  his  Honors  and  he  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  glanced  at  the  ninety  pages  of  manuscript 
lying  in  front  of  counsel  learned  in  the  law,  "  all  ex- 
cept your  brief,  Mr.  Lester." 

The  proceedings  of  the  day  in  the  superior  court 
were  reported  fully,  and  commented  upon  freely,  by 
the  newspapers  throughout  the  country,  and  a  fort- 
night afterwards  the  proposed  executor  of  the  rejected 
will  received  the  following  letter: — 

Offices  of  David  Morning,  39  Broadway,  ) 
New  York  City,  June  10,  1894.       j 

Mr.  Louis  Browning,  San  Francisco,  Cal. — My 
Dear  Sir:  Such  a  wise  and  noble  plan  as  that  of  the 
late  Lorin  French  ought  not  to  lack  accomplishment 
for  want  of  money  to  execute  it.  If  you,  and  the  gen- 
tlemen named  by  him  as  your  associates  in  the  trust 
which  he  vainly  endeavored  to  create,  will  organize 
such  a  corporation  as  he  proposed,  I  will  devote  to  it 
a  sum  equal  to  the  value  of  his  estate,  which  I  under- 
stand to  be,  in  round  numbers,  twenty  millions  of  dol- 
lars. Very  truly  yours,  David  Morning. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

"  The  conscience  of  vvellBroing  is  an  ample  reward." 
[From  the  to  York  World,  July  15,  1895.] 

Manhattan  Island,  west  of  Broadway  and  south  of 
Trinity  Church,  was,  during  the  last  century,  occupied 
by  the  substantial  mansions  of  the  ancient  Knicker- 
bockers, and  as  late  as  the  first  third  of  the  present 
century  was  not  relinquished  as  a  place  of  residence 
by  people  of  aristocratic  pretensions.  Before  the  civil 
war,  the  annual  fairs  of  the  American  Institute  were 
held  in  Castle  Garden,  within  whose  walls  Grisi  and 
Mario  and  Jenny  Lind  sang,  and  on  summer  after- 
noons children,  accompanied  by  nursemaids,  romped 
upon  the  grass  under  the  grand  old  trees  on  the  Bat- 
tery. Then  the  Bowling  Green  Fountain,  with  its 
picturesque  pile  of  rocks,  was  still  an  ancient  land- 
mark; and  the  goat  pastures  above  Fifty-ninth  Street 
were  being  cleared  for  the  planting  of  Central  Park. 

After  the  war  the  few  remaining  occupants  of  pre- 
tentious residences  fled  to  the  northward  of  Madison 
Square,  and  the  sightliest  and  most  picturesque  por- 
tion of  New  York  City  was  abandoned  to  saloons, 
emigrant  boarding  houses,  warehouses,  and  shops,  for, 
unlike  the  down-town  section  east  of  Broadway,  it 
was  not  invaded  and  colonized  by  bankers,  brokers, 
and  importing  houses. 
(188)' 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  189 

Mr.  David  Morning,  now  widely  known  as  the  Ari- 
zona Gold  King,  selected  this  portion  of  New  York 
City  for  the  experiment  of  organizing  pleasant  and 
economical  home  lives  for  a  class  of  dwellers  in  cities 
not  ordinarily  the  subject  of  elemosynary  effort. 

The  poverty  of  the  very  poor,  who  sometimes  lack 
even  for  food  or  shelter,  is  hardly  more  distressing 
to  the  sufferers  than  the  poverty  of  men  who  struggle 
to  maintain  a  respectable  position  upon  incomes  inad- 
equate, even  with  the  most  economical  management, 
to  meet  their  expenses.  How  is  a  married  man,  hav- 
ing an  income  of  one,  two,  or  even  three  thousand 
dollars  per  annum,  derived  from  work  which  must  be 
performed  by  him,  as  clerk,  journalist,  physician,  or 
lawyer,  upon  Manhattan  Island,  to  live  there  with 
such  surroundings  as  are  befitting  his  education  and 
position? 

He  will  be  compelled  to  pay  one-third  or  one-half 
of  his  income  for  a  flat;  an  entire  house  is  out  of  the 
question,  unless  he  betake  himself  to  such  a  locality 
in  the  city  as  will  exile  his  family  from  social  con- 
sideration. If  he  live  in  the  suburbs,  he  must  arise  at 
daylight  and  stumble  along  unlighted  lanes  to  the 
railroad  station,  and  pass  two  or  three  hours  of  his 
time  each  day  standing  in  a  crowded  ferryboat,  or 
hanging  to  the  straps  of  a  jammed  car,  alternately 
frozen  and  roasted,  and  always  stifled  with  the  reek- 
ing perfume  of  unventilated  vehicles  and  unsavory 
fellow-travelers,  for  while  it  may  be  true  that  all  men 
are  politically  equal,  they  are  not  always  equally  well 
washed. 

The   alternative   is  to   bring   up   his  family  in  the 


I90  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

brawl  and  smail  scandal  of  a  boarding  house.  His 
wife  requires  always  a  certain  amount  of  dresses  and 
bonnets  to  maintain  herself  in  a  respectable  position 
in  the  estimation  of  her  friends,  and  dresses  and  bon- 
nets entail  an  uncertain  amount  of  expenditure.  A 
man's  tailor  will  inform  him  in  advance  exactly  how 
much  his  garment  will  cost,  and  one  can  contract 
for  a  bridge  across  the  Mississippi  at  an  agreed  sum, 
but  there  is  no  force  known  in  nature  that  will  induce 
or  drive  a  dressmaker  into  foregoing  an  opportunity 
for  advantage  taking,  or  persuade  her  to  fix  in  advance 
a  price  for  the  making  and  trimming  of  a  gown. 

The  married  bookkeeper  or  salesman  on  a  salary 
in  New  York  City,  is  forever  upon  the  ragged  edge 
of  embarrassment,  unable  to  save  the  amount  of  the 
payments  necessary  for  adequate  life  insurance,  or  to 
provide  a  fund  for  a  rainy  day.  The  laborer  or 
mechanic  who  earns  six  hundred  to  nine  hundred  dol- 
lars per  annum  is,  in  comparatively  easy  circum- 
stances, for  he  can  live  in  a  tenement  house  in  a  cheap 
neighborhood  without  loss  of  caste,  and  caste  is  of 
almost  as  much  consequence  in  free  America  as  in  the 
Punjaub. 

After  some  thought,  Mr.  David  Morning  devised  a 
trial  scheme  for  the  relief  of  married  men  of  small  in- 
comes, whose  duties  required  their  daily  presence  in 
New  York  City,  below  Canal  Street,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1894  his  agents  began  to  quietly  purchase  the  real 
estate  between  Rector  Street  and  the  Battery,  and 
bounded  by  Greenwich  Street  and  the  Hudson  River. 
Some  months  were  consumed  in  the  acquisition  ol 
title  to  the  realty,  and  in  a  few  instances  long  prices 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  191 

were  exacted  by  sagacious  and  selfish  owners,  who 
held  out  until  the  others  had  sold,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
property  was  purchased  at  about  its  value,  and  the 
brokers  were  finally  instructed  to  close  with  all  per- 
sons willing  to  sell,  without  haggling  as  to  price. 

It  required  about  $15,000,000  to  complete  the  pur- 
chase, and  for  this  sum  sixteen  hundred  lots  were 
secured  of  the  orthodox  dimensions  of  twenty-five  by 
one  hundred  feet  each.  Electric  lights  turned  night 
into  day,  and  several  thousands  of  men  and  hundreds 
of  vehicles,  divided  into  three  armies  of  eight-hour 
workers,  were  at  once  employed  in  the  work  of  de- 
molition. Temporary  railroad  tracks  were  laid  from 
the  land  to  the  North  River  piers,  and  the  material 
and  debris  not  needed  to  fill  cellars  and  vaults  was 
carried  on  cars  to  barges,  which  were  towed  to  the 
Jersey  flats,  where  their  contents  were  dumped  upon 
ground  previously  acquired  by  Mr.  Morning  for  that 
purpose,  and  by  the  first  of  February,  1895,  the  lower 
part  of  Manhattan  Island  west  of  Greenwich  Street 
was  as  bare  as  a  picked  bird. 

The  work,  although  generally  prosaic,  was  not 
without  its  romantic  and  interesting  incidents.  In  a 
stone  house  on  Greenwich  Street,  which  was  once  the 
colonial  mansion  of  Diedrich  Von  Wallendorf,  a 
walled  chamber  was  opened.  The  rugs  and  hang- 
ings it  had  contained  were  fallen  to  shreds,  but  the 
Queen  Anne  cabinets,  tables,  and  bedstead  were  in  as 
good  condition  as  when  the  room  was  closed  with  solid 
stone  masonry,  two  centuries  ago,  without  any  reason 
now  apparent  for  the  strange  proceeding. 

Under  the  cellar  floor  of  another  house  an  earthern 


I92  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"crock"  was  found  filled  with  sovereigns,  coined  in  the 
last  century,  and  through  the  destruction  of  an  old 
wall  cabinet,  there  came  to  light  a  package  of  letters 
from  Lord  North  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  letters  which 
indicated  that  the  British  Ministry  of  that  day  had 
been  in  negotiation  with  other  patriot  leaders  than 
Benedict  Arnold  for  a  surrender  of  the  revolutionary 
cause. 

The  consent  of  the  city  authorities  to  a  resurvey 
and  remodeling  of  the  streets  and  avenues  of  the  de- 
stroyed section  of  New  York,  was  obtained  without 
difficulty  since  Mr.  Morning  was  now  the  sole  owner 
of  the  land  affected  thereby,  and  the  rearrangements 
proposed  by  him  were  made  at  his  own  cost,  and  in- 
sured greater  uniformity  and  greater  convenience  to 
the  public  than  those  which  were  superseded. 

The  land  was  platted  into  blocks  four  hundred  feet 
in  length  and  eighty  feet  in  width,  running  north 
and  south,  thus  giving  to  the  occupants  of  the  new 
buildings  either  the  morning  or  the  afternoon  sun. 
These  blocks  are  divided  by  streets  of  a  uniform  width 
of  one  hundred  feet,  having  a  park  thirty  feet  wide  in 
the  center  of  each  street,  with  lawn,  shrubs,  orna- 
mental trees,  and  a  fountain  in  the  center  of  each 
block.  Gas,  water,  and  sewer  pipes,  and  electric 
light  and  pneumatic  tubes,  have  been  laid  in  the  new 
streets,  and  by  means  of  a  powerful  pumping  engine, 
erected  on  the  Battery,  the  sewers  are  flushed  every 
day  with  sea  water.  The  new  streets  are  paved  with 
asphalt,  with  sidewalks  of  cement.  The  city  received 
from  Morning  land  at  the  foot  of  Canal  Street  pur- 
chased by  him,  in  exchange  for  Castle  Garden  and 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  I93 

vicinage,  and  the  Battery — filled  with  fountains,  stat- 
ues, and  increased  acreage  of  lawn  and  garden — is 
restored  to  its  ancient  functions,  and  more  than  its  an- 
cient glory. 

The  buildings  erected  upon  each  of  the  one  hun- 
dred blocks  thus  created,  are  of  uniform  size  and 
style.  Each  building — occupying  an  entire  block — is 
four  hundred  feet  long,  eighty  feet  wide,  and  seven- 
teen stories  high.  The  roofs  are  covered  with  glass, 
making  the  structures  eighteen  stories  aboveground. 
One-half  of  the  area  of  the  eighteenth  story  in  each 
block  is  laid  out  in  plots  filled  with  ten  feet  of  rich  soil 
in  beds  of  perforated  cement,  the  other  half  in  broad 
walks  of  plate  glass — guarded  by  copper  netting — so 
as  to  admit  light  to  the  seventeenth  story  and  to  the 
large  air  shafts. 

In  each  of  the  buildings  are  one  hundred  and  fifty 
suites  of  five  rooms,  each  suite  having  a  floor  area  of 
sixteen  hundred  square  feet,  and  every  room  having 
an  outlook  upon  the  street.  A  broad  hall  runs 
through  the  center  of  the  building  on  every  floor, 
lighted  by  means  of  plate-glass  windows  at  each  end, 
and  also  by  three  shafts,  one  hundred  feet  apart,  run- 
ning from  cellar  to  roof.  Every  room  is  provided 
with  steam,  dry,  and  gas  heat,  and  with  gas  and  incan- 
descent lights.  Each  suite  has  a  household  pneumatic 
tube  service  connecting  with  the  store  rooms  in  the 
basement,  and  with  the  kitchen  and  dining  rooms  in 
the  seventeenth  story.  Each  suite  has  also  a  cooking 
closet,  with  gas  range,  hot  water,  and  steam  pipes, 
porcelain-lined  sinks,  and  pneumatic  tubes  for  carry- 
ing away  garbage. 
13 


194  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Six  hydraulic  elevators  furnish  ample  accommoda- 
tions for  reaching  every  floor  at  any  hour  of  the  day 
or  night.  A  network  of  perforated  steel  pipes  is  con- 
cealed in  the  walls  and  floors,  with  separate  connec- 
tions for  each  room  with  the  great  tanks  on  the  roof, 
which  are  in  turn  connected  both  with  the  Croton  water 
system,  and  with  the  great  steel  water  main  bringing 
water  from  Rockland  Lake.  In  case  of  fire  the  walls 
and  floors  of  one  room,  or  of  any  number  of  rooms, 
can  instantly  be  saturated  with  water,  and  twice  in 
each  week,  at  an  appointed  hour,  a  warm,  gentle  rain 
is  made  to  descend  for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  upon 
the  trees  and  shrubs  in  the  roof  garden. 

Each  suite  has  separate  sewer  connections,  and  each 
room  is  provided  with  registers  in  the  wall,  from  which 
either  hot  air  or  cold  air  can  be  turned  on  or  off  at 
will,  the  hot  air  ascending  from  the  furnaces,  and  the 
cold  air  being  forced  by  a  pumping  engine  from  the 
refrigerating  room  in  the  basement.  Those  whose 
fate  it  has  been  to  swelter  on  Manhattan  Island  in  the 
dog  days  can  appreciate  the  latter  luxury.  The  for- 
tunate occupant  of  a  room  in  one  of  the  Morning 
Blocks  commands  his  temperature.  Whether  the 
thermometer  registers  thirty  degrees  below  or  one 
hundred  degrees  above  zero  outside,  he  can  arrange 
the  climate  in  his  own  room  to  suit  himself,  and  pater 
familias  can  connect  a  wire  with  the  register  in  the 
parlor,  and,  if  "Cholly  "  protracts  his  visits  to  Gladys 
to  an  improper  hour,  he  can  shut  off  the  hot  air,  turn 
on  a  current  from  the  refrigerator,  and  in  ten  minutes 
make  the  young  man  choose  between  departure  and 
congealment. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  I95 

These  buildings  were  planned  for  the  relief  of 
women.  The  great  source  of  waste  and  care  in  our 
American  domestic  life  is  in  the  kitchen,  and  it  is  im- 
possible to  organize  a  more  advantageous  trust  for 
both  producer  and  consumer  than  a  "kitchen  trust." 
The  daily  history  of  every  American  family  is  one  of 
almost  unavoidable  waste.  In  food,  in  fuel,  in  the 
labor  of  cooking,  and  in  many  other  details  of  house- 
keeping, there  is  uneconomic  use  of  both  labor  and 
materials.  Probably  one-fourth  of  the  expenditure 
of  every  American  householder  who  is  able  to  keep 
one  or  more  servants  is  unnecessary  and  wasteful, 
and  where  only  one  servant,  or  none  at  all,  is  em- 
ployed, the  health  and  beauty  and  life  of  the  wife  are 
expended  in  kitchen  drudgery,  and  her  opportunities 
of  growth  and  culture  are  lost. 

The  Morning  Blocks  were  designed  as  theaters  of 
experiment,  which,  if  successful,  will  be  copied  else- 
where, for  freeing  the  household  from  the  waste  and 
vexation  and  tyranny  of  the  kitchen.  Mr.  Morning's 
plan  for  bringing  about  this  beneficent  result  is  both 
simple  and  effective.  The  kitchen,  or  general  cooking 
room  for  the  block,  is  situated  in  the  seventeenth 
story,  where  there  is  one  large,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  small  dining  rooms.  Each  dining  room  is 
lighted  either  from  the  street  or  the  roof,  is  perfectly 
ventilated,  and  has  an  electric  bell  and  pneumatic 
tube  service  connecting  it  with  the  kitchen,  with  the 
market  house  in  the  basement,  and  with  the  suite  of 

apartments  below,  of  which  it  is  an  adjunct. 

The   happy  householder  in    one   of  the    Morning 

Blocks  will  have  his  choice  of  methods.     He  and  family 


I96  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

may  take  their  meals  at  the  restaurant  or  general  din- 
ing room  in  the  seventeenth  story,  either  by  the  carte, 
meal,  or  week.  He  may  use  the  general  dining  room, 
or  his  private  dining  room,  or  dine  in  his  apartments 
below — the  pneumatic  tube  service  extending  to  all,  and 
a  private  waiter  will  be  furnished  at  a  fixed  price  per 
hour.  He  can  purchase  cooked  provisions  by  weight, 
delivered  at  either  place,  or  purchase  his  own  supplies 
at  the  market  house  in  the  basement  and  have  them 
cooked  in  the  general  kitchen,  or  use  his  own  cooking 
closet,  where,  without  waste  of  fuel — gas  being  used — 
his  selections  may  be  prepared  for  the  table  and  served 
either  there  or  sent  by  pneumatic  tube  to  his  dining 
room  above. 

Prices  for  everything  furnished,  whether  of  mate- 
rials or  labor,  are  fixed  from  time  to  time  by  the  man- 
ager, and  all  bills  are  required  to  be  paid  every  Mon- 
day, on  penalty  of  the  tenant  losing  his  privilege  of 
occupancy.  The  prices  charged  are  less  than  those 
demanded  for  similar  service  or  material  elsewhere. 
An  account  will  be  kept  of  each  householder's  dis- 
bursements, and  his  proportion  of  the  profits  made 
will  be  returned  to  him  at  the  end  cf  the  year,  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  co-operative  process,  the  object  being 
to  furnish  each  occupant  of  the  block  with  whatever  he 
needs  of  food  or  service  at  actual  cost. 

The  rent  asked  for  the  apartments  in  the  Morning 
Blocks  has  been  adjusted  upon  the  basis  of  paying 
taxes,  insurance,  repairs,  and  three  per  cent  per  an- 
num upon  the  capital  invested  in  the  enterprise. 

Mr.  Morning  has  conveyed  the  one  hundred  blocks 
to  the   governor  of  New  York,  the   mayor   of  New 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  197 

York  City,  and  the  president  of  the  New  York  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce,  who,  with  their  official  successors, 
are  made  perpetual  trustees  of  this  munificent  gift. 
In  the  trust  deed  it  is  provided  that  the  three  per  cent 
interest  on  cost,  received  from  tenants,  shall  be  invested 
in  an  endowment  fund,  payable,  with  its  accumulations, 
to  the  tenant  whenever  he  leaves  the  building,  or  to  his 
widow  or  legal  representative  in  the  event  of  his  death 
while  a  tenant. 

The  tenant  in  a  Morning  Block  will  be  supplied  with 
hot  and  cold  air,  hot  and  cold  water,  steam,  gas,  elec- 
tric light,  food,  and  service  at  actual  cost.  His  rooms 
will  be  provided  him  at  the  cost  of  taxes,  insurance, 
and  repairs,  and  he  and  his  family  will  be  made  the 
beneficiaries  of  a  fund,  which  he  will  be  required  to 
create  for  the  contingency  of  his  death  or  departure 
from  the  building.  To  guard  against  overcrowding, 
no  one  suite  of  apartments  will  be  rented  to  any 
family  of  more  than  five  adults,  and  no  subletting  or 
hiring  of  apartments  will  be  permitted. 

The  cost  of  the  land  is  estimated  at  $16,000,060, 
and  of  clearing  it  and  erecting  the  new  buildings  at 
530,000,000.  The  taxes,  with  insurance,  repairs,  em- 
ployes, and  such  other  expenses  as  are  in  their 
nature  incapable  of  apportionment  among  the  ten- 
ants, will  amount  to  $810,000  per  annum.  This  sum 
divided  by  fifteen  thousand,  the  number  of  suites  of 
apartments  in  the  one  hundred  Morning  Blocks,  will 
give  $54  as  the  annual  sum  to  be  paid  by  each  ten- 
ant for  his  apartments,  and  he  will  pay  $108  addi- 
tional annually  toward  a  fund  for  his  own  benefit.  In 
all  he  will  pay  about  $14  a  month  for  accommoda- 


198  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

tions  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  obtain  elsewhere  for 
five  times  the  amount. 

The  manager  of  each  block  will  receive  a  salary  of 
$3,000  per  annum,  and  will,  in  the  first  instance,  be  se- 
lected b^  the  Board  of  Trustees,  but  on  the  first  Mon- 
day of  January,  1897,  and  each  year  thereafter,  the 
occupants  of  each  block,  by  a  majority  vote,  can  elect 
a  manager,  who  will,  however,  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties,  and  in  the  employment  of  assistants,  be  sub- 
ject to  the  direction  and  supervision  of  the  trustees. 

Mr.  Morning  in  the  trust  deed  conveying  the  Morn- 
ing Blocks  has  named  the  qualifications  of  tenants  as 
follows:  The  applicant  must  be  of  good  moral  charac- 
ter, married,  over  the  age  of  twenty-five  and  under 
sixty.  He  must  have  been  at  the  time  of  his  applica- 
tion for  more  than  one  year  previously  in  the  employ- 
ment of  some  person,  firm,  or  corporation  engaged 
in  a  reputable  business  in  the  city  of  New  York  south 
of  Canal  Street,  and  be  in  receipt  of  a  salary  of  not 
less  than  $1,000  or  more  than  $3,000  per  annum.  If 
a  lawyer,  physician,  dentist,  architect,  or  civil  engi- 
neer, author,  clergyman,  or  journalist,  his  net  income 
must  be  of  a  similar  amount. 

Applicants  for  suites  of  apartments  must  file  their 
applications  and  references  at  the  office  of  the  Morn- 
ing Blocks  prior  to  12  o'clock  noon  on  the  fifteenth 
day  of  August,  1895.  The  credentials  of  all  applicants 
will  be  examined  and  careful  inquiry  made  as  to  their 
habits,  characters,  and  antecedents,  and  only  those  will 
be  accepted  as  eligible  for  tenancy  who  can  strictly 
comply  with  the  requirements. 

Should  there  be,  as  is  most  likely,  approved  appli- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.-  1 99 

cations  in  excess  of  the  suites  to  be  rented,  the  fifteen 
thousand  who  can  be  accommodated  will  be  selected 
by  lot,  and  the  others  registered,  and  whenever  va- 
cancies occur  a  tenant  to  fill  such  vacancy  will  be  se- 
lected by  lot  from  the  list.  Apartments  will  be 
apportioned  by  lot  among"  the  successful  applicants. 
Tenants  will  be  permitted  to  exchange  apartments  by 
amicable  arrangement,  but  no  transfer  of  apartments 
from  a  tenant  to  one  who  is  not  a  tenant  will  be  per- 
mitted. The  tenant  can  surrender  his  right  to  occupy 
his  apartments  at  pleasure,  but  he  cannot  assign  it,  or 
sublet  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  premises  accorded 
him. 

Should  six  tenants  who  are  heads  of  families  on 
any  floor  'make  complaint  against  one  of  the  other 
four  tenants  on  that  floor  that  he  is  obnoxious,  and 
that  in  the  general  interest  his  tenancy  ought  to  be 
terminated,  a  jury  of  fifteen  tenants  of  that  building, 
selected  by  lot,  one  from  each  of  the  other  floors,  shall 
be  made  up  to  try  the  accused,  who  shall  have  oppor- 
tunity to  cross-examine  the  witnesses  against  him,  and 
to  present  his  defense.  The  manager  shall  preside 
and  preserve  order,  and  if  twelve  of  the  fifteen  jurors 
shall  concur  in  finding  that  the  tenancy  of  the  accused 
ought  to  terminate,  he  may  appeal  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  and  unless  they  unanimously  exonerate  him, 
his  tenancy  must  cease. 

Our  reporter  interviewed  Mr.  Morning,  who  was 
found  at  his  offices  in  lower  Broadway,  and  inquired 
of  that  gentleman  if  it  were  true,  as  rumored,  that  he 
intended  to  erect  similar  buildings  on  another  part  of 
Manhattan  Island, 


200  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"  I  have  secured,"  replied  that  gentleman,  "all  the 
land  for  a  hundred  blocks  in  and  about  the  locality 
known  as  'the  Hook,'  and  I  propose  the  erection  of 
buildings  there  that  will  accommodate  forty  thousand 
families  of  mechanics  and  laborers.  There  will,  of 
course,  be  less  room  for  each  occupant  than  in  the 
blocks  just  completed,  and  less  expensive  arrange- 
ments in  many  particulars,  but  the  rent  and  cost  of 
living  will  be  less,  and  the  premises  will  be  rented  and 
'conducted  substantially  on  the  same  plan,  with  only 
such  difference  in  rules  as  may  be  necessary." 

' '  What  will  be  the  cost  of  these  latter  buildings,  Mr. 
Morning?"  said  our  reporter. 

"With  the  land,  about  $30,000,000,"  was  the  reply. 

"  It  is  a  pity,"  commented  our  reporter,  ' '  that  every 
city  in  the  land  cannot  count  a  David  Morning  among 
its  citizens,  with  a  gold  mine  at  his  command." 

"The  mine  is  not  necessary,"  said  Morning. 
' '  There  are  a  dozen  men  in  every  large  city  of  our  land 
who,  without  any  gold  mine,  could  do  what  I  have 
done.  I  hope,"  continued  the  speaker,  "not  to  be 
alone  in  the  work  of  helping  the  people  both  to  em- 
ployment and  homes." 

"None  of  our  millionaires,"  said  the  reporter, 
"have  thus  used  their  money." 

"It  must  be  remembered,"  rejoined  Morning, 
"that  the  very  great  fortunes  of  this  country  have 
mainly  been  created  during  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
and  in  the  eager  and  necessarily  selfish  strife  incident 
to  their  acquisition,  their  owners  have  not  always  con- 
sidered that  their  possession  is  a  great  trust  which 
brings  with  it  duties  as  well  as  rights. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  201 

"But  I  see  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  and  a  better 
feeling,"  continued  Mr.  Morning.  "I  hear  of  many 
gentlemen  in  different  parts  of  the  country  who  are 
proposing  to  use  millions  for  the  erection  of  homes, 
and  the  secure  establishment  of  co-operative  industries 
for  the  benefit  of  the  workers  of  the  land.  My  idea 
is  that  no  man  should  be  accorded  an  unearned  din- 
ner who  has  refused  a  chance  to  earn  it,  but  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  society  to  provide  every  man  with  an  op- 
portunity of  earning.  Of  what  value  at  last  is  wealth 
unless  one  can  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-men? 
Charon  will  not  transport  gold  across  the  Styx  at  any 
rate  of  ferriage.  Of  what  use  is  money  here  except 
in  one  form  and  another  to  give  it  away?  No  man 
can  expend  on  his  own  legitimate  and  proper  com- 
forts and  pleasures  the  interest  on  $1,000,000  at  five 
per  cent  per  annum." 

"There  are  many  men,  Mr.  Morning,  who  expend 
a  good  deal  more  than  $50,000  a  year." 

"Not  in  the  sense  of  personal  expenditures.  Man- 
sions, laces,  diamonds,  furniture,  horses,  carriages, 
and  the  like  are  investments  rather  than  expenditures. 
Receptions  and  banquets  may  be  classed  with  gifts. 
He  must  be  an  industrious  man  who  can.  with  his 
family,  eat,  drink,  and  wear  out  $50,000  worth  each 
year." 

"  But  is  there  not  the  pleasure  of  accumulation  it- 
self, Mr.  Morning?" 

"I  suppose  so,"  replied  that  gentleman,  "or  men 
would  not  pursue  it;  but  it  is  a  cultivated  and  not  a 
natural  taste.  Every  man.  for  instance,  requires  a 
pair  ot  trousers  and  a  hat,  but  after  he  has  acquired 


202  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

enough  of  such  articles  for  the  use  of  himself  and  his 
family  for  life,  and  a  generous  supply  for  his  descend- 
ants, why  work  the  balance  of  his  days  to  fill  ware- 
houses with  trousers  and  hats?  I  do  not  know,"  con- 
tinued Mr.  Morning — and  our  reporter  thought  that 
there  was  a  deeper  shade  in  his  sea-gray  eyes — "I  do 
not  know  that  I  shall  ever  marry,  but  if  I  had  boys  I 
would  leave  them  no  fortunes  larger  than  would  suffice 
for  a  generous  support. ' ' 

"Will  you,  then,"  queried  our  reporter,  "expend 
in  your  own  lifetime  all  the  great  revenues  of  the 
Morning  mine  ? " 

"All  that  I  can  find  time,  strength,  and  opportu- 
nity to  expend  in  ways  that  will  help  the  world,"  re- 
joined the  Arizona  Gold  King. 

[From  the  New  York  Times,  July  17,  1895.] 

Mr.  David  Morning  is  engaged  in  works  of  appar- 
ent charity,  which  to  many  thoughtful  men  will  seem 
an  injury  rather  than  a  benefit  to  the  world.  Capi- 
talists are  entitled  to  receive  interest  upon  their  invest- 
ments, and  if  inducement  to  accumulation  be  taken 
away  by  the  competition  of  such  Utopians  as  Mr. 
Morning,  then  frugality  may  cease  to  be  accounted  a 
virtue. 

On  the  whole,  wouldn't  it  be  better  for  the  business 
world,  and  the  stability  of  property  and  property 
rights,  if  the  tenants  of  the  Morning  Blocks  were  com- 
pelled to  pay  the  full  rental  value  of  their  apartments? 

[From  the  New  York  Socialist,  July  19,  1895.] 
Dave  Morning  is  endeavoring  to  throw  dust  in  the 
eyes  of  the  working  masses  of  the  country,  by  erect- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  203 

ing  seventeen-story  palaces  for  boodle  bookkeepers, 
and  twenty-story  tenement  houses  for  mechanics. 
He  has  filled  San  Francisco,  Chicago,  and  several 
other  cities  with  his  humbug  Co-operative  Labor  Aid 
Societies.  He  is  evidently  plotting  for  the  presidency 
in  1896,  and  expects  to  reach  the  White  House  by  a 
golden  path. 

' '  The  poor  of  this  country  should  accept  no  employ- 
ment as  a  boon,  nor  consent  to  engage  in  any  wage- 
saving  and  profit-sharing  corporation  that  will  force 
them  to  accumulate,  and  they  should  take  no  such 
favors  from  the  rich  as  cheap  rents  or  free  homes. 
Let  the  unnatural  accumulations  of  rich  scoundrels  be 
distributed  among  the  people.  No  man  is  honestly 
entitled  to  have  or  hold  anything  except  the  Iruits  ol 
his  own  labor.  It  would  be  better  for  the  world,  and 
for  the  great  cause  of  socialism  which  the  pseudo 
philanthropy  of  Morning  delays  and  obstructs,  if  this 
Arizona  Gold  King  could  be  tumbled  head  first  down 
one  of  his  own  shafts,  and  his  seventeen-story  marble- 
paved  Edens  be  dynamited  out  of  existence. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

"  Plans  of  mice  and  men  gang  aft  aglee." 

Morning's  business  offices  were  on  the  west  side 
of  Broadway,  below  Trinity  Church,  but  he  gave  at- 
tention to  his  large  and  increasing  correspondence  in 
his  rooms  at  the  Hoffman  House,  where  he  had  a  suite 
of  apartments  fronting  on  Broadway. 

The  largest  room  of  the  suite  had  always  been  re- 
served by  the  proprietors  for  a  private  dining  room, 
but  Morning  insisted  upon  its  constituting  a  part  of 
his  suite,  and  as  he  permitted  the  hotel  keepers  to 
name  their  own  price,  it  was  reluctantly  surrendered 
to  him.  In  this  room  Morning  had  a  large-sized 
phonograph  receiver  fitted  into  the  wall  opposite  his 
desk,  the  instrument  itself  being  placed  upon  a  long 
table  against  the  partition  in  the  adjacent  room.  A 
cord  which  swung  over  the  desk  was  fastened  to  a 
iever  connected  with  an  electric  motor,  also  in  the 
next  room. 

It  was  Morning's  habit  each  day  after  breakfast  to 
seat  himself  at  his  desk,  open  his  letters,  pull  the  cord 
which  started  the  electric  motor,  and  "  talk  "  his  re- 
plies to  the  phonograph  receiver.  The  instrument 
in  the  next  room  was  arranged  to  hold  a  cylinder  of 
sufficient  length  to  receive  a  communication  an  hour 
in  length.  After  Morning  had  completed  this  portion 
(204) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  205 

of  his  daily  labors,  it  was  the  duty  of  his  secretary  to 
remove  the  cylinders,  and  place  them  in  other  pho- 
nographs, where  two  and  sometimes  three  clerks  re- 
ceived their  contents,  and  reduced  the  same  to  type- 
writer manuscript 

This  simple  contrivance  had  still  another  use. 
Morning  knew  that  there  was  no  such  fruitful  source 
of  business  difficulties  and  consequent  litigation  as 
that  which  emanated  from  misunderstanding  or  mis- 
representation of  verbal  communications.  He  endeav- 
ored, therefore,  to  conduct  all  important  business  con- 
versations in  this  room,  and  all  the  utterances  of  either 
party  were  recorded  by  the  faithful  and  unerring 
phonograph,  and  the  cylinders  upon  which  they  were 
reported  were  properly  labeled,  dated,  and  stored 
away.  He  did  not  fail  in  any  instance  to  inform  the 
person  with  whom  he  was  conversing  that  all  their 
words  were  thus  finding  accurate  record. 

One  day  in  October,  1895,  while  Morning  was  in 
Chicago— where  he  had  gone  to  perfect  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  Labor  Aid  Corporation — the  great  finnacier, 
Mr.  Arnold  Claybank,  stopped  at  the  Hoffman  House 
on  his  way  down  town,  and  ordered  a  choice  dinner 
for  three  to  be  served  at  seven  o'clock  that  day. 

"And  have  it  served  in  the  room  fronting  upon 
Broadway,  where  we  always  dine,"  said  the  million- 
aire. 

"Very  sorry,  Mr.  Claybank,"  answered  the  clerk, 
"but  that  room  is  at  present  rented  to  Mr.  David 
Morning,  as  a  part  of  his  suite,  and  when  he  is  in 
town  he  uses  it  as  a  room  in  which  to  receive  and 
answer  his  correspondence;  at  present  he  is  in  Chi- 
cago. ' ' 


206  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"If  he  is  in  Chicago,"  replied  the  Wall  Street 
magnate,  "you  can  have  our  dinner  served  in  the 
room  as  usual.  It  will  not  disturb  him,  certainly,  even 
if  he  should  know  of  it,  and  he  is  not  likely  to  know  of 
it  unless  you  tell  him.  I  have  dined  in  that  room 
with  my  friends  at  least  once  a  week  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  and,  not  supposing  you  would  ever  rent 
it  for  other  purposes,  I  have  already  invited  them  to 
meet  me  there  this  evening.  I  don't  like  to  change, 
in  fact,  I  won't  change,  and  if  you  will  not  accommo- 
date me  I  will  take  my  patronage  elsewhere." 

After  some  hesitation,  the  clerk  agreed  to  have  din- 
ner served  in  the  room  desired,  and  at  seven  o'clock 
that  evening  Mr.  Arnold  Claybank,  with  his  guests, 
Mr.  Isaiah  Wolf  and  Mr.  John  Gray,  assembled  to 
discuss  both  the  menu  and  the  subject  of  their  gather- 
ing. 

Not  until  the  last  course  was  removed,  the  Bur- 
gundy on  the  table,  the  cigars  lighted,  and  the  waiter 
excused  from  further  attendance,  did  the  great  capital- 
ists approach  the  real  object  of  their  meeting.  Mr. 
Claybank  observed  that  they  might  need  writing 
materials,  and,  stepping  to  Morning's  desk,  he  seated 
himself  thereat,  and  pulled  vv'iat  he  supposed  to  be  a 
bell  cord  that  would  summon  a  waiter.  No  waiter 
appeared  in  answer  to  the  supposed  summons,  and 
Claybank,  taking  a  notebook  and  pencil  from  his 
pocket,  remarked  that  they  would  serve  his  purpose. 

These  three  gentlemen  had  dined  well,  and  should 
have  been  in  a  pleasant  frame  of  mind  toward  the 
world,  for  good  dinners  are,  or  ought  to  be,  humaniz- 
ing in  their  tendencies.     Yet  there  are  natures  which 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  20"J 

will  remain  unaffected  even  by  terrapins,  Maryland 
style,  and  roasted  canvas-back  duck,  assimilated  with 
the  aid  of  Lafitte  and  Pommery  Sec,  and  no  tigers 
crouching  in  the  jungle  were  ever  more  merciless  and 
conscienceless  in  their  rapacity  than  these  three  black- 
coated  capitalists. 

Mr.  Arnold  Claybank  was  the  leading  spirit  of  the 
conclave.  His  wealth  was  popularly  estimated  at 
$100,000,000.  He  had  inherited  none  of  it.  At 
thirty-five  years  of  age  he  was  a  dry  goods  merchant 
in  an  interior  city  in  Ohio,  possessed  of  less  than 
$100,000.  During  his  frequent  visits  to  New  York  to 
purchase  goods  he  was  in  the  habit  of  "taking  a  flyer" 
in  the  stock  market.  These  flyers  proved  so  continu- 
ously successful,  and  added  so  largely  to  his  capital, 
that  in  a  few  years  he  closed  out  his  dry  goods  busi- 
ness, removed  permanently  to  the  metropolis,  bought 
a  seat  in  the  stock  board,  and  soon  became  known  as 
one  of  the  boldest  and  shrewdest  operators  in  the 
street. 

He  was  rapid  and  usually  accurate  in  judgment, 
and  always  possessed  of  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
He  was  as  cunning  as  the  gray  fox,  to  which  he  was 
often  likened.  He  was  suave  in  manner  but  merciless 
in  the  execution  of  his  plans.  He  was  identified  in 
the  public  mind  with  several  of  the  boldest  and  most 
unscrupulous  operations  in  the  history  of  Wall  Street, 
and  his  millions  had  steadily  and  rapidly  increased, 
until  now,  at  sixty  years  of  age,  he  was  one  of  the 
acknowledged  kings  of  New  York  finance. 

Isaiah  Wolf  was,  as  his  name  indicated,  of  Hebrew 
origin.      He  was  about  the  same  age   as  Claybank, 


208  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

and  had  many  of  the  qualities  of  that  gentleman, 
lacking,  however,  his  courage  and  his  quickness  of 
comprehension  and  movement.  He  was  a  gambler 
by  birth,  education,  and  instinct,  and  a  gambler  who 
never  failed  to  use  all  advantages  possible. 

Thirty  years  before  he  had  been  a  clothing  mer- 
chant and  dealer  in  city,  county,  and  legislative  war- 
rants at  Portland,  Oregon.  He  furnished  the  im- 
pecunious legislators,  when  they  came  down  from  the 
mountain  counties,  with  an  outfit  of  clothing;  he  dis- 
counted their  salaries  at  three  per  cent  per  month;  he 
was  usually  the  custodian  of  the  lobby  funds,  and  he 
could  always  introduce  senator  or  assemblyman  to  a 
quiet  game  of  "draw,"  where,  whenever  a  huge 
"pot"  was  in  dispute,  Isaiah  could  usually  be  found 
safely  entrenched  behind  the  winning  hand. 

When  the  Comstock  mines  began  to  yield  their 
great  output  of  silver  in  1875-77,  the  Wolf  Broth- 
ers located  in  San  Francisco,  made  their  homes  on 
Pine  and  California  Streets,  and  gambled  in  mining 
stocks  from  the  vantage-ground  of  secret  knowledge, 
for  in  every  mine  were  one  or  more  miners  under  pay, 
not  only  from  the  mining  company,  but  from  Isaiah 
Wolf.  In  1879,  when  the  transactions  in  the  stock 
board  of  San  Francisco  had  dwindled  to  a  tithe  of 
their  former  magnitude,  and  when  the  sand-lot  agi- 
tators succeeded  in  grafting  their  ideas  of  finance 
and  taxation  upon  the  organic  law  of  California, 
Isaiah  Wolf  and  his  brother  Emanuel  gathered  their 
assets  together  and  joined  the  exodus  of  millionaires. 
In  New  York  City  they  opened  a  bankers'  and  brok- 
ers'   office,  and   were   now  accounted   as  jointly  the 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  209 

possessors  of  $80,000,000,  the  management  of  which 
was  left  almost  exclusively  to  Isaiah. 

John  Gray  was  an  insignificant- looking  old  man  of 
seventy.  From  his  unkempt  beard,  watery  eyes, 
shrinking  manner,  and  small  stature,  he  might  have 
been  taken  for  a  congressional  doorkeeper  who  had 
seen  better  days.  In  truth,  there  was,  under  his  ignoble 
exterior,  one  of  the  broadest,  wiliest,  and  best-informed 
minds  in  America.  He  was  the  acknowledged  leader 
of  Wall  Street  in  ability  and  resources.  His  wealth 
was  estimated  at  quite  $150,000,000,  and  it  had  been 
created  by  himself  in  about  forty-five  years. 

He  began  life  as  a  Vermont  peddler,  but  at  the  age 
of  twenty-five  carried  his  New  England  education,  his 
capacity  for  calculation,  his  retentive  memory,  his 
frugal  habits,  and  his  tireless  energy  into  New  York 
City,  where  he  began  as  porter  and  messenger  in  the 
office  of  a  broker.  He  soon  learned  the  history  and 
methods  of  the  principal  operators  of  the  Wall  Street 
of  that  day,  and  his  savings  were  shrewdly,  quietly, 
and  boldly  invested  on  ' '  points ' '  which  he  picked  up 
while  delivering  messages  or  awaiting  replies.  He 
soon  accumulated  a  large  sum  of  money,  yet  he  kept 
his  humble  place,  and  his  employer  never  suspected 
when  he  paid  the  faithful  porter  his  $40  at  the  end  of 
each  month,  that  the  quiet  and  deferential  young  man 
could  have  purchased  not  only  his  employer's  busi- 
ness, but  the  building  in  which  it  was  conducted. 

Gray   remained   as  porter  and  messenger  for  five 

years,  declining  all  offers  which  were  made  to  him  of 

promotion  to  a  desk  and  a  higher  salary.     The  place  he 

held  gave  him  opportunities  which  cquld  be  obtained 

14 


2IO  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

in  no  other  way.  None  suspected  the  quiet  and  stolid- 
looking  man,  who  seemed  so  dull  of  comprehension 
when  any  verbal  message  was  intrusted  to  him;  and 
words  were  dropped  and  conversations  held  in  his 
presence  which,  when  fitted  by  his  quick  and  com- 
prehensive brain  into  other  words  and  conversations 
held  in  other  offices,  often  enabled  him  to  forecast 
events.  The  man  who  by  any  means  is  accurately 
advised  of  the  real  intentions  of  the  leaders  of  Wall 
Street  a  day  or  even  an  hour  before  their  execution, 
has  a  key  to  wealth,  and  Gray  used  this  key,  conduct- 
ing all  his  operations  through  one  broker,  who  was 
pledged  to  secrecy. 

