Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 16

Well, havin' made the necessary preliminary moves, we met General Grant by appointment in his own quarters. Before we got inside the lines we had to advance and give the countersign, which wuz Whiskey.

Arvilly planted herself right there like a balky mule and said she would die in her tracks before she said it. But I, knowin' that it wouldn't make nor break the traffick, sez, "Whiskey," and I added, "May the Lord destroy it!" Arvilly sez, "Amen!" and we walked in past the astounded sentry with out heads up. (General Grant hadn't nothin'

to do with that countersign; it wuz some officer's doin's.) Well, General Grant seemed quite pleased to see us. He's a real good-lookin'

man, and if he hadn't any properties of his own he would be beloved for his pa's sake, but he has properties of his own. He is a good man and a smart one. Well, the first compliments bein' pa.s.sed, I lanched out into my bizness.

Sez I, "Brigadier General Grant, I have come to you on the most important mission any amba.s.sador ever travelled on."

Sez he, "What sovereign, madam, do you represent, and from what country do you come?" Sez I, "Brigadier General Grant, my mission is from the Lord of Hosts, and the country I come to plead for is your own native land--the United States--the land your own ill.u.s.trious pa saved with the Lord's help."

He wuz deeply affected I see and invited us to set down, consequently we sot. And I sez, plungin' to once into my bizness as my way is in Jonesville or the Antipathies: "Brigadier General, everybody knows that you are a brave man and a good man." He thanked me and looked pleased, as well he might from such an enconium from one of the first wimmen of the ages, and I resoomed: "General Grant," sez I, "are you brave enough and good enough to tackle the worst foe America ever had?"

Sez he, "What foe do you allude to, mam?"

Sez I, "The foe that slays one hundred thousand a year, and causes ten thousand murders every year, steals the vittles and clothes from starvin' wimmen and children, has its deadly grip on Church and State, and makes our civilization and Christianity a mock and byword amongst them that think."

"You allude to Intemperance, I presume," sez he. He's dretful smart; he knew it in a minute from my description.

"Yes," sez I, "a foe a million times as dangerous as any your army ever faced, and a million times as hard to chase out of its ambuscade."

Sez I, "Frederic (I thought mebby it would sound more convincin' and friendly if I called him Frederic, and I wanted to convince him; I wanted to like a dog), I don't believe in war, but when your men died in battle they didn't moulder out a livin' death, chained to tender hearts, dragged along the putrid death path with 'em. Their country honored 'em; they wuzn't thrust into dishonored graves, some as paupers, some as criminals swingin' from scaffolds. Their country mourns for 'em and honors 'em. It wuzn't glad to cover their faces away from the light, brutish faces to hant 'em with reproach, I should think, knowin' how they died. Try to think of that, Frederic; try to take it to heart."

I hearn Arvilly behind me breathin' hard and kinder chokin' seemin'ly, and I knew she wuz holdin' herself in as tight as if she had a rope round her emotions and indignations to keep her from breakin' in and jinin' our talk, but she wuz as true as steel to her word and didn't say nothin' and I resoomed:

"You've got to take such things to hum to realize 'em," sez I. "Owin'

to a sweet mother and a good father your boy mebby is safe. But spozein' he wuzn't, spozein' you and his sweet ma had to look on as millions of other pas and mas have to and see his handsome, manly young face growin' red, dissipated, brutal; his light, gay young heart changed to a demon's, and from bein' your chief pride you had to hide him out of sight like the foul and loathsome leper he had become.

Millions of other pas and mas that love their boys as well as you love yours have to do this. And if it wuz your boy what would you say of the legalized crime that made him so? Wouldn't you turn the might of your great strength aginst it?"

He didn't speak out loud, but I see from his looks that he would.

"Then," sez I, "do, do think of other pas and mas and sisters and sweethearts and wives weepin' and wailin' for husbands, sons and brothers slain by this enemy! I spoze," sez I reasonably, "that you think it is an old story and monotonous, but Love is an old story and Grief and Death, but they are jest as true as at the creation and jest as solemn." I thought he looked a good deal convinced, but he looked as if he wuz thinkin' of the extreme difficulty of reachin' and vanquishin' this foe intrenched as it is in the lowest pa.s.sions of men, hidin' behind the highest legal barriers and barricaded behind meetin' house doors, guarded by the ballots of saint and sinner; I read these thoughts on his forehead, and answered 'em jest as if he'd spoke.

