%M\r& 
 
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 by the National Christian Association, on the 
 surance given on the part of the College, 
 that the books should have a good position 
 and he accessible to the students. 
 
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 Please notify the National Christian Associ - 
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 that measures may be taken for their reiurn 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Deceived . i8c } 
 
 CA/ss No. 
 

 
BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR 
 
 BY 
 
 E. E. FLAGG, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "HOLDEN WITH CORDS," "LITTLE PEOPLE," 
 "A SUNNY LIFE." 
 
 Hast thou chosen, my people, on whose party 
 
 thou shalt stand, 
 Ere the doom from its worn sandals shakes the 
 
 dust against our land? 
 Thongh the cause of evil prosper, yet tis truth 
 
 alone is strong. 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 
 
 1885. 
 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1884 
 
 BY THE NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 
 
TO DEA. DECREASE LEADBETTER 
 
 AND HIS FAITHFUL COMPANION 
 IN HIS LIFE-LONG WARFARE AGAINST THE SECRET LODGE, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The writer is aware that the present volume boldly 
 contradicts a certain popular and most mischievous 
 fallacy which seems to date its origin from the time 
 when the anti-slavery struggle for a quarter of a cen 
 tury kept every other great question in abeyance; 
 namely, that there is room in American politics for 
 only one reform at a time 
 
 It is true that both the Anti-masonic uprising of 
 1829, and the temperance movement a few years later 
 went down like driftwood in the tide of excited feel 
 ing which followed the labors of the first Abolition 
 ists ; but they who would make out of this fact a prec 
 edent for all future time forget that we have entered 
 on a new era with totally changed conditions, and 
 every branch of reform work has taken a correspond 
 ing impetus 
 
 With a nation composed partly of slaves and partly 
 of freemen, or even an unreconstructed South as it ex 
 isted just after the war, there could be no adequate 
 settlement of these great questions now pressing to 
 the front. But, given a nation emancipated forever 
 from the curse of human bondage, sectional lines 
 obliterated, and a North and South as united in fra 
 ternal bonds as the East and the West, and every 
 plank in the platforms of our various reform parties 
 becomes a sublime possibility. The logic of events is 
 fast teaching us this truth. Side by side with the pro- 
 
V PREFACE. 
 
 hibition of the drink traffic comes the labor problem, 
 the Sabbath question, the rights of the Indians and the 
 Chinese. Is it the part of enlightened philanthropy 
 or honest patriotism, or true Christianity to bid these 
 evils all stand to one side while we grapple with the 
 more gigantic and deadly wrong of intemperance ? Is 
 it not time to widen our scope both of vision and 
 action ? We cannot safely ignore the least important 
 of the many evils now threatening society, for as a 
 certain French writer very truly observes, "Errors are 
 always friends and ready for a mutual embrace." It 
 is in the closeness of that embrace that the secret of 
 their strength lies, and only when Christians unite in 
 one combined onset against all evil, shall we see na 
 tional reform inaugurated on a permanent basis. The 
 Woman s Christian Temperance Union, with its vari 
 ous departments of labor, many of which lie outside 
 of pure temperance work, while all converge to one 
 common end the extirpation of the liquor traffic is 
 already acting upon this truth with results that cause 
 saints and angels to rejoice, and time-serving politi 
 cians to tremble. 
 
 But if the Drink question has a very intimate con 
 nection, morally and economically considered, with 
 most of the social problems that now trouble philan 
 thropists, shall we shut our eyes to the fact that there 
 is still another issue as closely related to the rum traf 
 fic as the rum traffic itself is to that fountain of crime 
 which feeds our police courts and penitentiaries ? 
 
 The American party alone has recognized the subtle 
 power of Masonry, and those secret societies of which 
 it is the mother, to uphold with unseen hand the sa 
 loon and its kindred evils. But many honest Prohibi 
 tionists, even among those who hate the lodge from 
 the bottom of their hearts, are yet inclined to compro 
 mise ; to say, "Let us kill intemperance, and then we 
 will attack the lodge." 
 
PREFACE. VI 
 
 The writer has attempted in the following pages to 
 show the fallacy of such a position ; nor has she drawn 
 on imagination for her incidents. They are without 
 exception matters of fact, and scarcely any observing 
 mind who has carefully noted the workings of Secret- 
 ism in its relations to Temperance could fail to gather 
 a store of similar material 
 
 The Temperance warfare has now lasted for half a 
 century. Is it not time for all true Prohibitionists to 
 unite against the secret foe which has so many times 
 betrayed them? Is it not time to drop forever the 
 narrow and one-sided notion that evils must be at 
 tacked singly, and, by one grand, Napoleonic onslaught 
 on the enemy s whole line of battle, usher in the 
 longed-for day of social purity and national righteous 
 ness? 
 
 This can be rendered practicable only by a party with 
 a platform made up entirely of moral issues ; which 
 recognizes God as the true Governor of the nations, 
 and his laws as the one enduring basis on which to 
 found the structure of our republican liberty. United 
 to such a party, American freemen need no longer 
 "halt between two opinions," but can cast their ballots 
 equally against the lodge and the saloon, thus striking 
 a deadly blow to both monsters which shall soon con 
 sign them to the same unwept grave, among the dead 
 issues of the past. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. A SON OP THE PURITANS. , 1 
 
 II. A RELIGION THAT is BETTER THAN 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 8 
 
 III. WITHIN THE CIRCLE 17 
 
 IV. STEPHEN ROWLAND S FIRST CASE. ... 30 
 
 V. OPINIONS OP A W. C. T. U 49 
 
 VI. LOAVES AND FISHES 69 
 
 VII. A NEW FACTOR IN POLITICS 93 
 
 VIII. MARTIN TREWORTHY ON HUMBUGS 111 
 
 IX. A NEW KIND OP MACHINE 126 
 
 X. THE QUESTION is MET FACE TO FACE. . 135 
 
 XI. HISTORY AND PROPHECY 151 
 
 XII. THE YOKE OP BONDAGE 163 
 
 XIII. CERTAIN CHARACTERS IN THE STORY 
 
 GET "MORE LIGHT" 171 
 
 XIV. JACKSONVILLE REAPS THE WHIRLWIND. 183 
 
 XV. A MODERN PUBLICAN 201 
 
 XVI. DRIVEN FORTH 212 
 
 XVII. KILKENNY CATS 218 
 
 XVIII. NABOTH 226 
 
 XIX. THE GOOD SAMARITAN . . 239 
 
CONTENTS. Viii 
 
 XX. TOM S DREAM COMES TRUE 251 
 
 XXL MARTHA AND NELSON 265 
 
 XXII. UNCLE ZEE TRIES A MASONIC EXPERI 
 MENT WITH UNLOCKED FOR SUCCESS . . 269 
 
 XXIII. A PECULIAR KIND OP MORALITY AND 
 
 BENEVOLENCE 280 
 
 XXIV. IN RAMAH WAS THERE A VOICE HEARD. 294 
 
 XXV. Two WAYS OP ASKING A QUESTION 301 
 
 XXVL THE TRUE LIGHT SHINETH 309 
 
 XXVII. THE AVENGER 335 
 
 XXVIII. VENGEANCE is MINE 341 
 
 XXIX. GOING DOWN INTO EGYPT 352 
 
 XXX. LODGE AND SALOON 356 
 
 XXXL A LIQUOR MOB 361 
 
 XXXII. THE LEADER ON THE WHITE HORSE ... 369 
 
 XXXTTT THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER 381 
 
BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS: 
 
 OR 
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A SON OF THE PURITANS. 
 
 His birthplace was an old-fashioned farmhouse 
 among the New Hampshire hills; his parents an 
 equally old-fashioned couple who believed in keeping 
 the Sabbath, doing right by their neighbors and op 
 posing evil wherever the}* found it. This uncompro 
 mising type of Christianity, in the case of the How- 
 lands, seemed to be hereditary, descending from 
 father to son in true apostolic succession. The How- 
 land from whom the family dated its beginning was 
 a Puritan clergyman, who, falling under the ban of 
 the Star Chamber a few years before King Charles 
 lost his head, sought for liberty of conscience in the 
 colonies; but for all practical purposes of this histo 
 ry we need not go farther back than Josiah Howland, 
 the sixth in lineal descent; a plain, hard-working son 
 of the soil, a good farmer and a good citizen, but 
 
2 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 with nothing about him that distinguished him to 
 common eyes from the great mass of his fellow-men. 
 
 Though the family line boasted one or two judges, 
 to say nothing of a score of ministers and deacons, 
 Josiah Howland had never seemed to feel any earth 
 ly ambition beyond the desire to raise good crops and 
 stand well with the world. He read much, .especially 
 his Bible; prayed much and talked little. He never 
 sought office, nor did office come to him; his voice 
 was never heard in town meetings or caucuses, yet it 
 was a common expression with his neighbors that 
 "though Josiah Howland never seems to say or do 
 much, there isn t another man in the township that 
 would be missed more", which is, after all, the high 
 est tribute that can be paid to any of us when we 
 leave our earthly places vacant forever. 
 
 He had married early in life his second cousin, 
 Phoebe Howland, a woman who combined with sound 
 common sense and great practical energy of charac 
 ter, a deep, almost mystical type of piety. Had her 
 lot been cast among the Quakers she might have de 
 veloped into a female preacher, but rather being born 
 among those whose traditions and practice were all 
 against a woman s voice being heard in any public 
 assembly, the gift was stifled without anybody s sus 
 pecting its existence. Still, she was considered an 
 uncommon girl; and when, instead of marrying a 
 minister or foreign missionary, she quietly united 
 her lot for better or worse with a plain farmer, many 
 people laid her choice to oddity; but Phoebe had no 
 more of this than is common to human nature. The 
 
.4 Son of the Puritans. 3 
 
 fact was she had a very keen spiritual insight and 
 saw what other people did not see that Josiah How- 
 land, slow of speech and with none of the varnish 
 of the universities upon him, had the soul of one of 
 God s princes who walk the earth encompassed with 
 an invisible royalty. 
 
 Such a couple would not fail to give their children 
 religious training, and the best education their means 
 could afford. One of their sons, at the time our story 
 begins, was pastor of a small country church, while 
 the second was teaching, with prospects of a profes 
 sorship. But the youngest boy. Stephen, was a se 
 cret disappointment to both their hearts, especially 
 his mother s. She had rejoiced with trembling over 
 his queer, wise sayings when a little child, his strange 
 questionings into the infinite mysteries of the life 
 beyond, seeing in every new sign of spiritual pre 
 cocity, that made old gossips shake their heads with 
 lugubrious prophecies of an early grave, only another 
 gracious indication that the Lord had heard her 
 prayer as he did Hannah s, and her youngest and 
 favorite son might yet prove a second Samuel called 
 of Grod from his birth. He had passed an exemplary 
 boyhood and youth without the sowing of a single 
 crop of wild oats, but when it came to the choice of 
 a profession, instead of treading in the steps of his 
 elder brother, he shattered all her motherly dream- 
 ings and sorely confounded his father by declaring 
 his intention to be a lawyer. 
 
 Now this good Puritan farmer had about as poor 
 an opinion of lawyers as is anyway consistent with 
 
4 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Christian charity. He believed that, -like the Cretans 
 of old, they were "always liars", busybodies, med 
 dling with other men s matters, keeping up quarrels 
 between friends and neighbors just to fill their own 
 pockets, and browbeating bewildered witnesses till 
 they were ready to say black was white and white 
 was black. Did not even the Bible say, " Woe unto 
 you lawyers"? 
 
 But Stephen had fortified himself beforehand 
 against all probable and improbable objections to his 
 chosen career. He reminded his father that the 
 Scriptures made honorable mention of "Zenas the 
 lawj^er"; that even if these things were all true of 
 the profession generally, the more need that good 
 men should enter its ranks; that, for himself, he 
 would not stoop to any mean pettifoggery to win the 
 most important case; that he meant to be always on 
 the side of justice, the champion of the weak and 
 oppressed against the powerful and strong; he quoted 
 the resounding and classical words of Hooper: "Law 
 hath her seat in the bosom of Gk>d"; and, in short, 
 he argued the matter with a skill and fluency that 
 promised great things for his future clients, and even 
 staggered Mr. Josiah Rowland not a little. 
 
 He put some more wood into the kitchen stove, 
 over which he was sitting, and by that time he re 
 covered the ideas which had been nearly swept away 
 in the rush of his son s eloquence; very old-fashioned 
 ideas they were, and obtained from a very old-fash 
 ioned book, but not yet obsolete in the quiet hill 
 districts of New England. 
 
A Son of the Puritans. 5 
 
 "Now, Stephen, I want you to be an honest man, 
 and then I don t care what else you are. I don t care 
 how rich, or how smart, or how famous anybody is 
 that ain t honest, and it s next to impossible to be an 
 honest lawyer. It may be there are some that are, 
 but it is like the camel going through the needle s 
 eye. or the rich man entering heaven a hard rub. 
 To be sure, the Bible tells us that what is impossible 
 with men is possible with God. But we ain t to be 
 presumptuous. Because a thing is possible with God 
 is no reason why we should always reckon on his 
 doing it for us." 
 
 There was an unpolished logic in the words of the 
 elder Howland which the younger found it hard to 
 gainsay, but he had as yet advanced only a little way 
 in that knowledge which an old heathen has some 
 where declared to be the highest a man can acquire 
 "know thyself/ So he accepted his father s last 
 remark with some slight amendments that because 
 a thing was impossible with the majority of men, it 
 by no means followed that it was not very possible 
 and easy with Stephen Howland. 
 
 "Well, father, I must say as I have said before, I 
 don t see why a really honest man should find it 
 difficult to keep his honesty under any circumstances. 
 The world needs lawyers, and the question is, what 
 kind it shall have. Shall we leave it to the base and 
 tricky to expound our national and State laws? to 
 defend the innocent and unmask the guilty? to sit 
 in the places of Story, and Wirt, and Marshall? 
 Shall we have jurists on the bench, or charlatans?" 
 
6 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "I ve had my say, Stephen. You ve got my mind 
 about it," was his father s only response to this 
 grandly sounding speech. "Now it is time we heard 
 your mother s." 
 
 Mrs. Phoebe Rowland had not joined in the debate, 
 and even at this direct appeal continued her work of 
 paring and coring apples as if she had not heard it 
 at all. One who did not know her would have 
 thought her indifferent to the subject; but the truth 
 was she was a woman who never spoke hastily when 
 any important matter was under discussion, and the 
 more deeply her personal feelings were engaged, 
 either pro or con, as in the present instance, the more 
 firmly did she hold by the rule which in her girlhood 
 she had written out with a list of other resolutions 
 by which to guide her daily conduct. It ran as fol 
 lows: "Resolved, when my mind is not clear on any 
 point affecting another s duty, never to open my 
 lips until I feel that God has given me something to 
 say." No wonder that in her family this Puritan 
 woman was queen, sybil, prophetess; that there was 
 a deep, sweet gravity in her lightest speech, as of 
 one who lived in the constant hearing of heavenly 
 oracles. 
 