At  the  time  of  the  great  deal  in  Harlem,  so  success- 
fully engineered  before  the  war  by  Commodore  Van- 
derbilt,  Gray  was  still  occupying  his  place  as  mes- 
senger. He  overheard  a  conversation  held  in  the 
commodore's  private  office  between  that  gentleman 
and  his  confidential  clerk,  and,  comprehending  the 
magnitude  of  the  opportunity,  he  directed  that  all  his 
resources,  which  then  amounted  to  nearly  $200,000,  be 
placed  in  Harlem  stock.  He  was  enabled,  under  the 
system  of  margins  which  prevailed  in  Wall  Street, 
to  purchase  $2,000,000  worth  of  the  stock,  which  he 
sold  at  an  average  advance  of  fifty  per  cent,  clearing 
Si. 000.000  by  the  operation. 

The  old  commodore,  who  had  himself  made  $6,- 
000,000  by  the  deal,  found  that  somebody  had  been 
sharing  profits  with  him  to  the  extent  of  $1,000,000, 
and,  not  supposing  that  this  was  the  result  of  guess- 
work, he  used  means  to  discover  who  was  the  cunning 
operator  and  what  were  the  sources  of  his  information. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  211 

Without  much  difficulty  he  traced  the  transactions  to 
John  Gray,  and,  remembering  the  presence  of  that 
young  man  in  the  anteroom  at  the  time  of  giving 
directions  to  his  confidential  clerk,  he  was  not  at  a 
loss  to  determine  how  it  came  about. 

The  commodore  considered  that  Gray  had  gained 
$1,000,000  which  should  have  come  to  his  own  coffers, 
and  he  determined  to  "give  the  young  fellow  a  lesson, 
sir,"  as  he  said  to  his  confidential  clerk.  That  morn- 
ing Gray's  employer  received — to  his  great  surprise — a 
call  from  Vanderbilt,  who,  to  his  greater  surprise,  in- 
formed him  of  the  true  status  of  his  messenger,  who 
had  become  a  millionaire.  Gray's  employer  readily 
promised  to  assist"  in  the  scheme  which  Vanderbilt 
formed  for  punishing  Gray  and  ' '  stripping  him  of  his 
ill-gotten  gains,  sir."  Vanderbilt  required  only  that 
Gray's  employer  should  next  day  send  Gray  to  Van- 
derbilt's  office,  with  a  verbal  message,  inquiring, 
"What  is  to  be  done  about  Erie?" 

The  next  day  Gray  called  and  delivered  his  message 
to  the  commodore  in  his  private  office. 

"  Take  a  seat,  young  man,  until  I  can  write  a  reply," 
was  the  direction,  and  Gray  deferentially  seated  him- 
self upon  the  edge  of  a  chair,  and  gazed  at  the  carpet 
stolidly,  while  the  commodore  penned  the  following: 
"Buy  all  the  Erie  offered  at  market  rates  up  to  fifty- 
three.  C.  V."  This  note  the  commodore  placed  in  an 
envelope,  which  he  directed,  but  apparently  forgot  to 
seal,  and  handed  it  to  Gray,  who  thereupon  departed. 
As  the  door  closed  behind  the  messenger,  the  veteran 
bull  smote  himself  upon  the  sides,  and  threw  his  head 
back  and  lausrhed. 


212  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Gray  noticed  that  the  envelope  was  not  sealed,  and 
before  he  reached  the  bottom  of  the  stairs,  he  pos- 
sessed himself  of  its  contents. 

Then  he  fell  into  a  train  of  thought.  Erie  was  sell- 
ing at  $37,  and  Gray  was  thoroughly  posted  as  to 
the  resources,  liabilities,  and  business  of  the  road, 
and  knew  very  nearly  who  were  the  principal  stock- 
holders. He  knew  that  the  commodore  held  fully 
one-third  of  the  capital  stock  of  Erie,  which  had  cost 
him  not  more  than  $30  a  share,  and  he  also  knew  that 
the  old  gentleman  had  been  for  some  time  selling  his 
stock  at  $37  as  fast  as  he  could  do  so  without  break- 
ing the  market.  Thirty-seven  was  really  a  nursed 
price  for  the  stock;  it  was  more  "than  the  condition 
and  prospects  of  the  road  warranted,  and  Gray  did 
not  believe  that  Vanderbilt  intended  to  purchase  any 
great  quantity,  even  at  $37,  or  that  it  would  be  possi- 
ble for  him  to  run  the  stock  to  $53  without  purchasing 
the  entire  amount. 

Gray  delivered  the  note  to  his  employer,  and  asked 
that  gentleman  if  he  might  be  excused  for  half  an  hour 
to  attend  to  some  matters  of  business  of  his  own. 
Leave  of  absence  was  graciously  granted,  and  Gray 
was  watched  to  the  door  of  the  office  of  the  broker 
who  had  bought  and  sold  his  Harlem  stock.  Then 
Gray's  employer  walked  to  the  office  of  the  expectant 
commodore  and  informed  him  that  the  young  man 
had  swallowed  the  bait,  for  he  had  gone  to  the  office 
of  his  broker,  probably  to  order  large  purchases  of 
Erie. 

Vanderbilt  thanked  the  broker,  assured  him  that  in 
the  division  of  the  spoils  he  should  not  be  forgotten, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  213 

and  authorized  him  in  furtherance  of  their  project  to 
purchase  all  the  Erie  offered  up  to  $42,  to  which  fig- 
ure Vanderbilt  proposed  to  run  the  stock  before  letting 
it  drop. 

Gray  directed  his  broker  to  purchase  Erie  in  one- 
hundred-share  lots,  beginning  at  $37,  and  to  follow  the 
market  up  to  $53  if  it  reached  that  figure,  but  not  to 
purchase  more  than  five  thousand  shares  in  all.  Hav- 
ing given  this  direction,  he  walked  into  the  back  office 
of  a  firm  of  brokers,  who,  although  leaders  in  the  mar- 
ket, had  never  succeeded  in  obtaining  any  business 
from  Vanderbilt,  and  between  them  and  that  gentleman 
there  was  a  business  feud  of  long  standing.  The  quiet 
messenger  was  well  known  to  the  head  of  the  firm, 
who  greeted  him  pleasantly. 

' '  What  can  I  do  fo  r  you,  Gray, ' '  said  he. 

"I  would  like  to  take  your  time  for  not  more  than 
five  minutes,"  said  Gray. 

"I  am  pretty  busy,"  said  the  gentleman,  "but  I 
will  try  and  oblige  you,"  and  he  led  the  way  to  an 
inner  office. 

The  broker's  eyes  distended  with  astonishment  as 
Gray  rapidly  told  how  he  had  made  such  use  of  his 
opportunities  as  porter  and  messenger  as  to  accumu- 
late, by  speculation,  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  that 
he  desired  now  to  employ  their  firm  in  an  operation 
which,  lor  reasons  ot  his  own,  he  did  not  care  to  in- 
trust to  his  regular  broker. 

The  gentleman  smilingly  agreed  to  accept  Mr. 
Gray's  business,  and  opened  his  eyes  still  wider  when 
Gray  took  from  his  pockets  large  packages  contain- 
ing bonds  and  securities  to  the  amount  of  half  a  mil- 


214  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

lion  dollars,  and,  depositing  them  as  collateral,  di- 
rected the  broker  to  sell  all  the  Erie  for  which  he 
could  find  buyers  at  forty  and  over,  and  to  buy  it  when- 
ever it  went  below  thirty-three. 

That  day  Erie  mounted,  under  the  pressure  of  Van- 
derbilt's  purchases,  and  the  flurry  created  thereby,  to 
$43,  at  which  figure  an  immense  quantity  changed 
hands.  Then  it  fell  rapidly,  point  by  point,  back  to 
$37,  and,  under  the  influence  of  a  temporary  panic, 
went  down  to  $32,  at  which  figure  it  rallied  and 
mounted  to  $35,  where  it  stood  at  the  close  of  the  day. 

Mr.  Gray's  regular  broker  reported  to  him  pur- 
chases of  five  thousand  shares  Erie  at  prices  ranging 
from  $37  to  $42,  and  averaging  about  $39.  He  re- 
gretted that  Mr.  Gray  had  not  authorized  a  sale  at 
$43.25,  which  was  the  highest  point  reached,  and  at 
closing  figures  Mr.  Qray  must  lose  about  $20,000. 

And  Mr.  Gray's  new  brokers  reported  to  him  sales 
of  eighty  thousand  shares  of  Erie,  at  an  average  of 
$41.50,  which  had  been  repurchased  at  an  average 
of  $34.50,  with  a  profit  to  Mr.  Gray  of  $540,000, 
which  they  held,  subject  to  his  check. 

And  when  the  returns  were  all  in  at  the  office  of  the 
old  commodore,  and  that  white-whiskered,  choleric, 
kind-hearted,  and  courageous  old  bull  found  that  he 
owned  more  Erie  than  ever,  at  higher  prices  than 
those  for  which  he  had  sold  a  small  part  of  his  hold- 
ings, and  that  the  rattan  which  he  had  prepared  for 
Gray  had  fallen  upon  his  own  shoulders,  he  stormed 
for  a  while  and  clothed  himself  with  cursing  as  with  a 
garment,  and  then  he  cooled  off  and  laughed.  Then 
he  sent  a  note,  this  time  not  to  John  Gray's  employer, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  215 

but  to  John  Gray  himself,  which  read  as  follows: 
"Young  fellow,  you  are  a  genius.  Come  and  dine 
with  me  at  six  o'clock  to-day,  at  Delmonico's.     C.  V." 

The  friendship  cemented  at  that  dinner,  between 
the  great  capitalist  and  the  ex-messenger — for  Gray 
returned  no  more  to  his  duties  as  a  porter — continued 
until  the  day  of  the  commodore's  death. 

Gray  continued  to  operate  in  Wall  Street,  both  in 
small  and  large  ways,  and  seldom  made  a  loss.  When 
the  first  loud  mutterings  of  the  civil  conflict  began  to 
shake  the  land,  he  became  a  heavy  purchaser  of  tar, 
resin,  and  cotton,  and,  later,  of  gold.  When  the 
Union  armies  were  defeated  and  the  day  looked  dark- 
est, and  gold  mounted  to  two  hundred  and  eighty 
premium,  he  never  faltered  in  his  belief  in  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  the  nation,  and  he  sold  gold  and 
bought  government  bonds,  and  margined  one  against 
the  other,  and  risked  little  and  gained  much. 

A  year  after  the  sun  went  down  upon  Appomattox, 
the  Yankee  peddler  was  worth  $20,000,000,  and  ten 
years  later  he  was  worth  $50,000,000.  He  aban- 
doned such  stock  operations  as  were  dependent  for 
their  success  upon  other  men's  movements  and  plans, 
and  only  engaged  in  such  as  he  could  absolutely  con- 
trol. He  gambled  only  with  marked  cards  and 
loaded  dice.  He  bought  a  control  of  the  stocks  and 
bonds  of  badly-managed  and  bankrupt  railroads.  He 
consolidated  them,  re-equipped  them,  built  feeders, 
opened  new  sources  of  traffic,  and  so  doubled,  trebled, 
and  quadrupled  his  investments.  He  sold  short  the 
stock  of  a  prosperous  railroad,  and  obtained,  by  pur- 
chase of  proxies,  the  control  of  its  management.      He 


21 6  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

cut  rates,  diminished  traffic,  enlarged  expenses,  and 
passed  dividends  until  he  depreciated  the  value  of  the 
stock  to  a  point  where  he  could  gain  millions  by  cov- 
ering his  shorts,  and  other  millions  by  again  restor- 
ing the  road  to  prosperity.  In  one  instance,  by  his 
paid  emissaries,  he  promoted  a  general  strike,  until, 
through  riot  and  fires  and  suspension  of  traffic,  the 
stock  of  the  afflicted  corporation  was  depreciated  to 
the  price  at  which  he  desired  to  purchase  a  controlling 
interest. 

John  Gray  was  an  exemplary  father  and  husband,  a 
good  neighbor,  and,  in  a  small  way,  generous  and 
charitable;  but  in  his  larger  dealings  with  mankind 
he  was  a  moral  idiot,  without  conscience  or  percep- 
tion. The  world  is  no  better  for  his  life;  the  youth  of 
the  land  are  the  worse  for  his  example  of  successful 
scoundrelism,  and  those  who  wish  well  to  their  coun- 
try and  their  kind,  will  have  a  right  to  stand  beside 
his  coffin  and  thank  God  that  he  is  dead. 

"I  suppose,"  said  Mr.  Arnold  Claybank,  "that  we 
all  understand  the  general  outlines  of  our  project,  and 
that  this  meeting  is  for  the  purpose  of  talking  over 
details." 

"Our  purpose,"  said  Mr.  Wolf,  "of  I  gomprehent 
it,  is  to  use  the  bower  dot  we  haf  in  our  hants,  to 
make  for  ourselves  about  fifty  millions  of  tollars 
apiece.      Is  not  dot  apout  vot  it  vas,  eh?  " 

"We  need  not,  I  think,  discuss  that  question,"  said 
Gray  suavely. 

"Exactly,"  said  Claybank.  " Now  I  propose  that 
we  list  the  securities  which  we  shall  place  in  our  pool, 
at  the  closing  quotations  of  the  Stock  Exchange  to- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  217 

day,  each  one  of  us  being  credited  with  his  contribu- 
tions. The  stocks  contributed  will  aggregate  in  value 
about  $150,000,000,  at  present  market  prices,  and,  as 
nearly  as  possible,  will  be  contributed  by  us  equally. 
It  is  also  understood  that  the  stocks  and  bonds  placed 
in  the  pool  will  constitute  the  entire  holdings  of  each 
and  all  of  us,  in  that  class  of  property.  Am  I  cor- 
rect?" 

"Quite  so,"  said  Mr.  Gray. 

"Dot  is  also  my  unterstanting,"  said  Wolf. 

"Very  well,"  resumed  Claybank,  "these  securities 
are  to  be  placed  in  the  offices  of  different  brokers,  and 
turned  into  cash  as  rapidly  as  possible  without  break- 
ing the  market.  The  public  will,  I  think,  take  them 
easily  in  a  week,  for  the  market  is  rising,  and  perma- 
nent as  well  as  speculative  investment  is  in  order. ' ' 

' '  Ont  then  we  lock  up  the  gash  for  which  we  sells 
the  stock,  ain't  it?  "  said  Wolf. 

"Not  immediately,"  rejoined  Claybank,  "it  must 
be  left  in  the  banks  in  the  usual  channels  for  a  time,  or 
there  will  be  no  money  for  them  to  loan  to  the  buyers 
of  stocks.  Having  sold  our  own  securities,  we  will  next 
proceed  to  sell  short  at  ruling  prices  to  as  large  an  ex- 
tent as  possible." 

"Your  plan  is  admirable,"  said  Mr.  Gray.  "  We 
will  next  arrange  at  the  banks  lor  borrowing  all  the 
money  that  they  can  spare  without  suspending  pay- 
ment, and  we  will  compel  them  to  withdraw  all  loans 
now  out.  Through  our  joint  and  separate  control  of, 
and  influence  with,  the  officers  and  directors,  we  ought 
to  be  able  to  borrow  in  this  city,  and  in  Boston  and 
Philadelphia,  as  much  as  $150,000,000,  which,  added 


2l8  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

to  $150,000,000  received  from  sale  of  our  stocks,  will 
give  us  control  of  $350,000,000  in  cash." 

"Will  dey  loan  so  much  as  $150,000,000  even 
upon  the  personal  security  of  such  men  as  we  ?  "  said 
Wolf. 

"They  will  not  be  asked  to  do  so,"  said  Gray. 
"The  money  borrowed  can  be  sealed  up  and  left  as 
special  deposits  in  their  vaults  as  security  for  itself, 
with  a  small  margin  of  one  or  two  per  cent  to  cover 
interest. ' ' 

"  Dot  inderest,  of  we  borrow  for  thirty  days  at  six 
per  cent,  on  $150,000,000  will  amount  to  three  kevaw- 
ters  of  a  million  of  tollars;  ont  that  amount  we  lose  out 
of  our  bockets;  ont  the  interest  on  our  own  $150,000,- 
000  which  will  be  itle  for  a  month  will  be  another  three 
kevawters  of  a  million.  It  makes  US$500,000  each  to 
lose.     It  is  a  great  teal  of  money  to  lose,"  said  Wolf. 

"That,"  said  Claybank,  "is  all  we  lose,  and  is 
practically  all  we  risk.  It  is  essential  to  the  success 
of  our  plans  that  for  a  brief  period  we  shall  withdraw 
from  the  channels  of  commerce  a  large  portion  ol  the 
money  of  the  country.  We  cannot  withdraw  it  unless 
we  control  it;  we  cannot  control  it  unless  we  borrow 
it;  and  we  cannot  borrow  it  without  paying  bank  rates 
of  interest  upon  it." 

"How,"  said  Gray,  "do  you  propose  to  supply 
the  necessary  margins  for  the  stock  which  we  sell 
short  ?  When  you  borrow  stock  on  a  rapidly-falling 
market,  the  loaner  expects  at  some  time  a  reaction, 
and  an  equally  rapid  advance,  and  you  will  have  to 
give  him  a  pretty  big  margin  beyond  the  money  which 
you  receive  from  a  sale  of  the  borrowed  stock.' ' 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  219 

"We  shall  have  for  that  purpose,"  replied  Clay- 
bank,  "the  $150,000,000  received  from  the  sale  of 
our  own  stock.  This,  at  fifty  per  cent  fall  in  prices, 
will  margin  borrowings  of  three  hundred  millions  of 
stock,  and  this  money  we  can  arrange  to  have  locked 
up  in  special  deposits  as  well  as  the  money  we  bor- 
row." 

"Ont  to  how  low  a  point  shall  we  put  brices  before 
we  commence  to  cover  ?  ' '  said  Wolf. 

"That,"  replied  Claybank,  "will  be  a  matter  for 
future  consideration.  My  present  impression  is  that 
we  can  by  thus  locking  up  the  currency  bear  the  mar- 
ket one-half.  We  must  not  proceed  so  far  as  we 
might  go,  or  we  will  ruin  everybody,  so  that  there  will 
be  no  investors  to  purchase  stocks  when  we  wish  to 
sell  them  again  after  we  have  loaded  up  for  a  rise. ' ' 

"Ont  how  much  we  makes  by  bearing  fifty  per 
cent  ?  "  asked  Wolf. 

"It  is  easily  calculated,"  replied  Claybank.  "If 
our  plans  succeed,  we  sell  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  our  own  holdings  at  present  prices.  In  order 
to  bear  the  market  fifty  per  cent  below  present  prices, 
we  must  continue  to  sell  down,  diminishing  the  quan- 
tity we  sell  as  prices  recede,  and  when  we  begin  to 
cover,  we  must  buy  all  we  can  at  the  lowest  point, 
diminishing  our  purchases  as  prices  advance.  Those 
not  familiar  with  such  things  would  be  surprised  to 
know  that  the  ebb  and  flow  of  values  in  the  stock 
market  is  almost  as  regular,  and  can  be  almost  as  cer- 
tainly predicted,  as  the  movement  of  the  tides.  Such 
a  movement  as  we  propose  is  artificial,  yet,  to  an  ex- 
tent, it  will  be  similarly  controlled  by  the  influences  of 


220  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

human  nature.  If  we  sell  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  stock  at  an  average  of  say  one  hundred,  and 
three  hundred  millions  at  an  average  say  of  eighty, 
and  buy  it  all  back  at  an  average  of  sixty,  we  will  gain 
one  hundred  and  twenty  millions,  and  that,  I  think, 
is  about  all  we  can  calculate  upon." 

"But  have  you  considered,  gentlemen,  the  other 
side  of  the  question?  "  said  Gray.  "  Have  you  fully 
considered  whether  there  may  not  exist  influences 
that  will  defeat  us  ?  Depend  upon  it,  once  we  inaug- 
urate this  raid,  our  rivals  in  business  will  plot  to  over- 
throw us.  Such  great  newspapers  as  are  not  in  our 
control  will  denounce  us.  The  Treasury  Department 
at  Washington,  which  is  under  the  control  of  the 
Farmers'  Alliance  party,  will  use  every  effort  to  break 
down  our  combination,  and  we  shall  be  howled  at 
generally  as  ghouls  and  villains.  I  do  not  care  much 
about  the  public  or  the  newspapers,  but  we  must  take 
every  possible  precaution  against  failure. ' ' 

"That  is  right,"  said  Claybank.  "I  have  consid- 
ered all  these  things  and  I  do  not  see  how  our  plan 
can  be  defeated.  The  newspapers  may  denounce  us 
but  cannot  overthrow  our  plan,  which,  at  last,  is  very 
simple.  We  produce  a  panic  and  depression  of  prices 
by  locking  up  the  circulating  medium,  and  prices  can 
only  be  advanced  by  unlocking  the  money  and  restor- 
ing it,  or  other  money  in  its  place,  to  the  channels  of 
commerce.  The  money  which  we  lock  up  in  special 
deposits  must  remain  in  the  bank  vaults  until  we 
release  it.  No  bank  officer  would  for  any  reason  or 
under  any  pressure  dare  to  touch  a  special  deposit. 
It  would  be  a  penitentiary  offense  to  tamper  with  it." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  221 

"Are  you  sure,"  said  Gray,  "  that  other  capitalists 
may  not  combine,  and  provide  other  money  to  take 
the  place  of  that  which  we  lock  up  ?  " 

"The  only  other  very  large  sum  of  money  in  the 
country  within  the  control  of  anybody,"  replied  Clay- 
bank,  ' '  is  $300,000,000  in  the  treasury  vaults  at  Wash- 
ington. The  laws  authorizing  government  deposits  in 
banks,  as  well  as  the  law  authorizing  bond  purchases 
in  the  discretion  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  have, 
as  you  know,  been  repealed.  There  are  absolutely 
but  two  ways  to  get  that  $300,000,000  out  of  the 
treasury  vaults.  One  is  by  the  ordinary  disbursements 
of  government,  which  would  take  a  year  or  more,  and 
the  other  is  by  somebody  depositing,  under  the  law  of 
1894,  gold  or  silver  bars  to  that  amount,  and  nobody 
in  the  world  is  able  to  command  three  hundred,  or 
one  hundred,  or  even  fifty  millions  of  dollars  in  gold 
or  silver  bullion." 

"The  new  mining  capitalist,  David  Morning,  might 
supply  the  bars  from  his  mine  in  Arizona  if  we  gave 
him  a  few  years'  time, ' '  said  Gray. 

"  Yes,  and  if  we  gave  him  time  he  would  be  crank 
enough  to  do  it,"  replied  Claybank.  "  But  we  won't 
give  him  time.  How  much  does  his  mine  yield,  any- 
how ? ' ' 

"  Four  millions  a  month  in  solit  golt,"  said  Wolf. 
"It  has  yieltet  that  sum  now  for  teventy  months.  I 
hear  that  it  is  nearly  worked  out,  but  nopoty  can  get 
into  it,  and  you  can't  tell  anything  apout  it.  If  it  con- 
tinues to  yielt  at  that  rate  for  a  few  years,  dot  fellow  in- 
going to  make  us  all  some  trupple.  He  is  crazy  as  a 
loon,  though  he  has  taken  out  of  his  mine  over 
eighty  millons  of  tollars." 


222  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Even  his  $80,000,000,  if  he  has  them  in  money, 
might  disarrange  our  plans,"  said  Gray. 

"He  has  plown  them  all  in,  puilding  plocks  for 
glerks  ont  poor  people,  ont  he  disgriminates  against 
Hebrews,  or  his  trustees  do.  A  Jew  knows  a  goot 
thing  when  he  fints  it,  ont  there  were  eighteen  thou- 
sant  applications  from  Jew  glerks  for  the  prifilege  of 
renting  apartments  in  the  Morning  Blocks,  ont  the 
committee  made  up  a  mean  drick  to  get  rit  of  them. 
They  requiret  every  man  who  applied  for  rooms  to 
answer  whether  it  was  easier  to  fill  to  a  bob-tail  flush 
or  a  sequence,  ont  those  who  answered  the  question 
they  refused  to  pass,  on  the  grount  that  they  knew 
too  much  apout  draw  poker  to  haf  goot  moral  char- 
acters. ' ' 

"I  do  not  see, ' '  said  Claybank,  after  the  laughter 
at  Woll's  indignation  had  subsided,  "that  we  need 
take  Mr.  Morning  into  consideration  as  a  disturbing 
element  in  our  present  plans.  If  the  present  output 
of  his  mine  shall  continue,  it  must,  by  and  by,  greatly 
advance  prices  of  stocks  and  all  other  property,  but 
that  is  in  the  future. 

"Have  we  anything  further  to  consider?"  said 
Gray. 

"I  think,"  replied  Claybank,  rising,  "that  we 
understand  each  other  perfectly.  I  will  have  tripli- 
cate memorandums  made  of  our  agreement,  which  we 
can  execute  in  my  office  to-morrow  morning  at  nine 
o'clock,  where  we  will  have  our  stocks  brought  at  the 
same  time.  This  Burgundy  is  the  genuine  article, 
Clos  Voguet,  vintage  of  1875.  I  propose  as  a  part- 
ing toast,  '  Success  to  our  enterprise.'  " 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  223 

And  the  phonograph  needle  in  the  adjoining  room 
wrote  in  mystic  scratches  upon  the  wax,  "  Success  to 
our  enterprise."  Then  came  the  shuffling  of  feet,  the 
sound  of  a  closing  door,  and  the  faint  buzz  of  the 
electric  motor  until  it  ceased,  and  silence  reigfned. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

"  Uncle  Sam  to  the  rescue!  " 

David  Morning  returned  to  New  York  three 
days  after  the  dinner  party  described  in  the  last  chap- 
ter. His  typewriters  were  in  attendance  as  usual, 
and  he  began  opening  his  accumulated  correspond- 
ance,  when  his  secretary  knocked  at  the  door  com- 
municating with  the  next  room,  and,  entering,  said  to 
his  employer: — 

' '  Mr.  Morning,  pardon  me  for  disturbing  you,  but 
will  you  please  step  into  the  phonograph  room. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  matter  on  the  cylinders  which 
has  been  placed  there  by  others  in  your  absence,  and, 
I  judge,  placed  there  inadvertently.  I  think  you  had 
better  hear  it  yourself  before  it  is  transcribed. ' ' 

Morning  walked  into  the  other  room  and  was  for  half 
an  hour  an  interested  auditor  of  the  revelations  of  the 
wonderful  phonograph.  He  directed  his  secretary 
to  remove,  label,  and  lock  up  the  cylinders  contain- 
ing the  dinner-party  conversation,  and  said  in  con- 
clusion:— 

"  Mr.  Stephens,  somebody  has  evidently  been  hav- 
ing a  dinner  party  in  this  room  during  my  absence. 
It  was  not  a  nice  thing  for  the  proprietors  to  do,  but . 
I  shall  not  notice  it.  Try  to  find  out  who  dined 
here,  without  disclosing  that  I  am  aware  that  the  room 
(224) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  225 

was  occupied.  I  think  I  recognize  the  voices  of  the 
occupants,  but  I  wish  to  be  sure." 

By  inquiring  among  the  waiters,  the  secretary  ascer- 
tained, and  reported  to  Mr.  Morning,  that  the  guests 
were  Claybank,  Wolf,  and  Gray. 

That  night  our  hero  departed  for  Washington,  and 
early  next  morning  he  was  closeted  with  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  to  whom  he  revealed  the  knowledge 
gathered  from  the  phonograph  cylinders. 

"It  is  an  infamous  piece  of  business,"  said  the 
secretary  warmly,  "but  what,  Mr.  Morning,  can  I  do 
about  it?" 

"Mr.  Secretary,"  said  Morning,  "will  you  pardon 
me  for  saying  frankly  that  it  is  your  duty  to  baffle 
these  conspirators  and  restore  values  to  their  normal 
condition.  It  is  the  business  of  the  government  to 
provide  a  supply  of  money  for  the  needs  and  uses  of 
commerce.  These  scoundrels  will  bring  about  a  panic 
by  locking  up  in  the  vaults  of  New  York,  Philadel- 
phia, and  Boston  banks,  $300,000,000,  which  ought  to 
be  in  circulation  among  the  people.  You  have  three 
hundred  millions  of  coin  and  paper  money  in  the 
treasury.  Why  not  pour  this  money  into  Wall  Street, 
break  the  back  of  this  conspiracy,  and  relieve  the  peo- 
ple?" 

"But  I  have  no  authority,  Mr.  Morning,  as  you 
must  know,  to  use  one  dollar  of  this  money  for  any 
other  purposes  than  those  designated  by  law.  If  I 
had  the  power,  believe  me,  I  would  be  only  too  glad 
to  exercise  it  as  you  desire." 

"Does  not  the  Act  of  Congress  of  February,  1894, 
known  as  the  free  coinage  law,  permit  you,  Mr.  Secre- 
15 


226  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

tary,  to  substitute  gold  or  silver  bars  of  standard  fine- 
ness, for  the  coined  money  and  paper  money  in  the 
treasury  vaults  ? ' ' 

"  Yes, ' '  replied  the  secretary,  ' '  but  I  do  not  see  how 
that  law  can  be  invoked  to  relieve  the  situation. 
There  are  not  three  hundred  millions  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver ingots  in  private  ownership  in  the  country,  or, 
probably,  in  the  world.  The  very  large  output  of 
$1,000,000  in  gold  per  week  from  the  Morning  mine 
will  not  serve  us  in  this  exigency.  It  would  require 
six  years'  yield  of  your  mine,  Mr.  Morning,  to  furnish 
enough  gold  to  release  the  money  now  in  the  treas- 
ury, and  baffle  Messrs.  Gray,  Claybank,  and  Wolf. 
Three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  is  a  good  deal  of 
money,  Mr.  Morning — a  good  deal  of  money." 

"Relatively  it  is,  Mr.  Secretary,  but  I  have  five 
times  that  sum  in  gold  bars  here,  in  Philadelphia,  and 
New  York." 

The  secretary  glanced  at  the  Arizona  Gold  King, 
and  looked  uneasily  at  the  bell  cord  which  hung 
above  his  desk. 

"No,  I  am  not  crazy,"  said  Morning  with  a  laugh, 
"though  I  do  not  blame  you  for  thinking  so.  The 
time  has  come  somewhat  sooner  than  I  expected  for 
intrusting  you  with  my  secret.  The  Morning  mine 
is  a  phenomenal  deposit  of  gold.  It  is  so  large  that, 
fearing  any  general  knowledge  of  its  extent  might 
cause  demonetization  of  gold  by  the  nations,  I  took 
measures  to  conceal  its  true  yield,  and  for  every 
ounce  of  gold  which  I  shipped  to  New  York  or  Lon- 
don as  the  ostensible  product  of  the  mine,  I  shipped 
twenty-five  other  ounces  disguised  as  pig-copper  to 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  227 

this  city,  or  New  York,  or  Philadelphia,  or  Liverpool. 
In  the  latter  place  $1,000,000,000  are  stored,  and  there 
are  $500,000,000  in  each  of  the  American  cities  I  have 
named.  A  month  ago  I  sent  four  of  my  trusted  men 
from  the  mine  to  this  city,  where  they  have  since 
been  busy  with  cold  chisels,  releasing  the  gold  bars 
from  their  copper  moulds.  They  will  go  from  here 
to  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  and  thence  to  Liver- 
pool, for  similar  labors.  I  did  not  intend,  Mr.  Secre- 
tary, to  offer  any  of  this  gold  for  coinage  or  sale  un- 
til able  to  present  it  simultaneously  at  European  and 
American  mints.  But  the  present  exigency  induces 
me  to  turn  over  to  the  United  States  for  coinage,  the 
five  hundred  millions  of  gold  bars  now  ready  for  de- 
livery in  this  city.  I  may  add,  Mr.  Secretary,  to 
q  uiet  the  apprehensions  which  your  deep  interest  in 
the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  country  might  lead 
you  to  entertain,  that  I  have  not  intended,  and  do  not 
now  intend,  to  throw  $2,500,000,000  of  new  money 
immediately  into  the  channels  of  commerce.  I  shall 
change  the  gold  bars  into  money  at  once,  in  order 
that  the  present  value  may  not,  by  demonetization, 
be  taken  away  from  gold;  but,  once  transformed  into 
money,  it  will  be  fed  gradually  to  the  world,  and  not 
precipitated  upon  it." 

' '  But,  Mr.  Morning,  it  will  require  the  constant 
labor  for  a  long  time  of  the  mint  and  all  its  branches  to 
coin  this  large  sum,  and  you  require  the  money  at 
once." 

"I  propose,  Mr.  Secretary,  to  avail  myself  of  the 
law  of  February,  1894,  and  claim  treasury  notes  for 
my  ingots.     That  Act  of  Congress  will  enable  you  to 


228  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

print  in  two  or  three  days  enough  bills  of  large  de- 
nomination to  cover  the  whole  sum." 

"You  astound  me,  Mr.  Morning,  but  I  suppose  I 
must  believe  you." 

' '  If  you  will  ride  with  me  to  the  foot  of  Sixth  Street, 
Mr.  Secretary,  I  will  exhibit  to  you  $500,000,000  in 
gold  bars." 

"But,  Mr.  Morning,  even  $500,000,000  suddenly 
poured  into  Wall  Street  will  create  a  wilder  panic 
and  precipitate  worse  results,  than  those  which  may 
come  from  the  pending  conspiracy." 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  said  Morning  quietly.  "  It 
is  contraction  and  not  inflation  that  hurts.  A  flood 
may  be  disastrous  to  the  crops  in  places,  but  a  gen- 
eral drought  will  surely  kill  them  all." 

"If  Congress  were  in  session,  Mr.  Morning,  it 
would  be  likely  to  demonetize  gold.  It  would  never 
suffer  fifteen  hundred  millions  of  money  to  be  thus 
added  to  the  present  currency.  Why,  such  an 
amount  will  double  at  once  the  entire  paper  and  me- 
tallic money  of  the  country!  " 

"But  Congress  is  not  in  session,  Mr.  Secretary, 
and  you  will  pardon  me  for  saying  that,  whatever 
may  be  your  individual  opinion  as  to  consequences, 
you  have  no  power  to  refuse  to  issue  gold  notes  as 
fast  as  you  can  cause  them  to  be  engraved,  for  any 
amount  of  gold  bars  that  I  may  offer." 

"True,"  replied  the  secretary. 

1 '  But  I  repeat,  Mr.  Secretary,  that  I  hope  to  guard 
against  the  evils  you  apprehend.  I  should  be  an  un- 
worthy custodian  of  the  great  trust  which  has  come 
into  my  hands,  if  I  could  misuse  it  to  harm  either  my 
country  or  my  fellow-men." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  229 

"I  believe  you,  Mr.  Morning." 

"For  the  present  I  can  only  use  the  ingots  which 
are  here  in  Washington.  The  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia hoards  will  be  ready  in  about  a  month,  when 
I  shall  require  treasury  notes  for  them,  but  before  I 
offer  them  to  you,  and  before  their  existence  shall  be 
known  generally,  I  shall  endeavor  to  place  in  the 
mints  at  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Madrid,  Milan,  Vi- 
enna, and  St.  Petersburg,  and  in  the  banks  of  the 
principal  cities  of  Europe  simultaneously,  in  exchange 
for  metallic  and  paper  money  of  those  countries,  the 
one  thousand  millions  now  in  Liverpool." 

The  secretary  bowed. 

"Will  you  order  three  hundred  millions  of  gold 
notes,  of  the  denomination  of  $1,000  each,  printed  at 
once,  and  arrange  to  weigh,  test,  and  receive  the  five 
hundred  millions  of  bars  in  my  warehouse  at  the  foot 
of  Sixth  Street?  If  it  be  not  irregular,  you  might  re- 
ceive the  ingots  where  they  are,  deliver  to  me  at  once 
the  two  hundred  millions  of  paper  money  now  in  the 
treasury  vaults,  and  the  remaining  three  hundred 
millions  when  printed.  The  gold  bars  can  be  re- 
moved to  the  treasury  vaults  at  your  convenience.  I 
ask  that  this  method  be  followed  because,  if  I  am  to 
relieve  the  situation  in  New  York,  I  must  be  on  hand 
there  with  the  actual  currency.  Ordinarily  treasury 
drafts  would  answer  the  purpose,  but,  under  present 
circumstances,  they  would  be  useless,  as  no  bank 
could  cash  them,  and  they  are  not  a  legal  tender. 
These  bandits  will  have  locked  up  all  the  money  in 
special  deposits,  and  their  well-devised  scheme  can 
only  be  baffled  by  one  who  has — outside  of  any  chan- 


230  BETTER    DAYS,  OR 

nel  within  their  control,  and  outside  of  their  knowl- 
edge— a  vast  sum  in  actual  money." 

' '  How,  may  I  ask,  do  you  propose  to  defeat  their 
plans,  Mr.  Morning?" 

' '  My  brokers  will  purchase  for  cash  all  the  stocks 
they  offer,  and,  on  deposit  of  sufficient  margin,  loan 
them  the  stocks  back  again,  to  be  again  sold  to  me. 
In  brief,  I  will  take  all  their  'shorts,'  and  all  the 
stocks  sold  by  others  which  their  conspiracy  will  force 
upon  the  market.  When  they  have  forced  prices 
down  to  a  point  where  they  are  ready  to  cover  their 
shorts  and  buy  for  an  advance,  I  will  suddenly  jump 
prices  to  the  level  they  occupied  before  the  conspira- 
tors commenced  their  operations,  and  thus  commend 
to  their  own  lips  the  bitter  draught  they  have  pre- 
pared for  others.  I  shall  know — for  I  have  many 
sources  of  information,  Mr.  Secretary — I  shall  know 
what  portion  of  my  purchases  of  stock  will  come  from 
the  conspirators,  and  what  portion  from  men  who 
will  be  forced  by  the  panic  to  part  with  their  holdings. 
I  shall  subsequently  make  good  to  those  others  all 
their  losses.  The  one  or  two  hundred  millions  which 
I  may  by  this  process  extract  from  Mr.  Gray,  Mr. 
Claybank,  and  Mr.  Wolf,  I  shall  not  "—and  Morn- 
ing smiled — "restore  to  them.  I  shall  devote  it  to 
founding  and  maintaining  industrial  schools." 

' '  Your  plan,  Mr.  Morning,  is  a  brave  and  gigantic 
one.     Is  there  no  chance  of  its  failure?  " 

"Not  if  I  can  have  your  co-operation,  Mr.  Secre- 
tary, in  keeping  secret  for  a  week  or  ten  days  the  fact 
that  you  have,  under  the  law  of  February,  1894,  re- 
ceived five  hundred  millions  of  ingot  gold,  and  issued 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  231 

treasury  notes  therefor.  These  scoundrels  will  have 
locked  up  all  the  available  money  in  the  great  finan- 
cial centers.  They  know  that,  under  the  present  law, 
the  three  hundred  millions  of  paper  and  coin  money 
in  the  government  vaults  cannot  be  released  so  as  to 
flow  into  the  channels  of  commerce  except  by  depos- 
its of  gold  or  silver  bullion  to  take  its  place.  My 
secret  has  been  carefully  kept,  and  they  do  not  dream 
of  the  existence  in  private  ownership  of  five  hundred 
millions,  or  even  fifty  millions,  in  gold  bars.  If  I  can 
keep  this  secret  from  them  until  the  hour  to  strike 
arrives,  I  will  give  them  a  lesson  that  will  cure  them 
for  the  future  of  any  disposition  to  lock  up  money 
and  constrict  the  arterial  blood  of  commerce  for  the 
purposes  of  private  gain." 

"But  will  not  their  losses  be  largely  on  paper,  Mr. 
Morning?     What  if  they  refuse  to  pay  ?  " 

"I  shall  not  go  into  court  with  them,  Mr.  Secre- 
tary, and  it  will  not  be  necessary.  Let  me  further 
illustrate.  They  sell  one  thousand  shares  say  of 
Northwestern  at  $110,  and  I  buy  it.  They  take  the 
$110,000  received  by  them  from  my  broker  and  add 
to  it  ten  or  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  margin,  and 
borrow  from  me  the  one  thousand  shares  of  North- 
western just  sold  me,  depositing  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty  or  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars as  security  for  the  return  of  the  borrowed  stock. 
When  Northwestern,  under  the  pressure  of  their  sales, 
descends  to  $100,  they  put  up  additional  margin  for 
the  stock  borrowed,  and  borrow  more  stock  on  the 
same  terms.  If  they  continue  this  process  until 
they  have  forced  Northwestern  down  to  $80  or  $70, 


232  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

and  could  then  buy  enough  to  replace  the  borrowed 
stock  and  call  in  the  money  they  had  deposited  as 
'  margin,'  they  would  make  as  profit  the  difference  be- 
tween the  low  price  at  which  they  purchased  and,  the 
average  of  their  sales.  But  if  Northwestern  should 
suddenly  jump  in  price  to  a  point  higher  than  the 
value  to  which  they  had  margined  it,  then  my  brokers 
would  purchase,  at  this  high  rate,  enough  Northwestern 
to  make  good  the  stock  loaned  to  them,  using  for 
that  purpose  the  money  deposited  by  the  conspirators 
as  'margin.'  I  propose  to  let  these  gentlemen  have 
all  the  rope  they  want,  and  when  they  attempt  to  turn 
and  become  buyers,  I  will  spring  stocks  at  once  to 
their  original  price,  and  confiscate  all  their  margins." 
' '  I  will  aid  you,  Mr.  Morning,  as  you  request,  by 
keeping  our  transactions  secret  as  far  as  possible, 
though  I  can't  promise  you  success  in  that.  At  least 
a  dozen  men  will  be  required  to  print  the  gold  notes 
in  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing,  and  those 
men  will  know  of  the  issuance  of  so  vast  a  sum  as  $300,- 
000,000.  Half  a  dozen  more  must  know  of  the  re- 
moval of  the  two  hundred  millions  of  paper  money 
now  in  the  treasury  vaults,  and  at  least  a  dozen  men 
will  be  needed  to  weigh  and  remove  the  gold  bars  from 
your  warehouse.  What  is  known  to  thirty  men  will 
soon,  I  fear,  be  known  to  the  world.  I  will  detail 
only  discreet  men,  who  shall  work  under  pledges  of 
secrecy,  the  violation  of  which  shall  cost  them  their 
places,  but,  after  every  precaution  shall  have  been 
taken,  who  shall  baffle  the  ubiquitous  newspaper  re- 
porter in  search  of  a  'scoop'  ?  He  will  crawl  through 
the  coal  hole  or  the  area  railings.     He  will  walk  with 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  233 

the  cats  on  the  top  of  spikes  and  broken  bottles.  He 
will  act  as  a  car-driver,  a  barber,  or  a  purchaser  of  old 
clothing.  I  verily  believe  that  if  he  had  lived  in  the 
olden  days  he  would  have  coaxed  Caesar  to  reveal 
the  plan  of  his  next  campaign,  and  wrested  from  the 
Egyptian  Sphinx  her  secret.  I  fear,  Mr.  Morning, 
that  the  reporters  will  prove  too  much  for  us." 

