Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

by Ignatius Donnelly

not how, beneath the dark, deep crust, The clear flood there has come: One knows not why, amid eternal dust, Slumbers that sea of foam.'

  "Plain enough," he cried, dodging the apples; "the attraction ofgravitation did the business for it.

  "'Dark-buried, sepulchred, entombed and deep, Away from mortal ken, It lies, till, summoned from its silent sleep, It leaps to light again.'

  "Very good," he said, "and now here comes the application, the moralof the poem.

  "'So shall we find no intellect so dull, No soul so cold to move, No heart of self or sinfulness so full, But still hath power to love.'

  "Of course," he said; "he knows how it is himself; the poet fills thebill exactly.

  'It lives immortal, universal all, The tenant of each breast; Locked in the silence of unbroken thrall, And deep and pulseless rest; Till, at a touch, with burst of power and pride, Its swollen torrents roll, Dash all the trappings of the mind aside, And ride above the soul.'

  "Hurrah!" he cried, "that's splendid! But here's some more: _'ToEstella.'_"

  But I could stand no more, and so began to climb the tree. It was anapple-tree, and not a very big one at that, and Max was forced toretreat out upon a limb, and then drop to the ground. But the youngladies were too quick for him; they pounced upon him as he fell; andvery soon my precious verses were hidden in Estella's bosom, whence,in a burst of confidence and pride, they had been taken to exhibit toChristina.

  "Yes," said Estella, "it was nothing but mean jealousy, because hecould not write such beautiful poetry to Christina." "Exactly," saidChristina, "and I think I will refuse to marry him until he producessome verses equally fine."

  "Before I would write such poetry as that," said Max, "I would go andhang myself."

  "No man ought to be allowed to marry," said Estella, "until he haswritten a poem."

  "If you drive Max to that," I said, "other people will hangthemselves rather than hear his verses."

  And thus, with laugh and jest and badinage, the glorious hours passedaway.

  It was growing late; but we could not go until we had seen the cowsmilked, for that was a great event in the household; and "Bossy"especially was a wonderful cow. Never before in the world had therebeen such a cow as "Bossy." The children had tied some ribbons to herhorns, and little Ole was astride of her broad back, his chubby legspointing directly to the horizon, and the rest of the juvenilesdanced around her; while the gentle and patient animal stood chewingher cud, with a profound look upon her peaceful face, much like thatof a chief-justice considering "the rule in Shelley's case," or someother equally solemn and momentous subject.

  And I could not help but think how kindly we should feel toward thesegood, serviceable ministers to man; for I remembered how manymillions of our race had been nurtured through childhood and maturityupon their generous largess. I could see, in my imagination, thegreat bovine procession, lowing and moving, with their bleatingcalves trotting by their side, stretching away backward, farther andfarther, through all the historic period; through all the conquestsand bloody earth-staining battles, and all the sin and suffering ofthe race; and far beyond, even into the dim, pre-historic age, whenthe Aryan ancestors of all the European nations dwelt together underthe same tents, and the blond-haired maidens took their name of"daughters" (the very word we now use) from their function ofmilkmaidens. And it seemed to me that we should love a creature sointimately blended with the history of our race, and which had doneso much, indirectly, to give us the foundation on which to buildcivilization.

  But we must away; and Carl, glad to do something in scenes in whichhe was not much fitted to shine, drove us to the station in his openspring wagon; Estella, once more the elderly, spectacled maiden, bymy side; and the sunny little Christina beside Max's mother--going tothe station to see us off; while that gentleman, on the front seat,talked learnedly with Carl about the pedigree of the famous horse"Lightning," which had just trotted its mile in less than two minutes.

  And I thought, as I looked at Carl, how little it takes to make ahappy household; and what a beautiful thing the human race is underfavorable circumstances; and what a wicked and cruel and utterlyabominable thing is the man who could oppress it, and drive it intothe filth of sin and shame.

