The Doomsman, Page 3

  III

  THE NEW WORLD

  Again we make acknowledgment to the "Laudable" Vigilas and quote atlarge from the luminous pages of _The Later Cosmos_. Now the reader,scenting more learned discourse, may meditate upon skipping thischapter; nay, will probably do so. Yet, to my thinking, he will act morewisely in buckling down to it, seeing that it contains matter of momentfor the perfect understanding of the narrative proper. The studying ofguide-posts is not an amusing occupation, but it is infinitely lesstedious than to wander around all day in a fog and perhaps miss one'sdestination altogether.

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  "It is, indeed, a small world as we know it to-day. Our philosophers,reconstructing, as best they may, the science of the ancients from thetreatises, few and sadly incomplete, that have come down to us, affirmthat the earth is an orb and that another continent (perhaps more thanone) lies beyond the rim of the eastern horizon. It may be so, but theissue is not of practical importance, seeing that there are none whocare to make adventure of the great salty gulf that lies between. And sothe sea keeps its mysteries.

  "On the other hand, we count it inadvisable to wander far afield. Tothe north, to the west, and to the south stretches the unbroken forest,and in a few hours a man's legs may easily carry him out of hailing ofthe voice of his kind. The waterways form the only regular channels forsocial and commercial intercourse, and the busybody and gad-about arenot regarded with favor by honest people.

  "It appears highly probable that the human race was virtuallyannihilated over the general area of the ancient United States ofAmerica; it persisted only in a few particularly favored localities andthrough accidental circumstances of which we know nothing definite. Inour own day, the northern, central, and southern group of coloniesmaintain a system of infrequent intercommunication, and beyond thatcertain knowledge does not extend. It is possible that mankind may existin a degraded state, in many inaccessible corners of this vast continentof ours, but this is only a possibility, concerning which the theoriesof the learned are no more susceptible of proof than are the idlespeculations of the vulgar.

  "For convenience, we will accept the popular classification of the humanrace as it exists to-day--the Painted Men, the House People, and theDoomsmen. To take them up in that order.

  "The Painted Men, otherwise the Wood Folk, are the descendants of theIndians of old, but the strain is largely mingled with that of the negrorace, and, with hardly an exception, it is the weaker qualities both ofbody and of mind that have been emphasized in the hybrid. From theirIndian forebears they have preserved the custom of painting their facewith crude and hideous pigments upon all occasions of ceremony; hencetheir popular designation--the 'Painted Men.'

  "The House People are conveniently subdivided into two classes--thetownsmen, or House People proper, and the stockade dwellers,colloquially, the Stockaders.

  "The House People of the walled towns represent as nearly as may be themiddle classes of the ancient civilization. Originally, the family wasthe political and social unit, just as with the patriarchs of Holy Writ,but within the last generation the community idea has been growingrapidly, and there are perhaps a score of towns and villages scatteredalong the banks of the Greater and Lesser rivers.

  "The Stockaders, reversing the procedure of their kinsmen of the towns,live apart from one another, each proprietor depending wholly upon hisown resources for sustenance and defence. Some of the larger estatescontain several hundred acres enclosed by a strong timber stockade andotherwise defended against the assaults of enemies. The head of thefamily, or clan, as it might more properly be termed, is lord paramountwithin his own borders, even possessing the rights of life and death.But this last authority is rarely called in exercise, since these folkof the free country-side are naturally wholesome, honest,generous-hearted men, content to lead a simple life and coveting noman's honor or goods. On the other hand, it must be admitted that thestockade dweller is both provincial of habit and prejudiced of mind. Helooks down upon the townsman as a huckster in private and a shuffler inpublic life, and this feeling of contemptuous enmity is fully returnedby the cit, who regards the free proprietor in the light of a boor and abully. Moreover, it rankles in the Houseman's breast that no Stockaderpays a farthing of head-money to the treasure-chest of the Doomsmen. Nowand then some well-to-do proprietor may suffer loss from cattle thievingand rick burning, but as often as not the marauders pay full price forall they get. And this leads us to a consideration of the Doomsmanhimself, that foul excrescence upon our modern body politic.Fortunately, history here speaks clearly, and we have only to listen toher voice.

  "It was a natural procedure, upon the coming of the Terror, to throwopen the doors of the jails and other punitive institutions, therebygiving the wretched inmates an equal chance for life. The great mass ofthese degraded beings gravitated inevitably towards the cities, seekingplunder and opportunities for bestial dissipation that even the dreadpresence of the Terror could not restrain. Without hope and withoutfear, they rushed to the vulture's feast; here was wine and gold andsoft raiment; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.

  "It was the ancient city of New York that received the vast bulk of thisarmy of human rats; naturally so, since it was the supremetreasure-house of the western world. In such overwhelming numbers didthese vermin come that the civil and military administrations wereliterally swarmed over. Between two days the outlaws were in completepossession, and the small remnant of the decent residents retiredprecipitately, preferring to meet death under the open sky rather thanin company with their new masters.

  "The years went on, but the changes that they brought were few. Thedescendants of the ancient criminals remained in the ruined city, atfirst of necessity, afterwards by choice, finding there fuel and shelterin abundance besides large stores of non-perishable food supplies. When,in the next generation, these provisions became exhausted it wasinevitable that the refugees should fix covetous eyes upon thethreshing-floors and herd-stalls of their rural neighbors. But althoughthe outlaws had continued to gain in numbers, their natural increase wasnot proportionate to the growing power of their adversaries. Little bylittle the Doomsmen began to lose ground; already they had been defeatedseveral times in pitched battle, and it looked as though thehornet's-nest would soon be smoked out.

  "It was at this critical juncture that the infamous personality of DomGillian made itself of commanding account, and thenceforth the balancebegan to incline the other way. It was but the weight of one man's handin the scale-pan, yet there are still many of us who remember how heavythat hand could be.

  "Infamous is the adjective deliberately applied, and with reason.Dominus Gillian, to give him his full name, was a renegade, the unworthyson of a distinguished Stockader family. Admittedly a man of fineintellect and force, it is equally unquestionable that he was entirelydevoid of moral sense. He possessed a genius for organization, and hesucceeded in consolidating the unruly Doomsmen into a compact anddisciplined body of outlaws. Murder and rapine were quickly reduced toexact sciences, and, unfortunately, the House People could not be madeto see the necessity of united action; the townsman and the stockadedweller preferred to contend with each other rather than against thecommon enemy. As a consequence, the freebooters had a clear road beforethem, and so was established that intolerable tyranny under which theland still groans. All this occurred upward of sixty years ago.

  "It only remains to add that Dominus, or, more colloquially, DomGillian, still lives, albeit he must be verging upon ninety years ofage. For many years he has not been seen in the field, and it is evenasserted that he no longer takes active part in the councils of theDoomsmen. Be that as it may, his will still remains dominant to animateand direct the malign powers created by his wicked genius. And the evilthat men do, doth it not live after them?

  "Such is the world, or, rather, one infinitesimal portion of the cosmos,in the year 2015, according to the ancient calendar, or 90 since theTerror."