"I  have  had  some  experience  in  keeping  secrets, 
Mr.  Secretary,  and  if  you  will  permit  me  to  direct  the 
details  of  the  movement,  I  will  undertake  that  no  ink- 
ling of  it  shall  reach  the  ears  of  the  reporters. ' ' 
"  How  will  you  avoid  it,  Mr.  Morning?" 
"  Anticipating  your  consent  and  co-operation,  Mr. 
Secretary,  I  directed  the  captain  of  my  steam  yacht, 
the  Oro,  to  come  here  from  New  York  without 
delay,  and  by  to-night  she  will  be  moored  in  the 
Potomac,  opposite  the  warehouse  at  the  foot  of  Sixth 
Street.  I  propose  that,  with  the  officials  and  men 
whose  duty  it  will  be  to  test  and  weigh  the  gold  bars, 
you  shall  examine  them  where  they  are  in  the  ware- 
house. You  will  take  the  keys  and  take  possession, 
and,  if  you  desire,  will  detail  guards  for  the  warehouse 
who  will  not  know  what  they  are  guarding.  As  soon 
as  satisfied  of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  gold,  you 
will  direct  the  printing  of  three  hundred  millions  of 
treasury  notes,  and  will  deliver  me  the  two  hun- 
dred millions  of  paper  money  now  in  the  treasury 
vaults.  The  three  hundred  millions  can  be  printed 
in  bills  of  the  denomination  of  $i,ooo,  and  may  be 
packed  in  five  good-sized  trunks.  The  $200,000,000 
now  in  the  treasury,  being  in  bills  of  smaller  denomi- 
nations, will  require  fifteen  trunks  for  their  accommo- 


234  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

dation.  My  four  trusted  men,  who  have  been  busy 
here  for  the  past  month  cutting  the  gold  bars  out  of 
their  copper  jackets,  will  procure  fifteen  trunks  of  dif- 
ferent makes  and  marks,  and  after  they  have  been  filled 
with  currency  at  the  treasury  vaults,  will  carry  them 
in  an  express  wagon,  which  I  will  purchase,  to  the 
railroad  depot,  and  check  them  for  New  York  in  four 
different  lots,  purchasing  two  or  three  passage  tickets 
for  New  York  for  each  lot  of  trunks.  They  will  go 
as  ordinary  baggage  to  New  York,  and  there  be  taken 
to  my  office  on  Broadway,  without  exciting  suspicion 
or  comment.  Two  of  the  men  will  return  from  New 
York  here,  and  a  similar  plan  can  be  pursued  with 
the  $300,000,000,  which  will  be  printed  in  the  mean- 
time. ' ' 

"  I  do  not  yet  see,  Mr.  Morning,  how  you  propose 
to  close  the  mouths  of  the  treasury  officials  engaged 
in  the  business  here." 

' '  I  ask,  Mr.  Secretary,  that  for  all  this  work  you 
will  select  reliable  men,  unmarried,  and  who  can  be  ab- 
sent from  their  places  of  abode  for  a  fortnight  without 
comment.  Inform  each  man  selected  that  he  will  be 
employed  in  a  matter  requiring  secrecy,  and  that  it 
will  involve  an  ocean  trip.  I  propose  that  every  man 
connected  with  the  transaction,  except  yourself,  Mr. 
Secretary,  every  man,  from  the  official  who  tests  the 
gold,  to  the  official  who  packs  the  currency  into  the 
trunks,  shall,  from  the  time  he  enters  upon  the  per- 
formance of  his  duty,  until  it  is  completed,  remain  in 
place.  I  will  have  food,  and,  if  need  be,  cots  for  sleep- 
ing at  the  warehouse,  and  the  placing  of  the  currency 
in  the  trunks  will  not  require  more  than  an  hour  or 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  235 

two  of  time.  Each  man,  as  he  completes  his  duty,  will 
go  on  board  the  Oro,  and  when  all  are  on  board,  the 
steamer  will  put  to  sea,  with  orders  to  cruise  for  two 
weeks  and  then  return  here.  Each  of  the  gentlemen 
taking  this  voyage  will  be  presented  by  me  with  the 
sum  of  $1,000  for  his  services.  The  examination  and 
weighing  of  the  gold  bars  in  the  warehouse,  and  the 
packing  and  shipment  of  the  two  hundred  millions  of 
paper  money  now  in  the  treasury,  can,  I  think,  be 
completed  by  to-morrow,  and  the  Oro  steam  out  to- 
morrow night,  with  a  passenger  list  including  the 
names  of  all  those  who  have  any  knowledge  of  the 
fact  that  two  hundred  millions  of  treasury  notes  are 
on  their  way  to  New  York,  and  that  the  government 
has  $500,000,000  worth  of  gold  bars  in  its  vaults." 

"And  how  about  the  three  hundred  millions  of 
notes  ordered  printed  ?  " 

"Those  engaged  in  the  printing  can  be  similarly 
detailed,  similarly  instructed,  and  similarly  dealt  with. 
I  have  chartered  the  New  Dominion,  now  lying  at 
Norfolk,  for  a  voyage  to  Port  au  Prince,  on  the  island 
of  Santa  Domingo.  She  has  steam  up,  awaiting  or- 
ders. She  will  be  here  in  time,  and  all  those  who 
have  knowledge  of  the  printing  or  shipment  of  the 
other  three  hundred  millions,  will,  on  the  completion 
of  their  duties,  go  on  board  of  her  for  a  trip  to  Hayti, 
and,  on  their  return  a  fortnight  afterwards,  receive 
the  same  gift  of  $>i,ooo  each  for  his  services." 

' '  Your  plan  is  ingenious,  yet  simple,  Mr.  Morning, 
and  seems  likely  to  be  effective.  So  far  as  this  de- 
partment is  concerned,  its  execution  will  involve  a 
departure  from  all  rules  and  precedents,  and  I  shall 


236  BETTER    DAYS. 

not  escape  hot  criticism  if  I  order  it,  especially  from 
th  1  New  York  papers  controlled  by  the  conspirators 
But  I  see  nothing  really  wrong  or  objectionable  in  it, 
and  'nice  customs  courtesy  to  great  kings,'  and  you 
are  a  great  king,  Mr.  Morning." 

'Say  rather  that  the  exigency  is  a  great  king, 
Mr.  Secretary.     You  will  then  aid  me  as  I  ask  you." 

"Yes." 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  Secretary.  In  the  future  any 
favor  you  may  ask  of  me,  personal  or  official,  will 
not  be  denied." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

"  The  arms  are  fair  when  borne  with  just  intent.' 

It  was  blue  Monday  in  Wall  Street.  It  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  second  week  of  the  most  disastrous 
panic  ever  known  in  the  history  of  finance.  Capital 
fled,  affrighted,  to  its  strong  boxes,  and  refused  to 
come  forth  at  any  rate  of  interest,  or  upon  any  secu- 
rity. Values  had  been  going  downward  without  re- 
action for  six  days.  The  yellings  and  shoutings  in 
the  stock  board  were  such  as  might  have  been  in- 
dulged in  by  escapes  from  an  asylum  for  violent  luna- 
tics. Fortune  after  fortune  had  been  swept  into  the 
vortex  in  a  vain  attempt  to  stay  the  current.  Stocks 
which  had  ranked  for  years  as  among  the  most  reli- 
able of  investments,  descended  the  grade  as  rapidly  as 
the  "fancies."  Northwestern  had  fallen  from  $112  to 
$60;  Western  Union  from  $80  to  $45,  and  Lackawana 
from  $138  to  $70,  and  even  at  these  prices  more  stock 
was  apparently  offered  than  found  purchasers. 

The  conspirators  were,  apparently,  successful. 
Three  men  whose  combined  wealth  already  aggre- 
gated $300,000,000,  had  produced  this  storm  of  dis- 
aster merely  to  increase  their  millions,  regardless  of 
ruined  homes.  They  sold  their  own  stock  as  they  had 
plotted,  seventy-five  millions  of  it  at  full  rates,  and  sev- 
enty-five millions  at  an  average  reduction  of  fifteen 

(237) 


238  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

per  cent,  early  the  preceding  week,  and  before  Morn- 
ing had  perfected  his  arrangements,  or  appeared 
upon  the  scene.  Their  subsequent  short  sales  were 
made  at  lower  prices  than  they  had  estimated,  for 
others  came  m  competition  with  them,  as  vendors. 
They  locked  up  both  the  currency  received  from  their 
sales,  and  the  currency  they  had  borrowed,  so  effec- 
tually that  merchants,  brokers,  and  others,  who  were 
unable  to  obtain  the  usual  banking  accommodations, 
were  compelled  to  throw  upon  the  market  their  hold- 
ings of  bank,  railroad,  and  telegraph  stock. 

Wolf,  who  personally  led  the  bear  raid  in  the  board, 
followed  prices  down  with  fresh  lines  of  shorts,  to  an 
amount  beyond  that  originally  intended,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  previous  week,  the  short  sales  of  the  con- 
spirators amounted  to  $400,000,000.  In  one  particu- 
lar they  had  miscalculated,  for,  after  stocks  had  fallen 
twenty  per  cent,  the  brokers  who  purchased  them  re- 
fused to  loan  them  again  for  resale  on  the  customary 
margin,  but  believing,  or  affecting  to  believe,  that 
prices  would  advance  with  greater  celerity  than  they 
had  receded,  they  demanded  an  amount  of  money  as 
margin  equal  to  the  difference  between  the  existing 
market  price  of  the  stock  loaned  and  the  market 
price  that  ruled  before  the  break. 

This  demand  was  made%  under  the  direction  of 
Morning,  who  did  not  appear  in  public,  but,  from  his 
private  office  on  Broadway,  sent  orders  to  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent brokers  whose  services  had  not  been  engaged 
by  the  Gray-Claybank-Wolf  syndicate.  After  the 
first  break,  Morning  was  the  purchaser  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  stock  sold,  and  after  each  purchase  the  money 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  239 

paid  for  the  stock,  with  the  margin  added,  was  locked 
up  in  the  vaults  of  one  of  his  brokers,  or  in  banks 
not  under  the  control  of  the  conspirators.  In  this 
way  the  syndicate  had  been  compelled  to  add  $60,  - 
000,000  to  the  $140,000,000  they  had  received  from 
the  sale  of  their  own  stock. 

On  the  morning  of  the  second  Monday  of  Novem- 
ber, 1895,  the  "  Gold  King"  was  the  owner,  by  pur- 
chase, of  stocks  which  had  cost  him  $400,000,000, 
but  which  were  worth,  at  the  prices  which  prevailed 
before  the  raid,  $600,000,000. 

These  stocks  had  been  loaned  to  the  conspirators 
by  Morning,  repurchased  by  him,  loaned  and  repur- 
chased again,  until  he  now  held  in  his  control  two  hun- 
dred millions  of  money,  put  up  by  the  syndicate  as 
margin,  or  security,  for  the  delivery  to  him  of  stocks 
which  needed  only  to  be  restored  to  their  former 
value  to  cause  the  conspirators  to  lose  $200,000,000, 
and  Morning  to  gain  that  sum.  If,  however,  prices 
could  be  kept  at  panic  figures  until  the  conspirators 
could  turn  buyers,  and  cover  their  shorts,  they  would 
gain  $200,000,000,  which  would  be  filched  from  whom- 
soever had  been  compelled  to  sell. 

There  were  $400,000,000  at  stake  on  the  game. 
The  bear  syndicate  thought  they  were  playing  with 
loaded  dice,  and  so  they  were,  but  the  load  was  against 
them,  instead  of  being  in  their  favor. 

On  Sunday  night  a  private  conference  was  held  at 
Mr.  Claybank'  s  residence,  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

"To-morrow,"  said  Gray,  "let  us  stop  selling  and 
begin  buying,  and  cover  as  rapidly  as  possible.  There 
are  some  features  of  the  situation  which  fill  me  with 
uneasiness." 


240  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Ontso  I  thinks,  Misder  Gray,"  said  Wolf.  "I 
don't  gomprehent  where  the  money  comes  from  on 
Fritay  and  Saturtay  with  which  our  sales  were  met. 
As  I  figure  it,  we  hat  every  tollar  locked  up  on  Thurs- 
tay  that  was  anywhere  available,  but  so  much  as  a 
huntret,  or,  maby,  a  huntret  and  fifty  millions  of  new 
money  came  into  the  street  on  yesterday  and  Fri- 
tay." 

"It  probably  came  from  Chicago,"  said  Claybank. 

"No,"  replied  Wolf.  "Chicago  sent  only  fifty 
millions,  ont  it  vas  all  here  by  Wednesday.  It  buz- 
zles  me,  ont  I  ton't  like  it,  ont  I  believe  it  is  full  time 
to  commence  closing  the  deal." 

It  was,  accordingly,  agreed  to  close  it,  and  on  Mon- 
day morning  these  three  worthies  appeared  in  their 
seats  in  the  Stock  Exchange,  for  they  were  all  mem- 
bers of  that  body,  although  they  seldom  or  never 
participated  in  its  proceedings,  preferring  to  transact 
their  business  through  other  brokers. 

Morning  was  also  a  member  of  the  Stock  Exchange, 
having  purchased  a  seat  a  year  previously,  but  he 
did  not  often  appear  there,  and  had  never  bought 
or  sold  a  share  of  stock  himself  in  open  board.  Even 
amid  the  excitement  of  the  panic,  his  presence  gave 
interest  to  the  occasion,  for  his  sobriquet  of  the 
"Gold  King"  attached  legitimately  to  his  ownership 
of  a  mine  that  was  yielding  $4,000,000  per  month, 
with  the  probability  of  making  its  owner  in  a  few 
years  the  greatest  billionaire  in  the  world. 

There  were  probably  few  among  the  active  mem- 
bers of  the  Stock  Exchange  who  did  not,  at  this  time, 
know  nearly  as  much  about  the  causes  of  the  panic  as 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  241 

even  the  three  men  who  produced  it,  and  among  all 
the  brokers,  except  those  in  the  employment  of  the 
syndicate,  only  indignation  was  expressed  at  the  oper- 
ations of  Wolf,  Claybank,  and  Gray.  The  New  York 
stockbroker  is  neither  a  Shylock  nor  a  miser.  He  is 
usually  a  genial,  generous  sort  of  fellow,  who  pre- 
fers a  bull  market  to  a  bear  raid.  He  likes  to  make 
money  himself  and  have  everybody  else  make  it.  A 
boom  is  his  delight,  and  a  panic  his  abhorrence.  If  a 
majority  of  the  board  of  brokers  could  have  had  their 
way,  they  would  have  hung  the  members  of  the  syn- 
dicate to  the  gallery  railings,  and  the  question  of 
reaching  them  in  some  lawful  way,  and  relieving  the 
board  from  the  effects  of  their  conspiracy,  had  been 
informally  discussed. 

But  nothing  was  attempted,  because  nothing  seemed 
really  practicable.  It  was  well  known  that  the  existing 
condition  of  things  had  been  produced  by  locking  up 
the  currency.  So  long  as  it  remained  locked  up, 
prices  must  remain  at  whatever  figures  the  conspirators 
might  choose  to  place  them.  Only  the  power  that 
withdrew  the  money  from  circulation,  could  restore 
it  to  the  channels  of  commerce.  There  was  absolutely 
nothing  for  those  not  already  ruined  to  do  except  to 
hide  in  the  jungle  until  the  three  tigers  should  have 
fully  gorged  themselves.  When  Claybank,  Gray, 
and  Wolf  should  graciously  permit  the  money  to  be 
unlocked,  then  stocks  would  advance  to  their  real 
value,  business  would  resume  its  proper  channels,  and 
the  panic  would  be  over — and  not  until  then. 

In  the  Exchange,  stocks  were  called  alphabetically, 
and  the  first  upon  the  list  of  railroad  securities  was 
16 


242  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe.  This  was  not 
a  dividend-paying  or  favorite  investment  stock,  and, 
probably,  three-fourths  of  it  had  been  held  in  the  street 
for  years,  in  speculative  and  marginal  holdings.  Morn- 
ing had  special  reasons  for  securing  control  of  this  road 
in  addition  to  his  general  purpose  of  thwarting  the 
conspirators.  Prior  to  the  panic,  Atchison,  Topeka, 
and  Santa  Fe  had  vibrated  for  months  between  $27 
and  $33,  and  on  the  Saturday  previous  to  the  Mon- 
day which  saw  the  beginning  of  the  bear  raid,  it  had 
closed  at  $30.  Under  the  operations  of  the  conspira- 
tors, it  had  been  hammered  down  to  $15,  at  which 
figure  it  closed  on  the  previous  Saturday. 

One  of  the  syndicate  brokers  who  sat  by  Wolf, 
opened  the  ball  by  offering  two  hundred  shares  of 
Atchison  at  $15. 

"Taken,"  cried  Morning,  from  his  seat. 

' '  Five  hundred  Atchison  at  $1 5^2 , "  said  the  broker. 

"Taken,"  replied  Morning. 

A  shade  of  uneasiness  covered  the  features  of  the 
broker,  but,  in  response  to  a  gesture  from  Wolf,  he 
called  again: — 

"One  thousand  Atchison  offered  at  $16." 

"Taken,"  said  Morning. 

The  broker  dropped  into  his  seat  and  mopped  his 
face  with  his  handkerchief. 

"Any  further  offers  of  Atchison  for  sale?"  cried 
the  caller. 

And  there  was  no  reply. 

' '  Two  hundred  Atchison,  Brown  to  Morning,  at 
$15;  five  hundred  Atchison,  Brown  to  Morning,  at 
$15^;  one  thousand  Atchison,  Brown  to  Morning,  at 


.     A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  243 

$16.  Are  there  further  bids  for  Atchison  ?  "  said  the 
caller. 

Wolf  arose  and  cried,  ''Fifteen  dollars  is  offered  for 
one  thousand  Atchison." 

There  was  no  higher  offer,  but  the  caller  did  not 
proceed  to  cry  the  next  stock  on  the  list.  Some- 
how everybody  seemed  to  feel  that  a  crisis  had  been 
reached;  it  was  in  the  air,  and,  amidst  a  hushed  and 
expectant  silence  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
New  York  Stock  and  Exchange  Board,  the  voice  of 
David  Morning  rang  out  like  a  trumpet. 

' '  I  will  give, ' '  said  he,  ' '  $30  per  share  for  the  whole 
or  any  portion  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  Atchison, 
Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad  Company." 

Then  pandemonium  reigned.  The  quick  wit  of  the 
stockbrokers  comprehended  the  situation  in  an  instant. 
It  was  all  as  clear  to  them  as  if  it  had  been  written 
and  printed.  They  knew  that  Claybank,  Wolf,  and 
Gray  had  joined  forces,  locked  up  the  currency, 
brought  about  a  panic,  broken  down  the  market,  and 
ruined  half  the  street.  They  knew  that  the  country 
was  prosperous,  the  mines  prolific,  and  the  crops  good. 
They  knew  that  the  depression  in  prices  was  wholly 
artificial,  and  that  it  must,  sooner  or  later,  be  followed 
by  a  reaction  and  restoration  of  values,  and  they  had 
so  advised  their  customers,  but  they  supposed  that  the 
period  of  such  reaction  was  wholly  within  the  control 
of  Gray,  Claybank,  and  Wolf. 

They  had  no  reason  to  expect  that  relief  would 
come  from  any  other  source,  and  the  appearance  and 
action  of  Morning  burst  upon  them  like  a  revelation. 
Here  was  a  man  who  was  a  new-comer  to  fortune  and 


244  BETTER   DAYS,    OR 

to  finance,  a  man  who  had  devoted  the  immense 
revenues  of  his  mine  to  beneficent  rather  than  busi- 
ness purposes,  and  who  was  above  the  necessity  or 
the  temptation  of  increasing  his  wealth  by  speculation. 
His  presence  in  the  Board,  and  his  bid  of  $30  a  share 
for  Atchison,  demonstrated  that  he  knew  of  the  Clay- 
bank-Gray-Wolf  conspiracy,  and  that  he  proposed 
to  baffle  it.  He  must  have  measured  the  forces  of  the 
members  of  the  syndicate  and  be  advised  as  to  the 
amount  of  money  necessary  to  meet  them.  Possibly 
he  had  found  a  way  to  unlock  the  federal  treasury,  or 
had  from  some  source  obtained  the  necessary  millions. 
Certainly  he  had  obtained  them  or  he  would  never 
have  thus  challenged  the  magnates  of  Wall  Street  to 
combat.  Clearly,  the  panic  was  at  an  end,  the  man 
from  Arizona  was  about  to  lead  them  out  of  the  wil- 
derness. 

And  they  shouted,  and  roared,  and  cried,  and 
hugged  each  other,  and  mashed  each  others'  hats,  and 
marched  up  and  down  and  around  the  floor,  and 
joined  hands  and  danced  around  Morning,  and  disre- 
garded all  calls  to  order,  and  were  finally  quieted  only 
when  Morning,  escorted  by  the  President  of  the  Stock 
Exchange,  ascended  the  stand. 

The  President,  as  soon  as  silence  was  secured, 
said:  — 

' '  Gentlemen,  it  seems  to  be  the  general  wish  that 
the  regular  call  shall  be  temporarily  suspended,  and 
that  we  shall  hear  from  Mr.  David  Morning. ' ' 

That  gentleman,  after  the  roar  of  greeting  had  sub- 
sided, said: — 

"Gentlemen:  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  in 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  245 

believing  that  the  prices  of  securities  listed  on  this 
exchange  have,  during  the  past  week,  ruled  altogether 
too  low.  I  propose  to  put  an  end  to  this  condition  of 
things,  which  ought  never  to  have  been  brought  about, 
and  I  have  authorized  my  brokers  here  to  offer,  during 
to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  for  the  rest  of  this  week, 
to  purchase,  to  the  extent  of  $700,000,000,  any  and 
all  railroad  stocks  listed  on  this  Exchange,  at  the 
prices  which  ruled  at  the  close  of  the  board  on  Satur- 
day week,  before  the  panic  began." 

A  great  cheer  went  up  from  the  throats  of  the 
multitude,  and,  after  it  subsided,  Isaiah  Wolf,  livid 
with  rage  and  excitement,  arose  and  exclaimed: — 

' '  Does  this  lunatic  then  expect  to  make  fools  of  us 
all?  Is  it  to  be  beliefed  dot  this  crazy  man  has  got 
seven  huntret  millions  of  tollars  in  cash  to  buy  stocks 
mit?  His  golt  mine  has  turned  his  prain.  It  vos 
better  dot  we  don't  all  pe  too  fresh  apout  this  pizness." 
Morning  quietly  continued: — 

"Anticipating  that  my  purchases  of  stock  might 
possibly  be  large  to-day  and  during  the  week,  I  have 
made  arrangements  to  dispense  with  the  customary 
methods,  and  so  will  avoid  the  usual  delays  in  receiv- 
ing and  paying  for  stock.  I  have  quadrupled  my 
usual  force  of  clerks,  and  my  offices  on  Broadway  will 
be  open  every  day  this  week  from  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  nine  o'clock  at  night.  No  checks, 
certified  or  otherwise,  will  be  issued  by  me,  but  the 
stocks  bought  by  my  brokers  will  be  paid  for  on 
delivery  at  my  offices  at  any  time  during  the  hours 
named,  and  paid  for  in  treasury  and  national  bank 
notes." 


246  BETTER.   DAYS. 

' '  Where, ' '  roared  Wolf,  ' '  did.  you  get  such  a  sum 
of  money  as  seven  huntret  millions  of  tollars?  You 
are  either  a  liar,  a  lunatic,  or  a  counterfeiter. ' ' 

"Two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of  the  money 
which  I  hold,"  replied  Morning,  "was  deposited  by 
you  and  your  colleagues  in  the  conspiracy,  as  security 
for  the  return  of  stocks  which  I  bought  of  you,  and 
then  loaned  to  you  to  sell  to  me  again  and  again. 
Under  the  rules  of  the  stock  board  these  $200,000,000 
will  be  forfeited  to  me  unless  you  restore  the  borrowed 
stocks  on  the  usual  notice.  The  notices  will  be  served 
on  you  to-day,  and  when  you  begin  to  buy  in  to  cover 
your  shorts,  you  will  be  compelled  to  pay  full  value. 
I  think  I  can  count  upon  your  $200,000,000  to  aid  in 
paying  for  to-day's  purchases,  Mr.  Wolf."  And,  amid 
continued  cheers  and  laughter,  Morning  descended 
from  the  caller's  stand,  and  started  for  his  seat. 

Claybank  and  Gray  had  left  the  hall,  but  Wolf 
remained,  and  as  Morning  passed  along  the  aisle,  the 
Jew,  with  face  white  and  twitching,  and  with  foam  on 
his  mustache,  stepped  out  and  confronted  him. 

"You  have  made  a  beggar  of  me,"  said  he  with  a 
curse,  "but  I  will  have  your  heart's  blood  for  this," 
and  he  reached  for  Morning's  throat. 

But  the  man  from  Arizona  stepped  backward  and 
then  forward,  and  at  the  same  moment  his  right  arm 
went  swiftly  forth  from  his  shoulder. 

"Smack!  smack!  smack!"  and  the  nose  of  Wolf 
was  spread  over  his  face,  and  the  crazed  man  was 
hustled  and  hurried  by  the  crowd,  and  greeted  with 
oaths  and  blows  as  he  went,  until,  with  torn  clothing 
and  battered  face,  he  was  literally  kicked  into  the 
street. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

'These  are  things  which  might  be  done." 

[From  the  New  York  Times,  November  20,  1895.  ] 

FINANCIAL. 

Holders  of  stock  and  bonds  in  the  Atchison,  To- 
peka,  and  Santa  Fe,  Denver  and  Gulf,  Kansas  City 
and  Chicago,  Lakeshore  and  Michigan  Southern, 
New  York  and  Erie,  and  New  York  and  New  En- 
gland Railroads,  who  desire  to  dispose  of  their  hold- 
ings, will  find  a  purchaser  in  me  at  the  rates  prevailing 
at  the  close  of  the  Stock  Exchange  yesterday.  I 
already  own  a  majority  of  the  capital  stock  of  the 
roads  named,  and  intend  to  consolidate  them  in  one 
company  without  any  bonded  indebtedness,  with  the 
intention  of  providing  the  public  with  a  double-track 
road  between  Portland,  Maine,  and  San  Francisco, 
California,  via  Boston,  New  York,  Buffalo,  Detroit, 
Chicago,  Kansas  City,  and  Denver,  with  a  branch  to 
Galveston.  This  consolidated  road  will  not  be  run 
with  a  view  to  profit  beyond  four  or  five  per  cent  per 
annum  above  operating  expenses.  In  making  this 
experiment  I  deem  it  only  right  to  relieve  the  present 
holders  of  stock  and  bonds  from  loss,  and  this  offer  of 
purchase  will  remain  open  for  one  month. 

David  Morning, 
39  Broadway,  N.    Y.  City. 

2  sg.  1  m.,  November  19. 

We. copy  from  our  advertising  column  the  forego- 
ing, which  presages  the  most  important  event  of  the 

(247) 


248  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

century.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  wisdom 
of  Mr.  Morning's  plans  in  any  direction,  there  can  now 
be  no  question  as  to  his  ability  to  carry  them  for- 
ward. The  brilliant  strategetical  movement  by  which 
he  bagged  two  hundred  millions  of  piratical  money 
from  Gray,  Claybank,  and  Wolf,  and,  while  defeating 
them,  restored  values  and  prosperity,  is  still  fresh  in 
the  public  mind,  and  his  subsequent  course  in  search- 
ing out  all  other  persons  who  lost  by  the  panic,  and 
reimbursing  them  the  amount  of  their  losses,  will  not 
soon  be  forgotten. 

The  brave  and  sagacious  action  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  in  going  outside  of  the  channels  marked 
by  red  tape  in  order  to  promote  Mr.  Morning'-s  plans, 
is  generally  commended  by  the  public,  and  meets 
with  no  criticism  except  from  the  baffled  syndicate  of 
scoundrels. 

Whatever  action,  if  any,  Congress  may  take  next 
month  when  it  assembles  with  regard  to  the  demoneti- 
zation of  gold,  and  whatever  may  be  the  course  pur- 
sued by  the  German  Reichstag,  the  French  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  and  the  British  Parliament,  all  of  which 
are  now  wrestling  with  the  great  economic  problem 
which  the  vast  gold  yield  of  the  Morning  mine  pre- 
sents, yet  one  thing  is  certain,  David  Morning  has 
quietly  and  shrewdly  placed  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred millions  of  gold  in  the  mints  and  treasuries  of 
Europe  and  America,  and  obtained  therefor  money, 
the  legal  tender  quality  and  value  of  which,  no  future 
legislation  can  impair. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  world  that  this  vast  sum  is  in 
the  hands  of  a  man  who  seems  to  comprehend  the  na- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  249 

ture  of  the  problems  which  its  existence,  its  introduc- 
tion to  circulation,  and  its  subsequent  use,  will  create, 
and  who  also  seems  disposed  to  treat  his  great  treasure- 
trove  as  a  public  trust  rather  than  a  personal  possession. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  some  statesmen  who  have, 
without  much  reflection,  been  characterized  as  vision- 
ary, urged  vainly  for  years  upon  the  public  attention 
the  wisdom  and  feasibility  of  creating  vast  sums  of 
fiat  money,  which  were  to  be  loaned  upon  land  and 
crop  values.  It  will  not  escape  notice  that  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  might,  at  any  time  within 
the  past  few  years,  by  passing  a  land  and  property 
loan  law,  have  created  the  same  conditions,  whether 
they  prove  to  be  conditions  of  prosperity  or  disaster, 
which  are  now  upon  the  world  by  reason  of  Mr. 
Morning's  gold  discovery.  But  it  is  not  our  purpose 
to  attempt  discussion  of  the  situation  generally.  We 
intend  only  to  give  to  the  public  a  reliable  account  of 
the  railroad  projects  of  Mr.  Morning.  On  reading 
his  advertisement,  we  dispatched  a  reporter,  who  found 
brim,  as  usual,  frank  and  communicative.  No  com- 
ment of  ours  would  add  force  or  importance  to  the 
utterances  of  the  Arizona  Gold  King,  and  we  will  let 
him  tell  his  story  in  his  own  way. 

"My  plan,"  said  Morning,  "is  not  complicated, 
and  not  original  with  me.  I  only  supply  the  means 
to  try  an  experiment  which  it  has  often  been  suggested 
should  be  tried  by  the  United  States  Government. 
If  successful  it  will  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the 
people  of  this  country.  It  will  require  not  more  than 
$250,000,000  to  carry  it  out,  and  its  failure  would  not 
involve  a  loss  of  more  than  $50,000,000. 


250  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"I  marvel,"  continued  the  gentleman,  "that  pub- 
lic opinion  did  not  years  ago  act  upon  Congress  so  as 
to  cause  it  to  deal  with  the  transportation  question  in 
the  interest  of  the  people.  I  marvel  that  some  of  our 
great  capitalists  have  not  joined  efforts,  and  devoted 
a  portion  of  their  possessions  to  providing  the  people 
with  cheap  transportation.  Suppose  that  a  dozen  of 
them  should  have  together  made  a  pool  of  $200,000,- 
000,  and  undertaken  a  work — not  of  charity,  but  of 
helping  the  toilers  to  help  themselves.  It  would  not 
have  taken  one-third  of  their  possessions;  it  would 
have  deprived  neither  them  nor  their  children  of  a 
single  luxury,  and  yet  it  would  have  allayed  the  dis- 
quiet and  antagonism  of  multitudes,  and,  more  than 
bronzes  or  marble  shafts,  it  would  have  linked  their 
names  to  immortality." 

"Will  not  Messrs.  Gray,  Claybank,  and  Wolf  have 
supplied  the  funds  for  your  experiment?"  queried 
the  reporter. 

Morning  laughed  as  he  answered:  ' '  Well,  in  a  way, 
yes;  and  if  I  had  not  already  devoted  their  contribu- 
tions to  founding  and  maintaining  industrial  schools, 
there  would  be  a  sort  of  poetical  justice  in  making 
such  application  of  that  fund." 

' '  Will  you  give  me,  for  the  Times,  the  details  of 
your  plans,  Mr.  Morning?  " 

"Certainly,"  replied  that  gentlemen.  "I  have 
nothing  to  conceal.  The  railroad  lines  of  this  country, 
especially  the  transcontinental  lines,  were  built  when 
material  and  labor  were  much  higher  .than  now,  and 
some  of  them  when  gold  was  at  a  high  premium. 
Stock  and  bonds  of  many  roads  have  been  watered, 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  251 

and  in  paying  present  market  prices  for  them  I  shall 
probably  pay  much  more  than  the  sum  for  which  the 
roads  could  be  duplicated  if  constructed  honestly  and 
economically  at  present  cost  of  labor  and  materials, 
and  allowing  nothing  for  subsidies,  bounties,  steal- 
ings, and  profits  of  speculators,  contractors,  and  leg- 
islators. But  it  would  not,  I  think,  be  right  to  punish 
present  holders  of  stocks  and  bonds  for  the  sins  of 
their  predecessors  in  interest,  and  I  therefore  propose 
to  pay  the  present  inflated  value  of  these  securities. 
I  shall  not,  however,  attempt  to  make  the  reorgan- 
ized road  carry  the  burden  of  paying  interest  and 
dividends  upon  the  sums  which  I  shall  pay." 

"What  do  you  estimate  to  be  the  present  market 
value  of  the  roads  you  propose  to  purchase,  Mr. 
Morning?" 

"At  present  market  rates,  and  I  shall  pay  no  more, 
the  total  amount  that  will  be  required  to  buy  in  both 
stocks  and  bonds,  will  be,  in  round  numbers,  $150,- 
000,000.  I  am  advised  by  experts  that  the  cost  of 
widening  roadbed  and  bridges,  and  laying  additional 
iron,  so  as  to  make  four  tracks  from  New  York  to 
Kansas  City,  and  a  double  track  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  Pacific,  will,  with  the  necessary  buildings 
and  shops,  be  about  $70,000,000." 

"Then  the  proposed  line,  when  completed,  will 
have  cost  you  about  $220,000,000?" 

"Exactly,  less  the  sum  which  may  be  received 
for  rolling  stock,  which  I  propose  to  sell.  But  I  am 
informed  by  my  engineers  that  a  similar  line  might 
be  built  now  for  $150,000,000,  and  I  therefore  take 
$150,000,000  as  the  actual  value  of  the  roadbed,  sta- 


252  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

tion  buildings,  and  shops  for  repairs,  and  I  estimate 
traffic  charges  upon  that  basis." 

"Why  do  you  sell  the  rolling  stock?  How  can 
a  road  be  used  without  locomotives  or  cars?" 

"I  propose  that  the  company  I  will  cause  to  be 
organized  shall,  except  in  certain  contingencies,  run 
no  trains  whatever  on  the  road  except  repair  trains. 
The  roadbed  will  be  open  at  uniform  tolls  to  any 
person,  firm,  or  corporation  who  may  wish  to  run 
trains  upon  it.  The  tolls  will  be  fixed  upon  such  a 
basis  as  will  provide  means  sufficient  to  keep  the  road- 
bed up  to  the  highest  standard,  and  pay  five  per  cent 
per  annum  upon  the  actual  value  of  the  road,  which, 
in  the  first  instance,  will  be  fixed  at  $150,000,000." 

"Will  not  the  value  of  the  road  advance,  Mr. 
Morning?  " 

"I  expect  so,"  was  the  reply-  "All  values  will  ad- 
vance with  the  increase  of  standard  money,  caused  by 
the  yield  of  the  Morning  mine,  and  there  will  be  a  re- 
valuation of  the  roadbed  each  year,  by  disinterested 
and  competent  engineers.  If  the  amount  received  for 
tolls  in  any  one  year  shall  exceed  the  sum  of  five  per 
cent  on  the  valuation  of  the  previous  year,  the  tolls 
will  be  reduced  for  the  next  year.  If  it  shall  fall  short 
of  that  sum,  the  tolls  will  be  increased  for  the  next 
year. ' ' 

"Will  not  the  ownership  of  the  roadbed  by  one 
company,  and  the  ownership  and  management  of 
rolling  stock  by  a  dozen  or  a  hundred  other  com- 
panies, be  productive  of  confusion  and  accidents?" 

"Not  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  accidents  will  be  al- 
most impossible.     Switches  and  side  tracks,  capable 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  253 

of  accommodating  from  one  to  a  dozen  trains  or 
more,  will  be  provided  every  five  miles,  with  build- 
ings for  receiving  freight  and  passengers,  at  every 
station.  Between  Boston  and  Kansas  City  two  tracks 
will  be  devoted  to  passenger  trains  and  two  to  freight 
trains,  and  a  uniform  rate  of  speed  be  established, 
of  thirty-five  miles  per  hour,  including  stoppages  on 
the  main  track,  for  passenger  trains,  and  fifteen  miles 
an  hour  for  freight  trains.  Between  Kansas  City  and 
San  Francisco,  so  long  as  there  shall  be  only  one 
double  track,  on  which  both  freight  and  passenger 
trains  must  run,  a  uniform  rate  of  speed  of  twenty 
miles  an  hour  for  both  freight  and  passenger  trains 
will  be  established,  except  on  mountain  grades,  where 
the  speed  must  be  lessened.  There  will  be  an  inter- 
val of  not  less  than  fifteen  minutes  between  trains  east 
of  the  Missouri,  and  half  an  hour  west  of  it,  and  when- 
ever a  train  leaves  or  passes  by  a  station,  its  passage 
over  the  rails  at  that  station  will,  through  an  electric 
wire,  be  made  to  ring  a  bell,  set  a  signal,  and  close  a 
switch  at  the  next  station  behind  it,  and  no  train  will 
be  allowed  to  leave  or  pass  by  a  station  until  a  signal 
shall  be  received  that  the  preceding  train  has  passed 
by  the  station  ahead." 

"Suppose  a  train  conductor  or  engineer  should 
proceed  without  receiving  the  signal,  and  in  defiance 
of  orders  from  the  station  master?  " 

"His  train  would  be  automatically  shunted  oft" 
upon  a  side  track,  where  it  would  run  up  against 
elastic  buffers  of  rubber,  filled  with  air.  The  main 
track  would  not  be  clear  until  the  train  passed  the 
station  ahead.  Until  then  the  switch  leading  to  the 
side  track  would  be  open." 


254  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"And  how  would  that  switch  be  again  opened, 
after  being  closed?" 

' '  Automatically,  by  the  passage  of  the  train  over 
the  rails  ahead  of  it." 

"That  is  a  very  ingenious  and  original  idea,  Mr. 
Morning." 

"  Ingenious  and  simple,  but  it  is  not  my  own.  A 
similar  contrivance  was  in  use  on  the  Italian  roads 
twenty  years  ago,  although  the  idea  was  suggested  to 
me  by  an  Arizona  rancher,  who  was  averse  to  having 
cattle  straying  in  his  alfalfa  fields,  through  which  sev- 
eral public  roads  ran.  In  order  to  avoid  the  cost  of 
fencing  the  roads,  he  put  up  automatic  gates.  The 
weight  of  the  horses  and  vehicle  upon  a  platform  a 
few  yards  from  the  gate,  on  either  side,  operated  upon 
a  lever,  and  swung  open  the  gate,  which  was  released 
automatically  by  the  passage  of  the  wagon,  and  so 
swung  shut." 

"You  seem,  by  these  arrangements,  to  have  se- 
cured the  safety  of  passengers  and  train  hands,  but 
how  about  the  speed?  Will  the  traveling  public  be 
content  with  twenty  miles  an  hour  between  Kansas 
City  and  San  Francisco?" 

"I  do  not  know.  If  they  shall  not  be,  still  the 
speed  would  be  satisfactory  to  the  freighters.  My 
own  belief  is  that  the  greater  safety  and  lower  rates 
of  passage  that  will  prevail  on  this  road  will  attract 
to  it  a  large  share  of  the  passenger  traffic.  Those 
who  are  in  haste  can  travel  over  one  of  the  other 
lines. " 

"Your  object  seems  to  be  to  give  to  the  public 
cheaper  railroad  service." 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  255 

"It  is  partly  that  and  partly  to  give  the  railroad 
employes  better  pay  and  greater  regularity  and  per- 
manency of  employment.  I  will  try  to  divide  the 
benefits  equitably." 

"Will  not  those  who  run  trains  upon  your  road 
defeat  your  object  by  combinations  among  themselves, 
to  put  up  the  price  of  freight  and  passage,  and  put 
down  the  wages  of  railroad  hands  ? ' ' 

"  It  will  be  practicable,  I  think,  to  guard  against 
both  these  things.  If  the  Brotherhoods  of  Locomo- 
tive Firemen,  and  Locomotive  Engineers,  and  Train 
Hands,  will  establish  and  maintain  reasonable  rates  of 
compensation  and  hours  of  labor,  and  will  enable  all 
qualified  workers  to  become  members  at  will,  then  the 
directors  of  the  company  owning  the  roadbed  will 
only  allow  its  use  to  trains  managed  by  Brotherhood 
members.  If  persons  or  companies  owning  rolling 
stock  shall  advance  freight  or  passenger  rates  beyond 
maximum,  or  reduce  them  below  minimum,  rates,  fixed 
by  the  directors  of  the  Railway  Company,  they  will 
lose  their  right  to  run  trains,  and  if  a  combination 
should  be  made  to  diminish  facilities  to  shippers  or 
travelers,  then  the  Roadbed  Company  will  itself  place 
a  freight  and  passenger  service  on  the  track." 

"Will  you  expect  to  personally  superintend  this 
great  work,  Mr.  Morning  ? ' ' 

"No,  I  must  leave  it  to  others.  .Once  it  shall  be 
well  started  I  have  other  projects  which  will  require 
my  attention." 

"Who  will  run  it,  Mr.  Morning?" 

"The  Board  of  Directors  will,  in  the  first  instance, 
consist  of  the  governor  of  each  State  through  which 


256  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  roadbed  shall  be  constructed,  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia. To  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  governors  will  be 
added  thirty  experienced  railway  managers,  who  will 
be  selected  by  me.  Each  governor  will  serve  as 
director  only  during  his  term  as  governor,  and  will  be 
succeeded  as  director  by  his  official  successor  as 
governor.  The  thirty  directors  appointed  by  me  will 
receive  liberal  salaries,  will  not  be  permitted  to  be 
interested  in  any  other  railroad,  and  will  serve  until 
they  resign,  or  die,  or  are  removed  for  cause  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote  of  the  other  directors.  Vacancies  thus 
occurring  will  be  filled  by  a  similar  vote.  Subject  to 
the  principles  of  management  I  have  endeavored  to 
outline,  the  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  company  will 
be  with  the  Board  of  Directors." 

"Will  not  the  vast  sums  of  money  which  the  yield  of 
the  Morning  mine  must  add  to  the  standard  currency 
of  the  world  so  inflate  values  as  to  make  difficult  any 
equitable  adjustment  of  freight  or  passenger  rates,  or 
of  the  wages  of  railroad  workers  ? ' ' 

"Freight  and  passenger  rates,  and  wages,  will 
necessarily  advance  with  the  increase  of  all  values. 
It  will  be  like  the  tide  at  the  Dardanelles,  which  never 
ebbs.  No  man  who  has  any  knowledge,  or  exercises 
any  care,  need  be  overwhelmed  or  hurt  by  it,  and  all 
men  who  try  can  guide  their  barks  to  prosperity  upon 
its  swell." 