 So father and son waited, the one in reverential, 
 the other in eager silence. Five, ten minutes passed, 
 and but for the monotonous leaping of the quarters 
 of apple into the bright tin pan in her lap, it would 
 have been still enough for a Quaker meeting. Then 
 she spoke: 
 
 "It may be, father, that God has called Stephen to 
 
A Son of the Puritans. 7 
 
 be a lawyer, and what are we that we should with 
 stand his voice? I onh~ want him to be fully per 
 suaded in his own mind." 
 
 The point was settled. This Puritan couple, with 
 their simple honesty, their unworldh faith in God 
 and each other, had solved the vexed question of 
 household supremacy without quarreling with either 
 Peter or Paul. Mrs. Phoebe Howland believed im- 
 plicitl} that her husband was the best man in the 
 world, and though she had all the refinement and 
 most of the book knowledge, she gloried in the 
 rough-barked oak. Mr. Josiah Howland, on his part, 
 looked on "mother" as a superior being who held 
 constant communion with the unseen and the eternal; 
 he followed reverently in the path of her lightest 
 opinion, and would no more have thought of calling 
 in question anything she said after one of those long, 
 sacred "silences," than Dante would have thought of 
 contending with Beatrice about the right road to 
 Paradise. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Stephen be 
 came a student in the law office of Judge Howland, 
 a distant relative of his father s, where he remained 
 the customary period; then, a full-fledged young bar 
 rister, he opened a tiny office in a new-made Western 
 city, hung out his sign, and waited for fortune to 
 chance that way. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN WHICH THE READER IS SHOWN A RELIGION THAT 
 IS BETTER THAN CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Stephen Howland was waiting for clients with 
 what patience he could muster one raw, cloudy, 
 chilly day, when he heard the welcome sound of feet 
 pausing at his door, and a stranger entered who 
 wanted a deed drawn up. 
 
 Even so trifling a job as the drawing up of a legal 
 paper the young attorney did not consider despicable 
 at the present low ebb in his affairs and spirits. So 
 he proceeded at once to write the required instru 
 ment. The stranger, whose name was put therein 
 as Felix Basset, had apparently reached five and 
 forty, was good-looking, well dressed, and agreeable; 
 a man evidently on the best possible terms with 
 himself, as could be seen by the air of self-posses 
 sion with which he took a seat and let his eye roam 
 over the rather meagre appointments of the little 
 office, in a way that seemed to render superfluous 
 any answer to his careless inquiry, "How goes busi 
 ness with you, Mr. Howland?" 
 
 "I haven t been troubled with any rush of clients 
 as yet," returned Stephen, rather dryly. 
 
 "Well, I suppose not. A law} r er s practice is like 
 Rome. It can t be built up in a day. But some 
 men make a life-job of success, and never get fairly 
 onto their feet. I don t believe in that, because I 
 
Better Than Christianity. 9 
 
 think there is no need of it. We are fast learning 
 the truth that mankind are brothers, and as a conse 
 quence there are organizations in eveiy city and 
 town founded on this idea, and anybody that wants 
 to get on in the world should join one of these. 
 Xow. I started in life with scarcely a dollar in my 
 pocket, and I shall always say that I owe more of 
 my success in business to having joined the Odd-fel 
 lows than to all other causes combined." 
 
 Stephen only said, -Indeed!" but Mr. Felix Bas 
 set was too full of his subject to need any other en 
 couragement to go on. 
 
 Yes; I consider Odd-fellowship by all odds the 
 best order that a young man can enter. It is a sys 
 tem of the most rigid morality as well as the most 
 perfect benevolence. It is even better in some re 
 spects than the church itself." 
 
 Stephen had grown up with that idea of the Chris 
 tian church which still prevails in some guileless 
 souls, as the pure and spotless Bride, clothed with 
 the sun and crowned with stars; persecuted, yet full 
 of divine vitalhy that could triumph over all the 
 fury of her dragon foe; before whose mighty tread 
 every idol should fall, every superstition crumble, 
 every wrong flee away, and the renovated, purified 
 earth become once more a fit dwelling-place for Eter 
 nal Love. It was no wonder then that he gave a lit 
 tle start, and fixed his eyes inquiringly on Mr Bas 
 set. Both movements were observed by that gentle 
 man, who made haste accordingly to define his opin 
 ions with more strictness. 
 
10 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "I see you are surprised to hear me say so, but it 
 is the truth, and the truth ought to be spoken even 
 when it cuts the wrong way. The Odd-fellows take 
 care of their sick and poor. What does the church 
 do for hers? Why, in nine cases out of ten she just 
 lets them alone to suffer and die, or be thrown on 
 public charity. It is a fact that I have heard more 
 than one minister say, both of Masonr} r and Odd- 
 fellowship, precisely what I am saying now, that 
 they accomplish more good than the churches do." 
 
 "I suppose these two orders bear considerable re 
 semblance to each other," observed Stephen, both 
 for the purpose of saying something, nd because 
 he really had a vague idea that such was the case. 
 
 "Oh, no; they are independent organizations, en 
 tirely separate in everything. A man can join both 
 if he chooses, and so get a double benefit. Now a 
 member of the lodge where I belong is not only an 
 Odd-fellow, but a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a 
 Good Templar, and I know not what besides. But 
 I don t believe in joining so many orders. Odd-fel 
 lowship contains enough to satisfy me, and it ought 
 to any reasonable man." 
 
 Now it must be confessed that Stephen Rowland 
 had an undefined suspicion of anything Masonic. 
 He remembered, when a boy, eating his luncheon 
 with his father one hot day under the shade of the 
 big oak in the south pasture, inquiring between the 
 savoty bites of doughnuts and cheese, "Father, 
 what is Freemasonry?" 
 
 "It is a bad thing, Stephen, bad clear through. I 
 
Better Than Christianity. 11 
 
 hope you II never have anything to do with it." 
 
 But what makes it bad, father?" persisted the 
 boy, whose young curiosity was fully aroused. 
 
 "Wh} T , the terrible oaths they have to take, for 
 one thing. There used to be a little book with a 
 blue cover up in the attic, when I was a boy, that 
 had them all written out, and the signs, and grips, 
 and everything/ 
 
 "Do }xm know where that book is now?" asked 
 Stephen, eagerly. 
 
 "Hain t a notion. I suppose it got scattered along 
 with the other things when we broke up after father 
 died." 
 
 "But why do they have to take such oaths?" in 
 quired Stephen, going on with his catechising. 
 
 "That s a question, now/ said the elder Howland, 
 ruminatively. "Folks ain t generally to all that 
 pains to cover up good deeds, and this is one great 
 reason why I have always stood to it that Masonry 
 must be bad. The}* say that if a man takes these 
 oaths and then lets out the secrets he is liable to lose 
 his life, and if that is so it is an institution only fit 
 for thieves and murderers. I don t suppose there s 
 a doubt but what they murdered William Morgan 
 out in western New York for writing that little book 
 I told you of. They took him out in a boat at night 
 and drowned him in the river. This was something 
 that happened before my da} , but father used to tell 
 about it. It s queer now that there ain t anything 
 about it in the school histories. There ought to be, 
 for it made an awful excitement all over the coun- 
 
12 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 try, so that the lodge went down everywhere and 
 men were ashamed or afraid to own they ever had 
 been Masons. Somehow the thing had a big tap 
 root, and it beats all how it has started up again. 
 But I tell you, Stephen, don t you ever join the Ma 
 sons. It is no place for an honest man." 
 
 So believed this worthy New Englander, this Pur 
 itan of many generations, and so according to his 
 best knowledge and belief did he teach his twelve- 
 year-old son, whose mind, accustomed to consider 
 the taking of human life as the most dreadful crime 
 in the catalogue, was filled with horror at these reve 
 lations. So far and no farther could Josiah How- 
 land throw his red light of warning. It is true that 
 on general principles he was opposed to the lesser 
 secret orders, but in his eyes Masonry was the 
 Moses rod that swallowed up all the others, leaving 
 him with a merely negative opinion about them as 
 of something foolish, but not so absolutely bad and 
 mischievous as to need an} special combating. 
 Thus it was that Stephen, as soon as Mr. Basset as 
 sured him that Odd-fellowship had no connection 
 with Masonry, felt a sudden revulsion of his previ 
 ous prejudices, and was perfectly willing to hear 
 more about it. 
 
 "I am glad to know I was mistaken in supposing 
 them to be alike," he said, after a moment s pause. 
 "The fact is I may as well say it I have heard 
 some things about Masonry not at all to my taste." 
 
 "0, you will find that Odd-fellowship has nothing 
 in it to trouble the tenderest conscience," returned 
 
Better Than Christianity. 13 
 
 Mr. Basset, with easy cheerfulness. -It requires no 
 oath of its members, only a simple obligation. Be 
 tween ourselves. he continued, with an air of min 
 gled confidence and candor, "there are objectionable 
 features about Masonry. I don t mind saying so, 
 and this is why I recommend Odd-fellowship so 
 highly. It has all the advantages of Masonry, and 
 none of its drawbacks. Here you are a stranger in 
 a strange place. You need friends who will stand 
 by 3*011 if you are sick or in trouble, and be inter 
 ested in your obtaining a practice. Now this is just 
 where Odd-fellowship fulfills the divine law better 
 than the churches do: -I was a stranger and ye took 
 me in, naked and ye clothed me, sick and in prison 
 and ye visited me. That is the kind of religion 
 that men understand." 
 
 Now in Mr. Felix Basset s coat pocket reposed at 
 that very moment a small volume brimful of in 
 structive facts for all good Odd-fellows, one of them 
 being stated as follows: -Chinese. Polynesians, In 
 dians, half-breeds or mixed bloods are not eligible 
 to membership! And if any earnest seeker after 
 the truth as it is in Odd-fellowship had looked still 
 deeper into its pages they might have learned that 
 not only were these classes excluded, but all men of 
 African descent, all women none, in short, being 
 admitted but the free, white males; while even of 
 this favored class the deaf, dumb, and blind, the 
 aged and poor, the halt and lame, might as well, for 
 all their hopes of ever sharing in the exhaustless 
 stream of Odd-fellow beneficence, have been Chinese 
 
14 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 coolies, or negroes whose shoulders still bore the 
 marks of the overseer s whip. 
 
 But it is the tendency of human nature to like the 
 sound of certain words. Men have thrown up their 
 caps and shouted themselves hoarse at the name of 
 Liberty, while her most devoted sons were gasping 
 in dungeons or expiring on the scaffold. And 
 Charity, with many people, is almost as potent a 
 watchword. They swear by her name and sound 
 trumpets in her honor at the very moment that she 
 wanders outcast, frightened away by the noise and 
 blare. Stephen Rowland believed in mutual help 
 fulness. He had a generous nature, and was, be 
 sides, in that situation which is least calculated to 
 nurture any proud independence of one s fellow r -be- 
 ings. He considered Mr. Basset very kind and 
 friendly, and felt grateful accordingly; and though 
 he could not yet see that it was both his duty and 
 privilege to become an Odd-fellow with all conven 
 ient speed, he was willing enough to think about it. 
 
 "Now there are some people," resumed Mr. Bas 
 set, "whose idea of Odd-fellowship is just a mutual 
 benefit society and nothing else. But that is a very 
 wrong impression. The material good it does is the 
 least part of it. The fact is it is a great moral and 
 religious teacher, and above all it is a temperance 
 order. Now that is a subject in which everybody 
 ought to feel interested. The crime and misery 
 caused by the rum traffic is frightful to contemplate 
 perfectly terrible." 
 
 "It is indeed," answered Stephen, feelingly, for 
 
Better Than Christianity. 15 
 
 he had been educated in the strictest doctrines of 
 temperance. He believed that the legalized sale of 
 intoxicating liquors was the curse and shame of our 
 Christian civilization; that it was the solemn and 
 bounden duty of every man, woman and child to or 
 ganize and fight to the death the monster Alcohol; 
 that it was the old medieval battle between St. 
 George and the dragon acted over again in the living 
 issues of to-da}*; and he had even dreamed of grand 
 and heroic deeds that his own right hand might 
 some day perform in this warfare. Mr. Felix Bas 
 set could hardly have touched a more responsive 
 chord. 
 
 "I am a very strong temperance man myself," 
 continued that gentleman, -and though I think the 
 Good Templars and other similar orders are very 
 useful, I really believe there is no better organiza 
 tion to promote the cause than Odd-fellowship right 
 ly understood. You see it is just this way," and 
 and here Mr. Basset lowered his voice with the air 
 of one about to impart information on a deep and 
 profound subject "everybody don t understand, not 
 even the majority of the members themselves, that, 
 as its teachings are based on the broad foundation 
 of universal truth, and the greater always includes 
 the less, it follows that they must in the nature of 
 things cover all truth that humanity needs to know. 
 Considered in that light it is, as I said, a temperance 
 order nothing less, and every one who enters it 
 stands committed to prohibition principles. But to 
 come back to the subject we started on; I believe in 
 
16 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the church. I have been a member fifteen years, 
 and I assert that no single church has a sphere wide 
 enough to do all the charitable and benevolent work 
 that the world needs done. An Odd-fellow who 
 lives up to the requirements of the order can t help 
 being a good Christian, though as a matter of actual 
 practice it is with Odd-fellowship just as it is in the 
 church, inconsistency even among the best." 
 
 Mr. Basset sighed, though whether for the incon 
 sistencies of church members or lodge members, or 
 both, was not quite apparent; and, after a moment s 
 silence, he paid the young attorney s modest fee, and 
 left him to his own reflections, which amounted sub 
 stantially to this: that an institution which could 
 thus combine a man s interest for both world s must 
 be a good thing, and if clients did not come in any 
 faster, he, Stephen Howland, would be standing very 
 much in his own light not to heed the advice so free 
 ly and disinterestedly given. 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 WITH IX THE CIRCLE. 
 
 A strange scene now rises before us. and though 
 the reader, at first sight, may be disposed to shrink 
 back, we bid him follow, in all good courage: for 
 this is no assembly of Southern Ku-Klux. meditating 
 a descent on some defenseless negro cabin, but a 
 company of peaceful citizens, who lay aside their 
 masks and disguises when the business which calls 
 them together is over, and separate without the de 
 liberate planning of a single deed of darkne 
 
 But our business just now is in an ante-room, 
 where two men stand fronting each other, the older 
 of the two with a blank book before him. in which 
 he is writing down to the following questions the 
 answers given him by the younger, who proves to be 
 no other than our friend. Stephen Howland: 
 
 What is your name?" 
 
 Where do you live?" 
 
 What is your occupation?" 
 