Sez I, "When your ill.u.s.trious father come up face to face with a foe no other general could manage, did he flinch and draw back because it had been called onmanageable by everybody else? No, he drawed a line between good and evil, black and white, and says, 'I'll fight it right out on this line.' And he did, and before his courage and bravery and persistence the foe fell. Now, Frederic, here is the biggest foe that the American people are facin' to-day; here are weak generals and incompetent ones. n.o.body can manage it; them high in authority wink at it and da.s.sent tackle it, and so on down through all the grades of society--Church and State--they da.s.sent touch it. And what is the burnin'est shame, them that ort to fight it support it with all the political and moral help they can give it. Here is a chance, Frederic, for you to do tenfold more for your country's good than ever your revered father did, and you know and I know that if it wasn't for this great evil and a few others, such as the big Trusts and a few other things, our country is the greatest and best that the sun ever shone on. If we loved our country as we ort to we would try to make her do away with these evils and stand up perfect under the heavens. It is the ma that loves her child that spanks her into doin' right if she can't coax her, and now do lay hold and help your country up onto the highest pedestal that a country ever stood on, and I'll help boost all I can." I hearn behind me a loud "amen," turned into a cough. Arvilly wuzn't to blame; it spoke itself onbeknown to her.

Sez I, "This is a hard job I am askin' you to tackle. The foe your father fit was in front of him, but this foe is within and without, and has for allies, powers and princ.i.p.alities and the Prince of Darkness. And now will you, bearin' the name you do, of General Grant, will you flinch before this black-hearted foe that aims at the heart and souls of your countrymen and countrywomen, or will you lead the Forlorn Hope? I believe that if you would raise the White Banner and lead on this army of the Cross, Church and State would rally to your battle-cry, angels would swarm round your standard and the Lord of Hosts go forward before you."

He didn't say he would, I spoze he wuz too agitated. But he sez sunthin' in a real polite way about what a good Amba.s.sador his country had in me.

But I sez sadly, "I can't do much, Frederic. I am a woman, and the only weepon that is able to slay this demon is hung up there in Washington, D. C. Wimmen can't reach up to it, they can't vote. But you can; your arm is longer, and with that you can slay this demon as St. George slew the dragon. And heaven itself would drop down heavenly immortelles to mix with our laurel leaves to crown your forehead.

Think on it, Frederic, no war wuz ever so holy, no war on earth wuz ever so full of immortal consequences."

And here I riz up, for I felt that I must leave the Presence, not wantin' to make the Presence twice glad. I reached out my right hand and sez, "Good-by, and G.o.d bless you, for your own sake and for the sake of your n.o.ble pa."

He looked earnest and thoughtful, that allusion to the boy he loved so, named after his ill.u.s.trious grandpa, had touched his very soul. I felt that I had not lost my breath or the eloquence I had lavished. I felt that he would help save other bright young boys from the demon that sought their lives--the b.l.o.o.d.y demon that stalks up and down our country wrapped in a shelterin' mantilly made of the Stars and Stripes--oh, for shame! for shame that it is so! But I felt that General Grant would come up to the help of the Lord aginst the mighty, I felt it in my bones. But I wuz brung down a good deal in my feelin's as Arvilly advanced to the front. She had kep' her word as to talkin', though the indignant sniffs and sithes behind me showed how hard it had been for her to keep her word, but now she advanced and sez, as she drew out her two books from her work bag: "General Grant, I have two books here I would like to show you, one is the 'Twin Crimes of America: Intemperance and Greed,' that subject so ably presented to you by Samantha; the other is 'The Wild, Wicked and Warlike Deeds of Men.'"

Sez General Grant, risin' up: "I haven't time, madam, to examine them, but put me down as a subscriber to both." Arvilly wuz in high sperits all the way back. As we wended our way to the tarven agin who should we find but Waitstill Webb, and we wuz dretful glad on't, for we wuz layin' out to leave Manila in a few days, and this would be our last meetin' for some time, if not forever. Though I wuz glad to see when questioned by me about her return that she didn't act so determined as she had acted about devotin' her hull life to nursin' the sick.