' '  Would  you  consider  it  really  a  healthful  state  of 
affairs  if,  by  an  inflated  currency,  prices  were  so 
increased  that  a  dinner  which  one  can  now  buy  for 
fifty  cents  should  cost  $5.00,  and  a  $20  coat  sell  for 
$200  ? ' ' 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF  TO-MORROW.  257 

"Why  not  if  prices  were  similarly  advanced  over 
all  the  world?  People  indulge  in  a  good  deal  of  loose 
talk  about  inflated  currency,  debased  currency,  and 
fiat  money.  In  truth,  all  money  is  fiat  money,  for  a 
bar  of  gold  is  not  a  legal  tender,  and  inflation  of 
values  is  the  law  of  commercial  growth.  In  the  mid- 
dle ages  a  penny  was  the  price  of  a  day's  wages  or 
of  a  bushel  of  wheat.  Money  which  has  for  its  basis 
either  precious  metals  or  substantial  property  in  lands 
or  merchandise  is  good  money,  while  money  lacking 
such  basis  is  bad  money.  Clipped  shillings,  French 
assignats,  and  Continental  and  Confederate  currency, 
were  no  more  fiat  money  than  are  American  double 
eagles  or  five-pound  Bank  of  England  notes.  It  is 
the  stamp  of  the  government,  the  fiat  of  its  power, 
that  turns  the  metal  or  the  paper  into  money." 

"But  do  not  all  financiers  consider  inflation  a 
disaster,  Mr.  Morning?" 

"Inflation,"  replied  the  gentleman,  "whether  of 
metallic  or  paper  currency  that  is  accepted  by  the 
world  or  by  a  great  commercial  nation  as  a  legal  tender, 
can  do  no  harm  except  to  those  who  loan  money.  A 
dollar  is  a  mere  term.  You  pay  now  five  dimes,  or 
fifty  cents,  or  five  hundred  mills,  for  your  dinner. 
Suppose  by  large  continued  increase  in  the  production 
of  gold  and  silver,  the  money  of  all  countries  shall 
be  inflated  so  that  you  must  pay  fifty  dollars  instead 
of  fifty  cents,  or  five  hundred  dimes  in  place  of  five 
hundred  mills,  for  your  dinner.  What  of  it  ?  You 
could  carry  as  much  paper  money  as  now.  It  would 
need  only  to  increase  the  denomination  of  the  bills. 
All  property  and  services  would  advance  proportion- 
17 


258  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

ately.  Only  the  loaners  of  money  would  be  left,  and 
they  would  soon  find  it  to  their  interest  to  put  their 
money  into  property,  which  would  necessarily  advance 
in  value,  rather  than  in  loans,  which  would,  in  their 
relation  to  property,  necessarily  decrease  in  value. 
Under  such  conditions  interest  would  not  compensate 
the  money  owner  for  the  depreciation  of  his  principal, 
and  the  loaning  of  money,  except  for  brief  periods, 
would  cease,  while  property  of  all  kinds  would  always 
be  saleable  for  cash,  because  always  sure  to  increase 
in  value,  while  idle  money  would  not  so  increase. ' ' 

' '  What  will  be  the  effect  of  your  project  on  the 
other  railroads,  Mr.  Morning?" 

"My  hope  and  expectation  is  that  the  successful 
working  of  my  project  will  induce  large  aggregations 
of  capital  to  acquire  and  conduct  all  the  railroads  in 
the  country  under  one  management,  which  should 
itself  be  under  the  direction  and  control  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  Four  thousand  millions  of  dollars 
would  purchase  and  free  from  bonded  indebtedness 
all  the  interstate  railroad  and  telegraph  lines  in  the 
United  States,  and  $1,000,000,000  more  would  improve 
such  property  to  the  highest  point  of  efficiency.  A 
company  with  a  capital  of  $5,000,000,000,  having  no 
bonded  debt  and  economically  and  honestly  managed, 
could  pay  dividends  of  five  per  cent  per  annum  on 
its  stock,  which  stock  might  be  increased  in  amount 
as  other  values  increased.  Present  railroad  bond- 
holders would  be  transformed  into  railroad  stockhold- 
ers, and  the  stock  of  the  United  States  Consolidated 
Railroad  Company,  guaranteed  by  the  United  States 
Government  to  pay  five  per  cent  per  annum,  and  so 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  259 

conducted  as  to  earn  that  dividend,  above  cost  of  re- 
pairs and  construction  of  new  lines,  would  be  a  favorite 
investment.  Such  stock  might  be  made  the  basis  of 
currency  issued  thereon  to  national  banks.  It  could 
be  held  by  benevolent  and  educational  institutions, 
and  trust  funds  could  be  invested  in  it.  It  would  take 
the  place  of  the  present  United  States  bonds  as  a  lazy 
fund,  and  it  would  not  be  a  lazy  fund,  for  it  would  be 
an  investment  in  earning  property.  It  would  substi- 
tute the  earned  increment  of  labor  for  the  unearned 
increment  of  interest.  Interest  on  money  at  best 
belongs  to  conditions  which  are  passing  away.  It 
is  an  attribute  of  a  former  civilization,  and  I  predict 
that  during  the  next  century  it  will  come  to  an  end 
altogether." 

"How  would  the  United  States  Consolidated  Rail- 
road Company  affect  railway  patrons  and  railroad 
employes  ? ' ' 

"By  adjusting  freight  and  passenger  charges,  and 
wages  of  employes,  so  as  to  produce  an  income  of 
five  per  cent  on  the  investment,  and  by  discontinuing 
non-paying  lines,  building  new  ones,  and  developing 
profitable  connections — in  brief,  by  running  all  the 
railroads  in  the  land  as  one  company  under  one  man- 
agement, in  such  manner  as  to  produce  from  earnings 
a  net  income  of  five  per  cent,  on  a  capitalization  of 
all  existing  stocks  and  bonds  at  their  market  value 
to-day — the  prices  of  freight  and  passage  would  be 
reduced,  and  the  wages  of  railroad  workers  increased." 

"I  think,"  continued  the  Arizona  Gold  King, 
"that  the  entire  system  should  be  under  government 
supervision,  or  even  under  government  direction,  and, 


260  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

depend  upon  it,  nobody  would  be  harmed,  except 
about  forty  thousand  people,  who  now  own  sixty  per 
cent  of  all  the  real  property  in  America,  and  even  the 
damage  to  them  would  be  slight,  for  they  could  pur- 
chase stock  in  the  Consolidated  Company,  and  learn 
to  be  satisfied  with  five  per  cent  and  no  stealings." 

"You  spoke  of  a  provision  being  made  in  your 
company  for  the  future  of  railroad  employes.  How 
would  that  be  done  ?  " 

"In  the  company  which  I  propose  each  employe, 
will  be  required  to  agree  that  not  less  than  fifteen  per 
cent  of  his  wages  shall  be  withheld  from  him  and  an- 
nually invested  in  the  stock  of  the  company,  which 
stock  shall  be  non-transferable.  It  will  be  delivered 
with  its  dividends,  likewise  invested,  at  his  death  to 
whomsoever  he  may  designate,  or,  if  he  live  to  the  age 
of  sixty,  it  will  be  paid  to  him." 

"  Do  you  think  that  the  worker  needs  this  sort  of 
compulsory  guardianship,  Mr.  Morning?" 

' '  I  certainly  do.  For  one  of  them  who  lays  up  for 
a  rainy  day,  nine  are  possessed  by  the  very  genius  of 
unthrift.  I  have  known  miners  to  work  for  months, 
and  mining  is  the  hardest  work  in  the  world,  and  then 
draw  their  wages  and  expend  hundreds  of  dollars  in 
one  spree.  Where  the  worker  uses  liquor — as  most 
of  them  do — he  lives  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  even 
among  the  temperate,  it  will  be  the  rare  exception  to 
find  one  who  has  enough  savings  to  support  his  family 
for  six  months." 

"Is  it  only  the  workers  who  are  imprudent,  Mr. 
Morning?  " 

"No,  the  habit  of  careless  unthrift  is  common  to  all 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  26l 

men.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  worker.  It  appears 
more  frequently  in  him  only  because  his  necessities 
are  more  urgent  and  apparent,  and,  in  this  respect, 
he  lives  more  in  public.  But  extravagance  is  a  part 
of  the  original  savage  man,  the  leaven  which  has  sur- 
vived all  civilization.  I  have  known  lawyers,  and 
doctors,  and  divines,  and  journalists  who,  with  their 
families,  might  have  been  saved  from  embarrassment 
and  suffering  if  there  had  been  some  power  every 
month  to  seize  a  portion  of  their  earnings  or  income 
and  make  a  compulsory  investment  of  it  for  their  fu- 
ture benefit." 

"But,"  said  the  speaker,  "  to  return  to  my  subject. 
There  is  yet  another  advantage  to  be  considered.  If 
the  United  States  operated,  or  even  supervised,  all  the 
railroads,  it  would  not  be  difficult — by  requiring  each 
railroad  hand  to  report  for  drill  and  practice  one  day 
in  each  month — it  would  not  be  difficult  to  provide 
the  nucleus  and  material  for  a  great  army,  if  such 
should  ever  again  be  necessary." 

"  Will  the  time  ever  come  when  armies  can  be  dis- 
pensed with,  Mr.  Morning?  " 

"I  think  it  has  come.  I  am  about  to  have  made 
some  experiments  with  the  new  explosive  '  potentite,' 
which,  if  successful,  will,  I  think,  demonstrate  to  the 
world  that  hereafter  war  will  mean  simply  mutual  anni- 
hilation, and  that  in  conflict  there  will  be  small  odds 
between  the  weakest  and  the  most  powerful  of  nations. 
But  I  wander  into  the  domain  of  speculation,  and  you 
newspaper  men  require  only  facts." 

"Do  you  propose  any  reform  or  changes  in  the 
present  methods  of  railroad  management,  Mr.  Morn- 
ing ?  " 


262  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"Several." 

' '  For  instance  ?  ' ' 

' '  There  will  be  a  uniform  rate  per  mile  for  passage, 
all  tickets  will  be  transferable,  no  inducements  will  be 
offered  to  travelers  to  perpetrate  falsehood  and  forg- 
ery, and  freighters  will  not  be  required  to  expose  their 
business  secrets  to  the  officers  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  Mr.  Morning,  "  that  a  de- 
mand has  actually  been  made  upon  me  by  the  rail- 
road companies  for  freight  at  regular  express  gold 
bullion  rates  on  $2,500,000,000  worth  of  gold  bars 
which  they  carried  from  Arizona  to  the  East  disguised 
as  copper?  For  freight  on  the  supposed  copper  I 
paid  their  regular  rates  of  charges,  amounting  to 
about  $200,000.  They  say  that  if  I  had  shipped  it  as 
gold  their  charges  would  have  been  six  and  one-quar- 
ter millions,  and  they  claim  the  difference." 

"But  you  shipped  it  as  copper  at  your  own  risk, 
did  you  not,  Mr.  Morning?  " 

' '  Of  course  I  shipped  it  as  copper  at  my  own  risk, 
and  on  ten  bars,  worth  really  $400,000,  which  were 
lost  from  the  ferryboat  in  transporting  freight  dur- 
ing the  flood  at  Yuma,  I  collected  from  the  company 
only  their  supposed  copper  value  of  $320,  and  I  had 
no  end  of  trouble  and  delay  in  making  the  collection. 
But  they  assert  that  in  covering  the  gold  bars  with 
copper  sheaths,  I  worked  a  '  gold  brick  swindle '  on 
them,  and  they  want  the  difference." 

"Will  you  pay  the  $6,000,000  claimed,  Mr.  Morn- 
ing? " 

"Not  if  I  can  help  it,"   smiled  the  gentleman.      "  I 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF    TO-MORROW.  263 

have  other  uses  for  the  money.  I  have  in  view  sev- 
eral other  reforms  in  railroad  management.  Railroad 
employers  who,  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  are 
hurt  in  railroad  accidents  caused  by  the  negligence  of 
a  fellow  employe,  shall  have  the  same  right  of  recov- 
ery at  law  against  the  company  as  an  injured  passen- 
ger would  have.  Train  men,  in  stopping  at  country 
stations,  shall  consult  the  convenience  of  passengers 
rather  than  their  own,  and  shall  not  halt  the  baggage 
car  in  a  sheltered  spot,  while  they  compel  disembark- 
ing passengers  to  wade  through  the  mud.  Brass- 
mounted  conductors  shall  not  glower  at  question- 
asking  passengers,  and,  to  all  requests  for  information, 
answer  flippantly,  '  Damfino,'  and  small  dogs  shall  not 
be  torn  from  their  friends  and  suffered  to  wail  their 
strength  away  in  mute  despair  in  a  strange  and  com- 
fortless baggage  car,  without  bones  to  beguile  or 
friendly  faces  to  encourage  them;  but  every  reputable 
lapdog  who  pays  his  fare,  and  abides  noiseless  and 
contented  in  the  same  seat  with  his  mistress,  shall  be 
left  in  peace." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

"Their  country's  wealth,  our  mightier  misers  drain." 

It  was  a  bright,  warm  day  in  December,  1895, 
when  a  tall  man,  with  iron  gray  hair  surmounting  a 
wrinkled  and  careworn  face,  paused  for  a  moment 
before  the  plate-glass  front  of  the  Tenth  National 
Bank  of  Birmingham,  Alabama. 

Making  his  way  into  the  building,  he  walked  to  the 
cashier's  office  in  the  rear,  which  he  entered  without 
knocking.  A  short,  stout  gentleman  of  forty  years 
looked  up  from  the  desk  at  which  he  was  writing,  and 
inquired  of  the  stranger  who  it  was  that  he  wished  to 
see? 

"  I  kem  in,  suh,  to  see  the  Kashyea, "  was  the  reply. 

"I  am  the  cashier  of  this  bank,  sir.  What  can  I 
do  for  you  ?  ' ' 

"Well,  I  allowed  to  bowwow  some  money  foh  to 
stock  my  fahm  foh  a  cotton  crap,  and  to  cahy  me 
ovah  the  season,  suh,  and  I  heard  as  how  the  money 
might  be  had  heah." 

'  'Take  a  seat,  sir.     What  is  the  name?" 

"John  Turpin  is  my  name,  suh." 

"And  what  amount  do  you  wish  to  obtain,  Mr. 
Turpin  ? " 

"  I  reckon  about  $3,000  would  answer  the  puppus, 
suh. ' ' 

(264) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  265 

"Where  is  your  property,  Mr.  Turpin,  and  what 
does  it  consist  of?" 

''It  is  on  the  White  Creek,  in  Madison  County. 
There  are  foh  hundred  acres  of  cotton  land.  There 
is  a  house,  bahn,  and  outbuildings  in  faih  condition, 
suh,  but  I  don't  count  them  as  much,  in  a  money 
way. 

"What  do  you  estimate  to  be  the  value  of  the 
land?" 

' '  Befo  the  wah  it  sold  for  fohty  dollahs  an  acre. 
Land  went  very  low  aftahwuds,  but  the  land  has  not 
been  crapped,  and  of  late  yeahs,  business  has  picked 
up  mightily  in  old  Alabama,  and  it  ought  to  be  wuth 
as  much  now  as  it  ever  wor. ' ' 

"  How  long  have  you  been  farming  it  there  ?  " 

"Well,  not  at  all,  suh.  The  place  was  owned  by 
my  uncle,  and  he  jest  lived  there  since  the  wah,  and 
never  tried  to  make  a  crap.  He  was  Captain  of  Com- 
pany K  of  the  Ninety-third  Alabama.  He  was 
wounded  at  Chickamauga.  Both  of  his  sons  were 
killed  at  the  second  battle  of  the  Wilderness;  his  wife 
died  while  they  were  all  away,  and  when  he  kem  back 
he  seemed  to  lose  all  interest  like.  He  couldn't  abide 
free  niggahs  ever,  and  there  were  no  othahs,  and  foh 
twenty-seven  yeahs  he  jest  moped  around  the  old 
place,  raisin'  only  a  little  cohn,  and  a  few  hogs  and 
some  geyahden  truck.  Last  spring  he  died,  and  the 
place  has  fallen  to  me.  There  is  no  debt  on  it,  and 
it's  prime  cotton  land,  but  it  will  take  right  smaht 
of  money  to  clean  off  the  land  and  put  in  a  crap." 

"  Are  you  farming  elsewhere,  Mr.  Turpin  ?  " 

"No,  suh,  I  have  been  wuking for  several  yeahs  for 


266  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  Louisville  and  Nashville  Railroad  Company,  as 
their  station  agent  at  Coosa,  but  I  was  raised  on  a  cot- 
ton plantation,  and  I  know  all  about  the  wuk.  I 
have  two  likely  boys;  one  is  twenty  and  the  othah 
eighteen.  My  wife  is  a  wohkah,  and  so  is  our  daugh- 
tah.  We  all  want  to  go  on  the  old  plantation  and 
live  thar. ' ' 

"Will  $3,000  clear  the  land  and  stock  it?  " 
"Yes,  suh.      It  will  buy  us  mules  and  fahm  imple- 
ments, and  seed,  and  supply  us  with  provisions  and 
foddah,  and  pay  the  wages  of  such  niggahs  as  we  will 
hiah  to  help  us." 

"How  soon  could  you  repay  the  $3,000." 
"Well,  in  the  old  times  we  could  moh  than  pay  it 
with  one  crap,  but  thar  ain't  the  money  in  cotton  that 
thar  used  to    be.     Cotton  is  powerful  low,    I  do  al- 
low. 

' '  And  it  costs  more  to  raise  it  now  than  it  did  when 
you  had  slaves  to  work  for  vou,  does  it  not,  Mr.  Tur- 
pin?" 

"Well,  I  allow  that  don't  make  much  diffahence, 
suh.  I  can  hiah  niggahs  now  for  $16  a  month,  and 
they  find  their  own  keep,  while  befoh  the  wah  we  had 
to  pay  that  much  and  moah,  and  feed  them  beside. 
The  interest  on  the  value  of  a  good  niggah  then  was 
nigh  onto  as  much  as  we  pay  him  now  foh  wages. 
The  niggah  don't  get  much  moah  now  than  he  did 
when  he  was  in  slavery.  He  just  gets  his  keep  and  a 
few  clothes:  No,  suh,  I  can  raise  cotton  now  cheaper 
than  I  could  befoh  the  wah,  but  cotton  kain't  be  sold 
foh  no  such  prices.  Still,  thar  is  some  money  in  cot- 
ton, and  my  boys  and  I  can  pay  off  the  $3,000  with 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  267 

interest,  out  of  the  profits  on  the  craps,  in  three 
yeahs,  and  if  we  live  powerful  close  mebbe  we  can  do 
it  in  two  yeahs. ' ' 

' '  Why  do  you  not  get  the  money  vou  want  from 
the  bank  at  Huntsville  ?  ' ' 

"Well,  suh,  I  went  thar  before  I  kem  yeah,  and  the 
kashyea  thar  tole  me  that  they  wah  not  fixed  to  make 
"any  but  shote  loans.  He  said  as  how  they  wah  a 
nayshunal  bank,  and  couldn't  loan  money  on  land 
nohow,  and  he  advised  me  to  come  heah,  suh." 

' '  But  this  is  also  a  national  bank,  and  subject  to 
the  same  restriction,  Mr.  Turpin," 

"Yes,  suh,  I  know;  so  he  tole  me,  suh.  But  he 
said  as  how  you  wah  also  loan  agents  for  Northern 
capitalists,  who  had  money  to  invest  in  long  loans,  on 
good  security." 

"We  are  such  agents,  but  our  instructions  do  not 
permit  us  to  loan  on  anything  but  improved  city 
property.  Our  clients  do  not  like  to  put  their  money 
in  plantations." 

"But,  suh,  what  will  become  of  the  cities  if  the  peo- 
ple do  not  help  those  in  the  country?  My  place  is 
wuth  easily  foh  times  the  money  I  want  to  bowwow, 
and  every  dollah  of  the  money  bowwowed  will  go 
into  the  place." 

"It  does  look,  Mr.  Turpin,  as  if  money  ought  to 
be  had  for  such  purposes.  But  all  of  our  local  capi- 
talists have  their  money  tied  up  in  the  city,  and  out- 
siders won't  loan  on  farms." 

"Then  I  kain't  bowwow  the  money,  suh?  " 

"  I  am  afraid  not,  Mr.  Turpin.  You  might  try  else- 
where, but,  to  be  candid  with  you,  I  do  not  believe 
you  will  succeed." 


268  BETTER    DAYS,  OR 

"  Well,  suh,  then  I  will  have  to  go  back  to  my  wuk 
at  the  railroad  station,  and  let  the  land  lie  idle.  Why 
kain't  the  govuhment  loan  us  on  our  fahms  the  money- 
needed  to  cultivate  them?  'Pears  like  I  hearn  tell 
thar  was  a  man  out  in  Calafohnea  what  wanted  the 
govuhment  to  do  that  likes." 

' '  Yes, ' '  replied  the  cashier,  ' '  there  is  such  a  scheme, 
but  it  is  totally  impracticable.  Of  course  the  govern- 
ment cannot  embark  in  the  business  of  loaning  money 
on  landed  security." 

"But  ain't  the  govuhment  in  the  loanin'  business 
now,  suh?  Whar  do  you  get  the  circulatin'  notes  of 
youah  bank?  Don't  you  bowwow  them  of  the  gov- 
uhment, without  interest,  by  puttin'  up  United  States 
bonds  as  security? " 

"Oh,  that,  you  know,  is  quite  a  different  thing," 
answered  the  cashier,  smilingly. 

"  Whar's  the  difference  in  principle?"  persisted  the 
man  from  Coosa.  "  If  a  govuhment  bond  foh  $1,000 
air  good  secuhity  foh  $900,  what  is  the  reason  that  a 
piece  of  land  wuth  $1,000  kain't  be  good  secuhity  foh 
$500?" 

' '  The  bond, ' '  said  the  cashier,  ' '  could  always  be 
sold  at  par.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  find  a  purchaser  for 
land,  even  at  half  its  value;  it  might  be  worthless,  you 
know." 

"I  am  not  supposin',  suh,  that  the  govuhment 
would  loan  money  on  wuthless  land  any  moah  than 
on  counterfeit  bonds.  I'm  talkin'^about  sich  land  as 
ain't  wuthless,  and  kain't  evah  be  wuthless.  I'mtalkin1 
about  land  that  has  an  airnin'  capacity,  when  human 
labor  is  applied  to  it.     I  allow  that  sich  land,  when 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  269 

valooed  honestly,  and  not  countin'  any  buildings  or 
improvements,  or  anything  that  can  be  burned  up  or 
carried  away — I  allow  that  sich  land  is  just  as  good 
security  foh  a  loan  of  half  its  value,  as  any  govuh- 
ment  bond  is  security  foh  a  loan  of  nine-tenths  its 
valoo.  If  the  land  ain't  wuth  nothin',  I'd  like  to  know 
what  the  bond  is  wuth?  As  I  argefy,  all  the  valoo's 
on  the  yearth,  suh,  bonds  and  banks  and  govuhments 
theyselves  rest  upon  the  land  and  the  labah  that  tills 
it." 

' '  But  the  amount  of  national  bank  notes  that  can  be 
issued  on  government  bonds  is  limited  by  law,"  re- 
monstrated the  cashier. 

' '  Suppose  they  be.  Kain'  t  the  govuhment  limit  the 
amount  of  greenbacks  it  would  loan  on  the  fahms? 
Kain't  it  allotjest  so  much  to  each  State  or  to  each  county, 
or  to  each  numbah  of  folks?  I  don't  see  no  use  of  a 
limit  nohow.  Govuhment  don't  limit  the  bales  of  cot- 
ton or  bushels  of  cohn,  or  numbah  of  hogs  a  man  can 
raise,  noh  the  tons  of  ihon  he  shall  smelt,  noh  the 
numbah  of  days'  wuk  he  shall  do  in  a  yeah.  What 
foh  do  they  want  to  limit  the  numbah  of  dollahs  that 
shall  be  made?  Why  not  leave  that  to  be  settled  out- 
side of  papah  laws?  If  you  raise  cohn  for  which  there 
is  no  demand  you  kain't  sell  it,  and  if  you  print  dol- 
lahs for  which  there  is  no  demand  you  kain't  lend 
them.  A  dollah  ain't  got  no  nateral  valoo  nohow. 
Ye  kain't  eat  it,  noh  drink  it,  nohweah  it.  Ye  kain't 
sleep  on  it,  noh  ride  it,  noh  drive  it  around.  A  dol- 
lah is  just  a  yahdstick  foh  the  cloth,  a  scale  foh  the 
sugah,  a  quart  measure  foh  the  vinegah.  Suppose 
govuhment  went  to  limitin'  the  numbah  of  weighin' 


270  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

scales  and  yahdsticks  and  gallon  cans  thar  should  be 
in  the  land,  and  then  didn't  allow  enough  to  be  made 
foh  to  go  around! — A  nice  fix  the  country  stohs  would 
be  in  wouldn't  they?  You  city  folks  would  corral  all 
the  yahdsticks,  and  all  the  scales,  and  all  the  pint 
pots  that  the  govuhment  allowed  to  be  made.  You'd 
organize  measurin'  companies  and  bowwow  all  the 
scales  that  the  govuhment  made,  and  pay  nothin'  to 
the  govuhment  for  the  use  of  them;  and  then  you'd 
hiah  them  out  to  folks  at  a  big  rent,  and  make  the 
folks  as  hiad  them  leave  half  the  measures  on  deposit 
with  you,  and  you'd  hiah  that  half  again  to  other 
folks,  and  you'd  squeeze  the  people,  and  squeeze  'em, 
and  squeeze  'em,  until  you  turned  every  man  who 
wasn't  an  ownah  of  measurin'  tools  into  a  puffeck 
slave  to  them  as  was  ownahs.  That's  what  you  hev 
been  a  doin'  with  us  right  along.  I  mean  no  disre- 
speck  to  you,  suh,  puhsonally,  for  you  have  treated 
me  moh  politely  than  a  bankah  usually  treats  his  bow- 
wowin'  customahs;  but  you  bankahs  and  capitalists 
have  jest  been  a  monkeyin'  with  the  currency  until 
you  have  got  every  fahmah,  and  wukin'  man,  and 
stoahkeepah  in  the  country  tied  hand  and  foot,  with 
no  chance  to  wuk  at  all  unless  they  wuk  foh  you.  We 
have  been  a  lot  of  everlastin'  fools,  suh,  to  stand  it, 
and  we  aint  a  goin'  to  stand  it  much  longah." 

"What  will  you  do  about  it,  Mr.  Turpin  ?"  said  the 
cashier,  quietly,  but  with  a  shade  of  satire  in  his  tone. 

"I  allow,  suh,  that  we'll  tell  the  yawpers  who  run 
political  conventions  to  get  along  without  our  votes, 
and  we'll  elect  men  to  the  Legislatoor  and  to  Congress, 
and  mebbe  a  President,  who'll  take  their  ideahs  from 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  271 

the  fahmas  and  wukahs  of  the  Sooth  and  West,  and 
who  won't  go  to  Wall  Street  foh  ohdahs;  and  we'll 
give  all  the  old  questions  a  rest,  and  we'll  make  it  lone- 
some for  the  politicians  who  fight  us,  and  we'll  kind  o' 
resolute  that  so  long  as  this  govuhment  won't  let  any 
State  or  any  puhson  go  into  the  business  of  manufac- 
turing money  to  supply  the  necessary  wants  of  the  peo- 
ple, it  is  likely  that  the  govuhment  itself  ought  to  do 
it,  and  we'll  fix  it  so  that  no  man  who  is  willin'  to 
wuk  as  I  am,  and  knows  how  to  wuk  as  I  do,  and  has 
land  to  plow  as  I  have,  will  have  to  see  his  land  lie 
fallow,  and  his  boys  loafin'  around,  just  bekase  he 
kaint  bowwow  from  nobody,  even  at  ten  per  cent  a 
yeah,  one-fifth  of  the  valoo  of  his  land,  to  buy  a  few 
mules,  and  a  plow  or  two,  and  some  seed  cohn." 

"You  will  compel  the  government  to  go  into  the 
business  of  printing  and  loaning  all  the  money  that 
anybody  wants,  will  you?"  said  the  cashier. 

"Well,  suh,  I'm  no  bankah,  and  no  lawyah,  but  I 
take  it  that  it  is  the  business  of  govuhment  to  provide 
all  the  money  necessary  foh  the  use  of  the  people,  and 
if  the  govuhment  itself  won't  do  it,  then  let  it  untie 
the  cohds  it  has  put  around  States  and  people,  and 
suffah  them  to  do  it  foh  theyselves." 

"You  would  go  back  to  the  days  of  State  banks 
and  unlimited  currency,  Mr.  Turpin,  with  a  wild-cat 
bank  at  every  crossroads,  when  the  man  who  traveled 
never  knew  whether  the  bank  bill  he  got  in  change, 
when  purchasing  his  breakfast  in  Alabama,  would  buy 
him  a  supper  in  Tennessee,"  said  the  cashier. 

"Well,  suh,  I  remembah  those  days,  and  while  they 
may  not  have  been  so  agreeable  foh  those  that  trav- 


272  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

eled,  they  war  a  heap  better  foh  folks  as  stayed  at 
home.  A  wild-cat  bank  at  the  crossroads  on  White 
Creek,  that  would  let  me  have  $3,000  of  its  missuble 
money,  which  my  neighbors  would  take  in  exchange 
foh  mules,  and  the  stohkeepah  would  take  for  goods, 
so  that  I  could  put  in  a  crap  on  foh  hundred  akahs  of 
the  puttiest  cotton  land  in  Noth  Alabama,  would  be  a 
heap  bettah  foh  me  just  now,  suh,  than  a  national 
bank  with  a  plate-glass  front,  in  Buhmingham,  that 
won't  even  look  at  the  security  I  offah  foh  a  loan. 
Good-day,  suh." 

And  Mr.  John  Turpin,  of  White  Creek,  arose,  and, 
with  a  heavy  and  sorrowful  step,  walked  out  of  the 
Tenth  National  Bank  of  Birmingham,  Alabama,  and 
the  rotund  cashier  smiled  at  the  episode,  and  adjusted 
his  gold-rimmed  eyeglasses,  and  resumed  his  inter- 
rupted labors. 

Yet  relief  was  in  store  for  Mr.  John  Turpin,  for  on 
that  very  day  the  mail  from  New  York  to  Washing- 
ton carried  the  following  communication: — 

Offices  of  David  Morning,      ) 
39  Broadway,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  15,  1895.  j 
To  the  President  of  the  United  States — 

Sir:  Under  certain  conditions  I  will  donate  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  the  sum  of  $2,400,- 
000,000  in  gold  bars,  which  I  will  deliver  to  the 
treasury  department  at  the  rate  of  $100,000,000  per 
month,  during  the  ensuing  two  years. 

The  money  coined  from,  or  issued  upon,  these  gold 
bars,  shall  constitute  a  perpetual  fund,  to  be  loaned 
at  two  per  cent  per  annum  to  the  farmers  of  the  coun- 
try, the  fund  never  to  be  diminished  or  appropriated 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  273 

for  any  other  purpose,  although  the  interest  received 
from  it  may  be  used  to  aid  in  defraying  the  ordinary 
expenses  of  government. 

The  amounts  to  be  loaned  may  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  and  Territories,  according 
to  their  populations  as  given  by  the  last  census,  but 
the  loaning  must  proceed  from,  and  be  under  the 
control  of  a  department  of  the  Federal  government, 
to  be  created  by  Congress  for  that  purpose.  Loans 
may  be  made  payable  at  any  time,  at  the  option  of  the 
borrower,  and  may  remain  indefinitely,  so  long  as  the 
interest  is  paid,  and  must  be  secured  by  pledge  of  pro- 
ductive land. 

Not  more  than  one-half  the  actual  cash  value  of 
the  land,  without  estimating  improvements,  must  be 
loaned,  or  more  than  $10,000  to  any  one  borrower,  or 
more  than  $20  per  acre  in  any  case. 

The  celerity  with  which  Congress,  during  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion,  created  an  effective  system  of  rev- 
enue and  finance,  leads  me  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
will  be  equally  apt  in  the  creation  of  the  necessary 
legal  machinery  to  speedily  effectuate  a  permanent 
and  safe  system  for  making  loans  to  the  people.  I 
shall  trust  implicitly  to  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of 
Congress  to  carry  out  details  if  my  gift  is  accepted, 
as  I  think  I  may  assume  it  will  be,  and  I  shall  attempt 
no  interference  with  its  action,  even  by  suggestion, 
beyond  stating  the  conditions  upon  which  the  fund  of 
$2,400,000,000  will  be  provided. 

It  will,  possibly,  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  assign 
here  a  few  of  the  reasons  why  I  require  that  loans  be 
limited  to  the  owners  of  productive  land,  and  why  I 
18 


274  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

do  not  permit  dwellers  in  towns  and  cities,  and  those 
engaged  in  commerce  and  manufactures,  to  share  in 
the  opportunity  for  procuring  cheap  money. 

To  this  very  natural  inquiry  I  might  answer  that  I 
have  already  arranged  in  San  Francisco,  in  Chicago, 
and  in  New  York,  for  aiding  co-operative  labor  cor- 
porations to  procure,  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  the 
money  necessary  for  their  use;  that  I  design  extend- 
ing similar  aid  in  other  localities,  and  that  I  hear  of 
several  instances  of  other  gentlemen  conveying  large 
sums  in  trust  for  such  purposes. 

But  the  duty  of  aiding  the  farmers  to  cheap  money 
is  so  great,  and  so  pressing,  and  extends  to  so  many 
persons,  and  over  so  large  an  area,  that  any  concerted 
effort  in  such  direction  is  not  only  beyond  the  capac- 
ity of  individual  wealth  owners,  but  requires  the  ma- 
chinery and  power  of  government  for  its  adequate 
discharge. 

The  farmers,  of  all  men,  most  need  the  aid  of  capi- 
tal, and  of  all  men  they  find  it  most  difficult  to  se- 
cure such  aid.  For  years  before  the  accidental,  or, 
rather,  providential,  discovery  of  an  immense  deposit 
of  gold-bearing  quartz  in  the  Santa  Catalina  Mountains 
in  Arizona  enabled  me  to  attempt  alleviation  of  some 
of  the  evils  under  which  the  world  suffers,  I  had 
observed  that  even  when  the  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  land  were  in  a  fairly  prosper- 
ous condition,  the  farmers  did  not  share  in  the  gen- 
eral bounty,  and  I  observed  that  usually  the  produce 
of  the  farmers'  land  could  only  be  sold  at  such  low 
prices  as  left  them,  at  the  close  of  the  season,  a  little 
more  in  debt,  and  much  more  discouraged. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  275 

The  official  report  of  the  Illinois  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  for  1889  exhibited  the  distressing  fact 
that  the  corn  crop  of  that  State  for  that  year  actually- 
sold  for  $10,000,000  less  than  it  cost  to  produce  it, 
and  conditions  since  then  have  only  slightly  improved. 
Even  as  I  write,  there  are  thousands  of  families  all 
over  the  land,  not  merely  in  a  few  localities  where  the 
crops  have  failed,  but  on  the  virgin  prairies  of  Dakota, 
on  the  rich  soil  of  the  Mississippi  bottoms,  and  in  the 
fertile  valleys  of  Virginia,  who  are  in  distress,  not  be- 
cause they  have  been  idle  or  dissolute,  but  because 
their  last  crops  did  not  sell  for  enough  to  pay  the  cost 
of  their  production  and  transportation  to  market,  in- 
cluding interest  at  six,  eight,  and  ten  per  cent  per 
annum  on  the  value  of  the  land. 

Low  prices,  according  to  all  standard  writers  on 
political  economy,  are  the  direct  results  of  a  contract- 
ing currency,  and  a  consequent  increasing  scarcity  of 
money,  and  the  cost  of  production  is  not  only  greatly 
increased  by  inability  of  the  producer  to  obtain  money 
except  at  high  rates  of  interest,  but  the  terms  upon 
which  money  can  be  had  at  all  are  often  so  exact- 
ing as  to  discourage  permanent  improvement.  The 
farmer  will  not  cultivate  except  for  immediate  crops 
if  he  sees  no  hopeful  outlook  for  the  future,  and  not 
only  fears  but  expects  that  the  mortgage  he  has  given 
will,  in  the  end,  cause  his  home  to  be  transferred  to 
a  purchaser  at  sheriffs  sale. 

The  yield  of  the  Morning  mine  has  already  largely 
increased  the  volume  of  standard  money  all  over  the 
world,  and  this  may  do  much  toward  removing 
some  of  the   unfortunate  conditions  to  which   I  have 


276  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

referred;  but  such  yield  may  also  have  a  tendency 
to  discourage  the  loaning  of  money  on  long  loans,  for 
men  who  have  means  to  invest  may  prefer  to  place 
them  in  property,  the  value  of  which  must  advance 
with  the  increase  of  the  volume  of  money,  rather  than 
in  loans,  the  value  of  which  must  remain  stationary 
absolutely,  and  cannot  but  diminish  relatively. 

It  has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  my  purpose  to 
use  the  gold  produced  at  the  Morning  mine,  either  in 
the  purchase  of  existing  loans,  or  the  making  of  new 
loans,  so  that  whatever  of  loss  may  come  from  dim- 
inution of  the  purchasing  power  of  a  dollar  may  fall 
not  altogether  upon  those  who  have  loaned  money, 
but  in  part  upon  those  who  have  deliberately  or  acci- 
dentally caused  such  increase.  I  suggest  that  if  such 
increase  in  the  currency  be  caused  by  the  govern- 
ment, a  similar  moral  obligation  would  rest  upon  it. 

The  addition  of  $2,400,000,000  to  the  currency  of 
the  country  will  unquestionably  largely  increase  all 
values.  It  will  at  the  same  time  encourage — nay, 
almost  compel — capital  to  seek  investment  in  active 
industries  rather  than  in  dormant  funds.  For  the  pres- 
ent it  will  supply  those  who  can  use  money  to  advan- 
tage with  a  sure  and  convenient  method  of  obtaining 
it  at  a  cheap  rate  of  interest,  while  its  ultimate  tend- 
ency must  be  to  eliminate  interest  on  money  from  the 
world's  transactions,  and  bring  money  to  what  I  con- 
ceive to  be  its  true  function — a  measurer  of  values 
only. 

When  no  interest  can  be  obtained  for  the  use  of 
money,  then  money  will  cease  to  be  the  most  valuable 
and  become  the  least  valuable  form  of  property,  and 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  277 

the  investor  will  be  required  to  share  the  risk,  if  not 
the  labor,  of  producing  values,  instead  of  leaving  this 
to  others,  while  he  absorbs  the  profits  to  himself. 

I  believe  that  civilization  is  ready  for  this  forward 
step.  The  discovery  of  gold  enough  to  compel  it  may 
have  precipitated  the  movement,  but  the  movement 
would  have  come  all  the  same  if  the  Morning  mine 
had  never  been  discovered. 

There  is  not  a  single  benefit  which  the  donation  of 
twenty-four  hundred  millions  of  gold  will  confer  upon 
the  people  of  the  United  States  that  might  not  equally 
be  conferred  by  an  act  of  Congress  providing  for  the 
issuance  and  loaning  of  the  same  number  of  paper 
dollars,  not  based  upon  gold  at  all. 

The  credit  of  this  great  government  used  for  the 
purpose  of  accommodating  the  business,  increasing 
the  resources,  and  stimulating  the  industrial  activity  of 
this  great  people,  and,  supported  by  the  indestructible 
and  undepreciable  security  of  land,  would  be  quite  as 
solid  a  basis  for  twenty  hundred  millions  of  paper 
dollars  as  five  thousand  tons  of  yellow  metal. 
I  am,  Mr.  President,  your  obedient  servant, 

David  Morxixg. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

"The  product  of  ill-mated  marriages." 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Etdaw  to  Mrs.  Penes  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  November  i,  1895. 
Dearest  Mother:  What  an  insufferable  egotist 
I  must  appear  to  you.  A  life  made  up  of  local  col- 
oring— a  central  figure  with  no  accessories — a  record 
of  ways  and  means  unwisely,  perhaps,  submitted  to 
you,  since  they  may  only  pain  you.  Better  a  gray 
and  monotonous  sea,  without  sail  or  sound,  if  so  I 
could  spare  you  the  burden  of  apprehension  which 
every  anxious  mother  must  feel  for  a  destiny  she 
has  helped  to  direct.  Following  the  train  of  argu- 
ment, think  you  the  loving  Father  acquits  himself  of 
responsibility  when  a  helpless  soul  is  launched  for 
eternity?  Truly  no  !  and  this  conviction  sustains  my 
courage,  and  makes  me  unafraid  to  do  my  heart's 
bidding. 

It  has  been  an  observation  that  the  thing  we  most 
condemn  in  others,  we  shall  find  in  ourselves.  Many 
years  ago  I  conceived  a  prejudice  against  the  popular 
cry  concerning  the  wrongs  of  woman,  a  movement 
affirmatively  named  "woman's  rights,"  for  while  it 
undoubtedly  aided  some  women  in  obtaining  justice, 
its  aim  was  largely  the  gratification  of  some  hysteri- 
cal ambition  or  some  love  of  conspicuousness. 
(278) 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  279 

Thus  I  am  brought  to  question  if,  in  my  individual 
case,  I  am  not  exaggerating  evils  and  magnifying 
wrongs  by  placing  them  under  the  strong  light,  if 
not  of  worldly  criticism,  at  least  of  self-love  and  se- 
cret pride;  if,  instead  of  dealing  soberly  and  wisely 
with  flesh  and  blood,  I  am  not  following  an  ideal,  or 
whether  my  matrimonial  point  of  view  is  not  inter- 
rupted by  such  inappreciable  angles  as  seldom  vex 
the  eye  of  faith  and  perfect  love. 

All  these  questions,  and  many  more,  I  wish  to 
make  clear  to  my  own  conscience  and  your  mind, 
that  you  may  be  able  to  advise  me  when,  if  ever,  the 
time  shall  come  for  me  to  ask  your  loving  counsel. 

To  speak  more  personally,  I  conclude,  after  men- 
tally reviewing  the  characteristics  peculiar  to  my  hus- 
band, the  baron,  that  his  faults  are  less  of  malice 
than  of  temperament,  and  that  he  would  not  really 
sacrifice  any  actual  interest  of  his  wife,  not  even  her 
permanent  peace  of  mind,  any  more  than  I  would 
compromise  those  of  the  baron.  If  it  were  not  so,  I 
could  less  well  afford  the  many  hours  of  thought  I 
give  toward  the  fashioning  of  apologies  for  him,  lest 
in  my  own  mind  I  do  him  an  injustice. 

But,  so  believing,  I  must  take  many  things  on  trust, 
and,  after  all,  I  am  full  of  faults  myself,  no  doubt  of  it. 
You  know  it  is  a  popular  theory  over  here  that 
American  girls  must  be  broken  like  bronco  horses 
before  they  are  fit  for  wives,  and  I  must  say  that  my 
own  mouth  is  a  little  tender  to  the  foreign  bit  already. 

We  have  invitations  to  a  grand  ball,  although  I 
have  not  yet  seen  them.  Kindest  love  to  papa,  and  a 
heart  full  of  devotion  for  you,  as  always.     When  will 


28o  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

you  write  to  tell  me  you  are  coming  to  your  affec- 
tionate daughter  Ellen. 

From    Mrs.    Perces    Thornton   to   the   Baroness    Von 
Eulaw. 

Boston,  November  10,  1895. 

To  my  daughter,  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw. 