 : How old are you? 
 
 Do you hold membership in. or are you suspend 
 ed or expelled from any lodge of this order?" 
 
 Are you. so far as you know, in sound health?" 
 
 Stephen Howland had a good deal of what we 
 may call the -pride of life." He had never wronged 
 
18 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 his pure and temperate ancestry \)y a single youthful 
 excess, and his happy New England heritage of 
 mingled plenty and toil had developed in him a vigor 
 and hardihood which hardly knew a day s sickness. 
 So he may be pardoned for answering in the affirma 
 tive, with a pleasant consciousness, meanwhile, that 
 his well-knit, manly figure and fine proportions made 
 him goodly to look at, both in the eyes of men and 
 women. 
 
 "Do } r ou believe in the existence of a Supreme, 
 Intelligent Being, the creator and preserver of the 
 Universe?" 
 
 And again Stephen answered in the affirmative, 
 forgetting that he called himself a Christian, and 
 was now giving his assent to a creed that left out the 
 most essential part of his faith; and which, thus 
 emasculated, neither Jew, Mohammedan or deist 
 could possibly quarrel with. 
 
 The recording angel of the lodge, who, by the 
 wa}^, bore the uncelestial title of Past Grand, here 
 put down his pen and shut his book; but he had one 
 more inquiry to make o the young neophyte: 
 
 "Are you willing to enter into an obligation to 
 keep secret all that may transpire during your initi 
 ation?" 
 
 Stephen Howland felt, for an instant, a trifle un 
 comfortable; but had he not been assured, time and 
 again, of the highly moral and religious nature of 
 the society which he was now joining? So he 
 swallowed his scruples in their first beginning, gave 
 once more the expected affirmative, and repeated, in 
 
Within the Circle. 19 
 
 a clear, firm voice, after his examiner, "I hereby 
 pledge my sacred honor that I will keep secret what 
 ever may transpire during my initiation/ 
 
 His catechiser then blindfolded his eyes, which 
 gave Stephen another uncomfortable feeling, for he 
 was naturally one of the wide-awake kind, who like 
 to know what is going on about them; and, leading 
 him to the door of the hall, gave three resounding 
 raps. ""Who comes there?" was responded from 
 within. "The Outside Conductor, with a stranger 
 who desires to be initiated into the Independent Or 
 der of Odd-fellows 1 , answered his guide. And thus 
 introduced, Stephen was led into the hall to where 
 stood three figures, the one on the right and left be 
 ing in long white robes, like grave shrouds, and each 
 holding an unlighted torch. The middle figure was 
 similarly attired, only in a black robe instead of a 
 white one. The rest of the company wore semi- 
 masks, the upper part reaching to about the middle 
 of the forehead, and the lower part covering the 
 mouth; the funereal aspect of the whole scene being 
 much enhanced by an open coffin, containing a very 
 death-like representation of a skeleton, which was 
 placed in the center of the room. 
 
 "You are now within a lodge of Odd-fellows", 
 spoke the black-robed figure, in a kind of recitative 
 singsong; "here the world is shut out; you are sep 
 arated from its cares and distinctions, its dissensions 
 and its vices. Here Friendship and Love assert 
 their mild dominion, while Faith and Charity com 
 bine to bless the mind with peace and soften the 
 
20 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 heart with sympathy. Those around you have all 
 assumed the obligations and endeavor to cherish the 
 sentiments peculiar to Odd-fellowship; but before 
 you can unite with them you must pass through an 
 initiatory ceremony, which will ultimately lead you 
 to primar}^ truth." 
 
 Stephen Howland, standing with his hoodwink 
 over his eyes, doubtful, bewildered, curious, was in 
 a receptive rather than critical posture of mind. It 
 did not even occur to him to ask with Pilate, "What 
 is Truth?" But how shall we excuse his pastor, the 
 Eev. Theophilus Brassfield, who is one of that 
 masked company, and only the previous Sabbath 
 preached from the text, "J am the Way and the 
 TRUTH and the Life!" 
 
 "The stranger now awaits our mystic rites," sol 
 emnly pronounced the figure in the black robe. 
 
 "Then at once the chains prepare," said the one on 
 the right hand in a disguised and sepulchral voice. 
 And a chain was accordingly thrown over his 
 shoulders, brought around under his arms and tied 
 behind. "Now, bind him to the stake!" chimed in 
 the one on the left; but the black-robed figure inter 
 rupted this cheerful proposition with, "Hold! Bro 
 thers ! shall we proceed in these, our mystic rites, or 
 shall we mercy show?" And from the masked as 
 sembly, in a low, hesitating murmur, came the ans 
 wer, "Mercy mercy show." 
 
 All this did not appear to Stephen nearly as fool 
 ish as it probably appears to the reader. Whether 
 it be a case of magnetism, or snake charming, or the 
 
Within the Circle. 21 
 
 mere influence of one set of minds on another, it 
 generally makes all the difference in the world whether 
 we are inside or outside the circle. And Stephen was 
 inside, caught in the whirlpool of all this spiritual 
 jugglery. He had not the smallest fear of an}- per 
 sonal harm, yet his flesh crept with a cold shiver as 
 the faint tolling of a bell struck on the silence. 
 When he was a boy he well remembered that sound: 
 how he used to count the strokes; one, two for the 
 infant: eighteen, twenty for the youth and maiden: 
 five and forty for the life gone down in its meridian: 
 fourscore for the aged and full of days; how sol 
 emnly they floated out from the little country church 
 and reverberated amidst the quiet of those green 
 hills; and how each one seemed like a separate voice 
 out of the dim, shadowy shores of eternity, as awful 
 and mysterious as the voices of the Apocalypse! 
 And by a curious, but not extraordinary, trick of 
 memory, as he was led slowly around the room the 
 clank of his fetters brought to recollection an old 
 hymn often sung by his mother about her work: 
 "How sad our state by nature is ! 
 
 Our sin, how deep its stains ! 
 And Satan binds our captive minds 
 
 Fast in his slavish chains." 
 
 Meanwhile, he in the black robes delivered a mel 
 ancholy harangue, intended to deepen still further the 
 solemnizing effect: -Olari in darkness and chains! 
 How mournful the spectacle! Yet it is but the con 
 dition of millions of our race who are void of wis 
 dom, though the} know it not. We have a lesson to 
 impart to him one of great moment and deep 
 
22 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 solemnity; a faithful exhibition of the vanity of 
 worldly things; of the instability of wealth and 
 power; of the certain decay of all earthly greatness." 
 But Stephen hardly heard it in the sense of receiving 
 any definite impression therefrom. It all mingled 
 together a bewildering, bewitching, stupefying 
 draught of enchantment, till he felt the hoodwink 
 slowly taken off, and was told to "contemplate the 
 scene" before him. 
 
 Stephen Howland looked. He saw the coffin, the 
 skeleton, and the two sepulchrally attired figures, 
 one at each end holding up lighted candles which 
 threw into broad relief every repugnant feature of 
 the sight on which he gazed from the eyeless sock 
 ets to the fleshless mouth, on which seemed to be set 
 Death s horrible grin of triumph. In common with 
 most healthy physical natures, he shrank from all 
 sight and contact with such emblems of human mor 
 tality. Coffins and graves, skulls and crossed bones 
 he had no morbid fancy for contemplating, but his 
 nerves were strong and he did not even change coun 
 tenance, but looked steadily as bidden while the 
 dreary harangues went on with their lessons on the 
 instability of life and the certainty of death, which, 
 divested of all their superfluous and high-sounding 
 phrases, might have been found in any child s 
 primer. 
 
 Then he was again blindfolded and lead a short 
 distance to where, the hoodwink being once more re 
 moved, he found himself confronted by an apparition 
 hardly less startling. It was that of an old, a very 
 
Within the Circle. 23 
 
 old man, whose years, to all appearance, rivalled 31 e- 
 thusalelfs. He was clad in a long black robe, tied 
 closeh- at the neck and waist and reaching to the 
 feet; his long grey hairs swept his shoulders, a beard 
 of silvery whiteness descended to his waist, and he 
 leaned on his staff for very age. To this personage 
 Stephen was now introduced with due formality as 
 the Venerable Warden of the lodge, and commanded 
 to listen to his words of wisdom, which unfortunate 
 ly lost not a little of their impressiveness from the 
 fact that he discerned, or thought he discerned, the 
 voice of Mr. Felix Basset under the trembling ac 
 cents of this lodge Methusaleh. From thence he was 
 led to the chair of another dignitary, the Worthy 
 Vice Grand. At the mandate of this officer, who 
 was clad all in celestial blue, the chain and hoodwink 
 were taken off and the obligation administered with 
 the assurance that it would not conflict with any of 
 the exalted duties he owed to God, his country or 
 himself. And with his right hand on his left breast 
 Stephen Howland promised: never to communicate 
 to any one unless directed to do so b}~ a legal lodge. 
 the signs, tokens or grips, the term, traveling or 
 other passwords, belonging to the Independent Order 
 of Odd-fellows; never to expose or lend any of the 
 books or papers relating to the records or secret work 
 of the order to any person or persons, except to one 
 specially authorized to receive them; never to reveal 
 any private business which might be transacted in 
 his presence in this or any other lodge; to abide by 
 $he laws, rules and regulations of the lodge, the 
 
24 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Grand Lodge of the State or any other Grand or 
 working lodge to which he might be attached; never 
 to wrong a subordinate or Grand lodge to the value 
 of anything; never to take part or share directly or 
 indirectly in any illegal distribution of the funds or 
 other property of the lodge; never to wrong a bro 
 ther, or see him wronged without apprising him of 
 approaching danger, and should he be expelled or 
 voluntarily leave the order, to consider this promise 
 as binding out of it as in it. 
 
 All this while the presiding officer of the lodge, 
 the Noble Grand, had been hidden behind a red cur 
 tain, and pretended at first to be exceedingly busy, 
 but finally condescended to appear, dressed in a robe 
 of Babylonish scarlet, and instruct still further the 
 young novitiate; this instruction being supplement 
 ed by a long closing lecture from another officer, the 
 Worthy Past Grand, in which he was told that the 
 general design of the order was to teach the princi 
 ples of universal fraternity, and improve and elevate 
 mankind ; in short, to do for him what Christianity has 
 always claimed to do. and actually done, in the judg 
 ment of many honest souls, who will even point you, 
 in their simple credulity, to numerous facts, both of 
 private experience and written history, that would 
 really seem to prove them right in their belief. 
 
 And then the farce was over. Stephen Rowland 
 was a duly initiated member of the Independent 
 Order of Odd-fellows, entitled to the fraternal greet 
 ings and congratulations of his new-made brothers, 
 as a sharer with them in all its privileges, temporal 
 
Within the Circle, 25 
 
 and spiritual. Of these, Mr. Felix Basset was nat- 
 urally foremost. 
 
 "Now, what is there in Odd-fellowship that a 
 Christian man can possibly object to?" he inquired, 
 with a beaming smile of triumph. "You ve found it 
 just as I told you a teacher of morals and religion 
 all through." 
 
 "I must confess that, many times as I have heard 
 its beautiful and instructive ritual," observed the 
 Rev. Theoj>hilus Brassfield, as he too extended a fra 
 ternal hand, "they strike me at every repetition with 
 new force and beaut}*. In this changing age it is 
 good to have a form of sound words which, like the 
 old Episcopal liturgy, time and fashion cannot alter." 
 
 The fact that the Odd-fellows ritual has been al 
 tered twice since 1844, was one of which the rever 
 end gentleman was either ignorant, or else it had 
 slipped his memory: and Stephen Rowland, who 
 knew as little of the history of the institution he 
 had joined as he did of Youdooism. could only smile 
 assent. 
 
 "That is what I always tell people," put in Mr. 
 Green, a prosperous grocer and an enthusiastic mem 
 ber of the order. "I tell them that only we insiders 
 know the first letter of Odd-fellowship; and as to 
 there being anything ridiculous in the ceremonies, I 
 never felt so solemn in my life as I did the night I 
 was initiated." 
 
 But Mr. Van Gilder, the keeper of a livery stable 
 near by, who was looked upon by the brethren of 
 the stricter sort, as rather a scandal to the lodge. 
 
26 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 through his convivial habits, to say nothing of other 
 and worse ones of which he was suspected, seemed 
 to look on the matter in a slightly different light. 
 
 "Hang it all, Green," he interrupted, "what is the 
 use of long faces? You like a jolly good time as 
 well as any of us." 
 
 Some of the brethren chuckled at this hit, and one 
 remarked, "He has you there, Green." While still 
 another member, conscious, perhaps, that the minis 
 ter, who as chaplain of the lodge was generally 
 present, was not yet out of earshot, took up the 
 cudgels. 
 
 "Come, Yan Gilder; that is no way to talk. If 
 you don t want religion now you will some time. If 
 Odd-fellowship didn t teach what I call pure religion 
 I shouldn t care an} T thing for it. But I say it does. 
 I always feel, after seeing a candidate initiated, just 
 as solemn as though I had been to a prayer-meeting." 
 
 Stephen, on whom the "solemn" effect was fast 
 wearing off, leaving him in a state of general doubt 
 as to whether the whole thing was a religious cere 
 mony or a harlequin play, was glad to get out into 
 the night air and feel its reviving breath on his face. 
 But as the worthy members separated, or rather 
 broke up into little knots which took different streets 
 according to the direction of their several homes, his 
 ears were greeted by another scrap of talk of a slight 
 ly different tenor. It was near enough to election for 
 those political straws to be flying about which show 
 office-seekers whether the wind is to blow fair or foul 
 on the all-important day that is to decide their des- 
 
Within the Oircle. 27 
 
 tiny at that throne of King People, the ballot-box. 
 
 "Hicks stands a chance to get a good many votes," 
 said one lodge brother, -unless the Democrats put 
 up a stronger man than either he or Putney." 
 
 "Hicks is popular with a few crooked sticks," re 
 sponded the other, with a knowing air. as he stopped 
 to light his cigar; "but of course the third party 
 can t carry the day. It s Putney that has got the in 
 side track, you may depend on that. " 
 
 "There ll be lots of bolting done." 
 
 "Let ein bolt, then. It won t make much differ 
 ence. We might get a worse man for Governor than 
 General Putney. He s backed up by all the Grand 
 Army Posts, beside. That s the way he come to be 
 nominated. The thing was worked up neat by Put 
 ney s friends. You see I was there and I saw it all. 
 The} kept mum till nearly all the candidates were 
 named, and then Judge Dorsey got up and proposed 
 General Putney s name. There was some hissing 
 then and a great deal of confusion, for if the General 
 has got his friends he s got his enemies, too. But 
 the Judge kept cool He had two strings to his bow, 
 and he laid it on so thick about Putney s record in 
 the war, and what a good friend he had always been 
 to the soldiers how he had worn himself out m their 
 interests trying to get Congress to pass increased 
 pension bills I tell you when he finished his speech 
 the boys in blue could have been heard a mile." 
 