She told Arvilly confidential that she had had a letter from Ernest White since we had seen her. Arvilly knew that he had wanted to make her his bride before she left Jonesville. But the two ghosts, her murdered love and her duty, stalked between 'em then, and I spozed wuz stalkin' some now. But as I said more previous, the sun will melt the snow, and no knowin' what will take place. I even fancied that the cold snow wuz a little more soft and slushy than it had been, but couldn't tell for certain.

CHAPTER XIV

A dretful thing has happened! I am almost too agitated to talk about it, but when I went down with my pardner and Tommy to breakfast ruther late, for we wrote some letters before we went down, Miss Meechim broke the news to me with red eyes, swollen with weepin'. Aronette, that dear sweet little maid that had waited on all on us as devoted as if we wuz her own mas and mas, wuz missin'. Her bed hadn't been slep'

in for all night; she went out early in the evenin' on a errent for Dorothy and hadn't come back.

She slept in a little room off from Dorothy's, who had discovered Aronette's absence very early in the morning, and they had all been searching for her ever sence. But no trace of her could be found; she had disappeared as utterly as if the earth had opened and swallowed her up. Dorothy wuz sick in bed from worry and grief; she loved Aronette like a sister; and Miss Meechim said, bein' broke up by sorrow, "Next to my nephew and Dorothy I loved that child."

And anon another dretful thing wuz discovered. Whilst we wuz talkin'

about Aronette, Elder Wessel rushed in distracted, with his neck-tie hangin' under one ear, and his coat b.u.t.toned up wrong and the feathers of his conceit and egotism and self-righteousness hangin' limp as a wet hen.

Lucia had gone too; had disappeared jest as Aronette had, no trace could be found of her; her bed had not been slept in. She, too, had gone out on an errent the evening before. She and Aronette had been seen to leave the hotel together in the early evening. Elder Wessel, half distracted, searched for them with all his strength of mind and purse.

I started Josiah off a huntin' the minute he had got through eatin'.

He refused pint blank to go before. "Eat," sez I, "who can eat in such a time as this?"

Sez he, "It goes agin my stomach every mou'ful I take (which was true anyway), but we must eat, Samantha," sez he, helpin' himself to another cake. "We must eat so's to keep up our strength to hunt high and low."

Well, I spozed he wuz in the right on't, but every mou'ful he consumed riled me. But at last the plate wuz emptied and the coffee pot out and he sot off. And we searched all that day and the next and the next, and so did Miss Meechim and Arvilly, with tears runnin' down her face anon or oftener.

Robert Strong, led on, Miss Meechim said by her anxiety, but I thought mebby by the agony in Dorothy's sweet eyes as well as his own good heart, didn't leave a stone unturned in his efforts to find 'em. But they had disappeared utterly, no trace could be found of 'em. They had been seen during the evening with the two young men they had got acquainted with and that I didn't like. They had been seen speaking with them as they came out of the shop where Dorothy had sent Aronette, and the young men could not be found.

Well, we had all searched for three days without finding any trace of the two missing girls. Everything wuz ready for our departure, but Dorothy said that she could not, could not go without Aronette, but Robert Strong said and believed that the child was dead. He had come to the belief that she and Lucia by some accident had fallen into the water and wuz drowned. Dorothy had cried herself sick and she looked wan and white, but bein' so sweet dispositioned she give up when we all said that we must go before long, and said that she would go too, though I knew that her heart would remain there wanderin' round in them queer streets huntin' for her lost one. The morning of the third day after they wuz lost I wuz down in the parlor, when a man come in and spoke to Robert Strong, and they both went out together talking earnestly, and I see in Robert's face a look of horrow and surprise that I had never seen in it before; and the first time Robert saw me alone after that he told me the dretful news. He said that the man that spoke to him was a detective he had employed, and the evening before he had come acrost a man who had been out of town since the night Aronette wuz lost. This man told the detective that he saw her and Lucia and the two young men coming out of a saloon late at night, staggering and reeling they all wuz, and they disappeared down a cross street towards another licensed house of ruin. Licensed by Christian America! Oh, my achin' heart to think on't! "I wonder if our govermunt is satisfied now," I broke out, "since it has ruined her, one of the sweetest girls in the world. But how did they ever entice 'em into that saloon?" sez I.

"They might have made them think it was respectable, they do serve lunches at some of them; of course they didn't know what kind of a place it was. And after they wuz made stupid drunk they didn't know or care where they went."