Dearly  Beloved  Child:  In  these  revolutionary 
times,  the  air  thick  with  maledictions  and  curses,  "the 
putrid  breath  of  poverty,  and  the  beetling  brow  of  la- 
bor," to  quote  the  press,  hot  with  greed  for  the 
ground  they  are  slowly  but  surely  losing — in  these 
times  I  say,  I  am  thankful  that  you,  my  child,  are 
resting  in  the  security  of  strong  and  wise  rule. 

There  seems  to  be  no  end  to  the  vindinctiveness 
of  the  common  people  here.  Your  father,  as  you 
are  aware,  is  president  of  the  new  Aerial  Navigation 
Company,  and,  although,  as  he  says,  his  policy  is  un- 
aggressive, and  his  weight  of  counsel  unswervingly 
in  the  direction  of  the  interests  of  the  poor  and  the 
laboring  classes,  they  seem  determined  to  make  the 
breach  as  wide  as  possible,  and  go  so  far  as  even  to  de- 
mand a  division  of  the  proceeds  of  every  enterprise, 
based  upon  the  labor  of  either  brawn  or  brain,  and 
insolently  propose  to  tax  the  companies  to  the  extent 
of  what  they  call  their  "labor  investment." 

What  nonsense !  It  makes  me  so  mad  I  don't 
know  what  to  do.  Papa  says — he  is  always  so  con- 
servative, you  know — that  the  poor  fellow  who  effected 
the  invention  of  air  navigation,  really  ought  to  have 
been  paid  better  for  it,  but  that  he  was  a  genius,  with 
no  common  sense — none  of  them  have,  you  know — 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  281 

and  nearly  starved,  at  that;  that  there  is  a  man  out 
West,  whose  name  I  have  not  heard,  who  is  going  to 
make  it  very  warm  for  men  concerned  in  such  trans- 
actions as  this,  which  he  denounces  as  highway  rob- 
bery, and  in  a  short  speech,  wherein  he  maintained 
that  labor  was  as  much  a  factor  and  an  investment  as 
capital,  in  all  successful  enterprise,  he  called  one  Jack 
Spratt,  and  the  other  Jack  Spratt's  wife,  which  simile 
pleased  me  immensely.  We  don't  know  where  it  is 
going  to  end,  but  hope  for  the  best. 

Now,"  my  darling,  I  want  to  say  how  gratified  I 
am  at  the  contents  of  your  last  letter.  In  it  I  dis- 
cern a  spirit  of  what  Christians  call  humility,  very 
consistent  and  very  encouraging,  considering  the  no- 
ble personage  whom  you  are  so  lucky  as  to  have 
captured  by  your  charms  and  graces  alone,  for  of 
course  your  fortune  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  it. 

If  your  husband  were  an  American,  I  would  advise 
you  to  stand  up  for  your  rights.  American  husbands, 
uxorious  though  they  are,  and  they  have  earned  the 
name,  bring  you  no  title,  have  no  legitimate  entree  to 
foreign  courts,  and  even  the  most  stupendous  fortunes 
only  inoculate  and  leave  a  scar.  Really,  the  only 
clean  business  is  an  out  and  out  marriage,  love  or 
no  love,  though,  for  the  matter  of  that,  one  must  feel 
toward  the  dear  baron  as  the  hero-worshiping  woman 
said  concerning  the  wife  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
that  she  ought  to  be  proud  to  bow  her  head  and  al- 
low the  great  divine  to  pluck  every  individual  hair  out 
by  the  roots.  "A  most  touching  test  of  devotion," 
I  hear  you  say. 


282  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Do  write,  my  dear,  and  tell  me  all  the  court  gossip. 
Since  the  California  practice  of  shooting  obnoxious 
editors  has  been  introduced  in  Boston,  there  has 
grown  up  a  virtual  censorship  of  the  press  hereabouts, 
and  the  newspapers  are  as  dull  as  death.  Every 
woman's  character  is  kept  in  a  glass  case,  and  one 
would  suppose  the  men  graduated  from  a  meeting- 
house. In  fact,  the  reading  public  who  lived  upon 
scandals  are  dying  of  ennui,  hence,  I  have  no  news 
to  write  you  to-day.  Present  me  with  continued 
assurance  of  high  respect  to  the  baron,  and  receive, 
yourself,  my  undying  love.  As  ever, 

Perces  Thornton. 

From  the  Baroness  Von  Eidaiv  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  November  20,  1895. 
My  Dear  Mother:  The  grand  ball,  the  mention 
of  which  seems  to  catch  your  fancy,  is  to  be  given  at 
the  Chateau  d'  Or,  a  magnificent  edifice  on  the  heights 
overlooking  the  river.  Its  turrets,  and  domes,  and 
roofs,  and  arches,  and  balustrades,  glitter  against  the 
background  of  bluest  skies  like  shining  gold — hence 
its  name.  Indeed,  its  architectural  device  is  so  cun- 
ningly conceived  as  to  catch  and  fill  the  eye  with 
radiant  color  like  the  fasces  of  a  diamond,  while  its 
proportions  suggest  all  the  beauties  of  form  to  be 
found  in  the  scale  of  harmonized  effects. 

It  is  just  completed,  and  is  a  wonder.  '  Its  occu- 
pants are  not  much  talked  about;  indeed,  I  do  not 
even  know  who  they  are,  though  I  fancy  the  baron 
does,  for  I  recall  that  he  replied  curtly  to  my  question 
concerning  them,  that  I  should  not  wish  to  know 
them,  by  which  I  fancied  they  might  be  Americans. 


A    MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  283 

Neither  can  I  give  you  any  idea  of  the  bidden 
guests,  although,  of  course,  it  promises  to  be  a  mag- 
nificent affair.  As  you  know,  in  compliance  with 
custom,  I  could,  in  no  event,  make  excuse  for  non- 
appearance with  my  husband.  Such  women  as  ac- 
cept their  titles  and  position  from  their  lords,  are  ex- 
pected to  follow,  unquestioning,  his  leadership  through 
all  social  labyrinths,  and  I  am  no  exception  to  the 
rule. 

Dear  mother,  forgive  me,  if  I  say  I  feel'  very  disin- 
clined to  these  gayeties.  Since  our  experiences  at 
Men  tone,  I  decided  to  give  over  all  control  of  the  ex- 
chequer into  the  hands  of  the  baron,  accepting  only  a 
regular  stipend.  I  find  this  the  only  means  of  secur- 
ing harmony  and  altercations  weary  and  depress  me 
overmuch.  Wherefore  it  is  I  have  lost  interest  in 
handsome  toilets,  and  therefor  it  is  I  shall  have  noth- 
ing new  for  the  occasion. 

Did  papa  receive  my  letter  acknowledging  and 
thanking  him  for  his  munificent  gift?  and  does  it  oc- 
cur to  you  that  it  is  a  good  deal  of  money  to  invest  in 
methods  of  pacification?  But  what  is  the  remedy? 
This  is  a  question  I  am  puzzling  my  head  about  to 
a  much  larger  extent,  let  me  say,  than  about  what  I 
shall  wear  to  the  ball. 

The  baron  dines  at  home  to-day,  so  I  will  close,  in 
order  not  to  be  a  moment  late.  You  see  I  am  grow- 
ing to  be  a  model  wife,  if  not  a  heroic  woman.  I  see 
the  baron  from  my  window  beating  a  poor  dwarf,  at 
the  entrance  of  the  alley.  He  has  lost  at  play.  In 
haste  and  love,  dear  ones,  adieu. 

Faithfully  your  own,         Ellen. 


284  BETTER    DAYS,    OB 

From  the  Baroness  I  "on  Eulaw  to  Mrs.  Perces  Thorn- 
ton. 

Berlin,  December  2,  1895. 

Dear  Mother:  Is  there  but  one  depth  for  a 
creature  like  him  I  call  husband?  What  mockery  in 
a  name !  What  have  I  suffered  for  him,  and  what 
concealed  in  my  pride  !  And  this  is  my  reward  ! — To 
have  been  made  the  dupe  of  a  dastardly  plot  to  en- 
snare cowardly  victims  !  to  have  sullied  my  skirts 
with  the  dust  of  a  usurer's  and  gambler's  den!  to  have 
my  name  blazoned  side  by  side  with  the  modern 
Cora  Pearls  in  every  court  journal  in  Europe  !  to 
have  been  led  into  the  lair  blindly,  by  one  who  is 
sworn  to  be  my  protector !  to  have  followed  in  faith 
the  man  who  could  load  the  dice  of  his  self-imposed 
despair,  with  a  wife's  dishonor  ! 

But  I  must  remember  that  all  this  is  a  riddle  to 
you,  and  must  read  like  the  ravings  of  a  maddened 
brain,  so  I  will  give  you  the  story  of  my  shame  and 
rage,  albeit  it  has  probably  already  been  telegraphed 
over  two  continents.  Verily,  it  is  too  sweet  a  morsel 
to  escape  the  newspapers. 

As  I  believe  I  mentioned  to  you,  invitations  were 
issued  for  a  ball,  to  be  given  at  the  Chateau  d'  Or.  I 
noticed  that  the  occurrence  was  making  rather  a  stir, 
and  especially  that  the  baron  was  unwontedly  nerv- 
ous over  the  event,  insomuch  that  when  I  proposed 
sending  regrets,  he  fell  into  a  violent  rage,  and  de- 
clared that  I  would  ruin  him,  past  and  future.  Nat- 
urally, I  did  not  comprehend  his  meaning,  but,  seem- 
ing to  take  it  so  much  to  heart,  I  readily  consented 
to  accompany  him,  asking  no  further  questions. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  285 

Arrived  at  the  place  of  what  later  proved  to  be  a 
scene  of  the  most  disgraceful  orgies,  we  entered  the 
salon,  and  instantly  my  heart  misgave  me.  There 
was  present  a  mixed  assemblage  of  people,  among 
them  a  few  whom  I  had  met  in  the  best  circles — a  few 
who  seemed  equally  out  of  place  with  myself— and 
many  of  that  nondescript  quality  found  in  every  so- 
ciety, who  defy  comment.  But  not  until  we  were  pre- 
sented to  the  receiving  party,  was  my  amazement  at 
its  climax.  I  am  not  yet  sufficiently  in  possession  of 
myself,  to  describe  the  magnificent  apartments  of  the 
interior  of  this  most  superb  mansion.  All  that  wealth 
could  bring  from  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth,  con- 
tributed to  the  sumptuousness  of  these  most  artistic 
apartments.  No  smallest  detail  had  been  forgotten 
in  the  programme  for  this  entertainment,  even  to  the 
grottoes  with  singing  birds,  and  floes  of  ice  in  seas  of 
wine. 

But  the  recollection  is  hateful,  and  I  hurry  on.  The 
host  was  a  tall,  sinewy,  middle-aged  man,  with  a 
strongly-marked  Hebraic  cast  of  face,  and  an  oily,  ob- 
sequious manner,  quite  at  variance  with  his  promi- 
nent features.  He  greeted  us  with  an  air  of  the  most 
profuse  cordiality,  and  passed  us  along  to  a  bevy  of 
much-painted  and  overdressed,  or,  rather,  under- 
dressed  women,  who  vied  with  each  other  in  chatter- 
ing society  phrases. 

From  the  first  moment,  an  undeniable  air  of  disso- 
luteness pervaded  the  entire  place,  and  I  looked  to  the 
baron  for  an  explanation.  He  pressed  my  arm  nerv- 
ously, and  politely  warned  me  to  hold  my  tongue. 
There  was  no  mistaking  the  animus  of  this  party.     It 


286  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

was  revelry,  riot,  unrestraint.  Answering  a  sign  from 
the  host,  the  baron  soon  left  my  side,  and  joined  the 
convivialists,  I  being  politely  led  to  the  main  salon, 
where  there  was  dancing. 

Pleading  indisposition,  I  declined  to  take  part,  arfd 
remained  aside  observing  the  dancers.  I  noticed  that 
many  of  the  women  were  singularly  lovely  and  ex- 
quisitely attired,  but  generally  lacking  in  grace  of 
movement  and  aplomb.  I  observed,  also,  groups  of 
women,  some  of  them  deathly  pale,  others  flushed 
with  indignation,  evidently  discussing  the  situation, 
and  the  truth  slowly  dawned  upon  me  that  these 
were  women  of  the  demi-monde,  and  that  I  had  been 
tricked  into  an  attendance  upon  this  reception. 

After  two  or  three  attempts  I  succeeded  in  bringing 
the  baron  to  my  side,  much  the  worse  for  wine  but 
quite  docile.  I  demanded  to  be  led  to  my  dressing- 
room,  and  at  first  he  temporized.  Finding  me  in- 
sistent, he  begged  me  to  remain,  promising  to  be 
among  the  first  to  depart  at  the  proper  hour.  His 
conduct  was  unusually  conciliatory,  and  when  I  re- 
ferred to  the  character  of  the  entertainment,  his  man- 
ner was  full  of  conscious  guilt,  while  he  assured  me 
that  he  would  explain  everything  later,  but  that  he 
dared  not  precipitate  a  scene  by  taking  me  home. 

At  this  juncture  Count  Volenfeldt,  whom  we  knew, 
accompained  by  the  Prince  of  Waldeck,  came  our 
way,  and,  saluting,  faced  us,  and,  remarking  somewhat 
satirically  upon  the  unexpected  numbers  in  attendance, 
gave  me  an  opportunity  to  ask  if  his  wife  were  present. 

"The  countess  is  not  here  to-night,"  replied  the 
count,  a  little  dryly.      "  She  is  not  well." 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  287 

"And  my  wife  is  here,"  put  in  the  prince  bluffly, 
"but  she  will  not  be  longer  than  till  I  shall  have  made 
my  way  through  this  crush." 

"Let  us  join  the  prince's  party  and  leave  this  place 
at  once,"  said  I. 

Meanwhile  the  music  had  for  the  moment  ceased,  and 
loud  laughing  and  shrill  voices,  mingled  with  smoother 
tones  and  words  of  entreaty,  were  heard,  and  there  was 
a  simultaneous  movement  toward  the  dressing-rooms 
and  places  of  exit.  Suddenly  word  came  back  that 
the  doors  were  locked,  and  the  frightened  lackeys  had 
fled  from  their  posts,  with  orders  that  no  one  should 
be  allowed  to  leave  the  house.  Then  followed  a  scene 
of  consternation  and  confusion, — wives  demanding 
redress  from  their  husbands,  and  husbands  denouncing 
the  violation  of  hospitality  by  their  host,  and  through 
all  the  din  the  gutteral  tones  and  the  piping  taunts 
of  the  unsainted. 

Presently  the  tall  form  of  Herr  Rosenblatt  showed, 
a  head  above  the  crowd,  adding  to  his  length  the 
height  of  a  fauteuil,  upon  which  he  balanced,  with  a 
drunken  man's  nicety  of  poise,  for  he  was  drunk  but 
coherent. 

' '  Gentlemen, ' '  said  he,  ' '  we  have  met  together,  as  we 
have  met  before,  for  the  purpose  of  proving  which  man 
among  us  has  the  staying  qualities,  and  who  is  willing 
to  risk  his  money  in  this  little  game.  You  come  to 
me  and  say,  '  Open  your  doors,  my  lady  wishes  to  go, ' 
but  how  many  of  you  dare  to  go  when  I  say  to  those 
who  will  go,  'To-morrow  I  shall  expose  you,  to-morrow 
you  will  sign  over  your  estates  to  me,  to-morrow  you 
shall  be  ruined  and  I  shall  be  winner. '     I  did  not  make 


288  BETTER     DAYS,    OR 

this  party  for  your  money — nor  that  you  shall  play,  at 
my  tables  and  lose,  for  that  you  have  already  done, 
but  one  thing  I  want  which  money  will  not  buy, — social 
recognition, — and  that  you  shall  give  me.  You  will 
not  leave  my  house,  gentlemen,  till  morning.  The 
ladies  will  not  talk  about  this  entertainment.  It  is  too 
beautiful;  they  will  not  attempt  to  describe  it.  Now, 
gentlemen,  I  bid  you  to  stay  and  I  shall  make  myself 
sure  that  you  enjoy  yourself.  These  remarks  make 
it  long  for  the  champagne  to  wait,  and  the  ladies, 
poor  things,  will  be  wanting  refreshments.  And  such 
refreshments!  Oh,  mon  Dieu,  that  the  gods  could  sup 
with  us,"  and  the  speaker  was  helped  caressingly  to 
the  floor. 

My  dear  scandalized  mother,  what  did  I  do?  I,  an 
American  girl,  with  the  blood  of  heroes  in  my  veins? 
Why,  I  remained  and  supped  and  smiled  with  the 
others,  for  not  a  man  even  tried  the  doors.  There- 
after there  was  no  restraint.  It  was,  as  I  have  said, 
a  night  of  orgies.  Each  man  felt  that  he  was  no  more 
deeply  involved  than  his  neighbor,  and  that  Herr 
Rosenblatt  had  told  the  truth  when  he  said  to  all,  that 
he  held  their  fates  in  his  fist,  otherwise  they  would 
not  have  been  there. 

He  was  right,  the  affair  was  not  talked  about  except 
among  themselves.  But  some  mischievous  astral. — 
some  ubiquitous  spirit  of  a  reporter, — was  floating 
about,  and  before  twenty-four  hours  had  elapsed,  the 
court  journals  had  published  an  account  of  the  whole 
affair,  comments  included. 

Dearest  mother,  this  letter  is  long,  and  I  can  write 
no  more  to-night.     I  have  decided  upon  nothing  so 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  289 

far.     So  .soon  as  I  have  done  so,  I  will  write,  but  I  must 
have  time  for  reflection.      In  tears  and  love  adieu. 
As  ever  yours,  Ellen. 

From   the   Baroness     I  on    Eulaw  to    Professor  John 

Thornton. 

Berlin,  December  5,  1895. 

My  dear,  darling  Papa:  I  have  your  telegram 
telling  me  to  come  home  without  delay,  also  message 
for  the  American  Minister  in  case  I  should  need  it, 
as  well  as  that  to  my  banker.  Wise  and  loving  pro- 
visions all,  for  my  fortune  is  squandered,  my  home 
dishonored,  and  my  heart  more  than  broken,  in  that  I 
perfidiously  assumed  to  give  a  love  which  was  not 
mine  to  give,  and  if  I  had  obeyed  my  first  impulse  I 
should  have  been  on  the  way  to  your  arms,  and  to  the 
dear  old  hearth  I  so  thoughtlessly  deserted.  But  can 
you  understand  me  when  I  say  that  all  this  I  have 
brought  upon  myself?  I  was  not  a  child;  I  had  a  fit- 
ting experience  and  was  of  sound  judgment.  I  knew 
I  did  not  love  this  man  as  it  was  in  me  to  love,  indeed, 
I  felt  for  him  neither  the  admiration  nor  esteem  which 
must  form  the  basis  of  genuine  passion.  I  respected, 
aye,  coveted  his  position,  his  title,  and  I  brought  my- 
self feebly  to  hope  that  some  day  I  should  be  a  de- 
voted wife.  I  staked  my  future,  as  he  staked  my  for- 
tune, and  lost.  If  the  money  was  not  his  own  to  lose, 
neither  was  my  heart  mine  to  lose. 

One  other  test  I  have  applied,  and  the  result  is  in 

his  favor.     If  I  did  love  the  baron  as  I -have-  might 

love  another,  would  I  be  so  ready  with  my  revenge? 

— Verily,  no;  I  would  wear  my  life  out  in  the  effort 

19 


29O  BETTER    DAYS. 

to  cancel  or  correct  the  wrong  against  myself.  Sac- 
rifice is  the  residue  found  in  love's  crucible;  passion 
is  the  flux  which  passes  off  in  the  process  of  retorting. 
In  my  crucible,  alas!  I  find  nothing  but  dross — the 
more  the  pity. 

And  so  I  have  decided  to  remain  in  Berlin  for  the 
present.  I  am  sketching  out  my  plans  for  the  future, 
but  they  are  crude  and  unformed,  and  are  of  a  sort  of 
lighthouse  quality,  meant  to  warn  people  of  the  rocky 
places.  But  more  of  this  anon.  Tell  my  mother, 
dearest  papa,  how  condemned  I  feel  to  give  her  so 
much  agony  on  my  account.  Don't  worry;  I  will 
be  quite  happy  now  that  my  mind  is  settled.  Possi- 
bly we  shall  come  over  in  a  few  weeks,  but  only  pos- 
sibly. I  am  sorry  I  wrote  my  last  to  mamma  with  so 
much  feeling.     Good-night,  and  good-by. 

Your  devoted,         Ellen. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

"  Happy  peace  and  goodly  government." 

"Shut  that  door!"  thundered  the  baron  from 
over  the  washbowl  in  a  Pullman  car,  as  he  stood  half- 
dressed  in  a  small  apartment,  taking  his  morning  bath. 

' '  Who  are  you  addressin'  ? ' '  answered  a  pale-faced 
young  man — who  was  passing — from  under  a  broad, 
stiff-brimmed  hat,  the  crown  of  which  was  encircled 
with  the  skin  of  a  huge  rattlesnake.  "  I  reckon  you 
want  your  nose  set  back  about  an  inch  anyhow,  and 
I'm  the  man  that  can  perform  that  little  blacksmithin' 
job  right  here." 

The  baron  glanced  at  the  gray-clad  figure,  with  its 
gleaming  silk  '  kerchief  knotted  carelessly,  and  arms 
akimbo,  then  down  at  the  high  boots  with  their  fair- 
leather  tops,  behind  which  gleamed  the  ebony  and 
silver  handle  of  a  bowie  knife,  and  then,  meeting 
the  steady,  mild  blue  eyes  of  the  Arizona  cowboy,  said 
apologetically : — 

"  Beg  pardon.  I  thought  it  was  the  madam. 
She  just  left  the  compartment." 

"You  did,  did  you?"  said  the  youth.  "That's 
what  I  allowed,  en  that's  why  I  tuk  an  interest  in  ye. 
Look  a  yer.  That  woman  ain't  no  slouch,  and  Gila 
monsters  like  you  ain't  popular  nohow,  yearabouts, 
so  you  jest  keep  a  civil  tongue  in  your  mutton  head, 

(2Ql) 


292  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

an'  it'll  be  all  right."  And  with  the  movement  of  a 
leopard,  he  glided  quietly  away,  while  the  baron,  af- 
ter softly  closing  the  door,  sank  into  the  nearest  sofa, 
and  awaited  the  return  of  his  wife. 

"Benson,"  shouted  the  keen-eyed  brakeman. 
' '  Change  cars  for  Tombstone,  Nogales,  Hermosillo, 
Guaymas,  and  all  points  on  the  Gulf  of  California. 
Passengers  for  Tucson,  Phoenix,  Yuma,  San  Diego, 
Los  Angeles,  and  San  Francisco  remain  in  the  car." 

The  baron's  party  consisted  of  the  baroness  and 
her  maid,  Professor  and  Mrs. Thornton,  Doctor  Eus- 
tace, who  had  accompanied  the  Von  Eulaws  from 
Europe,  and  Miss  Winters,  an  old  friend  of  the  bar- 
oness and  a  graduate  of  a  woman's  law  school,  who 
had  left  a  thriving  practice  in  Denver  rather  than  sac- 
rifice her  life  in  the  pursuit  of  a  profession  for  which 
no  woman  is  really  fitted  either  mentally  or  physically. 
The  party  was  en  route  to  Coronado  Beach — the 
baron  as  one  of  a  score  of  representatives  selected  by 
the  emperor  of  Germany  to  attend  the  "  dynamic  ex- 
position," as  it  was  generally  designated. 

Six  weeks  or  less  before  the  Prime  Minister  of  ev- 
ery recognized  civilized  power  had  received  a  letter 
couched  in  the  following  phrase. 

Offices  of  David  Morning.      j 
39  Broadway,  N.  Y.,  January  I,  1896.  » 

To 

I  respectfully  invite  your  government  to  appoint  so 
many  representatives,  not  exceeding  twenty  in  num- 
ber, as  it  may  desire,  to  be  present  in  San  Diego, 
California,  during  the  first  week  of  April  proximo, 
to  observe   and  report  upon  experiments  which  will 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  293 

then  be  made  in  aerial  and  submarine  navigation,  and 
use  of  the  new  explosive  "potentite."  It  is  my  hope 
to  demonstrate  that  hereafter  international  differences 
should  be  submitted  for  adjustment  to  a  Congress 
or  Court  of  Nations,  and  that  land  and  naval  warfare 
— as  at  present  conducted — must  come  to  an  end. 

The  gentlemen  who  may  be  credentialed  by  you 
will  be  my  guests  upon  their  arrival  in  San  Diego — if 
they  will  so  honor  me — and  I  beg  to  be  informed  at 
your  early  convenience,  by  cable,  of  the  names  of  those 
who  may  be  expected. 

I  take  the  liberty  of  inclosing  exchange  on  London 
for  twenty  thousand  pounds,  to  defray  such  expenses 
as  your  government  may  incur  in  complying  with  my 
request. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your 
obedient  servant, 

David  Morning. 

The  fame  of  Morning,  as  the  greatest  wealth  owner 
in  the  world,  was  now  coextensive  with  civilization, 
and  his  invitation  had  been  promptly  and  generally 
accepted.  The  Emperor  Wilhelm  II.  chose  for  the 
German  delegation,  five  of  his  most  distinguished 
field  marshals,  five  high  officials  of  the  German  navy, 
five  great  civil  engineers,  and  five  members  of  the  di- 
plomatic corps.  Among  the  latter  was  the  Baron 
Von  Eulaw,  who  was  indebted  for  his  appointment — 
although  he  did  not  know  it — to  an  urgent  unofficial 
representation  made  by  the  American  envoy  to  the 
German  Chancellor,  to  the  effect  that,  for  certain  per- 
sonal reasons,  Mr.  David  Morning  greatly  desired  the 
attendance  of  the  Baron   and  Baroness  Von   Eulaw. 


294  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Such  a  request  from  such  a  source  was  favorably  con- 
sidered, and  the  baron — greatly  to  his  astonishment, 
for  he  had  not  been  in  favor  at  court  since  the  affair 
at  the  Chateau  d'  Or — received  the  appointment. 

Professor  Thornton  and  Doctor  Eustace  had  re- 
ceived invitations  to  attend,  and  the  baron,  finding  it 
convenient  to  leave  Berlin  in  advance  of  the  other 
members  of  the  German  delegation,  sailed  from  Ham- 
burg late  in  January,  and,  after  a  brief  visit  with  his 
wife's  parents  at  Roxbury,  the  party  journeyed  to  the 
Pacific  Coast,  to  enjoy  its  climate  and  scenery  for  a 
month  or  more  in  advance  of  the  "  dynamic  exposi- 
tion." 

"I  feel,"  said  the  baroness,  as  the  train  rolled  out 
of  Benson,  "  as  if  I  had  a  renewed  lease  of  life  ;  these 
delicious  airs  stir  the  blood  like  wine,  and,  entranced 
with  the  perfume  of  almond  and  oleander  and  jasmine 
bloom,  I  forget  that  it  is  still  midwinter  in  the  East." 

"  You  are  drugged,  madame,"  said  the  doctor, 
slowly  passing  his  finger  scrutinizingly  over  the  soft 
flesh  upon  his  hand.  ' '  You  could  be  lured  to  your 
death  in  a  few  hours  by — I  wonder  what  ails  my 
hand  ?  "  he  broke  off  meditatively,  still  feeling  for 
the  insidious  and  evasive  little  hair. 

"  Cactus,  sir,"  put  in  an  "old-timer"  across  the 
car,  "and  you  ain't  got  no  use  to  look  for  it,  if  it 
does  feel  like  an  oxgad.  I  could  hev  tole  you  when 
I  see  you  foolin'  around  them  fine  flowers  at  the 
station,  but  you  fellers  hev  all  got  to  try  it  once; 
another  time  you'll  know  better." 

"This  is  Mr.  Morning's  state,  I  believe,"  observed 
the  doctor,  after  the  laugh  at  his  expense  had  sub- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  295 

sided,  and  all  sat  dreamily  looking  away  to  the  dimly- 
outlined  mountains  in  the  distance,  ' '  and  we  must  be 
nearing  the  place  of  the  wonderful  gold  deposit,  with 
the  results  of  which  he  is  rapidly  revolutionizing  the 
world." 

"You  are  right,  sir,"  said  a  bright-eyed,  smooth- 
shaven,  portly  gentleman,  of  forty  years  of  age,  who 
occupied  an  adjoining  seat.  "It  is  Morning's  state 
in  every  sense  of  the  word.  He  has  made  it — indus- 
trially, politically,  and  socially.  His  enterprise  and 
money  have  constructed  great  reservoirs,  and  laced 
the  land  with  irrigating  canals,  and  changed  its  wastes 
into  orchards,  and  its  deserts  into  lawns.  He  is  the 
idol  of  its  people,  as  he  ought  to  be,  and  his  ideas 
are  embodied  in  our  constitution  and  laws.  They  are 
all  the  product  of  his  thought,  from  marriage  contract- 
laws  to  abolition  of  trial  by  jury." 

"  Abolition  of  trial  by  jury, "  said  Doctor  Eustace. 

"  Yes,  sir;  at  least  the  jury  is  composed  of  judges, 
instead  of  men  who  don't  know  the  plaintiff  from  the 
defendant,  and  we  have  no  Supreme  Court." 

"  No  jury,  and  no  Supreme  Court!  "  observed  Miss 
Winters.  "  What  a  capital  idea.  I  shall  come  here  to 
practice." 

' '  Well,  miss,  if  you  practice  law  here,  and  wish  to 
patronize  the  twelve  men  in  a  box,  or  enjoy  the  lux- 
ury of  an  appeal,  you  must  bring  your  case  in  the 
United  States  Court,  or  take  it  there.  In  our  State 
courts  we  have  dispensed  with  all  that  ancient  rub- 
bish." 

"  Rubbish  !  "   exclaimed  the  doctor. 

"  Even   so,"   rejoined  the  stranger.     The  judicial 


296  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

system  in  vogue  elsewhere  than  in  Arizona  is  as  much 
a  relic  of  barbarism  as  slavery  or  polygamy.  It  is  no 
more  fitted  to  the  wants  and  enlightenment  of  the  age 
than  the  canal  boat  for  traveling,  or  the  flint  lock 
musket  for  shooting  pigeons.  Suppose  you  wish  to 
recover  a  piece  of  land  from  a  jumper  in  California  or 
Maine,  and  one  side  or  the  other  demands  a  jury  trial. 
Every  good  citizen  who  is  busy  shirks  duty  as  a  jury- 
man. Every  intelligent  citizen  who  reads  the  news- 
papers forms  an  opinion  and  is  excused.  From  the 
residue — which  is  sure  to  contain  both  fools  and 
knaves — you  get  twelve  clerks,  mechanics,  laborers, 
merchants,  farmers,  and  idlers — none  of  whom  have 
any  training  in  untangling  complicated  propositions, 
weighing  evidence,  remembering  principles  of  law 
and  logic,  and  according  to  each  fact  its  just  and  rel- 
ative importance. 

After  these  twelve  men  have  listened  to  a  muddle 
of  testimony,  objections,  law  papers,  and  speeches, 
concluding  with  bewildering  instructions,  which  half  of 
them  fail  to  remember,  and  the  other  half  fail  to  un- 
derstand, they  retire  to  the  jury  room  and  guess  out 
a  verdict.  The  losing  party  appeals,  and,  after  weari- 
some delay,  the  Supreme  Court  decides  that  '  some- 
one has  blundered,'  and,  without  attempting  to  correct 
the  error  by  a  proper  judgment,  sends  the  case  back 
for  another  trial,  another  batch  of  blunders,  and 
another  appeal.'' 

"And  how  does  your  Arizona  system  correct  the 
evils  you  depict?"  queried  the  doctor. 

"  We  commence  at  the  other  end  of  the  puzzle," 
said  the  stranger.      "  We  place  the  Supreme  Court  in 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  297 

the  jury  box.  We  have  a  preliminary  court  of  three 
judges  in  each  judicial  district.  Every  plaintiff  must 
first  present  his  case  informally  to  this  court.  He 
states  on  oath  the  facts  he  expects  to  prove,  and  gives 
the  names  of  his  witnesses.  Any  willful  mis-statement 
of  a  material  fact,  is  perjury.  If  the  evidence  would, 
if  uncontradicted,  entitle  him  to  recover,  an  order 
is  issued  giving  him  leave  to  sue.  In  practice,  not 
one-half  of  the  proposed  suits  survive  the  ordeal. 
The  saving  of  time  and  money  is  great.  UnCrer  the 
old  system,  after  a  jury  had  been  impaneled,  and 
days  consumed,  the  plaintiff  might,  after  all,  be  non- 
suited. Now  it  is  all  disposed  of  in  an  hour  or  two. 
The  preliminary  court  practically  puts  an  end  to  all 
blackmailing  litigation." 

' '  And  when  leave  to  sue  is  granted,  what  is  the 
next  step?"  inquired  the  doctor. 

' '  The  case  is  brought  under  the  same  rules  of  pro- 
cedure as  of  old,"  replied  the  stranger,  "with  only 
such  changes  as  were  necessary  to  adapt  litigation  to 
the  new  conditions.  We  have  three  judicial  districts 
in  the  State,  and  nine  judges  for  each  district.  Upon 
questions  of  law  arising  during  the  trial,  the  judges 
pass  by  a  majority  vote,  and  in  making  the  final  de- 
cision, from  which  there  is  no  appeal,  seven  judges 
must  concur. 

"Does  this  system  satisfy  litigants i"  asked  the 
doctor. 

"Much  better  than  the  old  method,"  replied  the 
stranger.  "What  honest  litigant  would  not  prefer 
to  have  his  rights  determined  by  nine  men,  who  were 
trained  to  sift  truth  from  error,  who  were  honest  and 


298  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

just,  and  without  other  duties  to  distract  them,  rather 
than  by  twelve  men  such  as  ordinarily  find  their  way 
into  the  jury  box?  The  judgment  of  seven  out  of 
nine  judges  will  be  as  nearly  right  as  human  con- 
clusions can  well  be,  and  people  affected  by  it  are 
better  satisfied — even  when  they  lose — than  by  the 
guess  of  a  stupid  and  sleepy  jury." 

' '  Can  the  courts  you  have  organized  attend  to  all 
the  business?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

1 '  ffisily, ' '  was  the  rejoinder.  '  'No  time  is  consumed 
in  procuring  juries,  and  much  less  in  objections  to 
testimony.  Arguments  are  abbreviated,  and  instruc- 
tions eliminated.  In  practice,  four  cases  out  of  five 
are  decided  from  the  bench." 

"Are  not  the  salaries  of  so  many  judges  a  heavy 
tax  upon  you?"  asked  the  doctor. 

' '  The  system  costs  the  public  treasury  less  than  the 
old  one,"  was  the  reply.  "  Many  court  expenses  are 
dispensed  with,  and  the  expense  to  litigants  is  re- 
duced, although  the  loser  is  now  compelled  to  pay 
the  fee  of  his  opponent's  attorney,  which  is  fixed  by 
the  court. ' ' 

' '  As  you  have  no  court  of  appeals,  I  suppose  no 
record  is  made  of  court  proceedings,"  remarked  the 
doctor. 

"Oh,  yes,  each  court  room  is  provided  with  one  of 
the  new  automatic  noiseless  receiving  and  printing 
phonographs." 

' '  And  how  about  lawyers  who  have  bad  cases  ? ' ' 

' '  They  endeavor  to  take  them  into  the  United 
States  Court,  where  the  old  practice  prevails. 

"Beg  pardon,  ma'am,"  said  the  Pullman  conduc- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  299 

tor,  approaching  Mrs.  Thornton,  "but  we  are  pass- 
ing over  the  new  line,  which  runs  north  of  Gila  River, 
and  a  view  may  be  had  of  the  sleeping  Montezuma 
now,  and  the  passengers  generally  like  to  see  it." 

"The  sleeping  Montezuma!  What  is  that?"  asked 
the  lady  addressed. 

"  It  is  the  giant  figure  of  an  Indian  resting  on  his 
back  on  the  top  of  the  mountain.  You  can  see  it 
now  quite  plainly  from  the  right-hand  windows  of 
the  car." 

And  across  the  plain — in  centuries  gone  densely 
peopled  by  some  prehistoric  race,  and  then  for  cen- 
turies a  waste,  and,  since  the  completion  of  the  Gila 
Canal,  a  checker-board  of  orchard,  vineyard,  and 
meadow,  the  eye  looked  upon  the  lavender-tinted 
mountains  to  the  northward,  and  it  required  no  aid 
from  the  imagination  to  behold,  upon  the  summits  of 
those  mountains,  the  profile  of  a  stately  figure  and 
majestic  face,  with  a  crown  of  feathers  upon  the  brow, 
lying  upon  its  back. 

Once  there  lived,  in  the  shadow  of  this  giant,  a  race, 
of  which  traces  may  still  be  found  in  mounds  con- 
taining pottery,  and  in  the  ruins  of  great  aqueducts, 
and  in  stone  houses  seven  stories  in  height,  a  portion 
of  the  walls  of  which  are  still  standing. 

"The  Indians  hereabouts  have  a  story,"  said  the 
conductor,  "to  the  effect  that  Montezuma  went  to 
sleep,  when  the  sun  dried  up  the  waters,  and  his  peo- 
ple died,  and  they  say  now  that  Morning's  canal  is 
making  the  country  green  again,  the  old  chief  will 
awaken." 

"You  were  saying,"  said  Doctor  Eustace,  by  way 


300  &ETTER    DAYS,     OR 

of  suggestion  to  the  stranger,  ' '  that  there  are  some 
peculiar  marriage  contract  laws  here. 

"It  is  all  expressed,  sir,  in  the  preamble  to  the  law, 
and  in  the  law  itself,  a  copy  of  which  I  happen  to 
have  with  me,  as  I  am  on  the  way  to  attend  court  at 
Yuma.  Here  it  is, ' '  and  he  offered  the  book  to  Pro- 
fessor Thornton. 

"Read  it  aloud,  professor,"  said  the  doctor,  and 
the  professor  read: — 

' '  The  Senate  and  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Arizona 
recognizes  the  truth  that  not  easy  divorce  laws,  but 
easy  marriage  laws,  are  at  the  root  of  the  conjugal 
evil;  that  men  and  women  have  been  accustomed  to 
marry,  disagree,  and  divorce  in  less  time  than  should 
have  been  allowed  for  a  proper  peried  of  betrothal; 
that  the  loose  system  now  prevailing  often  results  in 
children  destitute  of  the  inherent  virility  of  virtue  and 
affection;  that  no  adequate  defenses  have  hitherto 
been  builded  for  the  protection  of  young  females  too 
unthoughtful  and  too  trusting;  that  the  laws  under- 
lying the  physical  as  well  as  the  mental  constitution, 
with  their  multiple  of  subtile,  gravitating,  and  repel- 
lant  forces,  have  hitherto  been  wholly  unstudied,  or 
disregarded;  that  the  arbitrary  conditions  of  society 
compel  woman  to  accept  marriage,  in  violation  of  her 
higher  aims;  that  in  certain  human  organizations  the 
conditions  created  by  propinquity  are  altogether  false 
and  ephemeral;  that  certain  other  human  organ- 
izations are,  by  nature,  filled  with  inordinate  vanity 
and  self-love,  which  qualities,  beguiling  the  j  udgment, 
constitute  fickleness  and  instability  of  purpose,  and 
that   the  true  solution   of  the  great  social  problem  is 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  301 

likely  to  be  found  in  preventive  rather  than  in  reme- 
dial laws.     Therefore,  be  it  enacted  " — 

"Hold  up,  John,"  said  Dr.  Eustace.  "That  is  all 
my  mentality  can  assimilate  without  a  rest.  Are  you 
not  reading  from  an  essay  by  Mona  Caird,  or  a  novel 
by  Tolstoi?  Is  that  really  and  truly  the  preamble  of  a 
law  enacted  by  a  Western  Legislature?  Have  all  the 
cranks,  and  all  the  theorists,  and  all  the  moonstruck, 
long-haired,  green-goggled  reformers  on  earth,  been 
turned  loose  in  Arizona?" 

"  Doctor,"  said  the  professor  solemnly,  "the  truth 
is  a  persistant  fly,  that  cannot  be  brushed  away  with 
the  wisps  of  ridicule.  The  Arizona  legislators  have 
fearlessly  attempted  to  deal  with  conditions  which 
every  close  observer  of  our  social  life  knows  to  be 
existent." 

"Papa,"  said  the  baroness,  interestedly,  "in  what 
way  is  it  proposed  to  deal  with  the  problem  ?  Please 
read  further." 

"  The  law  is  too  lengthy,"  said  the  professor,  after 
glancing  over  a  few  pages,  "  to  be  read  in  detail,  but 
I  will  summarize  it  for  you.  Marriages  are  declared 
void  unless  the  parties  procure  a  license,  which  can 
only  be  issued  by  an  examining  board  of  men  and 
women,  composed  in  part  of  physicians,  and  in  part 
of  graduates  of  some  reputable  school,  dedicated  to 
physiological  observations  and  esoteric  thought  and 
investigation." 

"Anything  about  ability  to  boil  a  potato  or  sew  on 
a  button?"  interrupted  the  doctor. 

"Peace,  scoffer,"  said  the  professor.  "It  seems 
to  be  required   that    all  applicants    for    license  shall 


302  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

have  had  an  acquaintance  of  at  least  one  year,  and  be 
under  marriage  engagement  for  six  months,  and  shall 
pass  examination  by  the  board  upon  their  mutual  elig- 
ibility, as  expressed  through  temperament,  complex- 
ion, tastes,  education,  traits  of  character,  and  general 
conditions  of  fitness." 

"  Is  red  hair,  or  a  habit  of  snoring,  or  a  fondness 
for  raw  onions,  considered  a  disqualification?"  queried 
the  doctor. 

The  professor,  ignoring  the  interruption,  continued: 
"It  is  required  that  one  or  both  of  the  applicants 
shall  possess  property  of  sufficient  value,  to  support 
both  of  them  for  one  year,  in  the  manner  of  life  to 
which  the  proposed  wife  has  been  accustomed." 

1 '  A  gleam  of  common  sense  at  last  in  a  glamour  of 
moonshine,"  said  the  doctor.  "But  how  can  such 
a  marriage  law  be  enforced  ? ' ' 

"The  act  provides,"  said  the  professor,  "that 
children  born  to  parties  who  have  no  license,  shall  be 
deemed  born  out  of  wedlock,  and  all  such  children, 
as  well  as  all  children  born  to  extreme  poverty  or 
degrading  influences,  may  be  taken  from  their  parents 
and  educated  at  the  public  expense." 

"How  does  this  experiment  of  turning  the  State 
into  a  moral  kindergarten  for  adults,  and  wet-nursery 
for  infants,  succeed?"  said  Doctor  Eustace  to  the 
stranger. 

"The  law  was  enacted  only  a  few  weeks  since," 
replied  the  gentleman,  "and  it  is  too  soon  to  answer 
your  question." 

' '  Humph !  have  you  any  more  of  such  revolutionary 
legislation  ? ' ' 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  303 

' '  Nothing  so  important  as  the  marriage  contract 
act,  but  on  page  72  you  will  find  some  provisions  of 
law  which  may  interest  you." 

The  doctor  read: — 

* '  Women  who  perform  equal  service  with  men 
shall  be  entitled  to  recover  an  equal  sum  for  their 
labor,  and  all  contracts  made  in  derogation  of  this 
right  shall  be  void." 

"Good!"  applauded  Miss  Winters. 