 Only the last part of the talk reached Stephen 
 Rowland s ears in any connected shape, but his mind 
 had a natural bent in the direction of politics. He 
 
28 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 was interested in the movements of parties and the 
 prospects of candidates, while hating political trick 
 ery and wire-pulling with all his heart. He had a 
 sincere wish that the people should understand bet 
 ter who and what they were voting for instead of be 
 ing made mere figure-heads, having a show of sov 
 ereignty, while the actual power was vested in a few 
 unscrupulous party leaders, who manipulated the 
 conventions and nominated or rubbed out at their 
 sweet will, without the least regard for what their 
 constituents desired. Though so young when the 
 war ended that the roar of cannon and ringing of 
 bells which announced the fall of Richmond had left 
 only a faint echo in his memory, he had a genuine 
 patriotic feeling of friendliness and respect for old 
 soldiers who had ventured their lives for the Stars 
 and Stripes, and he believed their claims should be 
 ever held in remembrance by the government they 
 had fought to save; and it was natural that he should 
 feel a proportionate indignation when he saw them 
 made the mere puppets of politicians who sought, 
 by playing on their selfish interests, to make them 
 stepping-stones on which to mount higher in the 
 scramble for preferment. He had heard of General 
 Putney, and knew him to be a low, vulgar dema 
 gogue. So this was the way he was hoisted into 
 office; by a trick of clap-trap oratory appealing to 
 the selfishness or the gratitude it was hard to say 
 which of the country s veteran defenders, for whom 
 he cared not a straw except as they could be made 
 subservient to his own political advancement. 
 
Within the Circle. 29 
 
 Stephen was thinking it over when a hand was laid 
 familiarly on his shoulder the hand of one of his 
 new-made lodge brothers. 
 
 "Wannest evening I ever saw so late in the sea- 
 sou. Step in here and have a glass of lemonade. 
 I ll stand treat," 
 
 Stephen was not thirst} , but he accepted the invi 
 tation, thinking it would appear churlish to refuse. 
 and followed his guide, nothing witting, into the 
 fashionable restaurant, which was likewise one of 
 the genteel drinking places that, with others not so 
 genteel, flourished under the very noses of the Sons 
 of Temperance, Rechabites and Good Templars to 
 the mystification of many of the worthy citizens of 
 Jacksonville, who could by no means understand 
 why the mice should pla} when the cat was not 
 away. 
 
 An hour or two later Stephen Howland was kick 
 ing off his boots in his office, which was also his 
 only sleeping-room, with the feeling of one just 
 awakening from an opium dream. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 STEPHEN ROWLAND S FIRST CASE. 
 
 A stone s throw from Stephen Rowland s office 
 stood one of the few surviving landmarks that told 
 of a time when the city of Jacksonville was a mere 
 nucleus of log huts surrounded by unbroken prairie. 
 Stephen had often wondered why it was allowed to 
 stand there; and finally reached the conclusion that 
 the owner must be a miserly, grasping kind of man, 
 who was holding on to this bit of primeval propert} 7 
 in hopes of a fabulous rise in real estate. Most of 
 our conclusions regarding any eccentric or unusual 
 action on the part of our fellow-beings are about as 
 charitable and as near the truth as Stephen s sur 
 mising, who little thought that through this man he 
 would secure his first client. 
 
 As he sits in his rude domicile, like a bear in his 
 den, we will sketch his portrait. He is large and 
 powerfully built, with eyes as blue and keen as an 
 Alpine sky. His hair falls in thick, shaggy locks 
 from an ample head, where a phrenologist would 
 find plenty of those unamiable bumps which char 
 acterize the born fighter; especially if he be of the 
 combative, destructive, aggressive Anglo-Saxon race; 
 yet when his mouth, shaded by its bristling, grizzly 
 
Stephen Howlancfs First Case. 31 
 
 beard, parts in a smile, it has the winning sweetness 
 of a child. Taken altogether there is something in 
 the general cast of head and face strongly suggest 
 ive of the portrait of John Brown. Martin Tre- 
 worthy had often been told that he looked like the 
 hero of Osawatomie, and no compliment could pos 
 sibly please him better. In the old stirring days of 
 border warfare he had been one of John Brown s 
 men, and when the curtain fell on the tragedy of 
 Harper s. Ferry, the man who had marched under his 
 orders, bivouacked with him, and listened to his 
 strong, .burning, fateful words, felt the burden of 
 prophecy in his own soul, as if a portion of his be* 
 loved leader s spirit had descended upon him. 
 
 "It don t matter to me what folks call him, crack- 
 brained, or visionary, or fanatic/ or anything else 
 that s one good thing; and it don t matter any to 
 the captain, that s another. He was the only one 
 that dared to do instead of writing and speechify 
 ing. He struck slaver}" right at its heart, and it will 
 never get over the blow. He don t need me to stand 
 up for him, but even 1 " time I read in Revelation I 
 can shut my eyes and see him as plain as day, sit 
 ting on a white horse and following the One in the 
 vesture dipped in blood, with the sharp sword going 
 out of his mouth. Now I ve pondered a good deal 
 on that passage and similar ones. I tell you the 
 American people have got a cup of trembling to 
 drink before the Lord gets through reckoning with 
 em. The time is coming when he shall tread the 
 winepress of the fierceness of his wrath against this 
 
32 etwetn Two Opinions. 
 
 nation, and blood shall come out of the winepress, 
 even unto the horses bridles." 
 
 It was not long before the first gun fired on Fort 
 Sumter startled the North from its dream of peace 
 and safety, and Martin Treworthy, as he buckled on 
 his knapsack and shouldered his musket, knew that 
 the hour of which he prophesied was casting its 
 shadow on the dial. And when around hundreds of 
 campfires rose the stirring strains of the John 
 Brown song, he only saw, plainer than ever, the soul 
 of the old martyr-hero "marching on" after his 
 Celestial Chief, who had waited in divine patience, 
 while the cries of his enslaved children mingled with 
 the prayers of his saints on the golden altar, till 
 now "the day of vengeance was in his heart and the 
 year of his redeemed had come." 
 
 He had been through all the hardest-fought bat 
 tles of the war, Gettysburg, Antietam, James River 
 and the Wilderness. He came out of the army as 
 he entered it, a private, his only badge of distinc 
 tion some honorable wounds that disabled him from 
 active labor. But he had his pension and a small 
 sum laid up besides, and on this he lived very com 
 fortably. He was one of the first settlers of Jack 
 sonville, and though the price of the land on which 
 stood his primitive dwelling would have added not a 
 little to his worldly wealth, he had steadily refused 
 all offers to sell, though not everybody knew the 
 reason why. 
 
 He had come to Jacksonville when its future 
 greatness existed only in the speculator s brain, a 
 
Stephen Rowlands First Case. 33 
 
 middle-aged man, with life s summer just beginning 
 a summer like that of northern latitudes, without 
 any spring; for he had been left an orphan in early 
 boyhood, and remembered nothing since but a suc 
 cession of rough experiences in borderers cabins, 
 fighting wild Indians, prairie fires and Missouri ruf 
 fians; varied, however, we must remark, by one 
 great episode, that reversed the whole current of the 
 reckless backwoodsman s life his conversion at u 
 Methodist caniprneeting, when, among other -fruits 
 meet for repentance." he had given up his favorite 
 indulgence of tobacco; an act which had more of 
 the genuine spirit of self-renunciation in it than 
 many a comfortable, easy-going Christian ever 
 dreams of. The pretty school-ma am" who had en 
 gaged his affections, an orphan likewise, was a 
 woman as fair and good and true as any of the hero 
 ines of Scott or Burns. But alas for human hopes! 
 Scarlet fever broke out in the school in which she 
 was teaching; she caught the infection, and in one 
 short week from the day set for their marriage he 
 laid her to rest under the prairie roses, and tried to 
 keep his heart from breaking by reading the four 
 teenth chapter of John, and thinking of those many 
 mansions of which the Lamb is the light forever. 
 
 "Somehow all this happiness I ve been looking 
 forward to don t seem to be for me/ he said, when 
 he came out of that first trance of misery which suc 
 ceeds every stunning sorrow, and realized with a 
 kind of wonder that he could still live on when the 
 desire of his eyes had been taken from him at a 
 
34 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 stroke. "But I won t murmur at God s dealings. 
 They are all right and for the best. The Lord gave 
 and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the 
 name of the Lord. " 
 
 But while he bowed himself thus meekly to that 
 mysterious decree which condemned him to loneli 
 ness and solitude for the rest of his mortal pilgrim 
 age, he clung to the home that was to have been 
 hers with a tenacity perfectly unintelligible to any 
 one who did not know the story of his frustrated 
 hopes. He had driven every nail with his own 
 hands, exulting in the fact that it was the only 
 frame house in the settlement. He had wrought in 
 to its fabric all the dreams and hopes which, in a 
 nature like his, can have but one earthly blooming 
 time; and now that she had gone for whose pleasure 
 and delight he had planned and labored, it still 
 seemed too much a part of her for him to feel con 
 tented anywhere else. For, while he had not a par 
 ticle of superstition in his nature, and denounced 
 unsparingly the rappings, table-tippings, and coarse 
 materializings of so-called "spiritualism" as a fraud 
 and humbug, directly inspired by the father-of-lies 
 himself, he implicitly believed in a world of spirit 
 ual intelligences above and around him; nor would 
 he have been startled at any time if soundless foot 
 steps had crossed his threshold, and, looking up, he 
 had beheld once more the blue eyes and brown hair, 
 all transfigured with that tender, immortal light 
 which only rests on the foreheads of the redeemed. 
 
 So much for Martin Treworthy, a real old Iron- 
 
Stephen Howland s First Case. 35 
 
 side, "born out of due season;" a prophet without 
 honor save among a few who liked his rugged utter 
 ances, or as the} would have expressed it, "his wa\ 
 of putting things/ He now sits in his leathern 
 arm-chair, engaged in earnest talk with a young man 
 whose shop-apron and sleeves rolled up to the arm 
 pits, proclaim him a genuine son of labor; his 
 shrewd, kindly face indignant and thoughtful by 
 turns. 
 
 "So you mean to appeal to the law. All right. 
 If you come short, call on me. I ve got a little 
 cash laid b} what I used to spend for tobacco. 
 See here," and Martin Tre worthy took down a tin 
 box from a shelf over his head, and opening it dis 
 played a goodly store of shining silver coin, "so 
 much for the Lord that used to go to the devil, and 
 I say. take it to fight the devil. There s twenty dol 
 lars if there is a cent in good solid specie. Come, 
 now." 
 
 But the young man shook his head in decided, 
 though grateful refusal. 
 
 "No, Mr. Treworthy; your sympathy and advice 
 is all the help I need. The evidence against Snyder 
 is so strong that prosecuting the case cannot be very 
 expensive. But poor Tom is pretty bad to-day. It 
 seems the} kept him drinking till he had taken 
 enough whisky to kill an ox; and then in that con 
 dition he was arrested and put into a cold cell with 
 only a little straw, and not a blanket to cover him 
 and it was one of the frostiest nights of the season. 
 To-day he seems a little out of his head. It is an 
 
36 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 outrageous affair, and I m bound to see what can be 
 done about it. The first thing, of course, is to get 
 a good lawyer to conduct the case if I only knew 
 what one." 
 
 "How many good lawyers do you reckon on here 
 in Jacksonville?" asked his counselor, somewhat 
 dryly. "Count em up on your fingers and see." 
 
 "There s Greggson. Folks call him smart." 
 
 "So is the devil, but I wouldn t want either of en 
 to plead a case for me." 
 
 "Then what do you say to Simonds?" 
 
 But Mr. Treworthy looked no better satisfied. 
 
 "I say he is a high Mason, and a poor working- 
 man like you had better keep clear of Sublime 
 Princes and Knights Elect and all such fellows. 
 What are big fish for except to swallow little ones?" 
 
 "O, if } ou come to that," said the other, as he un 
 easily shifted his left foot over his right, "every 
 lawyer in Jacksonville, unless maybe this young 
 Rowland that has just come into the place, is a Ma 
 son; and all our business men, to say nothing of the 
 ministers,, belong to that or some other secret order. 
 If it is an evil I don t see but we shall have to put- 
 up with it or else go out of the world. I know you 
 think all secret societies are bad things, and I am 
 willing to admit that there are evils connected with 
 Freemasonry, but whether the} r are a part of the 
 system or mere abuses that have crept into it, is a 
 question that I must confess I am undecided about. 
 I believe the trades unions and temperance lodges 
 are doing a good work." i 
 
Stephen Howland s First Case. 37 
 
 "Why are not labor troubles stopped and the sa 
 loons put down then?" queried Martin Tre worthy, 
 with hi tint and most inconvenient appositeness. 
 
 "Oh. well," replied the other, "intemperance is 
 such a giant evil that no single man or association 
 of men seem powerful enough to grapple with it. 
 And as for labor unions, where capitalists are grow 
 ing more reckless of the laboring-man s rights even- 
 year, combination is the only weapon left. To tell 
 the truth, I joined the Knights of Labor a short 
 time ago, and as yet I have seen only good in the 
 organization. The president and many of the mem 
 bers are Masons or Odd-fellows, and appear to be 
 worthy and honorable men as far as I can judge 
 at least, most of them. Now, I really can t see 
 where the practical difference comes in between a 
 lawyer who is a Mason and one that isn t. Neither 
 want to lose their cases." 
 
 Mr. Treworthy s eyes flashed, and he brought his 
 hand down on the table with considerable vehemence 
 as he said: 
 
 : Xelson Newhall! I am older than 3*011. and T 
 have seen the workings of this vile leaven as I hope 
 you will never have a chance to. Difference? It 
 can make all the difference between sin and righteous 
 ness, truth and falsehood, justice and oppression, 
 heaven and hell. I have seen rogues get clear that 
 ought to have been hung, and far honester men sent 
 to jail in their places; and right here in this ven~ 
 county I know of two murderers at large for no 
 other reason than because Masonic sheriffs would not 
 
38 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 arrest and Masonic juries would not convict. Wasn t 
 I in the war, from the time the first gun was fired 
 till Lee s surrender? and don t I know a thing or 
 two you young civilians who never smelled powder 
 no more dream of than the babe unborn? I could 
 tell some queer stories if I set out to. As for your 
 Grood Templars and Grand Army posts and farmers 
 granges and Knights of Labor, they are just so 
 many wires to be pulled by Masonic politicians that 
 want office, and Masonic sharpers that want to line 
 their own pockets with the earnings of honest farm 
 ers and laborers. And if a Masonic murderer, or 
 thief, or saloon-keeper wants to go clear of punish 
 ment, hasn t he got just as much right to pull em as 
 the politicians? Then some innocent man has to 
 bear the blame, for, as a general thing, if the law 
 can t get hold of the right one it must have a scape 
 goat. These secret lodges, if they are let alone, will 
 bring the country into such a pass as the prophet 
 Joel tells of we re dreadful nigh it now That 
 which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eat 
 en; and that which the locust hath left hath the 
 canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm 
 hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. That s my 
 mind." 
 
