Mr. World and Miss Church-Member Part 31

"In this room," said the manager, "we keep all our cancer patients.

We have a large number of them and, since they require special treatment, we keep them separate to facilitate the work of the physicians and nurses."

I saw them enter the room, and heard the words of surprise that fell from the lips of Mr. World as he saw the magnitude of this department.

"These are they," explained the chief of the division, "who came here through 'profane and vain babblings.'"

Mr. World then pa.s.sed through the leprosy ward where he saw quite a few who were once cleansed by the Divine Healer, but who, failing to give thanks for their recovery, suffered fatal relapse and were now in the last stages of this dread disease.

This place was so loathsome to him that he was hastened into the General Department where he saw all manner of patients, each in his particular dilemma.

A great number of this section were suffering from disordered livers, and of these not a few came from the church.

One such, who was a wealthy man, had so far protruded his disagreeableness upon the community that the church officials voluntarily gave him medicine for his liver. This was of no avail. He still grew more irritable and complained about the preacher, the s.e.xton, the choir, and even his own wife. The weather never suited him, and when lie gave any testimony about religion it was always a partial outline of the supposed or real sorrows and troubles of the Christian pilgrimage.

While suffering from one of his morbid spells, he listened to the voice of the tempter who persuaded him to seek help at the hands of the physicians under the control of this Hospital. These doctors dosed him until they persuaded him to submit to an operation, and the wicked surgeon knew how to render him still more liable to trouble after his imaginary restoration toward which he was looking when Mr. World saw him.

When he leaves this Hospital he can never be cured from the fiercer subsequent attacks unless he be born again, and such an event Satan knows is very unlikely to occur.

Mr. World, in pa.s.sing, spoke to quite a few who were suffering from spiritual dyspepsia, consumption, and a great number of other ailments which had developed into chronic form, or had made necessary the surgeon's cruel knife, and then, turning to his obliging friend, asked if he could not now see Miss Church-Member.

He was taken into a special department arranged for those who were convalescent.

When she saw her faithful and loving friend, Miss Church-Member smiled for the first time since the operation.

The pleasant interview soon ended at the behest of the nurse, and Mr.

World was asked if he wished to enter the secret departments underground. This question aroused his curiosity and led to a lengthy conversation after which he expressed a desire to visit the secret chambers.

He was conducted into a dark office and asked to sign a pledge that lay on a desk.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SATAN'S SECRET SERVICE.

1. While Miss Church-Member is convalescent, Mr. World alone visits the underground apartments where secret sins are taught.

2. The last horrible stages of vice represented.

I saw Mr. World standing in a shadowy room and reading the conditions of entering "Satan's Secret Service." He was soon surprised by hearing a voice from a gloomy corner: "You cannot gain entrance to these secret abodes unless you sign that pledge."

"The meaning of the pledge is not clear to me. Who will explain it?"

asked Mr. World somewhat tremulously.

"You can read between those lines all you wish. Those sentences must be their own interpreters, and you must choose to sign or withdraw from this room, just as you prefer," came the firm answer from the dark corner.

Before Mr. World could decide what particular course to take, a hand gently touched his shoulder. He turned to see who stood in the rear.

"O, Mr. World, thou needst not fear to sign the pledge and enter the secret service of our great and glorious master," were the words that greeted him in a friendly tone.

"Who art thou, and how camest thou here?" asked Mr. World in suspense.

"I came here from 'going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.'" Then, without uttering another word, the strange visitor lifted the pledge from the desk and read it audibly:

"Into these darker chambers let me go, I promise to conceal its scenes of woe, And solemnly declare, as here I stand, That I will aid this secret working band."

"What can there be about that pledge not suited to your wish? It means that you are to have your eyes opened to behold new things, and also to learn the secret laws of life, healthful to your marrow and your bones."

Mr. World hesitated no longer. He signed the doc.u.ment forthwith, and a pa.s.s-word was whispered into his ear.

Suddenly a door opened at one end of the room, through which Mr. World walked into a large cavern which was illuminated only by faint glimmerings of light.

He could discern faintly that many creatures were there whose uncanny noises, freighted with oaths and blasphemies, sent their sulphurous fumes around. Although Mr. World was accustomed to foul scenes and profanity, yet he was sickened at this deeper touch of h.e.l.l.

"Where am I and how came I here?" he cried out excitedly. A woman came quickly in response to his outcry.

"You are in a place of liberty and personal license," she answered.

"Here you are free from the annoyances of narrow-minded pilgrims from the King's Highway, and you may spend a season in pure delight in these secret abodes which you will find more and more suited to the cravings of your natural heart and mind."

Now Mr. World was a somewhat judicious man, and although he would not sanction what he called church fanaticism, yet he had some self-respect, and had never allowed himself to reach the slum-level of society.

"Here I cannot and will not stay. Are there no other apartments to which I can go?" he asked, as the woman offered him a gla.s.s of wine, and in a sensual way entreated him to remain.

Mr. World was a lover of wine, but was suspicious of the place, and so he moved to go and found great difficulty in getting to another door, which, at last, he reached only by determination, and, giving a pa.s.s-word, he went into the first regular department of Satan's Secret Service.

This place, which was secretly connected with the Wizard City, was one of Satan's centers from which originated schemes and devices to commit and practice embryonic murder.

I saw in this dark cavern the sons and daughters of earth, high and low, n.o.ble and ign.o.ble, and my heart bled within at what I further witnessed.

Mr. World pa.s.sed through from one section to another, studying carefully the secret processes in vogue, while ill.u.s.trations, drawn by the artists of the Devil, instead of sending the blush of shame to his cheek, only fed his inner curiosity and verily aroused his baser pa.s.sions.

Having finished, he gave the pa.s.s-word and was admitted to a sub-department called Foeticide.

This section, and the one he had just left, were located directly under the physicians' offices along the King's Highway. It could be seen that there was direct connection between these offices and the horrible subterraneous apartments through which Mr. World was now pa.s.sing.

So many unnatural and horrible things were practiced in this sub- department that Mr. World was shocked beyond measure, for he had never dreamed of the extent of the malpractice to which his eyes here bore testimony.

All these things, while at first revolting, were only hardening his own heart to such an extent that, before he had pa.s.sed through the last wing of the department, and heard the apologetic words of those who were in charge, he concluded that these agencies conduced to much good.

"Oh!" thought I, "how the light of h.e.l.l casts a strange coloring over the things of earth, thereby creating false theories of mortal life."

By means of the pa.s.s-word Mr. World was enabled to visit the next department where he witnessed sights more revolting than in any place previously entered. Here groveled the youth under the power of so-called stimulating medicaments.

Mr. World, with all his wickedness, was chilled with horror at these underground spectacles.

Noticing his evident disgust, one came to him and offered soothing explanations to which he listened very attentively.