Again  the  doctor  read: — 

"The  men  who  represent  the  State  of  Arizona  in 
the  United  States  Senate  shall  be  chosen  by  a  majority 
of  the  voters,  and  not  by  the  Legislature,  as  in  other 
States  of  the  Union,  and  no  man,  however  favored, 
shall  be  eligible  for  the  position  whose  property  in- 
terests, justly  estimated,  exceed  in  value  the  sum  of 
$100,000." 

"That  will  exclude  Mr.  Morning  from  the  million- 
aires' club,  will  it  not  ? ' '  queried  Dr.  Eustace. 

' '  Yes,  sir, ' '  answered  the  stranger,  ' '  but  he  favored 
the  law.  Of  course,  under  the  United  States  Consti- 
tution, this  section  is  not  legally  operative ;  but  it  is 
morally  binding,  and  the  Legislature  has  always 
elected  to  the  Senate  gentlemen  who  were  previously 
designated  by  the  people  at  the  polls,  and  thus  far 
no  man  suspected  of  solvency  has  ventured  to  be  a 
candidate.  Arizona  is  friendly  to  progressive  legis- 
lation. You  will  find  our  law  for  the  prevention  of 
cruelty  to  animals  on  page  56;  it  may  interest  you." 

The  professor  read : — 

"Any  person  or  persons  convicted  of  having 
beaten,  abused,  underfed,  overworked,  or  otherwise 


304  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

maltreated  any  horse,  mule,  dog,  or  other  animal  of 
whatever  kind,  may  thereafter  be  assaulted  and  beaten 
by  any  person  who  may  desire  to  undertake  such 
task,  without  the  assailant  being -responsible  civilly  or 
criminally  for  such  assault." 

"That,"  said  the  doctor,  "  to  quote  a  Boston  girl 
on  Niagara  Falls,  '  is  neat,  simple,  and  sufficient. ' 
Have  you  any  further  novelties  in  the  way  of  legis- 
lation to  offer  ? ' ' 

"  Our  law  of  libel  is  in  advance  of  all  other  states," 
said  the  stranger;  "  you  will  find  it  on  page  163." 

The  professor  read : — 

"Any  man  or  woman  or  newspaper  firm  lending 
themselves  to  the  dissemination  of  scandal,  or  defama- 
tion of  private  character,  to  the  moral  detriment  of 
innocent  parties,  shall,  on  conviction,  be  adjudged 
outlaws,  and  may  be  lawfully  beaten  or  killed  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  party  injured." 

"  Lord,"  said  the  doctor,  piously  raising  his  eyes, 
"now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for 
mine  eyes  have  beheld  thy  glory. ' ' 

' '  We  take  a  great  deal  of  pride  in  that  libel  law, ' ' 
said  the  stranger.  "  It  has  inspired  a  degree  of  cour- 
tesy on  the  part  of  Arizona  editors  that  would  have 
made  Lord  Chesterfield  ashamed  of  himself.  The 
Yuma  Sentinel,  which  was  accustomed  to  personal 
journalism,  lately  alluded  to  a  convicted  highwayman 
as  '  a  gentleman  whose  ideas  on  the  subject  of  prop- 
erty differ  from  those  of  a  majority  of  his  fellow- 
citizens;'  and  the  Tucson  Star,  which  used  to  be  the 
chief  of  slangwhangers,  reviewed  a  sermon  and  spoke 
of  Judas  Iscariot  as  'that  disciple  whose  conduct  in 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  305 

receiving  compensation  in  money  from  the  Romans 
for  his  services  as  a  guide,  has  caused  his  memory  to 
be  visited  by  all  religious  denominations  with  great, 
and  probably  not  altogether  undeserved,  criticism.' 
But  we  are  at  Yuma,  sir,  and  I  must  bid  you  good-by. 
Boats  run  up  the  river  from  here  to  Castle  Dome. 
There  is  an  excellent  hotel  here.  Tourists  usually 
stop  over  to  visit  the  Gonzales  place,  and  I  suppose 
you  will  not  neglect  the  opportunity.  The  house  is 
a  marvel  of  beauty.  It  was  built  by  direction  of  Mr. 
Morning."  • 

"  Does  he  live  there  when  at  home?  "  queried  the 
baroness. 

"Oh,  no,  madame!  The  Gonzales  family  nursed 
Morning  through  an  attack  of  fever,  after  he  was  shot 
by  the  Apaches  near  the  old  Gonzales  hacienda  sev- 
eral years  ago.  The  Senorita  Murella  never  left  his 
bedside  for  weeks.  Really,  the  doctors  say  the  girl 
saved  his  life.  He  was,  naturally,  very  grateful,  and, 
when  he  recovered,  he  bought  the  Castle  Dome 
rancheria  from  the  Indians,  and  had  a  rock  tunnel 
run  into  the  Colorado  River,  and  took  out  the  water 
and  carried  it  in  irrigating  canals  over  a  thousand 
acres  of  land,  which  he  had  planted  in  oranges,  lemons, 
vines,  olives,  and  other  fruit.  It  will  pay  a  princely 
revenue  to  the  Gonzales  people  in  a  few  years. 

"Morning  ordered  built  upon  the  dome  overlook- 
ing the  river  the  most  beautiful  marble  palace  on  the 
coast,  and  they  say  it  is  not  surpassed  anywhere  on 
earth.  The  whole  business  must  have  cost  him  sev- 
eral millions,  but  money  is  nothing  to  him.  The 
place  is  kept  up  in  princely  style  by  the  Sefiora  Gon- 
20 


306  BETTER    DAYS. 

zales  and  her  daughter.  They  entertain  a  great  deal 
of  company,  and  are  always  delighted  to  welcome 
strangers  who  may  visit  the  place. ' ' 

"  And  I  suppose  that  Aladdin  is  a  constant  visitor 
at  his  palace?"  sneered  the  baron. 

"Morning?  Oh,  no;  strangely  enough,  he  has 
never  been  near  the  place  since  its  completion,  two 
years  ago!  Too  busy,  I  suppose,  helping  the  world 
out  of  the  mud.  But  he  is  on  the  coast  now,  pre- 
paring for  his  'dynamite  exposition,'-and  may  put  in 
an  appearance  here. ' ' 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

"  A  hospitable  gate  unbarred  to  all." 

"All  aboard  for  Castle  Dome,"  and  the  baron's 
party  filed  up  the  carpeted  gang  plank,  and  looked 
smilingly  about  them. 

"  I  have  often  heard  of  the  sumptuousness  of 
the  Mississippi  steamers,  now  grown  traditional,  but 
this  exceeds  even  their  reputation,"  commented  Miss 
Winters. 

"This  is  the  Morning  line,  madame,"  answered 
the  gaudily-dressed  steward  boastfully,  "and  they 
do  nothing  by  halves,  you  know,"  and  he  pompously 
led  the  way  to  the  ladies'  saloon. 

"Except  by  half  millions,"  returned  the  doctor 
jocosely. 

' '  These  steamers  were  built  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  people  who  came  to  the  World's  Fair  at 
Chicago,"  explained  the  steward.  "Morning's  a 
queer  sort  of  fellow" — and  he  grew  confidential. 
"  He  could  have  brought  his  air  ships  and  new-fangled 
things,  such  as  he  had  on  exhibition  at  the  fair,  but 
he  wouldn't.  He  said  it  was  kind  o'  throwing  off  on 
nature,  that  God  never  made  but  one  Colorado  River, 
and  he  for  one  hadn't  the  brass  to  discount  it." 

"  Do  you  have  many  visitors  belonging  to  the  no- 
bility?" asked  Mrs.  Thornton,  evidently  inclined  to 
change  the  conversation  from  its  personal  trend. 

(307) 


308  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"  Oh,  lots  of 'em!  There's  a  Spanish  count  and  an 
Italian  prince  stopping  up  at  the  Gonzales  place  now. 
The  Italian  has  been  there  some  time,  making  him- 
self solid  with  the  senorita,  I  reckon.  And  we  are 
expecting  a  party  this  week,  Baron  Von  Boodle,  or 
some  such  name,  with  his  friends  " — here  the  baron 
rose  abruptly  and  walked  out  of  the  saloon — "at 
least  Mr.  Morning  telegraphed  the  captain  from  San 
Diego  that  when  this  party  arrived  he  meant  to  run 
over  here  and  make  his  first  visit  to  Castle  Dome, 
which  will  be  an  event,  for,  after  all  the  millions  of 
money  he  has  spent  on  the  place,  he  has  never  been 
near  it,  and  everybody  is  wondering  at  it." 

After  a  night's  rest  at  the  great  Rio  Colorado 
Hotel,  built  upon  the  bluff  at  Yuma,  the  party  had 
made  an  early  start,  and  had  been  on  board  the  Un- 
dine for  some  time  before  the  line  was  thrown  in  and 
the  steamer  began  to  move. 

The  steward  bustled  away,  and  the  baroness  rose, 
with  a  deep  breath  of  relief,  and  walked  to  the  mirror. 
It  may  have  been  observed  of  many  women  that  any 
new  or  sudden  sensation  or  condition  or  emotion  sug- 
gests a  looking-glass.  Not  that  they  see  or  are  think- 
ing of  themselves,  but  they  seem  thus  best  able  to 
collect  their  thoughts.  So  it  was  with  this  woman, 
only  that  now  she  did  observe  two  very  bright  eyes 
and  a  radiant  face,  with  the  swift  blood  coursing  back 
from  her  cheeks,  across  the  smooth  white  surface  of 
her  neck,  to  the  closely-defined  growth  of  hair — that 
oracle  of  beauty  which  no  ugly  woman  ever  wore, 
whatever  her  features.  She  turned  quickly  away, 
and,  following  the  doctor  and  her  father,  the  three 
ladies  went  out  to  view  the  scenery. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  309 

"  You  observe  this  bend  in  the  river,"  a  voice  was 
saying,  ' '  where  many  a  poor  fellow  has  gone  to  his 
death,  for  there  swoops  the  most  fatal  pool  of  eddies, 
perhaps,  to  be  found  in  the  whole  channel  of  these 
whimsical  waters." 

The  baroness  turned  to  look  for  the  speaker,  whose 
voice  seemed  familiar,  and  there,  under  the  shade  of 
the  awning,  in  full  silhouette,  looking  in  the  face  of 
her  husband,  with  whom  he  was  pleasantly  convers- 
ing, stood  David  Morning. 

Her  first  thought  was  to  retreat  to  the  saloon  and 
wait  for  him  to  present  himself,  but  as  his  swift  eye 
swept  the  deck,  he  caught  sight  of  her  face,  and  came 
quickly  over,  followed  by  the  baron,  saying,  as  he 
cordially  took  her  hand,  and  held  it  closely  for  a  long 
time,  "I  enjoy  one  advantage  over  you,  baron,  my 
acquaintance  with  the  baroness  dates  back  of  yours. 
I  hope  she  has  not  forgotten  me." 

The  woman  made  no  reply  to  this  remark;  she 
simply  said,  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Morning,"  and 
presented  him  to  her  friends. 

The  brief  trip  up  the  river  among  the  cliffs  and  cas- 
cades and  whirlpools  and  caves  and  canons  and 
towering  cathedral  rocks,  furnished  prolific  and  au- 
spicious topics  for  conversation,  but  it  need  not  be 
said  that  neither  the  baroness  nor  Mr.  Morning 
knew  altogether  what  they  were  talking  about.  She 
could  not  fail  to  see  the  pupils  of  his  sea-grey  eyes 
~grow  very  large  when  he  looked  at  her,  and  he  in 
turn  observed  that  she  scarcely  looked  at  him  at  all. 

The  professor  talked  a  little  dryly  at  first,  and  Mrs. 
Thornton   sat  apart,  evidently  nursing  her  chagrin, 


3IO  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

for  Mr.  Morning  was  at  this  moment  not  only  the 
wealthiest  but  the  most  famous  and  powerful  man  in 
all  the  world,  and,  had  he  sought  it,  could  have  ob- 
tained orders  of  high  nobility  from  every  crowned 
head  in  Europe.  The  baron,  who  would  have  seen 
' '  Helen's  beauty  in  a  brow  of  Egypt, ' '  if  that  brow 
possessed  the  attribute  of  Midas,  looked  at  the  situa- 
tion from  an  altogether  different  standpoint,  and  was 
thinking  at  what  period  of  the  new-formed  acquaint- 
ance it  would  be  prudent  to  ask  the  loan  of  a  few, 
or,  possibly,  more  than  a  few,  thousand  pounds. 

Presently  the  boat  rounded  into  a  little  cove  and 
stopped.  The  brief  but  eventful  journey  was  over, 
and  the  party  stepped  from  the  boat  to  a  flight  of 
marble-flagged  steps,  leading  up  to  shining  floors,  out 
of  which  arose  columns  supporting  a  light  roof  in 
Pagoda  style.  Easy  swinging  seats,  with  hammocks 
and  tables,  with  a  few  racks  and  stands,  completed 
the  pretty  ' '  Rest ' '  for  the  landing,  and  the  party  be- 
gan to  look  about  for  the  path  of  ascent. 

Suddenly  a  tinkling  sound  was  heard,  and,  softly  as 
if  it  fell  from  the  clouds,  a  car,  sumptuously  carpeted, 
cushioned,  and  canopied,  appeared  before  them.  It 
was,  evidently,  meant  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
party,  and  one  by  one  they  stepped  in.  Morning 
was  the  last  to  follow,  and  as  he  came  aboard  and 
closed  the  plate-glass  door,  it  shut  with  a  tinkle,  and 
the  car  arose,  moving  proportionately  aslant  as  the 
grade  of  the  terrace — which  had  been  fashioned  and 
grown  in  the  short  space  of  two  years — inclined. 

"My  invention  works  like  a  charm,"  Morning  was 
heard  to  mutter  to  the  outer  air,  as  they  neared  the 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  31I 

summit  and  surveyed  the  height.  The  awe-filling 
overhanging  crags,  thousands  of  centuries  old,  had 
been  blasted  and  chiseled  and  coaxed  into  shelves, 
and  steps,  and  nooks,  and  resting-places,  softly  car- 
peted with  moss,  and  decorated  with  growing  ferns 
and  lichens.  The  wind  came  down  the  river  and 
shook  the  leaves  above  their  heads,  and  stirred  the 
birds  into  a  flood  of  song,  and  larks  sat  upon  the  twigs 
and  warbled  with  joy. 

"Only  two  years,"  said  Miss  Winters,  as  they 
stepped  from  the  car;  "'tis  not  so  long  in  which  to 
make  a  beautiful  world. ' ' 

"It  is  much  more  difficult  to  people  it  with  the 
right  sort,"  mused  Morning. 

"The  first  builders  had  to  try  that  two  or  three 
times,  if  my  memory  serves  me,"  remarked  the  doc- 
tor. 

"Are  these  people  of  the  right  sort?"  asked  Mrs. 
Thornton  significantly. 

The  baroness  shot  a  quick  glance  at  Morning,  and 
looked  over  at  her  rather  too  loquacious  maternal. 

"I  am  too  much  of  an  ingrate  to  answer  for  them," 
said  Morning,  undismayed.  ' '  I  only  know  that  I  owe 
them  my  life,  and  that  I  have  never  had  the  grace  to 
come  and  thank  them." 

They  had  now  arrived  at  the  main  entrance  to  the 
grounds,  and  the  scene  presented  was  one  of  inde- 
scribable beauty  and  splendor.  The  dazzling  propor- 
tions of  the  structure  rose  into  the  air  with  such  ex- 
ceeding lightness  and  grace  of  outline,  melting  away 
against  the  silvery  softness  of  the  clouds,  that  it 
seemed  swinging  in  the  ambient  air,  and  only  for  the 


312  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

cornices  and  columns  and  spires  and  turrets  of  onyx 
and  agate  which  defined  the  outlines  against  the  sky, 
one  would  look  to  see  it  float  away  like  dissolving 
views  of  the  Celestial  City.  The  magnificent  dome 
was  rounded  with  bent  and  many-colored  glasses,  the 
eloquent  figures  storying  events  of  history  both  classic 
and  local,  in  pigments  not  known  since  the  days  of 
Donatello,  who  went  mad  because  his  figure  could 
not  speak.  And  there,  upon  its  pedestal  of  purest 
alabaster,  stood  the  chaste  statue  of  Psyche,  just  as 
Morning  had  hewn  it  out  of  his  captious  fancy  so  long 
ago,  and  Cupid  opposite,  half  eager,  half  evasive,  and 
restless.  Ah,  well!  and  he  looked  into  the  deep,  ap- 
preciative eyes  of  the  woman  by  his  side,  and  said  not 
a  word. 

Having  selected  the  most  thoroughly  skilled  archi- 
tects, artists,  and  artisans,  and  no  limit  having  been 
placed  to  expenditure,  it  was  evident  that  every  detail 
of  Morning's  plan  had  been  faithfully  executed.  But 
beyond  this  his  power,  or,  rather,  his  supervision  or 
direction,  had  ceased.  At  last  it  was  the  estate  and 
home  of  the  Gonzales  family  and  not  his  own,  and 
concerning  its  management,  or  the  manner  in  which 
they  should  enjoy  it,  he  did  not  offer  even  a  sugges- 
tion. Morning's  instructions,  left  with  the  Bank  of 
California  more  than  two  years  before,  were  to  pay  all 
checks  signed  by  the  Sefiora  or  the  Senorita  Gonzales, 
no  matter  what  amount,  and  charge  them  to  his  ac- 
count. 

The  Gonzales  family  had  taken  their  good  fortune 
with  great  equanimity.  Their  inclinations  led  them 
to  a  generous  and  exceedingly  promiscuous  hospitality, 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  313 

and  they  had  not  hesitated  to  arrange  the  menage  of 
their  household  without  regard  to  conventionalities. 
Instead  of  the  solemn  and  ubiquitous  functionary  at 
the  open  door,  there  was  vacancy,  while  the  party 
stood  upon  the  tessellated  floor  of  the  broad  vestibule 
for  several  minutes. 

Presently  a  young  Spaniard  in  boots  and  clanking 
spurs,  with  silver-laced  sombrero  and  flaming  tie, 
threw  wide  the  door,  and  simultaneously  Morning 
caught  a  glimpse  through  an  open  court  of  a  female 
figure  leaning  upon  the  rosewood  balustrade,  mounted 
with  a  cable  of  silver,  which  surrounded  a  corridor, 
and  idly  tossing  with  her  fan  the  light,  half-curling 
locks  of  a  man  who  sat  upon  a  low  seat,  resting  his 
head  against  her  knee. 

It  was  only  a  glance  as  the  sun  strikes  against  the 
steel,  sharply  cutting  its  way  upon  the  eye,  or  like  the 
incisive  impress  of  some  exceptional  face  in  passing,  % 
whereby  one  seizes  every  detail  of  color  and  form, 
void  of  conscious  effort.  It  was  easy  to  recognize  the 
graceful  outline  of  the  swaying  figure  as  she  sat  poised 
under  the  sunlight,  and  swift  and  unbidden  even  as 
the  cozip  dceil  was,  the  senses  of  David  Morning 
thrilled  with  gladness.  Was  it  the  sight  of  Murella 
again  that  sent  that  shaft  of  ecstasy  through  his  soul? 
or  was  it  the  all  up-building,  all-leveling  lesson  that 
the  Seiiorita  Gonzales  was  being  amused? 

The  arrival  of  the  party  had  been  manifestly  unex- 
pected, and  no  formal  announcement  was  made,  but 
no  sooner  had  they  entered  the  magnificent  reception 
hall  at  one  extremity  than  Senorita  Gonzales  appeared 
at  the  other      She  entered  with  a  movement  of  the 


314  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

most  exquisite  grace,  robed,  rather  than  dressed,  in  a 
gown  of  acanthus  green  satin,  flowing  in  the  back  from 
the  half-bared  neck  to  the  gold-embroidered  border  of 
the  demi-train.  The  front  was  gathered  at  the  shoul- 
der and  fell  with  lengths  of  creamy  lisse  to  the  perfect 
foot,  with  its  slippers  of  gold.  A  corselet  of  rich  em- 
broideries rounded  the  waist.  The  sleeves  were 
loosely  puffed  and  draped  with  softest  lace  to  the  white 
and  flexible  wrist,  while  the  web-like  lace  of  her  man- 
tilla rested  lightly  upon  the  shining  coils  of  her  abun- 
dant hair. 

As  Mr.  Morning  advanced  toward  the  center  of  the 
room  to  greet  his  beautiful  hostess,  she  drew  an  audi- 
ble breath,  and  lifted  her  finely-arched  brows,  but  no 
sign  betrayed  other  emotion.  Mr.  Morning  presented 
his  friends  in  the  most  casual  and  easy  manner,  but 
when  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  came  forward,  taller 
by  some  inches  than  the  Senorita  Gonzales,  and  with 
an  exquisite  manner  was  about  to  speak,  the  little 
hostess,  with  an  air  of  special  affability  and  simplicity, 
asked,  showing  her  small  white  teeth  the  while: — 

"  To  who  owe  I  a  the  honor  of  this  visite  of  a  noble 
baroness  ? ' ' 

It  was  a  bombshell  in  satin  and  lace  which  fell  at 
the  feet  of  Morning,  and  for  an  instant  he  saw  no  way 
to  the  rescue  of  the  baroness.  Then,  rallying,  he 
quickly  replied: — 

"  To  the  reputation  for  hospitality  of  the  fair  owner 
of  this  house,  and  that  of  her  charming  family." 

"I  no  know  if  my  name  travel  so  long  time  a," 
she  rejoined,  looking  at  Morning. 

The  baron  then  came  forward,  and,  politely  hold- 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  315 

ing  her  ringers,  said  in  Spanish,  "I  hope  that  the 
Seilorita  and  Sefiora  Gonzales  are  quite  well,  as  who 
should  not  be  in  this  Italy  of  rare  delights?  " 

"Oh,  Italy!  that  is  the  home  of  my  parteekler 
friend.  He  paint  Italia,  he  sing  Italia,  and  he  make 
me  promise  for  go  many  times. ' ' 

"  That  settles  it,"  Morning  muttered  sententiously, 
but  no  one  heard. 

Then  the  conversation  became  general,  the  baroness 
commenting  kindly  upon  the  encroachments  upon 
the  time  of  the  seiiorita  in  receiving  curious  visitors. 

"Oh,"  retorted  Murella  with  pretty  nonchalance, 
"I  no  care!  I  lofe  amuse  myself,"  leading  the  way 
to  the  main  saloon.  "I  haf  always  parteekler  frent, 
same  as  baroness,  ess  it  not?"  and  she  sank  indo- 
lently into  the  cushioned  depths  of  a  primrose  sofa, 
waving  the  baroness  to  a  place  beside  her,  and  leav- 
ing the  party  to  make  choice  of  seats. 

A  glance  at  the  original  design  and  superb  appoint- 
ments of  this  interior  suggested  the  incongruity  of 
hammocks  and  ollas,  yet  here  they  were  many  times 
repeated,  for  "  ice  is  the  devil's  nectar,"  runs  a  Span- 
ish proverb,  and  the  olla  has  no  rival  save  the  mescal 

jug- 

Every  well-to-do  Mexican  family  keeps  beneath  its 
roof  a  corps  of  female  retainers,  who  are  neither  serv- 
ants nor  guests,  but  something  between  the  two. 
They  dine — except  on  occasions — at  the  family  board, 
and  mingle  always  at  the  family  gathering,  but  they 
assist  in  the  household  labors,  and  sometimes,  though 
not  often,  receive  a  stated  money  compensation. 
They  are  usually  relatives,  more  or  less  distant,  of  the 


316  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

mistress  of  the  household.  The  beautiful  casa  and 
great  wealth  of  the  Gonzales  family  had  nearly  de- 
populated the  neighboring  Mexican  State  of  Sonora 
of  all  the  needy  Alvarados  who  could  claim  kinship 
with  the  Donna  Maria,  and  a  dozen  of  these  senoritas 
now  appeared  shyly  at  the  doors,  their  mantilks 
closely  drawn,  though  the  day  was  warm,  and  many 
voices  and  excellent  music  were  heard  from  all  quar- 
ters of  the  house  and  grounds. 

After  a  few  moments  the  Sefiora  Gonzales,  with  her 
brother,  Don  Manuel  Alvarado,  who  acted  as  major- 
domo  of  the  estate,  were  presented,  but  the  sefiora 
soon  glided  away  unobserved,  leaving  her  brother  to 
the  honors  of  guide  over  the  mansion. 

"  You  are  very  beautiful,"  spoke  Murella  with  ap- 
parent naivete,  as  they  arose  to  follow  the  party  who 
had  preceded  them. 

The  smile  of  the  baroness  was  tinged  with  bitterness 
as  she  turned  to  look  into  the  Madonna  face  beside 
her,  and  ventured  to  reply. 

"AndSenor  Morning  lofes  you  like  heaven  and  the 
angels,"  she  continued  unctuously. 

"  Sefiorita,  you  forget  that  I  have  a  husband." 

"Is  he  jealous  ?  " 

' '  Surely  no, ' '  replied  the  baroness  sincerely. 

"  Then  I  no  know  what  you  mean  a." 

"  I  mean  that  I  owe  a  wife's  duty  to  the  baron," 
slowly,  with  rising  color. 

"And  what  you  owe  a  to  the  other  fellow  ?  "  mean- 
ing Morning. 

The  baroness  was  too  much  confused  to  speak. 

"  You  know  him  a-  long  time?  " 

' '  Before  I  married  the  baron  and  went  abroad. ' ' 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  317 

'  'And  you  lofe  him  all  these  a  year  ?     Oh  thunner ! ' ' 

Murella's  English  must  be  taken  with  many  grains 
of  allowance.  The  strongest  words  in  a  foreign  or 
unfamiliar  tongue  seem  ineffectual  and  weak. 

"I  must  plead  the  indulgence  of  a  guest,"  laughed 
the  baroness,  "and  withdraw  myself  from  the  search- 
ing operations  of  your  cunning  catechism,  or  turn  the 
lights  upon  you.     How  long  have  you  known  — " 

But  the  senorita  had  softly  glided  away,  standing 
apart  and  giving  hurried  orders  for  luncheon. 

Morning  was  in  a  dilemma.  It  will  have  been  ob- 
served that,  after  the  first  moment  of  greeting,  Mu- 
rella  had  given  him  no  farther  thought.  Gratitude  is 
not  with  the  Spaniard  one  of  the  cardinal  virtues,  as 
he  was  aware,  so  that  was  an  un vexed  question.  If 
his  name  had  not  been  so  prominently  before  the 
world,  doubtless  they  would — the  entire  family  in- 
cluded— have  forgotten  it  ere  this.  But  was  it  pique, 
was  it  pride,  or  was  it  embarrassment,  that  led  Murella 
to  thus  overlook  him  ? 

Certainly  she  had  recognized  the  baroness  at  the 
first  glance,  to  his  amazement  and  bewilderment,  for 
the  episode  of  her  examination  and  temporary  cus- 
tody of  the  photograph  was  unknown  to  him,  and 
just  so  surely  her  first  impulse  had  been  to  render 
that  lady  as  uncomfortable  as  possible.  But,  with  her 
usual  swift  sagacity,  she  had,  with  an  eye  single  to 
her  own  cunning  tactics,  quite  changed  her  base  of 
action,  and,  with  admirable  finesse,  proceeded  at  once 
to  make  a  friend  of  the  baroness,  through  her  charm- 
ing frankness  and  unsophisticated  confidences.  .  The 
steady,  unflinching  eye  of  Morning,  therefore,  while 


31 8  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

trained  as  the  eagle's  to  catch  the  fiercest  rays  of  the 
noonday  sun,  could  no  more  follow  the  erratic  and 
elusive  movements  of  the  elfish  fancy  of  this  fasci- 
nating woman  than  the  eye  of  his  horse  could  follow 
the  flash  of  a  meteor. 

"Come,  sefiora,"  said  Murella  to  the  baroness  a 
moment  later,  "  I  know  the  ting  you  was  ask  a  me, 
how  long  time  I  know  Seiior  Morning  lofe  a  you. ' ' 

The  baroness  knew  that  she  had  not  meant  to  ask 
any  such  question,  but  rather  how  long  the  senorita 
had  known  Mr.  Morning.  But  she  had  scarcely 
opened  her  lips  when  Murella  talked  on. 

"You  tink  I  no  know  lof  when  a  I  see  a?  Eh! 
what  that  on  his  face  when  he  a  tak  a  your  hand  for 
make  a  me  know  you  Baroness  Von  Eulaw"  ?  Eh  ? 
what  you  call  proud,  courage,  lof,  beautiful  life!" 
and  her  flashing  eyes  burned  like  stars  in  heaven's 
night. 

Strange  caprice!  the  track  was  cold  over  which  she 
had  set  out  to  run  the  race  for  a  life,  and  many  a  prize 
had  been  won  and  thrown  away  since  then,  and  now 
she  was  burning  with  the  wish  that  her  rival  should 
gain  that  which  she  had  lost.  Was  it  magnanimity, 
or  was  it  a  natural-born  desire  to  defraud  some  man 
of  his  marital  rights,  and  give  some  woman  a  victory? 

' '  Now  we  will  go  to  the  Morning  room  so  I  call 
a;"  and  together  they  walked  over  the  exquisite 
mosaic  floors,  and  halls  of  parquetry,  and  stairway 
glittering  as  the  sun,  and  figures  of  classic  art  looked 
down,  and  fold  on  fold  of  hues  of  soft-blent  shadows 
dropped  from  tinted  panes  and  fell  around  them.  In 
apparently  the  most  casual  way  they  passed  a  studio 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  319 

filled  with  light  and  color,  where,  in  violet  velvet 
blouse,  and  cap  upon  his  poetic  locks,  worked  and 
smoked  the  master  of  Italian  art. 

' '  This  is  my  parteekler  fren — the  Baroness  Von 
Eulaw,  Seiior  Fillipo,"  and  they  hurried  on. 

Arrived  at  the  suite,  they  first  entered  the  dressing- 
room.  It  was  plainly  finished  in  French  gray,  with 
gold  and  blue  enamel,  the  same  colors  repeated  in 
drapery  and  cushions.  But  one  piece  attracted  par- 
ticular attention.  It  was  an  alabaster  fountain,  the 
elaborate  accessories  half  concealing  a  full-sized  bust 
of  Morning,  the  identity  of  which  could  not  be  mis- 
taken. It  was  exquisitely  chiseled,  and  falling  jets, 
and  icy  foam,  and  cascades  like  cobwebs,  built  up 
masses  of  soft,  misty  whiteness,  shutting  back  all 
save  an  incidental  glimpse  of  outline,  and  thickening 
by  contrast  the  boldness  of  the  water  plants  at  the 
base. 

"A  very  pretty  conceit,"  said  the  baroness,  ap- 
provingly.     "Who  is  the  designer?  " 

"Me,"  said  the  sefiorita,  coldly,  leading  the  way 
to  the  main  chamber,  to  which  apartment  Murella 
carried  the  key.  Unlocking  the  door,  the  baroness 
had  scarcely  time  to  take  in  the  mute,  indescribable 
effects  of  the  auroral  tints  on  the  walls,  stippled  and 
faded  into  thinnest  ether,  with  its  golden  sky  over- 
spread with  winged  cherubs  in  high  relief,  laid  in 
tints  such  as  are  only  painted  on  angels,  when  the 
baron's  party  were  heard  approaching.  One  thing, 
however,  had  struck  the  baroness,  even  at  a  cursory 
glance.  The  dust  lay  thick  and  undisturbed  over 
all  the  furniture  of  the  room.     A  superb  curtain  of 


320  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

corn-colored  brocade  hung  over  one  end  of  the  apart- 
ment, which  also  showed  signs  of  not  having  been 
disturbed  at  least  for  a  term  of  many  months.  A 
gesture  of  impatience  was  made  by  Murella  as  she 
spoke,  in  an  irascible  tone  of  voice,  "  What  for  a  he 
bring  a  they  here?" 

However,  the  party,  following  their  guide,  entered, 
expressing  surprise  at  finding  the  ladies  had  preceded 
them. 

The  baron  at  once  walked  over  and  engaged  their 
pretty  hostess  in  conversation,  laughing  genuinely  at 
her  piquant  expressions  and  unworldly-wise  ways, 
while  Morning  talked  about  some  irrelevant  thing 
with  Miss  Winters,  and  the  rest  of  the  company  saun- 
tered to  the  remoter  quarters  of  the  apartments.  Mrs. 
Thornton,  however,  coveted  a  view  behind  the  maize 
curtain,  and  to  this  end  plied  the  major-domo  with 
such  blandishments  as  were  at  her  command,  and  using 
vigorously  the  little  Spanish  she  possessed.  The 
Spaniard  turned  to  look  for  the  sefiorita — she  had 
momentarily  disappeared  with  the  baron — and  he 
flung  aside  the  fatal  curtain. 

There,  in  a  regal  frame,  in  a  painting  by  the  famous 
hand  of  Prince  Fillipo  Colonna,  master  of  arts  in  the 
Royal  Academy  at  Rome,  appeared  two  full-sized 
figures.  They  were  those  of  David  Morning  and 
Sefiorita  Gonzales.  It  was  an  interior  of  an  adobe 
house.  The  saints  upon  the  mud  walls,  with  rosaries 
suspended  beneath  them,  and  the  crude  decorations 
about  the  fireplace,  with  the  hammocks  in  the  shadow 
were  dimly  visible.  Light  came  in  through  a  low 
window,  and  fell  upon  the  white  face  of  Morning,  just 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  321 

tinged  with  returning  health.  One  hand  held  sus- 
pended a  pencil,  while  with  the  other,  just  discernible 
from  out  the  shadows,  he  clasped  the  girlish  figure  of 
Murella  Gonzales. 

It  was  a  master  work  of  art,  and  more  than  con- 
doned all  malicious  or  vain  intent  on  the  part  of  the 
author.  The  expression  upon  Morning's  face  was 
one  of  placid  amusement,  while  that  upon  the  girl's 
was  anxious  and  arch,  questioning  and  trusting,  open, 
yet  elusive,  like  the  mimosa  growing  sturdily  from 
the  potted  earth  in  the  rude  casement,  which  receded 
at  a  sound  of  the  human  voice.  The  noble  artist  had 
evidently  caught  an  inspiration  from  the  local  color — 
filtrated  through  the  hot  brain  of  the  lovely  sefiorita — 
and  had  touched  the  face  of  Morning  with  the  light  of 
his  lovely  companion. 

Mr.  Morning  had  just  crossed  over  to  catch  a  word 
with  the  baroness  when  the  tableau  was  unveiled. 
Her  whitening  face  frightened  him,  and  he  looked 
quickly  over  her  shoulder  at  the  picture.  At  the 
same  moment  a  piercing  shriek,  and  Sefiorita  Murella 
rushed  wildly  down  the  room. 

"  Madre  de  Dws/"  she  yelled.  "  What  a  you  do 
that  a  for?  "  and  she  menaced  the  poor  Spaniard  with 
her  small  fist. 

"It  was  I,  it  was  I,"  pleaded  Mrs.  Thornton. 
"Don't  blame  him."  But  Murella  turned  from  her 
with  high  scorn.  -. 

"Fool,  I  will  kill  a  him,"  she  shrieked,  again  turn- 
ing to  the  place  where  the  man  had  stood. 

But  Sefior  Don  Manuel  Jose  Maria  Ignacio  Cer- 
vantes Alvarado,  knowing  something  of  the  temper  of 
21 


322  BETTER    DAYS. 

his  niece,  had  attended  not  upon  the  order  of  his  go- 
ing, but  slipped  away,  and  in  his  place  stood  Morn- 
ing. For  one  brief  moment  Murella  looked  at  him, 
then,  drawing  a  pearl-handled  stiletto  from  beneath 
her  girdle,  she  gashed  and  stabbed  the  unconscious 
canvas  in  twice  a  dozen  places,  crying  all  the  time, 
' '  Take  a  that,  and  a  that,  and  a  that ! ' ' 

Morning  thought  that  his  time  had  come,  but  he 
manfully  stood  his  ground,  secretly  smiling  at  the 
bloodless  assassination,  until,  exhausted,  Murella  fell 
upon  the  carpet  in  a  genuine  hysterical  rage.  After 
a  moment  he  lifted  her  to  her  feet,  placed  her  hand 
within  his  arm,  and  led  her  unresistingly  from  the 
room. 

An,  hour  later  she  stood  at  the  boathouse,  leaning 
upon  the  arm  of  Prince  Fillipo,  and  gayly  waving  an 
adieu  to  the  party,  Morning  among  them;  then,  with 
the  artist's  arm  about  her  waist,  they  slowly  returned 
up  the  terrace  steps,  while  the  decorated  steamer 
went  out  of  sight  around  the  cove. 

And  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw  guessed  now  who  it 
was  that  had  made  the  pin  holes  in  her  eyes. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

"  No  more  shall  nation  against  nation  rise." 

The  Congress  of  1892  builded  even  better  than  it 
knew,  when  it  dropped  partisan  prejudices,  and  arose 
superior  to  local  fetterings,  and,  in  a  truly  national 
spirit,  secured  for  the  United  States  of  America  do- 
minion of  the  seas  and  control  of  the  commerce  of  the 
world. 

The  Act  of  Congress  which  guaranteed  the  pay- 
ment of  five  per  cent  bonds  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal 
Company  to  the  extent  of  $100,000,000,  and  which 
provided  that  the  canal  tolls  upon  American  ships 
should  never  be  more  than  two-thirds  the  amount 
charged  the  vessels  of  other  nations,  enabled  the  com- 
pany to  construct  the  canal  with  unexpected  rapidity, 
without  calling  upon  the  United  States  for  a  dollar  of 
the  guaranty,  while,  more  than  any  subsidy  or  favor- 
able mail  contract,  it  aided  to  place  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  at  the  mastheads  of  the  vast  fleet  of  ships  and 
steamers  which,  upon  the  completion  of  the  canal  in 
the  autumn  of  1895,  began  to  pass  between  the  Atlan- 
tic and  the  Pacific. 

The  local  traffic  developed  by  the  canal  proved 
something  phenomenal.  Early  in  the  history  of  its  con- 
struction it  became  generally  known  that  the  country, 
for  hundreds  of  miles  about  Lake  Nicaragua,  was  not 

(323) 


324  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

an  unhealthy  tropical  jungle,  but  an  elevated,  breezy 
table-land,  environed  and  divided  by  snow-clad  moun- 
tains, with  an  average  temperature  only  a  few  degrees 
warmer  than  that  of  California,  and  with  a  much  more 
even  distribution  of  rainfall. 

A  knowledge  of  these  advantages  was  followed  by 
a  large  incursion  of  American  settlers.  There  is  per- 
haps no  product  of  field  or  forest  more  profitable 
than  the  coffee  plant.  Steadily  the  demand  for  the 
fragrant  berry  is  upon  the  increase,  while,  beside  hav- 
ing few  enemies  in  the  insect  world,  the  area  within 
which  coffee  can  be  advantageously  grown  is  very 
limited.  While  the  coffee  plant  does  not  require 
an  exceptionally  hot  climate,  it  will  not  thrive  where 
frost  is  a  possibility.  The  hill  slopes.and  table-lands  of 
Nicaragua  were  found  to  be  peculiarly  adapted  for  its 
growth,  and  thousands  of  acres  of  young  plantations 
were  already  thriving  where  for  centuries  only  wild 
grasses  had  waved.  Short  lines  of  railroad,  centering 
on  Lake  Nicaragua,  and  running  in  every.direction, 
had  made  accessible  a  large  extent  of  country.  The 
scream  of  the  gang  saw  was  heard  amid  forests  of  dye- 
woods,  rosewood,  and  mahogany.  Mines  of  gold,  sil- 
ver, copper,  iron,  and  coal  were  opened.  Cotton, 
sugar,  and  indigo  plantations  were  developed,  and 
Millerville,  on  Lake  Nicaragua,  when  the  war  ships 
passed  through  the  canal  to  attend  David  Morning's 
dynamic  exposition,  was  already  a  city  of  fifty  thou- 
sand people,  provided  with  electric  lights  and  cable 
roads. 

The  advantages  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
of  the  completed  Nicaragua  Ship  Canal  were  almost 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  325 

incalculable.  The  freight-carrying  business  of  the 
world  between  the  east  coast  of  Asia  and  Europe 
was  rapidly  transferred  to  American  bottoms.  The 
iron  manufacturers  of  Tennessee,  Alabama,  and 
Georgia  were  given  an  opportunity,  previously  denied 
them,  of  marketing  the  product  of  their  furnaces  and 
foundries  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of  North  America.  The 
dwellers  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  could  now  send  their 
cotton,  meats,  and  manufactures  to  trans-Pacific  and 
Antipodean  markets,  and  California  redwood  and 
Puget  Sound  fir  and  cedar  lumber  could  be  sent  over 
all  the  Northwest. 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  the  canal  added  twenty-five 
per  cent  to  the  productive  value  of  every  acre  of  grain 
and  timber  land.  The  cost  of  sacking,  and  half  the 
cost  of  transporting  wheat  was  saved  to  the  farmer, 
and  the  freight  upon  all  machinery  and  heavy  goods 
brought  from  the  East  was  greatly  lessened. 

On  Puget  Sound  the  construction  of  a  ship  canal, 
costing  less  than  $2,000,000,  connecting  the  fresh 
waters  of  Lake  Washington  with  the  salt  water  in 
Elliott  Bay,  gave  to  Seattle  such  facilities  for  ware- 
housing, loading,  and  dry-docking,  and  such  inde- 
pendence of  tides  and  teredos,  that  a  commercial 
rival  of  San  Francisco  was  spreading  over  the  hills  of 
the  fir-fringed  Queen  of  the  New  Mediterranean,  while 
at  the  extreme  southwestern  corner  of  the  republic 
the  city  of  bay  and  climate — San  Diego — was  rapidly 
regaining  the  population  and  prestige  which  tempo- 
rarily slipped  from  her  grasp  at  fhe  subsiding  of  the 
boom  which,  during  1886  and  18S7,  enkindled  the 
imagination,  and  beguiled  the  judgment,  and  encrazed 


326  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

with  the  fever  of  speculation,  the  people  of  Southern 
California. 

Even  during  the  dull  times  which  annihilated  so 
many  promising  fortunes  in  Southern  Calitbrnia,  the 
attractions  of  Coronado  Beach  were  sufficient  to  secure 
for  it  exemption  from  the  dire  distress  which  overtook 
other  localities. 

The  company  owning  this  enterprise  successfully 
defied  not  only  abursted  boom  but  the  very  forces  of 
nature,  for  they  riprapped  the  beach  in  front  of  their 
hotel,  and  baffled  the  Pacific  Ocean,  which,  after 
gnawing  up  the  lawn  and  shrubbery  which  fronted  its 
restless  waters,  had  set  its  foam-capped  legions  at  work 
to  undermine  the  foundations  of  the  great  ballroom. 

Parks,  avenues,  and  streets  were  improved,  mu- 
seums and  gardens  developed,  and  races  and  hops 
and  fishing  and  boating  parties  encouraged.  Excur- 
sions from  neighboring  cities  were  organized,  the  East 
was  flooded  with  pamphlets  praising  Coronado,  and 
the  pleasure-loving  and  health-seeking  world  was  in 
every  way  reminded  that  in  this  land  of  rare  delights 
it  could  pick  ripe  oranges  and  enjoy  surf  bathing  in 
midwinter,  while  Boston  was  shivering  and  New  York 
swept  with  blizzards. 