 Martin Treworthy was a man who did his own 
 thinking. He did not even, as is the case with the 
 average American citizen, let the newspapers do it 
 for him. Thus it followed that to be favored with 
 "a piece of his mind" after it was once made up was 
 a rather formidable thing, there being none of that 
 
Stephen Howlund s First Case. 39 
 
 malleable quality about it characteristic of minds 
 that are formed of the odds and ends of what other 
 people think and say, and then duly pressed and 
 stamped into shape by that roller which we call 
 "public opinion." So it was no wonder that Nelson 
 Newhall winced under this speech, for he was really 
 as honest in his way as Martin Treworthy, and had 
 only joined a secret labor union for the same good 
 and substantial reason that makes one sheep follow 
 another down a precipice. 
 
 So he sat for a moment m uneasy silence, and 
 wondered, for he was a simple, honest fellow, with 
 large capacities for righteous wrath, btit without a 
 particle of guile or duplicity, how so many ministers 
 and good men could uphold the system if it was 
 really anything so ver}~ bad. For the large majori 
 ty of mankind, who are neither seers nor philoso 
 phers, are apt to assume the existence of any popu 
 lar evil as the ground of its right to exist. Nelson 
 Newhall was only like thousands of others. He saw 
 the lodge in power. It was no abstraction, but a 
 tangible, unquestionable, undeniable fact. It was 
 palpable and material as the Scarlet Woman seated 
 on her seven-headed beast. How came it there? 
 popular, powerful, entrenched behind such a bulwark 
 of custom, prejudice and fear. Had not wise men. 
 good men and great men, lent it their silent influ 
 ence, bowed before it in slavish homage, seen no 
 evil in it, and furthermore, refused to see any? and 
 could such men be wrong, and a handful of fanatics 
 like Martin Treworthy, right? This is a style of 
 
40 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 reasoning which may not be strictly logical, but all 
 reformers, from Paul to Luther, and from Luther to 
 Garrison, will testify that it is very common. 
 
 Martin Treworthy, having had his say, was con 
 tent to let the subject pass, and return to the im 
 mediate theme in hand. So he remarked after a 
 moment s silence: 
 
 "Why not try this young Rowland? You ve got 
 a good case, as plain and straight ahead as the Ten 
 Commandments, and I wouldn t be afraid to trust 
 him with it. Melroy you know Moses Melroy that 
 lives over in Fairfield used to be acquainted with 
 the Howlancfs before he came away from New Hamp 
 shire. Real nice folks, he says they were folks 
 that wouldn t lie nor cheat for their right hand. 
 Such families will throw out crooked shoots some 
 times, just as a tree will, but it ain t the rule for em 
 to as long as the main stock holds good." 
 
 Nelson Newhall fingered his hat for a moment with 
 his eye on the modest sign, "S. Howland," just visi 
 ble down the street. "I ll try him," he said, decid 
 edly, and took his departure. But, like man}- of our 
 human decisions, the factor which really determined 
 him was one of which he was himself hardly con 
 scious. The fact was, he was born in the old Gran 
 ite State within sight of those snow-capped hills 
 which he remembered dimly as in a dream of some 
 former life, and the flat, rolling Western prairies, 
 with all their material abundance, had never been 
 able to blot out the vision, or make him forget his 
 early home with its stern, rocky soil, its piney odors 
 
Stephen Rowland s First Case. 41 
 
 borne on every passing wind, its streams of crystal 
 clearness fit to be a type of the river of the waters 
 of life. 
 
 But just here we will avail ourselves of an author s 
 privilege to stop and comment on this curious fact: 
 that Stephen Rowland s first case in court, one that 
 was entireh* to his mind, that stirred up all the chiv 
 alry of his nature, and fired his heart with that gen 
 erous indignation which has been, ever since the 
 world began, the Grod-ordained force that has set 
 those morning stars of humanity, the souls of he 
 roes, prophets and martyrs swaying in their orbits, 
 did not come through any interest curried for him 
 by the lodge, but in that direct human method which 
 lies at the foundation of all true social economy. It 
 is astonishing, when one comes to inquire closely 
 into the matter, how little real aid to success in their 
 worldly business has ever been afforded to honest 
 and self-reliant members by Masonry, Odd-fellowship 
 or any other secret clique whose huge pretensions 
 pass current to-day for no other reason than because 
 it is less trouble to believe a lie than to combat it, 
 and more easy to accept an assertion without ques 
 tioning than to bring that assertion to mathematical 
 proof. Honest, self-respecting Americans, true to 
 the old Pilgrim and republican traditions bequeathed 
 to them by Puritan and Revolutionary sires, will pre 
 fer to gain the favors of their fellow-men in the 
 legitimate method, by probity and strict attention to 
 business, though at the same time they ma}* be pay 
 ing a large part of their earnings to keep in running 
 
42 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 order a machine which they have not the least idea 
 how to work. That those who do know how to work 
 it, who understand the use of every wire, and just 
 how it connects with the lobby or the caucus, the 
 court or the market, must have a larger reserve stock 
 to draw upon, the larger the number of these igno 
 rant and simple-minded members, is certainly as easy 
 of demonstration as that two and two make four. 
 
 But, as we intend that all this, with other facts 
 equally curious and instructive shall be duly illus 
 trated in the further unfolding of our story, we will 
 drop moralizing and go back fifteen or twenty years 
 to the rocky hill-country farm, now one of the many 
 deserted homesteads for which that region is famed, 
 which its owner, Silas Newhall, in an evil hour left 
 behind him to seek, with his wife and children, a 
 new home toward the sun-setting. Silas was not a 
 very active or intelligent farmer. He planted and 
 sowed and reaped with little regard to any of the 
 "new lights" in agriculture, and when the soil in 
 consequence paid him but scanty returns, he grew 
 discontented and was in just the mood of mind to 
 listen to an enterprising land speculator who tried to 
 make him believe, and with very fair success, that 
 Western farms brought forth spontaneously all that 
 was "good for food and pleasant to the eyes," and 
 no more needed to be tilled by the sweat of the brow 
 than did the original Eden. 
 
 To his meek little wife it was a sore trial to leave 
 old friends and neighbors, but after the first protest 
 she had no more to say either in the way of remon- 
 
Stephen Rowland s First Case. 43 
 
 strance or complaint; and so one bright morning saw 
 their few effects packed, and they themselves on 
 the way to the land of abundance, to find at their 
 journey s end onh* a tumble-down shanty waiting to 
 receive them, instead of the snug, green-blinded cot 
 tage their New England ideas led them to expect. 
 But this was only the beginning of disappointments, 
 for the new railroad which the enterprising specu 
 lator had enlarged upon as sure to open up a ready 
 market for their produce, was not yet built, nor 
 likely to be for an indefinite period; and Silas New- 
 hall found, too late, that big crops, with no prospect 
 of converting them into enough ready money to buy 
 a pair of shoes, only made their owner poorer in 
 stead of richer. He finally sold his farm and settled 
 on government lands in a region farther west, only 
 to repeat the old story of discouragement and fail 
 ure. He grew despondent and took to drinking, 
 while the true-hearted wife, who had followed his 
 fortunes with never a murmur, with the weakness of 
 a mortal disease upon her, bore a weight of suffering 
 to which the martyr s brief, fiery trial is as nothing. 
 Nelson Newhall was fourteen, Tommy ten, and 
 Dora, the youngest, a pretty child of six, when the 
 inevitable breaking up came. The father, while in 
 toxicated, fell from a scaffolding in the barn and 
 broke his neck in the fall. The mother lived through 
 the following summer, nursed by kind neighborly 
 hands, and then entered that invisible world where 
 alone the hidden purpose of love in her dark, tangled 
 life-web could be made plain. Nelson, stout and 
 
44 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 strong for his years, could work his own way; a good, 
 motherly farmer s wife volunteered to take little 
 Dora; but Tommy had been feeble in body and mind 
 from infancy, perhaps a result of that mysterious 
 law which visits the sins of the father upon the 
 children, a law which seems to skip one and take an 
 other as capriciously as the cholera or the plague, 
 and what place for him but the county poor house? 
 Thither he went to receive no better and no worse 
 treatment than such unfortunates usually receive in 
 similar institutions. Nelson, to whom he seemed the 
 only living thing left to love and care for, used to 
 visit him weekly, and as soon as he could claim his 
 own earnings took upon himself the burden of his 
 support. 
 
 But poor Tom, as a part of the dark legacy so 
 strangely bequeathed, liked the taste of liquor; that 
 is, he was always ready to sip the sweet poison if 
 placed in his way, but he had not as yet developed 
 such a craving for it as would lead him to tax his 
 weak brains with the effort to get it clandestinely; 
 and ordinarily his lack of money was a sufficient 
 safeguard. But being unfortunately enticed one 
 evening into a low drinKing saloon kept by a certain 
 Peter Snyder, it was considered a very rare pieee of 
 amusement by the bar-room loungers to ply the half 
 witted boy with bad whisky till the point was reached 
 at which he was incapable of affording them further 
 entertainment, when he was coolly ejected with a 
 kick of his cowhide boots by "the proprietor, a pecul 
 iar and forcible style of argument which Mr. Snyder 
 
Stephen Rowland s First Case. 45 
 
 found handy in certain, cases. In this condition he 
 was pounced upon by a watchful guardian of the 
 public peace, and thrust into the lockup after - the 
 manner described by Nelson in his talk with Mr. 
 Treworthy. The result was a cold and high fever< 
 which carried him to death s door. 
 
 Peter Sn}~der was arrested and bound over to 
 answer to two indictments: one for illegal liquor 
 selling, the other for allowing Thomas Newhall to be 
 made drunk with whisky sold on his premises, said 
 Newhall being feeble-minded and a minor. He 
 pleaded guilty to both charges and was duly con 
 victed and sentenced; for, as it happened. Mr. Sny- 
 der had never been able to obtain admittance into 
 the ancient and honorable fraternity where so many 
 of his particular guild find a safe retreat from the 
 sheriff and other -terrors of the law." We append 
 his own statement of the reason, as given by him in 
 communicative words to his various chums and 
 cronies, only leaving out certain expressions, ques 
 tionable both on the score of morals and taste. 
 
 "I tell ye, now, my opinion of the Masons don t 
 take many words to say it in. They are a set of big, 
 sneaking, rascally hypocrites. How did they treat 
 me once when I tried to get in? I made my applica 
 tion ship-shape and stood all ready to pay my fees 
 and dues fair and square; but I wasn t quite genteel 
 enough for em, so I got blackballed. I don t sell 
 liquor because it is respectable or genteel; I do it to 
 make money. Look at Parker and Longman, and 
 lots of others, all Masons and all engaged in the 
 
46 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 same business, only maybe they carry it on in more 
 style, and durned if I ain t as good as they are!" 
 
 It will be seen from the above that many traits of 
 our common humanity were quite highly developed 
 in this poor rumseller; noticeably his tendency to 
 justify himself as being at least no worse than many 
 others. This, with the fact that there had been 
 moments in his life when he thought of his good old 
 praying Methodist mother, and half resolved to quit 
 the vile business altogether and make a man of him 
 self, coupled with the further fapt that he had al 
 ways put it off till "a more convenient season," was 
 certainly clear proof enough that he was, after all, 
 of the same flesh and blood with the general run of 
 humanity. But the liquor business, like the slave- 
 trade, must always have its Pariahs men from the 
 lower stratum of society who bear on their own 
 shoulders much of the publi-c odium of a traffic that 
 they did not create, and which would fall like a mill 
 stone as soon as it ceased to be patronized or sup 
 ported by any other class. Just as in ante bellum 
 days it was very easy to find good people who looked 
 with horror and loathing on the slave-dealer, while 
 regarding with complacency or indifference the sys 
 tem of which that occupation was only the legitimate 
 exponent, so the publican of foreign birth who 
 stands behind the bar and deals out the fiery poison 
 to poor Pat, who goes straightway home, possessed 
 with all the devils of the still, to beat and abuse his 
 wife and children, is. an outcast and a wretch to be 
 spurned by all decent people; but what of the voter 
 
Stephen Rowland s First Case. 47 
 
 or legislator who, in blind devotion to party or for 
 the loaves and fishes of political power, is willing to 
 ignore, and thus perpetuate the system which creates 
 the rumseller? 
 
 Stephen Rowland took hold of the case like a war- 
 horse eager for his first fray. There was in Jackson 
 ville quite a strong under-current of prohibition sen 
 timent, which had been for some time slowly gather 
 ing force, and as the case was one which, in its pe 
 culiar nature, awakened sympathy, his vigorous and 
 successful prosecution of it gave to the young and 
 almost discouraged lawyer precisely that start in his 
 profession that he needed. 
 
 But we cannot do better than to give the reader an 
 extract from one of his letters home: 
 
 "Public sentiment is at last roused up, and on the principle of 
 the one toppling brick overthrowing its fellows, there is some 
 hope that Snyder s arrest and conviction will close up other drink 
 ing places whose owners are equally defiant of law. For my part 
 I am only too delighted at such a rare opportunity to fight the 
 dragon, for I expect to have more liquor cases on my hands ; two 
 came in to-day. 
 
 "That Nelson Newhall is a splendid fellow; a grand specimen 
 of the genus labor ; and Martin Treworthy is an old soldier who 
 lives all alone like a herrnir. or a saint. He came and shook hands 
 with me after I had my speech, and told me I had spoken like a 
 young Daniel, and he only wished my folks could have been here 
 to have heard me. I know, dear mother, that from my babyhood 
 it has been your wish and prayer that I might be a Samuel. It 
 hurt me more than anything else to disappoint those wishes and 
 prayers, but if I dare to be a Daniel , will not that do as well?" 
 
 "It will suit me well enough," said Josiah How- 
 land, emphatically, interrupting Phoebe in her read 
 ing of the letter. "Be sure, mother, when you write, 
 to tell him that. And tell him, too, that I feel a 
 sight more reconciled to his being a lawyer now that 
 he s given them pesky rumsellers a lesson." 
 
48 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 As for Phoebe, she was too full of joy and thank 
 fulness to say a great deal; and there mingled with 
 it, too, a kind of awe. Why is it that the Lord 
 often seems nearer to us when he answers our 
 prayers in a way we are not expecting? In the quiet 
 of the bedroom which had been her "closet" for so 
 many years, she read over again the precious letter; 
 then, falling on her knees, tried to give utterance to 
 her thanksgivings, feeling much as did Eve of old 
 when she exultingly exclaimed, "I have gotten a 
 man from the Lord." 
 