"I wonder if America is satisfied now!" I sez agin, "reachin' out her long arms clear acrost the Pacific to lead them sweet girls into the pit she has dug for her soldiers? Oh!" sez I, "if she'd only been drownded!" And I wiped my streamin' eyes on my linen handkerchief.

And Robert sithed deep and sez, "Yes, if she had only died, and," he sez, "I can't tell Dorothy, I cannot."

And I sez, "There is no need on't; better let her think she's dead.

How long," sez I, turning toward him fierce in my aspect, "how long is the Lord and decent folks goin' to allow such things to go on?"

And he sez, "Heaven knows, I don't." And we couldn't say more, for Dorothy wuz approachin', and Robert called up a smile to his troubled face as he went forward to meet her. But he told me afterwards that the news had almost killed Elder Wessel. He had to tell him to help him in his search. He wuz goin' to stay on there a spell longer. He had to tell him that Lucia had been seen with Aronette staggering out of a saloon with two young men late at night, reeling down a by-street to that other licensed house which our Christian govermunt keeps nigh the saloon, it is so obleegin' and fatherly to its men and boys.

When he told him Elder Wessel fell right down in his chair, Robert said, and buried his face in his hands, and when he took his hands down it wuz from the face of an old man, a haggard, wretched, broken-down old man.

The People's Club House didn't wear the kindly beneficent aspect it had wore. He felt that coffee and good books and music would have been safer to fill the Poor Man's Club with; safer for the poor man; safer for the poor man's family. Tea and coffee seemed to look different to him from whiskey, and true liberty that he had talked about didn't seem the liberty to kill and destroy. The license law didn't wear the aspect it had wore to him, the two licensed inst.i.tutions Christian America furnished for its citizens at home and abroad seemed now to him, instead of something to be winked at and excused, to be two accursed h.e.l.ls yawning for the young and innocent and unsuspicious as well as for the wicked and evil-minded. Ungrateful country, here wuz one of thy sons who sung the praises of thy inst.i.tutions under every sky! Ungrateful indeed, to pierce thy most devoted va.s.sal with this sharp thorn, this unbearable agony.

"For how was he goin' to live through it," he cried. How was he? His beautiful, innocent daughter! his one pet lamb! It was not for her undoing that he had petted and smiled on these inst.i.tutions, the fierce wolves of prey, and fed them with honeyed words of excuse and praise. No, it wuz for the undoing of some other man's daughter that he had imagined these inst.i.tutions had been raised and cherished.

He wuz an old broken man when he tottered out of that room. And whilst we wuz moving heaven and earth hunting for the girls he wuz raving with delerium with a doctor and trained nurse over him. Poor man!

doomed to spend his hull life a wretched wanderer, searching for the idol of his heart he wuz never to see agin--never!

Well, the time come when we wuz obleeged to leave Manila. Robert Strong, for Dorothy's sake as well as his own, left detectives to help on the search for the lost ones, and left word how to communicate with him at any time. Waitstill Webb, bein' consulted with, promised to do all in her power to help find them, but she didn't act half so shocked and horrified as I spozed she would, not half so much as Arvilly did.

She forgot her canva.s.sin' and wep' and cried for three or four days most all the time, and went round huntin', actin' more'n half crazy, her feelin's wuz such. But I spoze the reason Waitstill acted so calm wuz that such things wuz so common in her experience. She had knowledge of the deadly saloon and its twin licensed horror, dretful things was occurring all the time, she said.

The detectives also seemed to regard it as nothing out of the common, and as to the saloon-keeper, so much worse things wuz happenin' all the time in his profession, so much worse crimes, that he and his rich pardner, the American Govermunt, sees goin' on all the time in their countless places of bizness, murders, suicides, etc., that they evidently seemed to consider this a very commonplace affair; and so of the other house kep' by the two pardners, the brazen-faced old hag and Christian America, there, too, so many more terrible things wuz occurrin' all the time that this wuz a very tame thing to talk about.

But to us who loved her, to us whose hearts wuz wrung thinkin' of her, mournin' for her, cryin' on our pillers, seekin' with agonized, hopeless eyes for our dear one, we kep' on searchin' day and night, hopin' aginst hope till the last minute of our stay there. And the moon and stars of the tropics looked in night after night to the room where the old father lay at death's door, mourning for his beautiful innocent daughter who wuz lost--lost.