The  band  at  the  hotel  was  kept  playing  every  day 
at  luncheon  and  dinner,  and  it  discoursed  sweet  music 
in  the  ballroom  regularly  upon  hop  nights  to  auditors, 
who  found — as  all  people  can  find — more  of  the  phys- 
ical comforts  and  delights  of  life  at  Coronado  Beach 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  for  nowhere  else  is 
there  such  music  in  the  sea,  such  balm  in  the  air, 
such  sunshine,  and  fragrance,  and  healing,  and  rest. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  327 

The  faith  and  patience  of  the  owner  of  the  great 
hotel  were,  in  the  end,  rewarded.  Month  by  month 
and  year  by  year  did  the  numbers  of  his  guests  in- 
crease, until,  in  1895,  the  capacity  of  the  house  was 
more  than  doubled,  by  the  addition  of  a  building 
something  over  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  and  the 
great  hotel  could  now  accommodate  quite  two  thou- 
sand guests. 

David  Morning  selected  Coronado  Beach  for  his 
dynamic  experiments,  and,  with  some  difficulty,  char- 
tered the  entire  hotel  for  one  month,  during  which 
time  it  was  reserved  exclusively  for  his  guests.  He 
also  leased  the  northerly  end  of  the  Coronado  Beach 
peninsula  for  the  construction  and  equipment  of  his 
air  ship,  and  for  a  laboratory  for  the  manufacture  of 
potentite. 

The  real  Coronado  Islands  are  within  the  territorial 
jurisdiction  of  Mexico,  situated  about  sixteen  miles 
south  and  west  from  San  Diego  Bay,  and  were,  except 
in  cloudy  weather,  distinctly  visible  from  Coronado 
Beach.  Irregular  and  ragged  masses  of  red  sandstone 
a  iew  thousand  acres  in  extent  towered  to  a  height  of 
several  hundred  feet  above  the  ocean,  faintly  staining 
the  horizon  with  patches  of  blue,  resembling  an  un- 
finished sky  in  water  color. 

These  islands  were  destitute  of  water  and  vegeta- 
tion, and  never  inhabited  save  by  a  few  laborers  who 
were  engaged  in  quarrying  rock  there,  and  Morning 
found  no  difficulty  in  purchasing  them  from  their  own- 
ers, and  removing  all  the  occupants. 

On  the  northern  end  of  the  Coronado  Beach  penin- 
sula,   Morning  caused  to  be  erected  a  laboratory  for 


328  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

the  manufacture  of  potentite,  with  which  to  load  the 
steel  shells  to  be  carried  by  the  air  ship.  This  new 
dynamic  force,  or,  rather,  storehouse  of  force,  con- 
sisted of  a  combination  of  explosive  gelatine  with  ful- 
minate of  mercury,  and  possessed  a  power  equal  to 
thirteen  hundred  tons  to  the  square  inch,  or  sixty 
times  that  of  common  blasting  gunpowder,  and  nine 
times  that  of  dynamite,  and  fifty  pounds  of  it  properly 
directed  would  sink  any  ironclad  afloat.  It  is  quite 
safe  for  manipulation,  because  it  is  unexplosive,  ex- 
cept when  brought  in  contact  with  a  chemical  sub- 
stance— also  non-explosive  except  by  contact — which 
is  only  added  immediately  before  using. 

The  Petrel,  the  air  ship  used  at  the  dynamic  expo- 
sition, was  built  by  the  Mount  Carmel  Aeronautic 
Company  at  their  works  in  Chicago,  and  sent  by  rail 
in  sections  to  Coronado  Beach,  where  she  was  put  to- 
gether. She  was  cigar-shaped,  one  hundred  feet  in 
length  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  and  was  built  of 
butternut — the  toughest  of  the  light  woods.  Her 
engines,  with  their  fans  and  propellers,  as  well  as  the 
gas  generator  and  tank  for  benzine,  were  all  con- 
structed of  tempered  aluminum,  made  by  the  new  Ken- 
tucky process,  at  a  cost  of  only  eight  cents  per  pound. 
Being  stronger  and  tougher  than  the  finest  steel,  and 
only  one-third  the  weight  of  that  metal,  aluminum  was 
especially  adapted  for  the  construction  of  air  ships. 

The  machinery  of  the  Petrel  was  propelled  by  a 
gas  generated  from  benzine.  The  fluid  was  carried 
in  an  air-tight  aluminum  tank,  from  which  it  passed, 
drop  by  drop,  to  the  generator.  This  gas,  almost  as 
powerful  as   the  vibratory  ether  discovered   by   Mr. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  329 

Keely,  was  much  safer  because  more  certainly  con- 
trolled. 

The  Petrel,  with  all  her  machinery  in  place,  with 
two  tons  of  benzine  in  her  tanks,  and  ten  men  on 
board  of  her  supplied  with  sufficient  water  and  food 
for  use  for  fifteen  days,  weighed  but  ten  tons,  and  the 
force  generated  from  two  tons  of  benzine  was  suffi- 
cient to  lift  her,  with  a  freight  of  ten  tons  more,  to  a 
height  of  five  thousand  or  even  ten  thousand  feet, 
and,  without  any  aid  from  her  folding  aluminum  para- 
chute, was  able  to  maintain  her  there  for  a  fortnight, 
at  a  speed — in  a  still  atmosphere — of  fifty  miles  per 
hour.  No  balloon  was  attached  to  the  Petrel,  as  she 
relied  entirely  upon  her  paddles  and  wings  both  for 
propulsion  and  as  a  means  of  maintaining  herself  in 
the  air. 

She  was  constructed  upon  the  principle  of  aerial 
navigation  furnished  by  the  wild  goose.  That  bird 
maintains  himself  in  the  ether  during  a  flight  of  hun- 
dreds of  miles  without  a  rest,  simply  because  his 
strength,  or  muscular  power,  is  greater,  in  proportion 
to  his  weight,  than  that  of  creatures  who  walk  upon 
the  ground.  Man  could  always  have  constructed 
wings  of  silk  and  bamboo  which  would  have  enabled 
him  to  fly  if  he  had  only  possessed  the  strength  to 
flap  his  wings. 

Aerial  navigation  never  presented  any  other  prob- 
lem than  that  of  procuring  power  without  weight. 
Once  able  to  obtain  the  power  of  a  ten-horse  engine, 
with  a  weight,  including  machinery,  of  less  than  one 
ton,  one  might  fly  all  over  the  world,  and,  by  taking 
advantage  of  the  air  currents,  a  knowledge  of  which 


330  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

will  soon  be  gained,  fly  at  a  speed  of  fifty  or  even  one 
hundred  miles  an  hour.  The  recent  discovery  of  the 
immense  power  of  a  gas  which  it  is  possible  to  gener- 
ate from  benzine  without  the  use  of  fuel,  has  made  the 
air  as  available  for  the  purposes  of  rapid  transit  by 
man  as  the  ocean  or  the  land.  The  great  cost  of 
locomotion  by  this  means  will  doubtless  prevent  its 
use  for  the  transportation  of  freight,  or,  indeed,  of  pas- 
sengers, except  for  those  who  can  afford  the  luxury, 
and  for  them  it  will  supplant  all  other  methods. 

The  Petrel  was  provided  with  the  new  patent  con- 
densed fuel,  one  pound  of  which  for  cooking  and 
heating  purposes  is  equal  to  ten  pounds  of  coal.  She 
was  furnished  with  parachutes  made  of  thin  sheets  of 
aluminum  closely  folded  one  above  the  other.  These, 
when  not  in  use,  formed  an  awning  or  canopy  over 
her  deck,  while,  in  case  of  accident,  they  could,  by 
pulling  a  convenient  lever,  be  instantly  spread  over 
an  area  large  enough  to  insure  her  a  gradual  and  safe 
descent,  and  should  such  descent  be  into  the  water, 
she  was  so  constructed  as  to  float  as  buoyantly  as  a 
cork  upon  its  surface,  while,  by  lessening  the  number 
of  revolutions  per  minute  of  her  aluminum  propellers, 
they  could  be  used  as  paddles  for  her  propulsion 
through  the  water. 

The  freight  of  the  Petrel  consisted  of  two  hundred 
shells  of  potentite,  weighing  one  hundred  pounds 
each,  and  the  result  to  the  Coronodo  Islands  of  their 
falling  upon  it  from  a  height  of  a  mile  or  more,  was 
predicted  long  in  advance  of  the  experiment.  "  If," 
it  was  said,  "fifty  pounds  of  this  explosive  will  destroy 
an  ironclad,  what  will  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  it 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  331 

do  to  an  island  of  rock  ?  What  would  a  dozen  Petrels 
accomplish,  hurling  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
pounds  of  it  upon  an  army,  a  city,  or  an  enemy's 
fortress?" 

They  could  level  Gibraltar  with  the  sea;  they  could 
extirpate  an  army  of  a  million  men;  they  could  oblit- 
erate London  or  Berlin  or  New  York  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  A  fleet  of  a  hundred  Petrels  could  ascend 
from  New  York,  cross  the  Atlantic  in  three  days,  de- 
stroy every  city  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  six  hours, 
and,  leaving  England  a  mass  of  ruins,  with  two-thirds 
of  her  people  slain,  return  in  three  days  to  New  York, 
with  unused  power  enough  to  go  to  San  Francisco 
and  back  without  descending. 

England,  or  any  other  nation,  could  likewise  de- 
stroy America,  for  neither  aerial  navigation  nor  the 
manufacture  of  potentite  are  secrets  locked  in  any 
one  man's  brain. 

"If  Mr.  Morning's  dynamic  exposition,"  it  was 
said,  "shall  fulfill  its  promise,  he  can,  if  he  chooses, 
as  the  possessor  of  so  complete  an  air  ship  and  so 
powerful  an  explosive,  be  the  ruler  of  the  world. 
Emperors  and  Parliaments  must,  for  the  time,  be  the 
subjects  of  the  man  who  can  destroy  cities  and  camps, 
and  who  can  make  such  changes  in  the  map  of  the 
world  as  he  may  choose." 

"  If  the  experiment  this  day  to  be  made  at  Coro- 
nado,"  said  the  President  of  the  United  States,  "shall 
be  successful,  armies  may  as  well  be  disbanded,  for 
there  can  be  no  more  war,  and  governments  all  over 
the  world  must,  henceforth,  rest  upon  the  consent  of 
the  governed. ' ' 


332  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Before  sending  the  Petrel  upon  her  mission,  an  ex- 
amination of  the  territory  to  be  devastated  was  in 
order,  and  the  Hotel  del  Coronado  was  nearly  emptied 
of  its  guests,  for  the  Charleston,  the  War  spite,  and 
the  Wilhelm  II,  steamed  away  to  the  Coronado  Is- 
lands, where  the  American,  British,  German,  French, 
Russian,  Italian,  Mexican,  and  Brazilian  engineers, 
with  their  assistants,  landed,  took  measurements  and 
altitudes,  and  a  number  of  photographic  views,  and 
examined  the  islands  thoroughly,  verifying  the  accu- 
racy of  the  topographical  maps  and  profile  models 
in  clay  previously  made  by  engineers  employed  by 
Morning.  It  was  projected  to  make  another  survey 
and  set  of  maps  after  the  potentite  had  done  its  work, 
so  as  to  preserve  an  accurate  and  unimpeachable 
record  of  the  result  of  what  our  hero  modestly  called 
his  "  experiment." 

The  vessels  returned  to  their  moorings  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  first  day  of  the  expo- 
sition, in  ample  time  for  their  passengers  and  officers 
to  attend  the  dinner  given  by  Morning  that  evening 
to  his  royal  and  imperial  majesty  Edward  the  Seventh, 
king  of  Great  Britain  and  emperor  of  India.  This 
sagacious  prince,  rightly  conceiving  that  the  dynamic 
exposition  of  citizen  David  Morning  was  likely  to  be 
the  preliminary  of  an  entire  change  in  the  methods  of 
government,  if  not  in  the  governments  themselves, 
of  the  civilized  world,  determined  to  head  in  person 
the  British  delegation,  which  was  brought  on  the  War- 
spite  from  Vancouver  to  San  Diego. 

The  manner  in  which  King  Edward  has  impressed 
the  American  people  may  be  deduced  from  a  remark 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  333 

made  at  the  dinner  by  a  shrewd  observer  and  leading 
citizen  of  San  Diego. 

"  That  king,"  said  he,  "  is  a  dandy.  He  is  credited 
with  being  the  cleverest  and  most  adroit  politician  in 
England,  and  I  believe  it,  or  he  could  never  have 
steered  his  canoe  out  of  that  baccarat  whirlpool.  If 
Dave  Morning's  dynamics  should  sort  of  blow  him 
out  of  a  job  at  home,  kt  him  come  over  here,  and  in 
one  year  I  will  back  him  at  long  odds  to  get  the  nom- 
ination for  the  best  office  in  the  county  from  either  the 
Democratic  or  Republican  convention,  and,  maybe, 
from  both.  What  a  roaring  team  he  and  Jack  Dodge 
and  Sam  Davis  would  make  for  a  county  canvass ! 
Jack  to  do  the  fiddling  and  dancing,  Sam  the  all-a- 
round lying,  and  Edward  the  hand  shaking  and  the 
setting  'em  up  for  the  boys!  " 

The  ample  gardens  of  San  Diego,  San  Bernardino, 
Los  Angeles,  and  Santa  Barbara  were  stripped  for  the 
decoration  of  the  banquet  hall.  All  day  flowers  were 
arriving  by  the  train  load,  and  several  hundred  floral 
artists  were  at  work  in  the  great  dining  room.  The 
effect  was  surpassingly  beautiful.  Suspended  from 
the  great  dome  by  ropes  of  smilax  was  a  gigantic 
figure  of  Peace,  wrought  in  white  calla  lilies,  bearing 
in  her  right  hand  a  branch  from  an  olive  tree,  while 
her  left  held  to  her  lips  a  trumpet  of  yellow  jasmine. 
On  the  walls  the  arms  of  all  nations  were  wrought  in 
camellias,  carnations,  fleur-de-lis,  and  roses  of  every 
hue.  The  music  and  the  menu  were  both  incompar- 
able, and,  in  accordance  with  the  later  and  better 
practice  of  great  dinners,  formal  speech  making  was 
altogether  dispensed  with. 


334  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

The  next  morning  the  shores  of  Coronado  Beach 
were  black  with  people,  and  in  the  great  hotel  every 
piazza  and  window  facing  southward  or  westward  was 
occupied.  There  was  a  light  breeze  blowing  from 
the  north  as  the  Petrel  left  her  berth  and  rapidly 
mounted  in  the  air  to  a  height  of  seven  thousand  feet, 
which  altitude  she  achieved  with  her  fans  in  seven 
minutes'  time.  She  then  put  her  propellers  in  motion 
and  was  soon  a  mere  speck  against  the  cloudless  sky, 
scarcely  discernible  by  the  most  powerful  glasses. 

But  though  out  of  sight  she  soon  made  her  exist- 
ence and  her  work  known  to  the  multitude.  In 
thirty-five  minutes  from  the  time  she  left  her  berth, 
she  had  compassed  a  mile  and  a  half  in  height  and 
sixteen  miles  of  distance  and  was  hovering  over  Coro- 
nado Islands.  In  twenty  minutes  more  six  men  on 
board  of  her  had  thrown  over  the  two  hundred  po- 
tentite  shells,  and  in  half  an  hour  thereafter  the  aer.al 
wonder  was  again  resting  quietly  on  the  peninsula. 

It  was  a  clear  day,  and  the  islands  were  distinctly 
visible.  Sight  travels  more  swiftly  than  sound,  and 
before  any  noise  was  heard,  the  immense  mass  of 
rock,  crown  shaped,  from  which  the  islands  take  their 
name,  was  seen  by  the  gazers  on  the  beach  to  leap 
from  its  place  and  fall  into  the  sea.  Other  masses  in 
swift  succession  followed;  then  came  roars  of  sound, 
as  if  heaven  and  earth  were  coming  together;  roars 
of  sound  which  rattled  the  doors  and  casements  of  the 
hotel  as  if  shaken  with  a  high  wind.  For  twenty 
minutes  this  awe-inspiring  exhibition  continued,  and 
when  the  tremendous  cannonading  ceased,  the  Cor- 
onada  Islands — in  the  form  in  which  they  had  pre- 
viously existed — were  no  more. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  335 

The  work  of  resurveying  and  making  new  topo- 
graphical maps  was  subsequently  performed,  as  a 
part  of  the  duty  of  those  connected  with  the  dynamic 
exposition,  but  it  needed  no  measurements  to  demon- 
strate the  awful  power  of  the  potentite.  An  area  of 
solid  rock  a  mile  square  was  rent  into  fragments  for 
a  depth  of  one  hundred  feet. 

Many  improvements  in  machinery  and  manage- 
ment were  suggested  to  the  officers  of  the  Petrel,  but 
the  experiment  was  conceded  by  all  the  great  engi- 
neers who  witnessed  it,  to  be  so  completely  successful 
as  to  practically  eliminate  land  warfare  from  the  future 
of  nations. 

"It  is  fortunate,"  said  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury, 
who  was  one  of  the  British  delegation — ''it  is  fortu- 
nate that  the  manufacture  of  even  a  small  quantity  of 
potentite  requires  months  of  time,  great  skill,  and  a 
costly  and  extensive  laboratory,  so  that  it  will  be  not 
impracticable  to  prevent  its  preparation  by  private 
persons.  But  given  a  piece  of  land  anywhere  in  the 
civilized  world  large  enough  to  permit  of  the  build- 
ing of  air  ships  and  the  manufacture  of  potentite,  and 
sufficiently  defended  to  afford  to  its  garrison  three 
months'  time  in  which  to  perfect  the  making  of  that 
explosive,  and  any  power,  however  insignificant,  could, 
with  a  hundred  air  ships,  destroy  in  three  days  all  the 
great  cities  in  Europe." 

"As  it  now  appears,"  continued  the  Marquis,  "this 
method  of  warfare  would  not  be  so  available  against  a 
moving  object  on  the  sea,  such  as  a  war  ship.  But  if 
the  submarine  torpedo  boat,  whose  operations  we  are 
to  witness  to-morrow,  shall  be  anything  nearly  as  effect- 


336  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

ive  as  Mr.  Morning's  air  ship,  it  seems  to  me  that  a 
convention  of  civilized  powers  to  adjust  international 
relations  and  provide  for  a  Congress  and  Court  of 
Nations,  to  which  all  international  differences  must  be 
submitted,  will  be  an  absolute  necessity  in  the  future," 

' '  And  how  would  the  decrees  of  such  a  court  be 
enforced,  your  lordship,"  inquired  Prince  Bismarck, 
who  was  listening. 

' '  By  the  only  aerial  war  vessels  equipped  with  po- 
tentite  which  the  allied  nations  would  suffer  to  exist, 
your  highness,  and  which  vessels  would  be  subject  to 
the  orders  of  the  Court  of  Nations.  If  any  nation  re- 
fused to  obey  such  decree,  it  could  be  disciplined,  and 
if  any  nation  attempted  to  put  a  potentite  air  ship  un- 
der way,  it  would  be  necessary,  in  self-defense,  for  the 
allied  powers,  after  adequate  warning,  to  extirpate  the 
offending  parties. ' ' 

"Might  not  a  potentite  air  ship  be  secretly  fitted 
out,  your  lordship?"  asked  the  prince. 

"  Hardly,"  replied  the  Marquis,  "for,  with  the  aid 
of  a  corps  of  observation  airships,  and  of  international 
detectives  in  every  center  of  population,  the  world, 
both  savage  and  civilized,  could  be  adequately  policed 
at  a  very  small  cost. ' ' 

"And  what,  in  your  lordship's  opinion,  will  be 
the  condition  in  or  before  the  Congress  of  Nations,  of 
a  people  who  desire  separate  government  and  who 
have  been  unable  to  obtain  it?"  said  Mr.  Michael 
Davitt,  who  was  standing  by. 

The  Marquis  looked  the  Irishman  squarely  in  the 
eye  and  replied  slowly:  "I  think  it  will  be  quite  out 
of  the  power  of  any  government  to  retain  by  force 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  337 

under  its  rule  any  considerable  number  of  people, 
who,  with  or  without  a  grievance,  are  practically 
unanimous  for  a  separate  government.  The  Congress 
of  Nations  will,  or  at  least  ought  to,  require  that  any 
people  seeking  separation  shall  be  nearly  unanimous. 
But  do  you  think,  Mr.  Davitt,  to  be  candid,  that  the 
people  of  Ulster  and  the  people  of  Galway  would  ever 
be  brought  to  agree  to  any  proposition  on  earth  ?  ' ' 

"  Begorra,  your  lordship,  if  you  don't  mind  me 
takin'  the  answer  to  your  question  out  of  the  mouth 
of  Misther  Davitt,"  said  the  Honorable  Bellew  Mc- 
Cafferty,  Home  Rule  member  from  Mayo — "begorra, 
there's  one  great  principle  upon  which  Oireland  is, 
and  ever  will  be,  united.  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Far- 
downer  and  Corkonian,  Priest  and  Peeler  are  all 
heart  and  soul  agreed  " — 

"  To  do  what?"  queried  his  lordship. 

"Never,"  replied  the  McCafferty,  "never  to  pay 
any  rint." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

'"Tis  less  to  conquer  than  to  make  wars  cease." 

The  Siva  steamed  out  of  San  Diego  harbor  at  nine 
o'clock  on  an  April  morning-  in  the  year  1896,  carry- 
ing- as  passengers  the  naval  and  ordnance  officers 
commissioned  by  the  various  European  and  Ameri- 
can governments  to  examine  and  report  upon  the 
result  of  the  dynamic  exposition.  The  civil  and 
diplomatic  representatives  were  apportioned  among  the 
different  members  of  the  fleet,  which  had  gathered 
from  the  Pacific  squadrons  of  every  naval  power  in 
the  world,  and  was  now  lying  in  San  Diego  Bay.  The 
success  of  the  air  ship  the  day  before  in  almost  oblit- 
erating the  Coronado  Islands,  filled  every  mind  with 
eager  anticipation  of  the  results  likely  to  be  achieved 
by  the  torpedo  boats,  and  there  was  an  especial  pres- 
sure for  places  on  board  the  Siv 7,  which  carried  the 
novel  engines  of  destruction. 

The  Siva  had  been  built  at  the  Union  Iron  Works 
in  San  Francisco,  from  plans  and  models  furnished  by 
engineers  employed  by  Morning,  and  no  expense  had 
been  spared  to  make  her  the  largest,  swiftest,  and 
best-appointed  war  vessel  afloat.  Indeed,  every  other 
consideration  had  been  sacrificed  to  speed,  and,  as  a 
result,  a  ship  was  constructed  often  thousand  tons'  bur- 
den, draw'ng  but  twenty-one  feet  of  water  when  fully 
(338) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  339 

loaded,  and  able,  when  under  a  full  head  of  steam,  to 
make  twenty-six  knots  an  hour.  Relying  upon  her 
speed  to  keep  out  of  range  of  the  guns  of  an  enemy, 
and  intended  rather  for  a  carrier  of  torpedo  boats  than 
a  war  vessel,  she  was,  for  her  size,  neither  heavily 
armed  nor  heavily  armored,  yet  she  was  covered  with 
steel  plates  of  sufficient  thickness  to  resist  the  largest 
ordnance,  and  she  was  equipped  with  rifled  cannon 
and  pneumatic  dynamite  guns,  equal  in  size  and  range 
to  any  constructed.  Her  cost  was  $8,000,000,  and 
it  was  Morning's  avowed  intention  to  present  her  to 
the  alliance  of  nations  which  he  expected  would  re- 
sult from  the  dynamic  exposition.  The  Siva  rode  the 
seas  like  a  gull,  and  was  as  graceful  and  beautiful  as 
a  swan. 

Forward  of  her  engines  the  hull  of  the  vessel  was 
devoted  to  accommodations  for  housing,  launching, 
and  rehousing  the  two  torpedo  boats,  the  Etna  and 
Stromboli.  Each  of  these  was  cigar-shaped,  one  hun- 
dred feet  in  length  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  They 
were  built  of  steel,  with  an  inner  and  outer  shell.  The 
admission  of  water  between  these  shells  would  cause 
the  submersion  of  the  boat  to  any  depth  required  for 
the  purposes  of  destroying  an  enemy*  while  by  the 
expulsion  of  water  they  were  enabled  to  ascend  to  the 
Mir. ace.  In  the  inner  shell  was  an  electric  engine, 
with  sufficient  power  stored  '  ".o  dynamos  to  propel 
the  boat  under  water  at  a  speed  of  twenty- five  miles 
an  hour  for  a  period  of  five  hours.  Enough  com- 
pressed air  was  stored  in  steel  tanks  to  supply  the 
needs  of  ten  men  for  eight  hours,  and  the  Etna  had, 
on  several  occasions,  as  a  test,  remained  submerged 


340  BETTER    DAYS,  OR 

with  her  crew  for  four  hours  without  coming  to  the 
surface. 

The  construction  of  torpedo  boats  for  harbor  de- 
fense was  no  longer  a  novelty,  but  this  was  the  first 
attempt  made  to  demonstrate  that  a  submarine  tor- 
pedo vessel  could  be  used  on  the  high  seas  to  over- 
take and  destroy  a  flying  enemy.  The  Etna  and  the 
Stromboli  each  carried  one  hundred  shells,  each  shell 
being  loaded  with  five  hundred  pounds  of  potentite. 
Chain  cradles  for  holding  these  shells  were  suspended 
to  huge  fans  of  finely-tempered  steel,  shaped  like 
pincers,  and  the  machinery  for  fastening  one  or  more 
of  these  cradles  to  the  bottom  of  the  vessel  it  was  in- 
tended to  destroy  was  both  simple  and  ingenious,  as 
were  the  arrangements  for  exploding  them  when 
fastened.  A  fuse  or  wire  attached  to  a  steamer  run- 
ning away  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  in  three  minutes  would 
have  been  impracticable,  and  the  inventor  had  there- 
fore arranged  a  time  or  clockwork  cap,  which  could 
be  set  to  explode  at  any  given  number  of  minutes 
from  the  time  the  shell  should  be  fastened. 

The  Siva,  containing  Mr.  Morning,  the  foreign 
engineers,  and*  the  ordnance  officers  of  the  American 
Navy  detailed  for  the  service,  left  her  moorings  at 
nine  o'clock  and  steamed  down  the  bay,  followed  by 
the  Warspite,  flying  the  British  flag,  the  French  cor- 
vette Garronne,  the  Russian  frigate  Tsar,  the  Italian 
ironclad  Victor  Emanuel,  the  Spanish  ship  Pizarro, 
the  Chilean  man-of-war  Cero  del  Pasco,  the  Swedish 
sloop-of-war  Berdanotte,  the  American  iron  batteries 
Charleston  and  San  Francisco,  and  the  great  German 
steel  war  ship    Wilhelm  II     It  was  intended  that  this 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  341 

latter  vessel  should  follow  the  Warspitc,  but  there  was 
some  delay  in  getting  her  under  way,  and  she  was  the 
last  in  the  naval  procession,  being  followed  only  by 
the  Esmeralda — the  vessel  to  be  destroyed. 

At  the  termination  of  the  Chilean  insurrection  it 
was  found  that  the  Esmeralda — the  war  ship  controlled 
by  the  insurgents — was,  though  not  unseaworthy,  yet 
too  badly  damaged  by  a  contest  with  gunboats  to  be 
serviceable  for  the  purposes  for  which  she  was  con- 
structed, and  she  was,  therefore,  sold  by  the  Chilean 
Government  to  Mr.  Morning  for  $1,000,000 — some- 
thing less  than  one-third  her  cost. 

He  purchased  her  for  use  as  a  transport  in  connec- 
tion with  the  construction  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal, 
in  which  he  was  interested,  and  he  now  devoted  her 
to  destruction,  as  a  test  of  the  power  of  the  new  ex- 
plosive, and  the  efficiency  of  the  submarine  torpedo 
boats. 

The  Esmeralda  was  an  ironclad  steamer  of  the 
largest  size,  capable  of  a  speed  of  twenty  miles  an 
hour.  She  was  armored  with  steel  plates,  and  in  every 
way  staunch.  On  this  occasion  she  carried  only  suf- 
ficient force  to  navigate  her,  and  she  towed  a  large* 
steam  launch,  into  which  her  crew  would  be  trans- 
ferred and  conveyed  to  a  place  of  safety  so  soon  as 
the  torpedoes  should  be  fastened  to  her.  Two  life- 
boats were  also  swung,  ready  for  launching  in  case  of 
accident. 

Baron  Von  Eulaw  had  been  indulging  the  previous 
night  in  deep  potations,  and  was,  consequently,  sq  be- 
lated that  the  carriage  containing  the  baroness  and 
himself  did  not  reach  the  Coronado  wharf  until  the 


342  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Siva  had  steamed  away,  and  was  being  followed  by 
the  other  vessels  in  the  order  described.  The  launches 
and  small  steamers,  with  the  guests  apportioned  among 
the  different  vessels  of  the  fleet,  had  also  left  the  wharf, 
and  two-thirds  of  the  vessels  which  were  to  accom- 
pany the  Siva,  with  their  steam  up  and  whistles  blow- 
ing, were  impatiently  awaiting  the  signal  to  move, 
and  were  uneasily  churning  into  a  foam  the  placid 
waters  of  the  harbor. 

Hastily  summoning  a  boat  lying  at  the  wharf,  the 
baron  escorted  the  baroness  on  board,  and,  seating 
himself  beside  her,  directed  the  crew  to  row  for  "that 
ship,"  pointing  to  the  Esmeralda.  It  will  never  be 
known  whether  this  direction  was  the  result  of  acci- 
dent or  design,  for  the  Esmeralda,  in  size  and  general 
appearance,  strongly  resembled  the  Wilhelm  II. ,  which 
was  anchored  just  ahead  of  her  in  the  stream,  and  it 
was  the  Wilhelm  II.  to  which  the  Baron  Von  Eulaw, 
as  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  German  Empire, 
had  been  assigned. 

Arrived  at  the  Esmeralda,  however,  the  anchor  of 
which  was  then  being  hoisted,  the  baron  was  politely 
informed  by  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  deck  that  no 
arrangements  had  been  made  to  receive  guests  on 
board  the  vessel,  as  she  was  destined  to  destruction. 
The  baron,  with  real  or  affected  dismay,  remarked 
that  the  Wilhelm  II.  was  already  under  way ;  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  him  now  to  gain  her  deck, 
and,  unless  permitted  to  board  the  Esmeralda,  and  re- 
main upon  her,  they  would  lose  altogether  the  great 
spectacle  they  had,  by  designation  of  his  imperial 
maiesty  Wilhelm  II.,  come  all  the  way  from  Berlin 
to  San  Diego  to  attend, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF  TO-MORROW.  343 

He  would  be  in  lasting  disgrace  at  home  if  com- 
pelled to  admit  that,  through  his  own  negligence  and 
error,  he  had  not  witnessed  the  destruction  of  the 
Esmeralda  at  all.  Might  not  the  baroness  and  himself, 
under  the  circumstances,  be  suffered  to  trespass  upon 
the  hospitalities  of  the  officers  of  the  Esmeralda  until 
the  time  came  for  abandoning  the  vessel,  when  they 
could  join  the  officers  and  crew  on  the  steam  launch, 
and  be  placed  on  board  the  Wilhelm  II,  or  one  of  the 
other  vessels  of  the  fleet,  or  return  on  the  launch  to 
San  Diego,  as  might  be  most  convenient  ? 

With  some  hesitation,  the  deck  officer  of  the  Es- 
meralda, after  brief  consultation  with  his  superior, 
consented  to  the  request  of  Von  Eulaw,  and,  apologiz- 
ing for  the  condition  of  the  cabin,  which,  in  anticipa- 
tion of  the  destruction  of  the  vessel,  had  been  stripped 
of  everything  save  the  standing  furniture  and  a  few 
chairs,  he  invited  them  to  make  themselves  as  com- 
fortable as  circumstances  would  permit. 

With  salvos  of  cannon  and  music  of  bands,  the 
gaily-decked  fleet  sped  out  to  sea.  Through  the 
narrow  channel  they  steamed,  past  Point  Loma,  with 
brow  of  purple  and  feet  of  foam.  When  they  reached 
the  open  sea,  they  spread  out  in  line  abreast,  the  Siva 
taking  a  position  on  the  extreme  north,  and  slacken- 
ing her  speed  a  little  so  as  to  accommodate  it  to  that 
of  her  companions. 

Arrived  at  the  scene  of  the  proposed  experiment, 
sixteen  miles  west  of  San  Diego  bar,  the  speed  of  all 
the  vessels  was  slackened  so  as  to  afford  only  steerage 
way.  and  the  Esmeralda  was  signaled  to  leave  her 
position  next  the  Siva,  and  steam  away  at  full  speed 


344  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

to  the  north.  Simultaneously  with  this  order,  the 
hatches  on  the  Siva  were  opened,  chains  and  ropes 
tightened,  the  vast  power  of  the  engines  applied,  an  1 
the  Stromboli,  with  her  crew  and  cargo  in  place,  was 
lifted  from  the  hold  of  the  Siva,  swung  over  the  side, 
and  launched  in  the  ocean. 

It  was  four  minutes  from  the  time  the  whistle 
sounded  until  the  launch  of  the  Stromboli,  and  in  the 
meantime  the  Esmeralda  steamed  quite  one  mile 
away.  The  Siva  was  a  few  hundred  yards  ahead  of 
the  other  vessels,  and  the  Stromboli  was  launched 
form  her  port  side,  so  that  the  launch  was  witnessed 
by  those  who  thronged  the  starboard  side  of  the 
other  vessels.  The  entire  fleet  then  resumed  its 
former  rate  of  speed,  and  the  distance  between  iUand 
the  Esmeralda  was  soon  placed  at  one  mile,  at  which 
it  was  subsequently  maintained. 

The  Stromboli  glided  away  for  a  minute  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  sea,  and  then,  admitting  water  to  the  space 
between  her  steel  shells,  rapidly  sank  to  a  depth  of 
forty  feet.  The  Esmeralda  was  still  at  full  speed,  and 
making  twenty  knots  an  hour,  but  the  Stromboli  was 
pushing  her  way  under  the  sea,  propelled  by  her 
powerful  electric  engines,  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five 
knots  an  hour,  and  in  fifteen  minutes  had  overtaken 
the  doomed  vessel,  and  was  preparing  to  make  fast 
the  torpedo  which  should  destroy  her. 

One  pair  of  great  steel  claws,  holding  a  chain  bas- 
ket containing  five  hundred  pounds  of  potentite  set 
by  clockwork  to  explode  in  sixty  minutes,  was,  by 
the  power  of  the  electric  engine,  raised  above  the 
cigar-shaped  steel  monster  gliding  through  the  cool, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  345 

quiet  waters,  and  driven  through  the  plates  of  the 
Esmeralda,  just  forward  of  the  stern  of  that  vessel. 
A  second  was  placed  amidship,  and  a  third  near  the 
bow. 

The  upper  deck  of  the  Stromboli  had  a  dozen  plate- 
glass  openings,  through  which  a  number  of  powerful 
electric  lights  illuminated  the  depths  of  the  ocean, 
and  enabled  the  men  in  charge  of  the  machinery  to 
direct  with  accuracy  the  work  of  fastening  the  tor- 
pedoes. If  it  had  been  necessary,  men  in  submarine 
armor,  fastened  to  steel  arms  projected  from  the 
Stromboli,  and  supplied  with  air  through  rubber  tubes, 
could  have  been  placed  at  work  on  the  bottom  of  the 
Esmeralda,  and  maintained  there  for  hours,  even 
while  she  was  coursing  through  the  seas.  But  it  was 
not  necessary  to  invoke  this  process,  for,  by  the  aid 
of  the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  Stromboli,  the  three 
great  shells  were  fastened  in  twenty  minutes'  time,  and 
the  Esmeralda  was  proceeding  on  her  journey  with  fif- 
teen hundred  pounds  of  potentite  fastened  to  her  keel. 
The  officers  and  crew  of  the  Esmeralda  all  subse- 
quently testified  that  this  work  was  performed  noise- 
lessly and  without  jar,  or  any  evidence  that  it  was 
going  forward. 

But  had  they  possessed  all  knowledge,  they  could 
not  have  prevented  it.  No  rate  of  speed  possible  to 
the  doomed  vessel  would  have  enabled  her  to  outrun 
the  speedier  submarine  torpedo  boat,  and  no  machin- 
ery or  appliance  could  have  reached  her  under  the 
keel  of  the  Esmeralda,  or  prevented  her  work,  and 
once  the  potentite  shells  were  in  place,  it  was  beyond 
the  power  of  man  to   remove  them,  and  no  human 


346  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

skill  could  prevent  the  explosion  taking  place  at  the 
appointed  time. 

The  introduction  of  this  deadly  force  into  naval 
warfare  was  not  intended  to  be  unaccompanied  with 
some  merciful  provisions  for  preventing  unnecessary- 
destruction  of  human  life,  and  a  code  of  signals  had 
been  prepared  for  all  naval  powers,  to  be  used  when- 
ever a  vessel  was  to  be  destroyed. 

The  Stromboli,  having  performed  her  duty,  glided 
from  under  the  keel  of  the  Esmeralda,  and,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  few  hundred  yards,  shot  up  a  signal  pipe 
above  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  and  with  her  electric 
whistle  shrieked  through  it  a  succession  of  signals  that 
were  heard  by  the  multitude  upon  the  fleet  a  mile 
away. 

"Submarine  torpedo  boat  has  been  underneath 
your  keel, ' '  said  one  short  shriek,  and  one  more  pro- 
longed. 

' '  Fifteen  hundred  pounds  of  the  most  powerful  ex- 
plosive known  to  science  are  fastened  to  you, ' '  said 
fifteen  short  shrieks. 

' '  Make  ready  to  count  your  minutes  of  life, ' '  said 
one  long  and  two  short  shrieks. 

"In  thirty-six  minutes  your  ship  will  be  hurled  in 
fragments  into  the  air,"  said  thirty-six  short  shrieks. 

"  Leave  your  ship  to  her  inevitable  fate.  Launch 
your  boats  and  save  your  lives.  Your  enemy  will  pick 
you  up  and  receive  your  honorable  surrender,"  said 
one  shriek,  continued  for  five  minutes. 

Standing  on  the  deck  of  the  Warspitc,  King  Ed- 
ward the  Seventh  looked  at  his  watch.  If  in  thirty-six 
minutes  the  Esmeralda  should  sink  beneath  the  waves, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF'  TO-MORROW.  347 

the  navies  of  England,  with  those  of  all  other  powers, 
would  be  as  obsolete  for  the  purposes  of  attack  or 
defense  upon  the  high  seas  as  the  galleys  of  Caesar, 
or  the  barge  of  Cleopatra.  Another  Trafalgar  would 
be  as  impossible  as  another  Actium.  The  little 
Stromboli  and  Etna,  carried  in  the  hold  of  the  Siva, 
could  destroy  every  ironclad  afloat.  The  latter  ves- 
sel, with  her  immense  speed,  could  keep  out  of  range 
of  the  enemy's  guns,  and  she  could  send  forth  the 
torpedo  boats  and  destroy  ship  after  ship.  She  could 
pick  up  the  torpedo  boats,  recharge  their  storage  bat- 
teries, refit  their  magazines  with  potentite  shells,  and 
their  tanks  with  compressed  air,  and  send  them  forth 
again  and  proceed  with  such  work  of  destruction  until 
not  a  ship  should  live  on  any  sea,  except  by  license 
of  the  Siva,  and  subject  to  her  rule. 

What  revolutions  and  what  changes  would  this 
dynamic  exposition  not  precipitate  upon  the  mis- 
tress of  the  seas?  India  would  give  her  new  emperor 
the  choice  between  walking  out  and  being  potentited 
out,  and  Canada,  and  Australia,  and  every  other  col- 
ony, would  be  taking  leave.  And  Ireland — well,  here 
was  a  state  of  things!  Ireland  would  have  whatever 
Davitt,  and  McCarthy,  and  Dillon  should  agree  upon 
asking,  or  else  every  British  war  ship  would  be  blown 
up,  and  every  Irishman  who  could  raise  the  money, 
would  try  the  effect  of  a  balloon  loaded  with  poten- 
tite, upon  his  friends  across  the  channel.  Of  course, 
it  was  a  game  in  which  one  could  give  blows  as  well 
as  take  them,  but  that  is  a  very  unequal  game  between 
an  anarchist  and  a  king.  It  looked  as  if  King  Ed- 
ward might  be  compelled  to    "rustle"    to  keep    the 


348  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

British  crown  on  his  royal  brow.  It  might  be  we'll  to 
look  up  a  good  cattle  range  in  Colorado  where  he 
and  nephew  William,  with  the  Hapsburgs,  the  Bour- 
bons, and  the  Romanoffs  might  retire,  should  it  be 
necessary. 

Among  the  stores  of  the  Esmeralda  which  had  not 
been  sent  ashore  was  a  decanter  of  brandy,  which  the 
baron  found  in  the  cabin,  and  to  which  he  devoted 
himself  so  assiduously  that  when  the  whistles  sounded, 
announcing  that  the  torpedoes  were  fastened  to  the 
ship,  he  was,  from  the  combined  effects  of  past  and 
present  potations,  in  a  condition  closely  bordering 
upon  delirium  tremens. 

The  first  officer  proceeded  to  the  cabin,  where  Von 
Eulaw  and  the  baroness  had  withdrawn,  and,  attempt- 
ing to  open  the  door,  found  it  locked.  The  voice  of 
the  baroness  in  a  pleading  tone  was  heard,  followed 
by  oaths  and  maniacal  laughter  from  the  baron. 

' '  The  torpedoes  are  fastened  to  us,  and  in  thirty- 
four  minutes  this  ship  will  be  in  the  air,"  said  the  offi- 
cer through  the  closed  door.  "Our  orders  are  to 
leave  the  vessel  ten  minutes  before  the  explosion. 
You  had  better  go  on  board  of  the  launch  at  once." 

"Is  that  so?"  yelled  the  baron.  "Well,  we  will 
go  into  the  air  along  with  the  ship,  my  American  wife 
and  myself.  My  estates  are  all  gone.  The  Queen  of 
Diamonds  has  seized  them  and  given  them  to  the 
Jack  of  Spades.  This  earth  has  nothing  more  for  me, 
and  we  will  take  now  a  trip  to  the  stars  above. 

The  officer  comprehended  the  situation  in  an  in- 
stant. "  He  has  the  jimjams,  sure  enough,"  he  mut- 
tered.     "Best   way  is   to  humor  him.      "All   right, 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  349 

baron,"  said  he,  in  a  conciliatory  tone.  "But  you 
don't  want  your  wife  to  go  with  you,  you  know.  Open 
the  door  and  let  her  come  with  us." 

"Ah,  no!"  said  the  maniac.  "The  Baroness  Yon 
Eulaw  will  go  to  heaven  along  with  her  dear  husband, 
that  she  loves  so  much,  so  much ! ' ' 

"Madam,"  said  the  officer,  "can  you  not  unlock 
the  door?     If  not,  I  will  have  it  broken  down." 

"  No,"  shrieked  the  baron,  "she  cannot  unlock  the 
door,  for  I  have  thrown  the  key  into  the  sea  through 
the  window,  and  if  anybody  makes  any  trouble  with 
the  door,  I  have  a  little  pistol,  and  I  will  shoot  first 
my  beloved  American  wife,  and  then  the  man  at  the 
door,  and  at  last  myself,  and  we  will  all  go  to  the  skies 
in  one  trip." 