 But why did Stephen, in all his letters home, never 
 once mention the fact that he was an Odd-fellow? 
 one of a fraternity so moral, so religious, so benev 
 olent! The reader is welcome to put his own solu 
 tion to a question that Stephen Howland had never 
 as yet consciously answered, even to himself. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE OPINIONS OF A W. C. T. TJ. 
 
 Nelson Newhall, in his vigils by his brother s bed 
 side, had found plenty of time to think, and the re 
 sult of his thinking was to deepen an already set 
 tled conviction that the temperance question was 
 destined to take precedence of all others as a vital, 
 living issue; one which would not much longer allow 
 itself to be thrust out of sight by part}* politicians; 
 certainly not after every intelligent voter could be 
 made to realize that it was costing the taxpayers of 
 the nation several hundred million every year. 
 
 It did not occur to him that behind this question 
 stood another which affected it like an unknown 
 quantity, a disturbing factor in ever} attempt at 
 solution, though he was aware of certain puzzling 
 anomalies connected with the subject. Why, in the 
 face of a largely increased prohibition sentiment 
 among the people, should prohibition as a political 
 principle make such slow advances? Why were pro 
 hibition candidates nominated and .prohibition tickets 
 put in the field only for sure defeat ever}* election 
 day? 
 
 Tom was slowly coming back to life and conscious 
 ness. The pale, wasted face, as it lay on the pillow, 
 seemed to open afresh the fountain of fraternal love 
 
50 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 in Nelson s heart, and he felt once more something 
 as he remembered feeling in the old days when Tom 
 my was his all to guard and love and cherish and 
 defend, if need be, against the world. 
 
 The door opened, and Martin Treworthy, who had 
 been an indefatigable nurse and watcher, entered 
 with a bunch of hot-house grapes, which he laid on 
 the table while he himself took a chair, remarking as 
 he did so 
 
 "I can read my Bible or the newspaper in one 
 place as well as I can in another, and I thought may 
 be there was somebody not far off that would be 
 glad to see you for an hour or so." 
 
 Nelson colored slightly, but did not wait for any 
 broader hint. Only stopping to tell Mr. Treworthy 
 about some new medicine the doctor had ordered, he 
 put on his overcoat and was gone. 
 
 For Martin Treworthy had watched with almost 
 paternal interest the transacting of a little of the old 
 Edenic idyl, which has never been quite lost put of 
 the world, and never will be while that Gospel lives 
 which has glorified all true human affection by mak 
 ing it the type and shadow of the heavenly union 
 between the believing soul and its risen Redeemer. 
 Any young couple starting out in life with only their 
 bare hands and their faith in G-od and each other, 
 might be very sure of his blessing, for as previously 
 stated he had once been a lover himself , -and believed 
 thoroughl}- in the New Testament ideal of marriage, 
 while he had correspondingly small patience with 
 the low and mischievous notions on that subject 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 51 
 
 which prevail so extensively in our modern days. 
 Thus it happened that, thanks to Martin Treworthy, 
 the bright-faced little dressmaker to whom Nelson 
 was engaged received that evening a visit from her 
 betrothed that she was not expecting. Martha Ben 
 son was a good specimen of the best class of young 
 American women, steady and sensible, not handsome 
 according to any of the generally accepted rules of 
 beauty, yet of so bright and wholesome a counte 
 nance that no one could deny her the meed of come 
 liness. Well educated, she had taught school sev 
 eral terms; well read in solid literature and deeply 
 religious, she was a prize for any man s winning, 
 rich or poor; and Nelson Newhall, unlike many of 
 the masters of creation under like circumstances, 
 was sufficiently aware of the fact to wonder humbly 
 at his own good fortune. Obliged to earn her own 
 bread, she had tried a number of ways to do it, and 
 was now working for an aunt who had a small shop 
 in the suburbs where she carried on dressmaking. 
 
 Martha herself answered her lover s knock, and 
 read in his face the good tidings even before he 
 spoke. 
 
 "Tom is better! I am so glad. I have been want 
 ing to hear all day. And you really think the dan 
 ger is over?" 
 
 "All present danger, ; answered Nelson, as he 
 pressed her hand and gazed into her pleased, earnest 
 face. "But it has been a hard pull, and after all, 
 Martha I don t know perhaps death would be bet 
 ter than life for him, poor fellow!" 
 
52 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "No, Nelson; don t say that," said Martha, earnest 
 ly. "Perhaps this experience will have the effect of 
 checking his appetite for drink. I have heard of 
 such things. Tom is not quite like others, but we 
 must remember that it is a trial permitted by Provi 
 dence that should only make us more patient with 
 his weakness." 
 
 "That is true, Martha, and I love you all the more 
 for thinking and feeling so. Not every woman 
 would. But I honestly believe this cursed rum is at 
 the bottom of all poor Tom s misfortunes, for I re 
 member one day after father began to drink, his giv 
 ing him a push it was a push, not a blow so that 
 he fell and struck his head so hard against the edge 
 of the stove as to stun him for awhile. Mother was 
 very sick and knew nothing of the accident, ana 
 father was too intoxicated to realize it, so I did the 
 best I could. I held Tommy and bathed his head, 
 and after awhile he seemed to come to all right, and 
 I thought no more about it till he began to be strange 
 and have fits. Even then it was a long while before 
 I put the two things together as a cause and conse 
 quence." 
 
 "Oh, this terrible rum business! Can it never be 
 stopped?" said Martha, sighing. 
 
 "Sometimes I feel discouraged and think it never 
 will be. Still the local opflon law works well in 
 many places and is a long step towards it. What do 
 you say, Martha, to going onto a farm and making 
 butter and cheese?" 
 
 "I say that it shall be the best butter and cheese 
 
Opinions of a W. O. T. U. 53 
 
 made in the township. replied Martha, who saw the 
 drift of this seemingly irrelevant question better 
 than the reader probably does. "You know I was 
 born and bred on a farm/ 
 
 Nelson s brow cleared. Evidently her cheerful 
 answer had removed some hidden obstacle in his 
 pathway, but he asked, doubtfully, "Do you realh* 
 mean it, Martha, that you would be willing to go on 
 to a farm if I could find a good one without going 
 out of the State? In a year, if everything goes 
 right with me, perhaps I could scrape enough money 
 together to buy one. You see how it is, Martha; 
 Tom would be more out of the way of temptation. 
 Take care of Tommy, was mother s last word to me 
 as she lay dying; and if I am ever permitted to meet 
 her in heaven I want to be able to tell her that I 
 have taken as good care of him as I knew how." 
 
 "Of course I mean it, Nelson," said Martha, look 
 ing up with moistened eyes. "Didn t you suppose I 
 understood the reason the minute you asked the 
 question?" 
 
 "Oh, Martha; you are a blessed woman. I ain t 
 half worthy of you. But after all, perhaps if the 
 balance was rightly struck it would be found that I 
 owed more to Tom than he owes to me. Having him 
 to guard and defend has been many a time like the 
 grip of G-od s own hand on my soul to keep me from 
 going to the devil as I might have done without To 
 be sure I had a sister, but she must be altogether 
 grown out of my remembrance by this time." 
 
 Martha had always regretted this separation, for 
 
54 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 she felt a natural desire to be acquainted with her 
 future sister-in-law. She said nothing, however, but 
 sitting down to her sewing machine, stitched away 
 busily. 
 
 "You seem in a hurry," remarked Nelson, after 
 watching her for some minutes. 
 
 "Only to finish this." And she stopped the whir 
 of her machine and held up to his view the garment 
 she was making. It was an infant s robe, fine and 
 white and dainty enough for any fond mother s dar 
 ling; but as she smoothed it down and looked it over 
 critically, it struck Nelson that her face was unusu 
 ally pale. 
 
 "You are not well, Martha," he said in alarm. "Or 
 has something happened to trouble you? You look 
 about sick. Do put away your work for to-night." 
 
 "I am well, Nelson only heartsick. Do you 
 know what it is I am making?" 
 
 "Nothing more than a baby s dress, is it?" inquired 
 Nelson, wonderingly. 
 
 "It is a baby s shroud another innocent victim 
 to the Moloch of Rum. I am making the last gar 
 ment it will ever wear, for a child deliberately burned 
 to death by its drunken mother here in this nine 
 teenth century, in civilized and Christianized Ameri 
 ca! Why, would it have been any worse off poor 
 thing if it had been born in Old Testament times 
 when mothers threw their infants into the heated 
 arms of an idol god?" 
 
 "Shocking!" exclaimed Nelson. "Do you mean 
 Mrs. McLean s child? I heard it had got dreadfully 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 55 
 
 burned and I knew she was a drinking woman, but 
 still I supposed it was all an accident" 
 
 Xo; it was the deliberate, fiendish act of a brain 
 crazed with bad liquor. The reason I happen to be 
 making its burial robe is because Aunt used to work 
 in an undertaker s establishment and she had some 
 nice fine remnants laid by that were just the thing. 
 The poor little creature breathed its last in my arms. 
 Nelson, it seems so awful, so terrible. Will this 
 curse never cease? Must the cry of innocent blood 
 forever go up in vain? if I had but the power to 
 make every voter in the land hear that murdered 
 babe s dying cries as I heard them! They ring in 
 my ears now." 
 
 And Martha clasped her hands over her face in a 
 convulsive shudder. 
 
 "It is awful, but what can we do? Both our great 
 political parties are controlled by the saloon power. 
 They will dodge and shirk the question, but the} 
 won t touch it with a pair of tongs; and as to the 
 Prohibition party, it lacks something union or zeal, 
 or both or it would certainly accomplish more. 
 Last year, when there was so much temperance talk 
 done, why were nearly all the votes cast for the old 
 parties? And this year it will be the same. Tem 
 perance men will support anti-prohibition candi 
 dates for fear of giving away their vote to the other 
 side." 
 
 "Well, I am not a politician," said Martha: < ; I am 
 only a woman, and I suppose I look at such things 
 from a woman s point of view. I believe in moil 
 
 
56 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 more than I do in parties, and in principles more 
 than I do in votes. Most of the political talk in the 
 newspapers just reverses this, and makes men and 
 principles the least important things, when they are 
 actually the only force the saloon power dreads, for 
 it knows that parties can be controlled and votes 
 bought, but men and principles, never." 
 
 "That s exactly the way it stands, Martha; but I 
 don t see what is ever going to hammer it into the 
 heads of the politicians," answered Nelson, with a 
 doubtful shrug of his shoulders. 
 
 "Well, now, Nelson, it seems to me that I have 
 grown to understand some things lately that I never 
 understood before. You know I belong to the 
 Woman s Christian Temperance Union, and T have 
 belonged to the Good Templars, beside. T have al 
 ways been interested in temperance work ever since 
 I can remember, and I have been brought into some 
 slight association with workers noted in the cause. 
 Now if there is any want of union in the temperance 
 ranks there must be a reason for it. Supposing an 
 army is marching to attack the enemy, and a part 
 should break up into little squads, each with its own 
 leaders, its own secret plans and countersigns and 
 passwords, how long would it be before there would 
 be an end to all unity of action?" 
 
 "Not a great while, certaiiiry ; but I don t think I 
 quite understand your comparison." 
 
 "And supposing," said Martha, continuing her 
 parable, "these same petty squads, after considerable 
 { big talk from their leaders of all the feats of valor 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 57 
 
 they were going to perform, how the} only needed 
 a sight of the enemy to smite him hip and thigh, 
 should let their arms rust and their auiunition spoil 
 while they sat down on the grass to play games and 
 tell stories? Now you are wondering why the tem 
 perance cause is always meeting with a Bull Run. 
 But look at it here in Jacksonville; there is no real 
 unity among our temperance people because they are 
 broken up into little secret cliques, each trying to 
 rival the other; and as for good solid work, there is 
 none done worth the name. It has all degenerated 
 into play. Now the W. C. T. U. is a grand organiza 
 tion. It is meant for work, and the amount of labor 
 that some of the women who belong to it perform, 
 is astonishing; simply heroic. But 1 have yet to 
 find, among the Grood Templars, a real worker for 
 temperance, man or woman, who makes a point of 
 regularly attending the lodge meeting." 
 
 ; -Why. Martha! seems to me you are rather sweep 
 ing." 
 
 "Not a bit, I have been there and I know. I 
 don t mean to say that the G-ood Templars have never 
 done any good in the line of reform. When a lodge 
 is first started there are always more or less of the 
 members who* join with a sincere desire to do tem 
 perance work, and if some of the W. C. T. U. women 
 can be persuaded to come in they can t help carrying 
 a portion of their vim and enthusiasm along with 
 them. But such ones sink into a hopeless minority 
 after awhile. They find that the leaders are not 
 those with the most executive ability. They are the 
 
58 Between Iwo Opin" sns. 
 
 ones who can sing the best songs and tell the best 
 stories, and contribute most to the general fund of 
 amusement; and so the working spirit all dies out, 
 slowly smothered to death, and the lodge comes to 
 be a mere social club what saloonist ever stood in 
 dread of that? a place where you can go and meet 
 your acquaintances and have a good time. The last 
 Good Templar meeting that I attended was just be 
 fore the State election. There was a strong prohibi 
 tion tide setting in, but instead of planning how to 
 take advantage of it, I cannot remember that the 
 subject of temperance was even once alluded to all 
 the evening; nor was it made a specialty of at any 
 of the meetings. Half the time was spent in drill 
 ing us in the secret work of the order, and the other 
 half in talk that had no more to do with the subject 
 of temperance than it had with political economy. 
 Now, the more I think about it the more convinced 
 I am that no good work for God or humanity can be 
 done if -we start with a wrong principle. Can a 
 fountain send forth at the same place sweet water 
 and bitter? " 
 
 "Then it is the secrecy you disapprove of," said 
 Nelson, who felt uneasy under this talk, without ex 
 actly knowing why. "Now, I can t see* any harm in 
 it, necessarily. In the Knights of Labor, for in 
 stance, the secrets are so few, merely the grips and 
 passwords, that they don t really amount to any 
 thing." 
 
 "Then why have secrets, anyway? If they don t 
 amount to anything, what good do they do?" 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 59 
 
 Nelson felt posed. It was such a perfectly com 
 mon-sense question, and Martha asked it in such a 
 cool, common-sense way, that it was decidedly sur 
 prising, as well as inconvenient, not to find any 
 answer ready. So what could he do but repeat at 
 second-hand the old Masonic argument, with which 
 his connection with the Knights of Labor had made 
 him tolerably familiar: 
 
 "Why, society is so constituted that secrecy is 
 necessary sometimes. Why do Grand Juries sit with 
 closed doors, and Congress hold secret sessions? and 
 even the family what is that but a secret institu 
 tion?" 
 
 Martha s eyes flashed. 
 