  I will not trouble you, my dear brother, by giving you a detailedaccount of the double marriage the next day. The same person marriedus both--a Scandinavian preacher, a friend of the Jansen family. Iwas not very particular who tied the knot and signed the bill of saleof Estella, provided I was sure the title was good. But I do thinkthat the union of man and wife should be something more than a merecivil contract. Marriage is not a partnership to sell drygoods--(sometimes, it is true, it is principally an obligation to buythem)--or to practice medicine or law together; it is, or should be,an intimate blending of two souls, and natures, and lives; and wherethe marriage is happy and perfect there is, undoubtedly, agrowing-together, not only of spirit and character, but even in thephysical appearance of man and wife. Now as these two souls came--weconcede--out of heaven, it seems to me that the ceremony which thusdestroys their individuality, and blends them into one, should havesome touch and color of heaven in it also.

  It was a very happy day.

  As I look upon it now it seems to me like one of those bright, widerays of glorious light which we have sometimes seen bursting througha rift in the clouds, from the setting sun, and illuminating, for abrief space of time, the black, perturbed and convulsed sky. One ofour poets has compared it to--

  "A dead soldier's sword athwart his pall."

  But it faded away, and the storm came down, at last, heavy and darkand deadly.

  CHAPTER XXX.

  UPON THE HOUSE-TOP

  A few days after our joint wedding Max came running in one day, andsaid:

  "It is to be to-morrow."

  He gave each of us a red cross to sew upon our clothes. He was verymuch excited, and hurried out again.

  I had said to him, the morning of our marriage, that I desired toreturn home before the outbreak came, for I was now responsible forEstella's life and safety; and I feared that all communication of onepart of the world with another would be cut off by the threatenedrevolution. He had begged me to remain. He said that at the interviewwith General Quincy it had been made a condition of the contract thateach of the executive committee--Caesar, the vice-president andhimself--should have one of the flying air-ships placed at hisdisposal, after the outbreak, well manned and equipped with bombs andarms of all kinds. These "Demons" were to be subject to their orderat any time, and to be guarded by the troops at their magazine in oneof the suburbs until called for.

  The committee had several reasons for making this arrangement: theoutbreak might fail and they would have to fly; or the outbreak mightsucceed, but become ungovernable, and they would have to escape fromthe tempest they had themselves invoked. Max had always had a dreamthat after the Plutocracy was overthrown the insurgents wouldreconstruct a purer and better state of society; but of late myconversations with him, and his own observations, had begun to shakehis faith in this particular.

  He said to me that if I remained he would guarantee the safety ofmyself and wife, and after I had seen the outbreak he would send mehome in his air-ship; and moreover, if he became satisfied that therevolution had passed beyond the control of himself and friends, hewould, after rescuing his father from the prison where he wasconfined, accompany me with his whole family, and we would settledown together in my distant mountain home. He had, accordingly,turned all his large estate into gold and silver, which he hadbrought to the house; and I had likewise filled one large room fullof a great library of books, which I had purchased to take withme--literature, science, art, encyclopedias, histories, philosophies,in fact all the treasures of the world's genius--together with type,printing presses, telescopes, phonographs, photographic instruments,electr
ical apparatus, eclesions, phemasticons, and all the othergreat inventions which the last hundred years have given us. For, Isaid to myself, if civilization utterly perishes in the rest of theworld, there, in the mountains of Africa, shut out from attack byrocks and ice-topped mountains, and the cordon of tropical barbariansyet surrounding us, we will wait until exhausted and prostratemankind is ready to listen to us and will help us reconstruct societyupon a wise and just basis.

  In the afternoon Max returned, bringing with him Carl Jansen and allhis family. A dozen men also came, bearing great boxes. They were oldand trusted servants of his father's family; and the boxes containedmagazine rifles and pistols and fixed ammunition, together withhand-grenades. These were taken out, and we were all armed. Even