"Madame,"  said  the  officer,  "is  he  armed?" 

"He  is,  and  will,  I  fear,  do  as  he  threatens,"  re- 
plied Ellen,  with  trembling  voice. 

"The  situation  is  serious,"  said  the  officer.  "The 
torpedoes  won't  wait  for  us,  and  the  crew  will  be  get- 
ting nervous.  In  fact,  I  am  nervous  myself,"  added 
the  officer,  sotto  voce.  "  Suppose  one  of  those  infernal 
machines  should  go  off  ahead  of  time?  " 

"Leave  us,  sir,"  said  the  baroness.  "If  I  can  get 
the  pistol  from  him  by  persuasion,  I  will  discharge  it 
as  a  signal,  and  you  can  then  break  down  the  door. 
If  I  cannot  do  this,  you  must  save  yourselves  with- 
out us.  It  would  be  useless  for  you  to  jeopardize 
your  lives  for  us,  for  he  will  surely  kill  me,  and  will 
probably  shoot  you  if  you  attempt  to  force  the  door 
now. ' ' 

"What  is  the  matter  there  aft,  Mr.  Morton?" 
shouted  the  captain. 


350  BETTER      DAYS,    OR 

"Dutch  baron  crazy  drunk,  sir.  Has  locked  the 
door,  and  swears  he  will  be  blown  up  with  the  ship. 
Has  a  pistol,  and  will  kill  his  wife  if  we  try  to  force 
the  door,  sir." 

"  Get  a  rifle,  Mr.  Morton,  and  stand  ready  to  shoot 
him  through  the  skylight.  But  I  will  first  signal  the 
Siva  for  orders. ' ' 

"Aye,  aye,  sir,"  said  the  first  officer  cheerily. 

"Something  wrong  on  board  the  Esmeralda,  sir; 
she  is  signaling  us,"  said  the  first  officer  of  the 
Siva  to  the  captain. 

Morning,  who  was  conversing  with  a  Russian  admi- 
ral, overheard  the  speaker  and  came  forward  to  where 
the  signal  officer — the  code  spread  before  him — had 
just  answered,  "Ready  to  receive  signal." 

The  little  scarlet  flag  in  the  hand  of  the  signal  offi- 
cer on  the  foretop  gallant  yard  of  the  Esmeralda  rap- 
idly spelled  out  the  message. 

"  Baron  Von  Eulaw  and  wife  came  on  board  as  we 
were  starting.  He  has  delirium  tremens,  and  is 
locked  in  cabin  with  her.  Refuses  to  board  launch, 
and  threatens  to  shoot  her  if  we  break  down  door. 
We  can  kill  him  with  a  rifle  through  the  skylight. 
We  wait  orders. 

The  face  of  David  Morning  was  white  with  the 
whiteness  of  death,  but,  with  a  voice  in  which  there 
was  scarcely  a  tremor,  he  addressed  himself  to  the 
commander  of  the  Siva. 

' '  Captain,  how  far  are  we  from  the  Esmeralda  ? ' ' 

"About  a  mile,  sir." 

"How  long  will  it  be  before  the  explosion? " 

"Twenty-two  minutes,  sir." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  35 1 

"Is  there  any  way  by  which  the  torpedoes  now  fas- 
tened to  her  can  be  removed,  or  their  explosion  pre- 
vented, captain?" 

"None  whatever,  sir." 

"Captain,  signal  the  Esmeralda  to  have  riflemen  in 
place,  but  not  to  shoot  the  baron  unless  he  offers  vio- 
lence to  his  wife.  Signal  her  also  to  slacken  speed 
while  we  run  down  to  her.  Signal  the  fleet  to  slacken 
speed,  and  fall  behind.  «Get  out  a  boat  with  crew  to 
put  me  on  board  the  Esmeralda." 

There  was  a  rapid  fluttering  of  scarlet  flags  from 
main  and  foretops,  and  the  orders  were  obeyed. 

"  I  will  go  with  you,  Mr.  Morning,"  said  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Siva. 

"And  so  will  I,  and  I,  and  I,"  came  in  chorus 
from  a  dozen  officers  and  guests  who  had  remained 
breathless  auditors  of  the  conversation. 

"No,"  said  Morning  quietly,  "I  will  go  alone.  I 
do  not  propose  to  risk  a  single  one  of  these  valuable 
lives,  or  this  ship." 

Morning  picked  up  a  coil  of  light  rope  from  where 
it  hung  on  a  belaying  pin,  and  descended  into  the 
boat,  which,  with  crew  in  place,  was  now  suspended  a 
few  feet  from  the  water.  "Captain,"  said  he,  "as 
soon  as  we  are  launched  you  will  steam  away  with  the 
Siva,  and  rejoin  the  fleet.  The  steam  launch  towed 
by  the  Esmeralda  will  be  sufficient  to  provide  for  the 
safety  of  all.  Run  us  as  close  to  the  Esmeralda  as 
you  can,  captain,  before  you  drop  us,"  and  Morning 
rapidly  knotted  a  slip  noose  in  the  rope. 

Clang!  clang!  clang!  sounded  the  signal  to  reverse 
the   engines;  the    Siva   glided  alongside  and   within 


352  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

three  hundred  feet  of  the  Esmeralda,  and  the  boat 
containing  David  Morning  dropped  gently  into  the 
foaming  water.  Clang!  again  went  the  gong,  and  by 
the  time  David  Morning  sprang  up  the  ladder  at  the 
companion-way  of  the  Esmeralda,  the  Siva  was  half  a 
mile  away. 

As  the  foot  of  Morning  touched  the  deck  of  the 
doomed  vessel,  it  lacked  thirteen  minutes  of  the  time 
set  for  the  explosion.  , 

"What  is  the  situation?"  said  Morning  to  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Esmeralda. 

"Through  the  skylight  we  can  see  that  the  bar- 
oness has  evidently  abandoned  all  effort  to  move  the 
baron,  and  is  on  her  knees  in  the  corner,  apparent^ 
in  prayer.  The  baron  is  walking  up  and  down  the 
cabin  floor  flourishing  a  cocked  revolver,  and  mut- 
tering to  himself.  The  first  officer  with  three  gun- 
ners, each  with  a  Winchester  rifle,  are  at  the  skylight 
with  sites  drawn  on  the  baron,  anxious  to  fire  as  soon 
as  they  get  the  order,  and  six  men  with  a  piece  of 
timber  are  in  place,  ready  to  burst  open  the  cabin 
door.  It  is  only  twelve  minutes  to  the  blow-up,  sir, 
and  the  men  are  getting  uneasy.  Shall  we  shoot  and 
rescue  the  lady,  sir?" 

"Not  yet,  captain.  Can  you  open  the  skylight 
from  above  noiselessly  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Do  so  at  once." 

With  his  noosed  rope  coiled  in  hand,  Morning  ap- 
proached the  skylight.  Often  in  Colorado  he  had, 
from  love  of  sport,  attended  rodeos  and  learned  the 
trick  of  the  lasso.     His  skill  with  it  was  the  admira- 


A   MILLIONAIRE   OF   TO-MORROW.  353 

tion  of  the  cowboys.  "Kin  Dave  Morning  handle 
a  riata?"  said  one  of  his  enthusiastic  admirers  to  a 
correspondent  of  an  Eastern  newspaper.  "Well, 
stranger,  I  should  smile!  Kin  he?  He  kin  throw 
his  lariat  a  matter  of  forty  feet  around  any  part  of  a 
jumping  steer,  hoof  or  horn.  He  kin  throw  a  bull 
buffalo  at  the  head  of  the  herd.  He  kin  make  a 
buckin'  broncho  turn  two  somersaults,  and  land  him 
on  head  or  heels,  just  as  he  likes.  He  kin  stop  a 
jacksnipe  on  the  wing  if  he  don't  fly  too  high.  Oh, 
I'm  talkin'  to  ye,  stranger!  Often  I've  seen  him, 
when  he  felt  right  well,  throw  his  little  lasso  across 
the  room  of  the  big  hotel  at  Trinidad,  and  smash  a  fly 
on  a  window  pane  without  breaking  the  glass.  Oh, 
you  can  laff,  of  course!  I  ain't  got  nothin'  agin  your 
hilarity,  but  if  any  gentleman  feels  inclined  to  doubt 
the  entire  truth  of  anything  I've  been  a  sayin',  or  has 
anything  to  say  agin  Dave  Morning,  either  as  a  va- 
quero  or  a  man,  he  kin  get  his  gun  ready,  for  my 
name  is  Buttermilk  Bill  from  the  San  Juan  Range." 

Poising  his  improvised  riata,  Morning  looked  down 
through  the  open  skylight.  The  baron,  attracted  by 
the  shadow,  stopped  in  his  nervous  walk  and  looked 
up.  As  he  did  so  the  noose  dropped  over  his  head 
and  shoulders,  and  pinioned  his  arms  to  his  side,  and 
he  was  thrown  to  the  floor,  while  the  cocked  pistol  he 
held  in  his  hand  was  harmlessly  discharged.  Like  a 
cat,  Morning  dropped  from  die  skylight  upon  the 
floor  of  the  cabin,  followed  by  the  first  officer  and  the 
gunners,  all  of  whom  proceeded — none  too  tenderly — 
to  wrap  and  tie  the  rope  around  the  arms  and  legs  of 
the  baron. 
23 


354  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

"  Now,  then,"  sounded  the  voice  of  the  second  offi- 
cer outside  the  cabin  door;  "now,  then,  my  hearties, 
once,  twice,  thrice,  and  away!"  and,  with  a  crash,  the 
door  flew  from  its  hinges  nearly  across  the  cabin. 

Morning  half  supported  and  half  carried  the  bar- 
oness to  the  launch,  which  was  now  lying  alongside 
with  steam  up,  and  they  descended  to  the  deck,  fol- 
lowed by  the  crew  and  officers  of  the  Esmeralda  and 
the  crew  of  the  boat  from  the  Siva. 

"Where  is  the  baron,"  said  the  baroness  faintly. 

The  captain  looked  at  the  first  officer,  who  made 
reply,  "  He  is  in  the  cabin,  sir." 

"  We  have  still  five  minutes  if  anybody  chooses  to 
bring  him  aboard,"  said  the  captain. 

And  after  a  pause  of  a  few  seconds  nobody  stirred. 

Ellen  looked  at  Morning. 

And  Morning  leaped  upon  the  deck  of  the  Esmer- 
alda, followed  by  the  captain,  first  officer,  and  one  of 
the  men. 

In  less  than  a  minute  the  Baron  Von  Eulaw,  writh- 
ing, cursing,  and  foaming  at  the  mouth,  was  deposited 
on  the  deck  of  the  launch,  which  steamed  away  rapidly 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  taken  by  the  doomed 
vessel. 

There  were  just  two  minutes  to  spare.  The  wheel 
of  the  Esmeralda  had  been  lashed  so  as  to  head  her 
away  from  the  fleet.  Her  chief  engineer  was  the  last 
man  to  leave  the  engine  room,  and  just  before  he  left, 
he  pulled  the  lever  to  increase  her  speed,  so  that  in 
the  two  minutes  which  passed  after  the  steam  launch 
and  the  Esmeralda  separated,  they  were  quite  a  mile 
apart. 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  355 

Suddenly  a  dull  sound  like  the  throb  of  a  great 
muffled  drum  was  heard.  An  immense  arch  of  water 
arose  in  air.  Upon  its  summit  was  the  Esmeralda, 
broken  into  a  dozen  fragments,  which  writhed  like 
a  python  twisting  in  the  agonies  of  death.  For  a 
moment  the  cloven  mail  of  the  giant  flashed  and  scin- 
tillated in  the  sun,  and  then,  with  a  sound  of  sucking 
water — the  death  gurgle  of  those  engulfed  by  the  sea 
— each  fragment  went  out  of  sight  forever,  and  great 
billows  of  foam  rolled  over  the  spot  where  the  mighty 
ship  went  down. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

"As  a  guide  my  umpire  conscience." 

Morning  accompanied  as  far  as  Chicago  the  spe- 
cial trains  containing  those  of  the  European  guests 
whose  official  duties  required  their  immediate  depar- 
ture, but  very  many,  including  the  Baron  Von  Eulaw 
and  his  party,  remained  at  Coronado. 

With  a  good  deal  of  effort,  the  episode  of  the  baron's 
conduct,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  rescue  of  his 
wife  and  himself,  were  kept  out  of  the  press  reports, 
yet  the  affair  was,  nevertheless,  one  of  those  open  se- 
crets with  which  many  people  enliven  conversation. 

Mrs.  Thornton  was,  for  once,  disinclined  to  suffer 
her  admiration  for  a  title  to  induce  her  to  overlook 
the  homicidal  freak  of  her  son-in-law,  and  she  urged 
Ellen  in  vain  to  formally  separate  her  life  from  that 
of  her  husband.  Possibly  her  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  Morning  was  now  more  renowed  than  any  Euro- 
pean potentate,  and  outranked  any  king  on  earth,  and 
her  comprehension  of  the  further  fact  that  he  was  still 
deeply  in  love  with  her  daughter,  may  have  influenced 
her  counsel. 

Moved  by  some  impulse,  which  perhaps  she  cou'd 

not  have  explained  to  herself,  she  took  occasion  when 

thanking  Morning  for  saving  her  daughter's  life,  to 

confide  to  him  the  history  of  how  Ellen's  marriage 

(356) 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  357 

had  been  brought  about,  to  which  she  added  the  story 
of  her  married  life,  and  concluded  by  pressing  upon 
him  for  perusal,  a  package  of  her  daughter's  letters. 
These  Morning  carried  with  him  to  Chicago,  and  their 
reading  induced  him,  after  parting  with  his  distin- 
guished guests,  to  hasten  his  return  to  Coronado, 
where  he  was  advised  that  the  Von  Eulaw  party  would 
remain  for  some  weeks. 

On  a  delicious  afternoon  the  baroness,  with  Mrs. 
Thornton  and  Miss  Winters,  sat  in  the  gallery  over- 
hanging the  old  music  hall  on  the  sea.  Although  a 
new  and  costlier  edifice  had  been  built,  with  improved 
acoustics  and  elaborate  design,  the  little  gem  at  the 
corner  of  the  hotel,  long  washed  by  the  waves  and 
threatened  by  the  breakers,  seemed  still  a  favorite  re- 
sort for  concert  and  afternoon  recitals,  and  thither 
came  many  who  sought  for  a  restful  hour  under  the 
eloquent  discourse  of  the  old  white-haired  professor's 
violin. 

"It  is  a  pity  for  the  world,"  said  Miss  Winters, 
during  a  pause  in  the  performance, ' '  that  so  few  are 
able  to  look  into  the  soul  of  Tolstoi's  labors.  In  one 
of  his  chapters  he  expresses  the  epitome  of  all  musical 
sensations  in  half  a  dozen  lines." 

"I  hope  you  are  not  referring  to  the  '  Kreutzer 
Sonata,'  Miss  Winters,"  broke  in  Mrs.  Thornton. 

Miss  Winters  smiled  rather  than  spoke  reply.  But 
the  baroness  took  greater  liberty  and  rejoined  rather 
saucily,  "The  regular  thing,  dear  mother,  is  to  ask  for 
some  palliative  to  remove  the  taste  from  your  mouth 
after  the  mention  of  the  much-abused  'Kreutzer 
Sonata. ' ' ' 


358  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Mrs.  Thornton  replied  with  a  look  of  high  disdain 
and  much  fluttering  of  ribbons. 

"I  am  not  punctilious,  but  I  could  not  sit  and  listen 
to  a  defense  of  that  man." 

"I  am  not  defending  him,  though  I  might,  espe- 
cially if  he  were  my  client,"  laughed  Miss  Winters. 
"  I  am  only  deploring  that  the  world  will  not  forgive 
his  truths  nor  forget  his  faults  in  the  universal  power 
of  his  genius." 

It  was  well  that  the  next  on  the  programme  was  Bee- 
thoven's seventh  symphony,  and  that  the  men  strolled 
in  soon  afterwards,  for  nothing  is  so  prolific  of  enmities 
as  the  subject  of  Tolstoi,  unless  it  be  that  of  tariff. 

The  enchanting  numbers  were  ended,  and  the  la- 
dies left  the  hall,  the  men  taking  another  direction. 
At  the  foot  of  the  stairway  they  were  accosted  by 
David  Morning,  who,  after  a  greeting,  turned  and 
joined  the  baroness. 

"When  did  you  return?"  said  she,  looking  full 
into  his  bronzed  face,  and  again  at  his  traveling 
clothes. 

"Only  this  moment.  And  how  are  you?  and  has 
the  baron  entirely  recovered  ? ' ' 

"Completely,  I  believe,  and  for  me,  one  could  not 
be  so  ungrateful  as  to  be  ill  in  this  place." 

"  I  trust  not,"  replied  Morning  absently. 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment,  then,  turning 
shortly,  and  looking  into  the  handsome  iace  of  the 
baroness,  he  said,  without  calling  her  by  name,  but 
earnestly,  and  it  may  be  added  a  little  peremptorily, 
"  I  wish  to  have  a  few  moments'  conversation  with 
you  after  dinner,  if  you  will  be  good  enough  to  con- 
sent." 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  359 

"  For  what  purpose  ?     When  ?     Alone  ?" 

"Your  first  question  let  me  answer  later.  Here, 
under  the  palms,  on  the  beach,  anywhere,  but  alone, 
certainly." 

Each  question  was  superfluous,  of  course,  but  she 
was  gaining  time.  At  length  she  answered  slowly, 
"I  could  wish  you  had  not  asked  me  for  this  meeting, 
Mr.  Morning." 

' '  But  I  am  going  away.  Will  you,  knowing  this, 
still  refuse  ? ' ' 

"I  will  come,"  she  said  after  a  pause.  "  We  will 
sit  here  upon  the  veranda,  after  eight.  The  others 
are  going,  I  believe,  to  look  at  the  dancers." 

And,  thanking  her,  he  lifted  his  hat  and  withdrew. 

The  halls  were  not  ablaze  on  this  night,  for  there  is 
not  light  enough  in  the  world  to  coax  the  sullen 
shadows  from  their  lurking-places  in  a  modern  in- 
terior. But  the  arches  of  heaven,  albeit  moonless, 
were  more  obedient,  and  the  electric  scintillations 
searched  and  filled  every  rood  of  ground  with  their 
unwarm  but  willing  light,  or  chased  with  exact  pencil 
the  willful  outlines  of  orange  and  oleander,  or  the 
more  tender  ways  of  acanthus,  pepper,  and  palm. 

Morning  had  wheeled  a  luxuricus  easy-chair  along- 
side of  his  veranda  "shaker,"  and  sat  with  his  hands 
upon  the  upholstered  back,  waiting  for  the  one  woman 
in  the  world  to  him,  while  the  promenaders,  in  full 
evening  toilet,  filed  in  pairs  along  the  thronged  corri- 
dors, and  the  soft  strains  of  "La  Paloma"  floated 
down  from  the  balcony  and  mingled  with  the  plash 
of  the  sea. 

"Engaged,"  spoke  Morning  curtly,  as  a  youthful 


360  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

lord,  accompanying  the  British  delegation,  attempted 
to  move   the  fanteuil  aside. 

"Beg  pardon,  I  wish  I  were,"  retorted  the  scion 
of  a  noble  house,  striding  away  with  the  fair  one  upon 
his  arm. 

' '  There  is  hope  for  that  fellow, ' '  Morning  muttered. 

' '  I  left  the  baron  to  be  taken  to  his  room  by  his 
valet,"  explained  the  baroness  approaching.  "  He 
is  a  little  tired  and  nervous, ' '  and  she  loosened  the 
lace  about  her  throat  impatiently- 

"Yes,"  dryly,  was  the  only  comment. 

"  He  said  he' might  get  around  here  before  he  re- 
tired. I  hope  you  would  not  mind,  he  is  so  very 
capricious,  you  don't  know." 

"Oh,  no,  I  don't  mind,  but  if  he  comes  I  am  going, 
for  I  '  don't  mind  '  saying  also  I've  had  enough  of 
that  fellow!" 

The  baroness  looked  up  with  surprise,  but  Morning 
went  on  excitedly:— 

"  Oh,  I  know  I  ought  not  to  say  this  to  you,  but  I 
must  say  it,  and  a  great  deal  more,  unless  you  stop 
me!  I  say  you  are  in  deadly  terror  of  that  man,  and 
you  hate  him  beside,  as  you  ought." 

"How  can  you — who  told  you  this?  Surely  you 
are  assuming — " 

"  No,  pardon  me,  I  am  assuming  nothing.  I  read 
your  letters. ' ' 

' '  Who  gave  you  my  letters  ?  ' '  asked  the  baroness 
in  amazement. 

"Your  mother  urged  them  upon  me,  and  I  was 
disloyal  enough  to  read  them,  every  line,"  a  little 
triumphantly.     He   arose   hastily   and   walked   away 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  361 

for  a  few  paces,  drying  and  fanning  his  face  with  his 
handkerchief,  then,  returning,  he  leaned  upon  the 
back  of  her  chair,  and,  dropping  his  voice,  said  hus- 
kily, and  with  quite  uncontrollable  emotion: — 

' '  Ellen — let  me  call  you  so  this  once,  it  remains 
with  you  whether  I  ever  utter  the  name  again — dear 
Ellen,  answer  this  from  your  own  sweet  lips,  have  you 
a  spark  of  love  for  that  beas — man  ?  "  correcting  him- 
self too  late.  "  I  know  how  capricious  the  heart  of  a 
woman  is,  and  perhaps — but  no!  take  your  time  to 
answer,  only  give  me  your  word,"  and  he  walked 
swiftly  away,  and  looked  out  on  the  sea,  and  saw  the 
waves  beat  their  soft  white  arms  upon  the  sands,  then 
returned. 

The  woman  had  turned  to  ashen  paleness.  The 
ever-repeating  and  distributing  electric  light  had  for- 
gotten the  delicate  tints  of  her  dainty  gown,  and  the 
color  of  her  hair  and  brows,  with  the  roses  upon  her 
bosom,  and  only  the  waxen  face,  with  its  dark  eyes 
filled  with  glistening  tears,  uprose  whiter  than  the 
beams. 

"Poor  heart!"  said  he,  noting  the  quiver  of  the 
sensitive  mouth.  "  It  ought  not  to  be  so  difficult  to 
speak  the  truth." 

At  length  the  tortured  woman  found  voice: — 

"David  Morning,"  she  said,  in  tremulous  tones, 
"I  am  not  meaning  to  question  your  right  to  give 
challenge  to  my  despair,  though,  for  reasons  you  can 
understand,  it  is  from  you,  more  than  from  all  the 
world,  I  would  have  disguised  it.  You  ask  me  if  I 
love  that  man  ?  I  answer,  No,  no,  a  thousand  times 
no !     But  my  sense  of  obligation  as  his  wife  is  as  much 


362  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

stronger  than  my  hate  as  misery  is  stronger  than  the 
social  bars  which  contain  it,  and  I  deem  it  neither 
noble  nor  just  to  utter  complaints  against  one  who  is, 
whatever  may  be  said,  my  legal  protector  before  the 
world.  I  do  not  deny  that  I  have  suffered  untold 
agonies,  but  I  may  as  well  bear  them  in  one  cause  as 
another." 

"I  confess,"  said  Morning,  with  a  manner  suddenly 
grown  cold,  "  I  do  not  fully  understand  you.  You 
speak  of  'obligations,'  and  'social  bars;'  you  can- 
not mean  that  you  would  deliberately  sacrifice  your 
woman's  soul,  with  all  its  honor  and  its  aims,  to  a  life 
of  dishonor  and  deceit — for  so  I  dare  to  name  it — for 
dread  of  the  idle  dictum  of  a  malicious  social  scare- 
crow ? ' ' 

The  baroness  winced,  but  quickly  rallied,  and,  lean- 
ing forward  in  her  chair,  so  near  that  he  caught  the 
perfume  of  the  roses  on  her  corsage,  she  replied: — 

"No!  though  I  will  say  in  passing  that,  whatever  I 
might  do,  no  woman,  be  she  termagant  or  angel,  has 
ever  lived  long  enough  to  escape  the  opprobrium 
arising  from  the  poisonous  effluvia  of  the  divorce 
courts!  However,  that  is  not  the  subject  under  dis- 
cussion, and  my  unhappy  feet  are  placed  upon  more 
tenable  ground.  I  confess  myself,  then,  not  strong 
enough  to  defy  the  convictions  of  a  life  given  much — 
the  maturer  portion,  at  least — to  an  examination  of  the 
ethics  of  the  question.  And  I  resolutely  affirm  that, 
in  my  own  mind,  I  am  convinced  that  to  seek  to  evade 
the  results  of  my  own  deliberate  action,  would  be  sin- 
ful, and  in  violation  of  my  own  conscientious  per- 
ceptions—  'a  grieving  of  the  Spirit,'  in  the  language  of 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  363 

a  very  old  author,  and,  therefore,  a  sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost." 

Is  it  possible,  thought  Morning,  forgetful  for  the 
moment  of  the  purpose  that  had  brought  him  there, 
that  in  this  evening  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  culti- 
vated woman,  herself  the  victim  of  a  system  fiendish 
in  its  power  to  forge  public  opinion,  and  cruel  as  the 
Inquisition,  should  have  the  courage  thus  to  look  her 
awful  destiny  in  the  face  tranquilly,  and  smilingly  set 
upon  it  the  cold  white  seal  of  conscience?  And  for  a 
brief  moment  he  wondered  if  she  were  a  saint  or  a 
lunatic. 

Then  he  thought  of  the  many  shafts  of  argument 
that  might  be  let  loose  to  pierce  the  diseased  cuticle  of 
her  morbid  philosophy,  but  he  had  not  the  heart,  or, 
rather,  he  lacked  entire  faith  in  their  efficacy,  so  he 
sat  silently  counting  his  heart  beats.  Finally,  taking 
alarm  at  his  protracted  silence,  she  resumed: — 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me;  I  am  not  narrow 
enough  to  convict,  or  egotist  enough  to  try  to  convert, 
others  to  my  way  of  thinking;  I  only  speak  for 
myself. ' ' 

"Your  missionary  seed  would  fall  upon  stony  ground 
if  you  were  so  disposed,"  he  answered  quickly, 
almost  rudely.  "Ellen  Thornton,"  he  continued, 
ignoring  the  hateful  title  that  seemed  to  have  engulfed 
her  body  and  soul  for  all  of  him,  "for  thirteen  years 
fate  has  been  circumventing  our  lives.  I  have  heard 
your  name  over  seas  as  you  have  heard  mine,  familiar 
to  all  but  each  other.  I  have  loved  you  tfith  hope 
and  without  it.  Great  wealth  has  been  my  portion, 
yet  I  would  be  a  beggar  to  night  if  you  would  but 
share  my  crust  with  me,  with  love  like  mine-' ' 


364  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

Into  the  eyes  of  the  woman,  fierce  with  resolution 
and  despair,  there  came  tears,  half  of  pity,  half  of 
joy — pity  for  his  fate  and  hers,  joy  for  that  the  love 
she  had  deemed  lost  and  gone  from  their  lives  was 
here,  tireless  and  strong  as  the  sea,  immortal  and 
sweet  as  the  morning,  and  the  voice  of  the  man  whose 
head  was  bent  near  her  own  thrilled  her  with  its 
music. 

"During  all  the  years  of  parting,"  continued  Morn- 
ing, "I  have  been  neither  despairing  nor  misanthropic, 
but  I  knew  that  the  passion  of  my  life  had  glowed  and 
burned,  and — as  I  thought — died  to  ashes  upon  the 
altar  whose  goddess  was  the  dark-eyed  maiden  whom 
my  young  manhood  adored.  When,  less  than  a  fort- 
night ago,  I  was  able  to  deliver  you  from  the  awful 
death  that  madman  would  have  inflicted  upon  you, 
my  exultation  had  but  one  sting,  that  I  had  saved  you 
for  another,  and  for  such  a  fate;  and  then,  in  my 
insane  rage,  I  cursed  myself  that  I  had  not  let  you 
die  under  my  dizzy  eyes,  and  so  have  rounded  my 
despair. 

' '  But  I  have  come  near  to  you  now,  our  paths  have 
crossed.  O  God,  how  I  have  waited  for  the  hour! 
and  how  can  I  let  you  go?  If  I  do,  our  ways  will 
again  diverge,  and  every  remove  will  bring  us  farther 
apart.  Do  you  know  what  this  means  to  me?  It  is  the 
dividing  of  my  soul  from  my  body,  of  my  heart  from  my 
brain;  it  means  a  galvanized  life,  a  career  of  eviscerated 
motives,  a  gibbering,  masquerading  existence,  emascu- 
late of  manly  and  fruitful  purpose,  a  hopeless  love" — 
and  his  voice  trembled  and  sank — "ashes  and  dust 
and  nothing  more," 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF    TO-MORROW.  365 

The  baroness  listened  with  passion  tearing  at  her 
heart,  while  her  white  lips  were  fashioning  word»  of 
wise  restraint.  Could  she  trust  herself  to  speak?  She 
envied  in  her  soul  the  women  she  had  known  abroad, 
women  of  convictions,  with  uncoddled  consciences, 
charming,  virtuous  women  too,  but  without  the  monitor 
to  guide  the  wayward  thought,  a  sky  without  a  polar 
star,  a  ship  without  a  rudder,  and  then  she  recalled 
the  burning  words  of  the  man  beside  her. 

"  I  know,"  said  she  at  length,  "that  I  owe  you  my 
life,  and,  in  the  logic  of  natural  sequence,  I  should  give 
back  that  which  you  won.  But  it  is  love's  sophistry, 
and,  in  truth,  perhaps  for  no  better  reason  than 
because  I  so  much  desire  it,  I  dare  not.  One  phase 
of  your  argument  pricks  my  conscience  in  turn.  You 
tell  me  that  your  usefulness  must  pay  the  penalty  of 
my  decision.  Unsay  those  words,  I  entreat  you" — 
and  she  leaned  far  toward  him.  "God  has  singled 
you  out  for  a  great  destiny.  Fulfill  it.  You  have  the 
world  at  your  feet;  let  that  suffice  you  for  the  present. 
I  do  not  ask  you  to  forget  me!" — and  her  lips  grew 
tremulous.  ' '  I  should  die  if  I  thought  you  could. 
But  work  on,  as  you  have  been  doing,  for  the  sake  of 
humanity,  and  wait  heroically,  as  you  have  done." 

"Wait  for  what?  for  somebody  to  die?"  broke  in 
Morning  hotly.  "For  somebody  to  die,  that  is  the 
English  of  it.  Most  lives  are  made  what  they  are  by 
some  woman.  She  may  be  a  mother,  a  sister  not 
likely.  Since  I  received  that  long-lost  letter — anath- 
emas upon  that  circular  desk,"  and  he  pounded 
the  "shaker"  arm  with  his  fist — "I  have  had  but 
one    inspiration  in  my  projects,  one  question  always 


366  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

ringing  in  my  ears, — 'What  will  she  think  of  it  ? '  Now 
I  have  found  you  only  to  hear  from  your  own  lips  that 
my  life  is  a  failure,  and  yours  a  moral  suicide,  which 
I  seem  as  helpless  to  prevent  as  I  am  to  put  a  stay 
upon  yonder  waves  that  lash  themselves  to  spray  upon 
the  rocks." 

"David  Morning,"  and  her  voice  was  firm  now, 
I  think  I  owe  it  to  you  as  well  as  myself  to  tell  you, 
even  with  the  marriage  ring  upon  my  finger,  that  I 
wish  I  were  free  from  the  yoke  of  this  fateful  mar- 
riage; that  if  I  could  be  delivered  from  the  body  of 
this  death,  then  could  I  mount  with  glad  wings  the 
great  height  to  which  your  love  would  raise  me.  But 
I  could  have  no  weight  of  a  crying  conscience  upon 
my  feet,  no  wail  of  wounded  justice  behifld  me,  and 
so  I  will  bear  it  to  the  end." 

' '  You  say,  even  with  that  marriage  ring  upon  your 
finger.  What  care  I,"  said  he,  rising  and  standing 
before  her,  "for  that  circlet  of  gold  upon  your  beau- 
tiful hand?  I  know  it  is  a  mockery,  so  do  you,  and 
but  for  it  that  hand  might  have  been  mine,  and  all 
these  years  have  been  saved  to  love  and  the  heart's 
gladness.  What  signifies  the  sanction  of  the  law  if 
you  have  not  the  sanction  of  your  own  soul  ?  I  shall 
not  seek  to  dissuade  you  more,  but  one  question  I 
will  ask  of  you,  and  if  wealth  could  buy  words  elo- 
quent enough  to  couch  it  in,  I  would  surrender  my 
possessions  and  delve  for  it  again,  if  need  be,  in  the 
depths  of  the  earth.  But  truth  is  simple,  and  so  I  beg 
of  you  to  answer  from  your  soul,  and  thereafter  I  will 
do  as  you  bid  me.  Do  you  love  me,  darling?  do 
you?"   and  he  bent  over  her  chair. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  367 

She  lifted  a  face  radiant  with  beautiful  light. 
"Dearest,"  said  she  softly,  and  David  Morning  thrilled 
with  delight — "dearest,  I  am  glad  that  this  meeting 
and  this  understanding  have  come  to  us  just  here, 
where  hundreds  of  eyes  are  upon  us,  for,  if  it  were 
otherwise,  I  should  forget  all  else  except  my  desire  to 
comfort  you,  and  should  place  my  arms  about  your 
neck,  and  ask  you  to  seal  upon  my  lips  your  forgive- 
ness of  me  for  all  that  I  have  made  you  suffer.  God 
help  me,  I  do  love  you,  and  I  never  loved  any  other. 
You  are  my  hero,  my  darling,  and  my  heart's  delight. 
All  these  years  I  have  loved  you,  until  the  hour  of 
death  I  shall  love  you,  and  beyond  the  gates  I  shall 
love  you  forever,  and  forever  more. 

Only  a  great  sob  came  from  the  breast  of  David 
Morning. 

"Noble  man,"  she  continued,  "you  have  accom- 
plished a  great  work  in  the  world.  God  has  selected 
and  armed  you  for  the  deliverance  of  his  nations. 
You  have  other  and  greater  work  to  do.  In  the  do- 
ing it  the  luster  of  your  shield  shall  never  be  tar- 
nished, as  it  would  be  were  we  to  wrong  another  now. 
Go  forth,  my  hero,  my  life,  and  my  darling;  go  forth 
panoplied  in  your  high  manhood  to  your  duty.  In 
spirit  I  shall  be  with  you  ever.  I  shall  rejoice  in  your 
mighty  deeds.  I  shall  live  in  your  nobler  thoughts. 
Day  and  night,  my  beloved,  will  my  soul  dwell  with 
yours.  Only  in  perfect  honor  and  faith  can  I  join  you. 
If  the  hour  for  such  union  shall  ever  be  given  to  us  on 
earth,  come  to  me  and  you  will  find  me  waiting.  If 
it  come  only  in  the  other  land,  I  shall  still  be  waiting. 
But  here,  my  darling,  my  own,  my  heart's  solace, 
here  we  must  meet  not  agfain." 


368  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

And  she  placed  her  ungloved  fingers  in  his. 

The  man  and  the  woman  sat  silently  hand  in  hand. 
The  music  floated  out  from  the  lighted  ballroom, 
where  "the  dancers  were  dancing  in  tune;"  the  sea 
curled  its  beryl  depths  to  crests  of  foam,  and  sounded 
in  musical  monotones  upon  the  beach  which  lay  a 
white  line  upon  the  edge  of  the  dusk,  and  the  old,  old 
world,  the  sorrowful,  disappointing  world,  the  weary 
world,  was  as  sweet  and  young  as  when  the  first  dawns 
were  filtrated  from  chaotic  mists. 

She  broke  the  silence  and  withdrew  her  hand: 
"Yonder  comes  the  baron." 

"  Good-by,"  said  he,  and  he  walked  away  into  the 
night,  and  as  he  reached  the  edge  of  the  balcony  over- 
hanging the  beach,  and  felt  the  sting  of  the  salt  spray 
in  his  eyes,  he  muttered  something.  It  might  have 
been  a  good-night  prayer,  but  it  sounded  like,  ' '  Damn 
the  baron." 

[From  the  San  Diego  Union,  May  15,  1896.] 
We  regret  to  announce  the  death  yesterday,  at  the 
Coronado  Hotel,  of  Baron  Frederick  Augustus  Eulaw 
Von  Eulaw,  eleventh  Count  of  Walderberg,  eighth 
Baron  of  Weinerstrath,  and  Knight  Commander  of 
the  order  of  the  Golden  Tulip. 

.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  baron's  death  was  hy- 
peremia of  the  brain,  but  he  never  recovered  from  the 
nervous  prostration  induced  by  heat  and  long  expos- 
ure to  the  sun,  while  in  the  performance  of  his  duty 
as  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  German  Empire, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  dynamic  exposition. 


A    MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  369 

This  distinguished  nobleman,  during  his  brief  so- 
journ among  us,  had  endeared  himself  to  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  by  the  gentleness  and 
grace  of  his  manner,  his  kindly  sympathies,  and  un- 
selfish courtesy.  The  Wilhelm  II  has  been  detailed 
to  receive  his  remains,  which  will  be  embalmed  for 
transportation  in  state  to  Berlin,  where  they  will  be 
interred  with  fitting  pomp. 

The  baroness,  who  to  the  last  was  devoted  in  her 
attentions  to  the  late  baron,  will,  it  is  understood,  re- 
main in  this  country  in  the  home  of  her  parents,  Pro- 
fessor and  Mrs.  John  Thornton. 


24 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

"All's  well  that  ends  well." 

It  was  a  lovely  morning  in  June,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  ni.iety-seven,  when  a  car- 
riage containing  a  red-headed  and  red-bearded  man 
drove  rapidly  down  upon  Pier  No.  2,  North  River, 
where  the  occupant  emerged  from  the  equipage,  and, 
elbowing  his  way  through  the  throng,  approached  the 
gangway  of  an  immense  steamer  gaily  decorated  with 
flags  of  all  nations. 

He  was  stopped  by  two  officials  in  uniform,  one  of 
them  saying  civilly  that  no  strangers  were  allowed  on 
board. 

"Is  not  this  Mr.  Morning's  steam  yacht  the  Pa- 
tience?" said  the  stranger. 

' '  Yes,  sir,  if  the  largest  and  finest  vessel  in  the 
world  can  be  called  a  yacht.  Certainly  this  is  Mr. 
Morning's  ship." 

'  'I  was  told  at  the  hotel  that  he  would  sail  to-day  for 
Europe." 

"Your  information  is  quite  correct;  he  goes  as  one 
of  the  three  delegates  appointed  by  the  President  to 
represent  the  United  States  at  the  Congress  of  Nations, 
which  will  meet  in  Paris  next  month." 

"Well,  I  want  to  see  him  before  he  sails,"  replied 
the  stranger. 

(37o) 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  371 

"  It  is  too  late,  sir,  even  if  you  had  a  card  of  admis- 
sion. His  friends  are  now  bidding  good-by  to  the 
bridal  party,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  order  will  be 
issued  of  'all  ashore.'  " 

' '  Brfdal  party  ?     Whose  ?     Not  Morning' s  ?  " 

"  Haven't  you  heard  of  it?  Why,  the  papers  have 
been  full  of  it  for  days.  He  was  married  yesterday, 
in  Boston,  to  the  Baroness  Von  Eulaw." 

"Well,"  said  the  stranger,  "I  only  arrived  this 
morning  from  Arizona.  I  am  the  superintendent  of 
his  mine  there,  and  am  here  on  business  of  importance. 
He  will  be  mightily  disappointed  if  I  don't  see  him. 
Suppose  you  send  word  to  him  that  Bob  Steel  is  here 
and  wants  to  see  him  before  he  sails.  I  reckon  he'll 
give  orders  to  admit  me. ' ' 

The  request  of  Steel  was  complied  with, and  directions 
given  for  his  admittance.  After  exchanging  greetings 
with  Morning  and  being  presented  to  the  bride,  Steel 
stated  that  he  had  business  of  importance  to  commu- 
nicate. The  whistle  had  sounded  "all  ashore, "  and 
the  guests  were  rapidly  departing.  Morning  quietly 
instructed  the  captain  not  to  have  the  lines  cast  off 
until  he  should  have  finished  his  interview  with  Steel, 
and  then,  summoning  the  latter  to  follow  him  into  a 
private  salon,  said: — 

"Well,  Bob,  what  is  it?" 

"Mr.  Morning,"  replied  Steel,  "the  news  ain't 
good,  but  it  is  so  important  I  did  not  dare  to  trust 
to  mail  or  wire,  so  I  left  the  mine  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Fabian,  and  came  on  myself.  We  didn't  find  no  ore 
last  month  on  the  new  level  at  two  hundred  feet,  and 
I  set  three  shifts  to  work  at  every  station,  and — I'm 
afraid  to  tell  you  the  result." 


372  BETTER    DAYS,    OR 

' '  Out  with  it,  Bob.  I  was  married  yesterday,  and 
you  can't  tell  me  any  news  bad  enough  to  hurt  me 
much." 

"Well,  Mr.  Morning,  there  ain't  no  ore*  in  the 
mine  below  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  level.  The 
quartz  has  come  to  a?i  e?id.  We  are  at  the  bed  rock, 
and  the  syenite  is  as  solid  and  close-grained  as  the 
basalt  wall  where  we  did  our  first  work,  you  and  I, 
blasting  with  the  Papago  Indians." 

Morning  whistled.  "  How  much  do  we  lack,  Bob, 
of  the  $2,400,000,000  I  donated  to  the  United  States  ? " 

"About  eight  hundred  millions,  sir;  but  there  is 
more  than  enough  ore  not  stoped  out  in  the  upper 
levels  to  pay  that  twice  over.  We  have  seventeen 
hundred  millions  at  least." 

"That,"  said  Morning,  "will  finish  the  payment 
to  the  government,  complete  all  the  enterprises  I  have 
projected,  give  you  ten  millions,  and  all  the  men  who 
have  stood  by  us  from  the  start  half  a  million  each. 
It  will  serve  also  to  make  some  donations  I  have  in 
mind,  and  will  leave  over  six  hundred  millions  for  the 
Morning  family.  It  is  not  so  much  money  now  as  it 
was  when  I  made  the  discovery,  but  it  will  keep  the 
wolf  from  the  door.  Bob,  the  whistles  are  sounding 
and  I  shall  have  to  bid  you  good-by  and  send  you 
ashore.  There  is  no  possibility,  I  suppose,  of  this  be- 
ing only  a  break,  or  a  horse  ?  No  chance  of  the  ore 
coming  in  again  lower  down  ? ' ' 

"None  in  the  world,  Mr.  Morning.  In  that  forma- 
tion it  is  impossible.  The  Morning  mine,  as  a  mine, 
has  petered! 

"Bob,"  said  our  hero,  extending  his  hand  with  a 
smile,  "put  it  there!  " 


A   MILLIONAIRE    OF   TO-MORROW.  373 

And  Robert  Steel  and  David  Morning  clasped  hands 
with  the  clasp  of  men. 

"Bob,"  said  Morning,  "on  my  soul  lam  glad  of 
it.  The  problem  of  overproduction  of  gold  will  no 
longer  vex  the  world,  and  now  I  shall  have  a  chance 
to  pass  a  few  hours  in  quiet  with  my  wife."