 Don t name the lodge and the family in the same 
 breath. It is profanation. Privacy and secrecy are 
 two different things. Senates and juries publish the 
 results of their deliberations to the world, which is 
 all that the nation or the community is interested in 
 knowing. And furthermore, such secrecy is only 
 a temporary arrangement; senators and jurors do not 
 take solemn oaths never to reveal anything that is 
 done behind closed doors. And as to the family," 
 and the flash went out of Martha s eyes in a gleam 
 of good-humored laughter, -you had better not fay 
 to exact an} such vow from me. Just think of a 
 family with its members pledged to keep all the}* say 
 and do forever secret from the rest of mankind! I 
 am sure that nothing would induce me to pass a sin 
 gle night under their roof for fear that murdering 
 travelers and confiscating their effects might; be 
 
60 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 among those precious secrets. But there are other 
 reasons in my mind why such societies must always 
 be a drag on the temperance cause. As a Christian 
 woman I believe that the gospel and the gospel alone 
 is the true reforming agency for the world, and all 
 organizations for that end will be successful just so 
 far as they work by Christian methods. Good 
 Templarism requires its candidates to believe in a 
 Supreme Being, but all through the ritual the name 
 of Christ is mentioned but a few times, his atoning 
 work not once. Now, I don t believe that drunkards 
 can be saved by pledges and good resolutions. The} 
 .need something else. They need to be told of a 
 Divine Helper who will stand by them just as they 
 are, in all their vileness and degradation, and battle 
 with them and for them against the demon of the 
 still. They need to be told the old, old story of 
 Jesus crucified for sinners, bleeding his life away 
 that the vilest might look to him and live. Tell the 
 drunkard that; guide his trembling, shaking hand 
 till it touches, only touches the hem of Christ s robe, 
 and his feet are on the Rock of Ages, and he is a 
 saved man. But this is exactly what Good Templar- 
 ism never does." 
 
 Martha spoke with quivering lips and eyes that 
 shone through unshed tears, while Nelson gazed at 
 her roused and kindled face with a kind of wonder. 
 
 "You talk like Martin Treworthy," he said. 
 
 If I do it is because one Spirit has taught us 
 both," she answered, resuming her work, which she 
 had dropped in her momentary excitement. "Now, 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 01 
 
 the Good Templars profess to be a religious order, 
 or why do they have prayers and au altar and a chap 
 lain? Yet, as I said before, the lodge does not and 
 cannot convert the drunkard, and without conversion 
 I do not believe in a permanent reform. I don t 
 mean to say that there is no Christianity in its teach 
 ings. There is just enough to make them danger 
 ous, for what more fatal delusion under heaven than 
 a Christless Christianity? As a matter of fact the 
 really religious members of the lodge fare about as 
 bad as the workers. It is the worldly, irreligious 
 element that invariably gets the upper hand. I have 
 known a man who could hardly spell his wa} through 
 the ritual elected chaplain just for a joke, and not a 
 single voice raised in rebuke or dissent. Yet there 
 were Christian men and women present; I was there 
 myself, and I remember feeling shamed and indig 
 nant at first, and then laughing with the rest at his 
 manifest exultation at being promoted to the chap 
 lain s desk, and the funny way in which he mispro 
 nounced his words. I blush when I think of it, but 
 there is a mysterious something about these nightly 
 gatherings that acts like a draught of enchantment. 
 I have known professed Christians to say and do in 
 a Good Templar lodge what they would not have said 
 or done anywhere else. I am sure of one thing: 
 Christ isn t there, and the Holy Spirit isn t there. 
 Why should they come where their work is persist- 
 ently ignored and set aside for mere human methods? 
 The lodge is like the house in the parable, empty, 
 swept, and garnished; and Satan enters in and dwells 
 
62 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 there, and the last state of man or woman who joins 
 it expecting to be helped thereby, or put in the way 
 of helping others, is worse than the first. After 
 attending the meetings for a few times I began to 
 feel a strange deadness and indifference when I took 
 up my Bible or tried to pra} 7 . I lost my relish for 
 prayer-meeting; even for the dear old hymns that I 
 used to sing over my work. I knew that something 
 was wrong and it made me miserable, but I could 
 not imagine what. I tried to think that it was only 
 a common experience, a mere passing cloud, and I 
 should feel all right again soon. All the while I 
 knew better. I knew I had backslidden, but what 
 had made me? Now if I had been enticed into at 
 tending some place of amusement, professedly world 
 ly, like the ballroom and the theatre, I should have 
 known in a moment; but how could I lay my spirit 
 ual darkness and trouble to attending the meetings 
 of an organization that claims, for its sole object, 
 to save men and do them good? I will tell you 
 what opened my eyes : an Anti-masonic tract that 
 fell in my way. I was familiar enough with temper 
 ance tracts, but this was something new; so I took it 
 up, half curious, half indifferent, thinking to myself, 
 Women are never Masons; how can the subject pos 
 sibly concern me? But I found that it did concern 
 me, and in more ways than one. I saw that it was a 
 system square against Christianity on one side, and 
 every principle of our republican liberty on the 
 other. And I saw besides, as plain as two and two 
 make four, that the same line of argument which 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. 17. 63 
 
 condemns Freemasonry condemns Good Templar- 
 ism." 
 
 ; 0h, nonsense, Martha. You are so conscientious 
 that } ou are like an over-careful housekeeper, who is 
 always finding dirt and disorder where nobody else 
 would think of looking for it. Xow. I have seen 
 books that claim to expose Masonry, and granted that 
 they are true, what possible likeness between their 
 barbarous, blood-curdling oaths, for instance, and the 
 simple promise, or obligation , which is said to be 
 all any of these minor orders require?" 
 
 "Just the difference that there is between a glass 
 of champagne and a tumbler of stiff old Bourbon. 
 answered Martha, promptly. "What makes the fas 
 cination in any kind of spirituous drink? Just the 
 alcohol, more or less, that it contains. So these 
 minor orders are fascinating just in proportion to the 
 amount of secrecy which they cover. Xow, the 
 whole of Good Templarism could be just as well 
 taught in one degree as in half a dozen; and all the 
 object of the Charity, Fidelity and Council degrees, 
 so far as I can see, is to serve the double purpose of 
 making the principle of secrecy so familiar that the 
 gradation to Masonry and Odd-fellowship will be 
 easy and natural, and to shut the mouths of consci 
 entious non-Masons. Xow. Xelson, let me ask a 
 plain question: are you just as ready to express your 
 honest convictions about Masonry as }~ou would be 
 if 3*ou did not belong to a secret order? Don t you 
 feel, without exactly knowing why, that there would 
 be an inconsistency in your denouncing it? that it 
 
64 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 would certainly draw down upon you the dislike of 
 the Masonic members of the lodge if you did so, and 
 on the whole you had better let it alone?" 
 
 Nelson Newhall was decidedly an exemplary 3 oung 
 man who would not have told a lie for the world. 
 He neither smoked nor chewed; was a regular church 
 goer, and taught a class of boys in a mission Sun 
 day-school. I am afraid he was only a step removed 
 from a well-meaning young Pharisee, though Martha, 
 looking at him by the light of that glamour with 
 which a true affection always invests the beloved 
 object, saw nothing of the sort. 
 
 "I don t know but it is so, Martha," he answered, 
 after a moment s hesitation, "though I never though 
 of it before." 
 
 "But there is another side of the question. How 
 can temperance workers admit into their ranks as 
 co-laborers men who are bound by oath to protect 
 every saloonist who can give the Masonic sign of 
 distress? Will not their best efforts be constantly 
 checkmated, and their plans betrayed when Masonic 
 interests come in collision with the temperance 
 cause? For my part I am not surprised that prohi 
 bition makes such slow progress considering how 
 many politicians have to be accommodated with of 
 fice every year like Gen. Putney, for instance." 
 
 "But the} r say the Grand Army Posts put him in." 
 
 "And who originated the Grand Army? Who are 
 its leaders? Poor, simple, private soldiers with no 
 political aspirations, or Masonic ex-generals who 
 want their votes? I desire no clearer proof than 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 65 
 
 Gen. Putney s nomination that the Grand Army is a 
 mere political machine manipulated by men without 
 a single patriotic impulse in their bosoms; with 
 whom self is first, party next, and country last of 
 all. It is worse than folly to let corrupt secret rings 
 control the elections and then clamor for reform." 
 
 "All I can say about it is that the people are to 
 blame/ returned Nelson. "If every temperance 
 man would go to the polls resolved to drop all party 
 interests and vote for none but out-and-out prohibi 
 tionists, without any regard whatever to party lead 
 ers, the tide would soon turn. But *why have you 
 never told me before how opposed you were to secret 
 societies?" 
 
 Because I was really not aware of it myself. I 
 joined the Good Templars without the least sus 
 picion of any harm in the organization. The wor 
 thiness of the professed object blinded me to all the 
 folly and sin; but now the beam is cast out of my 
 own eye, perhaps I can see clearly to pull the mote 
 out of my brother s eye." 
 
 "I know what is coming, Martha," answered Nel 
 son, with a comical look of resignation in which 
 there mingled, to a critical observer, the slightest 
 shade of vexed annoyance. "I am ready for the 
 operation, however, if you will engage not to hurt 
 more than is necessary." 
 
 "Well, dow, Nelson, as a laboring woman who in 
 tends to marry a laboring man, I ought to be inter 
 ested in all that concerns the working classes secret 
 trade unions like the Knights of Labor included." 
 
66 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Oh, coine, Martha! what do you know about the 
 Knights of Labor? Capitalists can and do com 
 bine, and why shouldn t workingmen? I have no 
 high opinion of the Masons or the Odd-fellows 
 either, though I don t know much about them; but a 
 harmless trade union is quite another thing. And 
 besides, I hardly ever attend the meetings. I just 
 pay my dues, and that is about all." 
 
 Martha held her peace. She was a prudent 
 woman, and did not always speak the thought that 
 lay uppermost. 
 
 "You see all the other workmen were joining," 
 continued Nelson, after a moment s silence; "and 
 they urged me a good deal. It is all very well to 
 talk about independence, but a man must be fair to 
 himself and fair to his fellows. The labor problem 
 presents entirely different conditions from what it 
 did fifty or even twenty years ago. Now I feel per 
 fectly able to stand alone and fight my battles with 
 the capitalist on my own hook, but that isn t the 
 case with one in a hundred. How can an ignorant, 
 unskilled workman with a large family protect him 
 self against the greed and injustice of employers? 
 He will just as surely be driven to the wall as he at 
 tempts it. The class increases every day, and if it 
 were not for these protective unions he would be in 
 a condition little better than white slavery. Shall 
 the strong, just because they are strong stand off 
 selfishly each by himself and let his weaker brother 
 stumble along as he can? That isn t the way I read 
 my Bible, and I am sure, Martha, it isn t the way 
 
Opinions of a W. C. T. U. 67 
 
 you read yours. As for the secrecy part of it, as I 
 said before, it don t amount to much only enough 
 to prevent imposition." 
 
 "Insurance companies are imposed upon some 
 times. Why don t they need the protection of 
 secrecy just as much?" queried Martha. 
 
 "Oh, that is a different thing. Business is guard 
 ed by red tape, which is something plain working- 
 men don t know much about. Some secret signs are 
 necessary to enable those who actually belong to 
 make themselves known when they are traveling 
 from place to place, and at the same time keep out 
 bogus members." 
 
 "/ think it is a great deal more important to keep 
 out unscrupulous leaders," returned Martha, dryly; 
 "for among the other uses of secrecy you forget to 
 mention that it is a most convenient cover under 
 which such men can do pretty much as the} like." 
 
 ; 0h. well," said Nelson, as, with a half laugh and 
 hasty glance at the little French clock on the man 
 tle, he got up to go; "we might talk on this subject 
 from now till next week, and then stand about 
 where we did when we begun. I can t afford to 
 spend time and strength fighting secret societies 
 when there are so many worse evils in the world. I 
 want to see this rum business put down, and I am 
 willing to give up all I have, even life itself, to do 
 it. But still, I agree with you in thinking that these 
 societies have not done as much for the temperance 
 cause as they pretend. And as to the Knights of 
 Labor, if I become a fanner that will sever my con- 
 
68 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 nection with them, and leave us nothing to quarrel 
 about unless I join the Grange. But now, Martha," 
 he added, dropping his half-jesting tone, "try to put 
 this dreadful thing that has happened out of your 
 mind. You couldn t have helped it or prevented it. 
 It is only a specimen of what is continually going 
 on, and will keep going on till the people rise in 
 their might and refuse to bear it any longer. When 
 the liquor traffic finally does go down, I believe it 
 will be in such a whirlwind of popular wrath that 
 the whole cursed thing will be destroyed root and 
 branch, and swept as completely from the land as 
 ever slavery was." 
 
 "G-od hasten the day," ejaculated Martha, solemn- 
 \y. "Amen," returned Nelson, as solemnly. And 
 so they parted, one in their hatred of the dark, de 
 stroying saloon power, yet divided by that subtle 
 spirit of evil which stands at its right hand the 
 spirit of the secret lodge. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LOAVES AND FISHES. 
 
 Colonel Gail Hicks, the nominee of the Prohibi 
 tion party, was a man the inteusit}- of whose moral 
 convictions was only equaled by the unsullied purity 
 of his public and private life. He was pre-eminently 
 a man of the people, and chosen by the people with 
 that divine instinct which generally shows itself 
 when any great question opens the way for independ 
 ent political action. The Republican nominee was 
 first and last a demagogue, whose military career 
 had been chiefly remarkable for disastrous blunders, 
 unredeemed by any personal bravery, and whose 
 large fortune, it was more than suspected, had been 
 filched from the government in its hour of deepest 
 distress. The choice of the Democratic side was a 
 man who, when the war broke out. openly aided the 
 Confederate cause, and who now sympathized with 
 the rum interest exactly as he had once sympathized 
 with slavery. This being the character of the two 
 leading candidates, they, with the factions that sup 
 ported them, found the saloon vote a necessity, and 
 thus the liquor power was placed in the embarrass 
 ing position of having two suitors, either one too 
 powerful to offend; but it was fully equal to playing 
 a double game in which both parties were made to 
 
70 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 truckle to it, and vie with each other in their gen 
 eral subserviency. 
 
 The prohibition wave in Jacksonville was one of 
 those phenomenal tidal movements which occur as 
 often and with as startling an effect in the social and 
 political as in the natural world. The saloonists, 
 rendered careless by long security, had scarcely 
 made a pretense of keeping within the strict letter 
 of the law, and this sudden turn in popular feeling 
 surprised them too completely for any attempt at 
 organized resistance. 
 
 "We must have a grand rally at the polls," said 
 Mr. Basset, who dropped in one morning to talk 
 over the situation with Stephen Howland. "The 
 ballot is the only argument the liquor party can un 
 derstand. There s nothing like keeping people s 
 minds stirred up on this subject. A little tempor 
 ary excitement won t do. We mustn t stop rowing 
 till we ve fairly touched shore." 
 
 "Jacksonville seems to be stirred up pretty well 
 now," returned Stephen. "Such a case as that 
 McLean woman burning her own child to death 
 ought to be enough to wake up any community that 
 calls itself Christian." 
 
 "That was an awful thing," responded Mr. Basset 
 feelingly. "Now we ve had two saloon murders in 
 Jacksonville in less than a year, to sa} T nothing of 
 the terrible profanity and Sabbath breaking. Ini 
 quity runs down our streets like a river. It is really 
 dreadful to contemplate such a state of things." 
 
 "Well, now, Mr. Basset," f?;iu] Stephen, candidly. 
 
Loaves and Fisltts. 71 
 
 "I have not been altogether satisfied with the method 
 pursued thus far. For m} part I m tired hunting 
 down small vermin. What is the use of arresting 
 such men as Sm der and shutting up their drinking 
 holes while all the restaurants and hotels have their 
 open or secret bar? It is neither justice nor policy. 
 I am glad they have planned a descent on Parker of 
 the Phoenix House, for it is safe to say that two- 
 thirds of his profits come from the liquor he sells, 
 and not from his legitimate business." 
 
 "Ah! I hadn t heard they were going to arrest 
 Parker. But of course," added Mr. Basset, quickly 
 recovering the self-possession which this informa 
 tion had seemed for some reason to momentarily 
 disturb, -it is always best to be thorough in the 
 work and give no quarter to respectable offenders." 
 
 "I appreciate as much as anj-body," resumed 
 Stephen, "the necessity of making a good show at 
 the polls. The Prohibitionists must let all the num 
 erical strength they have got be felt, but I don t 
 think it reasonable to expect to carry the State this 
 3~ear. We are working for principles, and principles 
 triumph slowly. Prohibition is surely coming, but 
 it must come through an increasing aggregate of 
 local successes. Even* neighborhood thoroughly 
 stirred up on this question, provided the interest is 
 not allowed to abate, makes a kind of nucleus for 
 reform; and when we get a sufficient number of 
 them they will carry the State. Now I believe if 
 temperance people will only work together we can 
 carry Jacksonville for no license this year." 
 
72 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Now that s exactly my idea," cheerfully respond 
 ed Mr. Basset, as he took his departure. "Reform, 
 like chanty, must begin at home." 
 
 Stephen sat down once more to his interrupted 
 study of certain complications which had arisen in 
 one of the liquor cases he was just then prosecut 
 ing; for, without any seeking of such honor, he had 
 come to be a prominent leader in the movement in 
 Jacksonville, and was already engaged as one of the 
 chief speakers at a meeting to be held a few days 
 before election in the interests of the temperance 
 party. He was young, ambitious, and high-princi 
 pled. He felt that he was engaged in a glorious 
 cause, and metaphorically he girded on his armor 
 and longed for the trumpet to sound for battle. Mr. 
 Basset did not quite suit him. He thought there 
 was a great deal of talk in him to very little action. 
 Still he never distrusted his sincerity. Had Stephen 
 been more deeply conversant with the workings of 
 that system of mingled religion and morality to 
 which he had so recently joined himself, he would 
 not have been surprised that the proprietor of the 
 Phoenix House should step out nobody knew where, 
 nor for just how long a few minutes before the 
 raid on his establishment: from which, by the way, 
 every vestige of the bar, which he was known to 
 keep in cool disregard of the terms of his license, 
 had vanished like a dream in the night. 
 
 Stephen was not only surprised, he was disgust 
 ed and wrathful, the more so that another prominent 
 liquor-seller, whose conviction he had looked upon 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 73 
 
 as a foregone conclusion, seemed now likely to es 
 cape through certain newly-discovered technicalities 
 of the law. But he comforted himself with the old 
 saying that it is an ill wind that blows no good. 
 People would finally learn that prohibition pure and 
 simple was far more easil}* enforced than the most 
 ingenious license law whose ramifications were only 
 so many loopholes through which the liquor-seller 
 could slip and- thus evade conviction; that behind 
 the saloon power lay a masked enemy whose arrows 
 were shot in secret, an argus-eyed foe that never 
 slumbered, wily, treacherous, that with its deluding 
 ignis fatui was leading himself and others a fool s 
 dance over bogs and morasses foul with miasma and 
 death this was an idea that never came into his 
 head. But though Stephen did not know why so 
 many finely-laid schemes of the Prohibitionists 
 went "agley." there is no reason for keeping the 
 reader in like ignorance. 
 
 The proprietor of the Phoenix House was an Odd 
 fellow as well as a Mason, having joined both orders 
 for several reasons. In the first place he wished to 
 shed all the respectability possible on his traffic, and 
 he knew very well that Odd-fellowship was consid 
 ered more respectable than Masonry by a large class 
 of moral and Christian people. He knew also that 
 owing to the close and beautiful relationship exist 
 ing between the two he would get more advantage 
 from Masonry by being an Odd-fellow, and more ad 
 vantage from Odd-fellowship by being a Mason. 
 That he was right in this opinion the sequel will 
 
74 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 show. For quite in a neighborly way Mr. Basset ac 
 costed a Masonic acquaintance whom he happened to 
 meet a few steps from Stephen Howland s office, and 
 informed him all as a mere piece of friendly gos 
 sip "that Parker stood as good a chance to be 
 hauled over the coals as any of the common saloon- 
 ists, and he knew on good authorit}^ that his arrest 
 was already planned." Whereupon his Masonic 
 friend did exactly what Mr. Basset supposed and ex 
 pected he would do promptly "warned" the hotel 
 keeper "of impending danger." Nor was this the 
 first time that Mr. Basset had played with success 
 the rule of "Mr. Facing-both-ways. " He had once 
 turned a lawsuit in favor of a brother Odd-fellow by 
 refusing to agree with the other jurymen on the ver 
 dict; he had contrived in a number of cases to have 
 worthy employes turned off and their places supplied 
 by men who could sport the three links on their 
 shirt fronts; besides otherwise seeking the good of 
 the order by a system of vigorous proselyting that 
 would have done credit to an} r olden Pharisee or 
 Mormon bishop. 
 
 "But a Christian man, and a Prohibitionist too 
 impossible!" exclaims the astonished reader. Know, 
 dear sir, or dear madam, as the case may be, that 
 though Mr. Basset was a temperance man he was an 
 Odd-fellow first, and he held his Christianity on the 
 same secondary principle. He believed in the 
 church as a highly convenient institution, which, as 
 it obligingly took in all that numerous class that the 
 ark of Odd-fellow salvation passes by, could not 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 75 
 
 well be dispensed with; but his relative valuation of 
 the two ma}* be inferred from the fact that while he 
 was seldom or never absent from the brethren on 
 lodge nights and always paid his dues with prompt 
 ness, he was invariable* short of funds when called 
 upon to aid any department of church work, and 
 never found time to attend the prayer meeting a 
 very common state of things among that portion of 
 the secret fraternity who are trying, like Mr. Felix 
 Basset, to play the part of the scriptural Issachar. 
 But lest the reader should look upon him as a sin 
 ner above all other men, we will state what we know 
 to be a veritable fact: that the keepers of two resta 
 urants had been ; - warned" in like fashion only the 
 day before, by a Mason who was also a Good Tem 
 plar, and as such had been freely trusted by the small 
 but determined body of Prohibitionists who had set 
 out to suppress the illicit saloons, but found them 
 selves betrayed without am* clue to the traitor. 
 
 Martin Treworthy laughed sardonically when he 
 heard them wonder who divulged their plan, assert 
 ing that the liquor power, by means of its sworn 
 Masonic allies scattered up and down through the 
 length and breadth of the temperance camp, could 
 hear what was whispered in their secret chambers. 
 He had said the same thing a good many times be 
 fore without anybody s heeding or laying it to heart. 
 and with the grand persistence of a true prophet- 
 soul he was willing to keep on saying it to a genera 
 tion that only mocked and despised his words. 
 
 But Jacksonville was, as Stephen expressed it. 
 
76 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 very thoroughly waked up, and in a way not to be 
 mistaken by saloonist or Prohibitionist. How to 
 allay the excitement or keep it at fever height was 
 the respective problem discussed by each with very 
 various answers. One important wing of the Prohi 
 bition side had a plan of their own concocted, of 
 which we shall hear more anon. Meanwhile the idea 
 was industriously circulated that General Putney 
 was a temperance man, with a record as high in that 
 respect as the average, and consequently temperance 
 men could vote for him without sacrificing either 
 their principles or their standing in the glorious old 
 party that had abolished slavery and saved the 
 Union. Men who had voted with that party from 
 its birth hour, to whom its very name was a store 
 house of glorious memories of grand deeds and 
 noble leaders gray-headed men who still loved it, 
 with all its venality and corruption, almost as a 
 father his erring first-born, wavered, glad to catch at 
 a straw. There was still another class who halted 
 between two opinions men who believed in prohi 
 bition and wanted to see it triumph, yet could not 
 make up their minds to leave the party in power and 
 thus resign all expectation of office or preferment at 
 its hands: while another class, still more numerous, 
 comprised the floating political driftwood; men ready 
 to support either side according to circumstances; 
 men with votes to sell and willing to sell them; and 
 men with principles, but deterred from taking that 
 unpopular article to the polls by the newspapers and 
 stump orators with their black prophecies of woe 
 
Loavts and Fishes. 77 
 
 and ruin sure to follow the defeat of the Republican 
 party. And the} also halted between two opinions. 
 
 Stephen Rowland, on the contrary, had no party 
 fetters to break. He believed the time had come 
 for all true men to separate themselves from fac 
 tional interests and vote only for candidates that 
 would truly represent their convictions; and we will 
 not pretend that he had not his own private, yet 
 most worthy, ambition to become a leader in this new 
 party of truth and righteousness. So he stood upon 
 the platform primed to the fingers ends with facts 
 and figures; feeling sure that truth, invincible, eter 
 nal, was on his side, and with a great deal more 
 faith in his power to convince the crowd before him 
 of that fact than if he had been a little older or a lit 
 tle wiser. But though composed of all the incon 
 gruous elements mentioned above, it was a good- 
 natured crowd, ready to laugh and applaud any 
 specially clever hit; and Stephen Rowland had the 
 faculty of making a brilliant off-hand speech on al 
 most any subject. 
 
 "What has the Republican party done? I ask," he 
 said, in closing. "You point to the broken shackles 
 of four million slaves. But who thirty years ago in 
 the legislative halls of this very State voted for a 
 law that should rescind every hunted fugitive, man, 
 woman, or child, back to the master from whose 
 brutality the}* had escaped, and made it a penal act 
 to offer them even a cup of cold water in the name 
 of our common Lord? Who but the very man on 
 whom the Republican party of this State now pro- 
 
78 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 poses to bestow gubernatorial honors! You point 
 me to a Union preserved through seas of blood and 
 tears. Far be it from me to speak a word which 
 should be a blot on the glorious record; but who, 
 while ostensibly serving his country in the field, was 
 silent partner in a company for cheating the Govern 
 ment and its brave defenders with shoddy contracts? 
 Again I repeat, who but the very man the Republi 
 can party now delights to honor? 
 
 "But let these things pass. Time is a great con 
 queror of prejudices, and the gallant General is 
 doubtless on the way to make as good a Prohibition 
 ist as he is now an anti-slavery man. Perhaps the 
 Republican party can afford to wait for him. It is 
 good at waiting. [Laughter.] It has done nothing 
 else since it came into power; but the people can t 
 wait. This red-handed Herod who slaughtered the 
 innocents must be dethroned [applause]; and what 
 more fitting than that this same Republican party 
 which dealt the death-blow to slavery with the sword 
 should strangle intemperance at the ballot-box. So 
 we have said, so we have hoped through all its de 
 lays, its compromises, its persistent ignoring of the 
 great question at issue. Like the mother of Sisera 
 as she looked through the lattice, we have cried, 
 Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry 
 the wheels of his chariot? And the wise among us 
 have answered; yea, we have returned answer to our 
 selves, Have they not sped? have they not divided 
 the prey? [Laughter and applause.] Yes; that is 
 the trouble. Sisera won a great victory a score of 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 79 
 
 years ago, and he has been busy dividing the spoil 
 ever since. Meanwhile shall we sit still while an 
 enemy steals the wealth of our nation, desolates our 
 homes, and slays not its tens but its hundreds of 
 thousands, or quit us like men, like freemen, by 
 casting our votes to-morrow for Col. Hicks and pro 
 hibition? 
 
 "What we want, what we demand of the Republi 
 can party, is present action, not a barren record of 
 past achievements, however glorious. This want re 
 mains unmet. This demand has been received with 
 open or silent contempt. It has quarreled over 
 office spoils, split hairs over the tariff question, and 
 passed bills to restrict Chinese emigration; but on 
 the monstrous evil of the liquor traffic, an evil which 
 is eating out the very vitals of our nation, it has 
 nothing to say. Parties die, principles live. The 
 Republican party totters to-day on the brink of dis 
 solution, but the sublime doctrines enunciated by 
 her first leaders cannot die. They are everlasting as 
 eternity. When men are dead we bury them; when 
 parties are dead we do or should do the same 
 whether in hopes of a future immortality must de 
 pend in either case on the question whether they 
 have lived worthy of that immortality. I, for one, 
 have a great deal of faith in the Republican party, 
 so much that I can help bun* it without a tear in the 
 firm belief that it will rise again [applause] baptized 
 with a new name, its mantle of old corruptions 
 dropped, and animated once more with the spirit of 
 its early founders. As one on whom a double por- 
 
80 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 tion of that spirit has fallen, I name the Prohibition 
 nominee for the governorship of this State, Colonel 
 Gail Hicks a man in all respects worthy the sup 
 port of every true citizen. I call upon all such 
 without any regard to previous political affiliations 
 to go to the polls resolved to vote, not for a party 
 but a man, not for the saloon but the home, not for 
 the lie of the rumseller but the truth of God, not for 
 license but for prohibition." 
 
 There had been slight attempts at disturbance 
 from the license element, which, however, did not 
 amount to much beyond a few groans and hisses 
 that were effectually silenced in loud and long con 
 tinued applause when the young orator ended his 
 speech. 
 
 "Good timber in that fellow now," muttered Mar 
 tin Treworthy, who stood in the crowd, flashing keen 
 approval from beneath his shaggy eyebrows, while 
 Nelson Newhall close by was contributing his share 
 to the burst of acclamation with an enthusiasm not 
 to be mistaken. 
 
 The next to occupy the platform was Col. Mor 
 rison, editor of the Jacksonville Patriot, a stirring 
 Decoration-day orator, a Mason, and a Grand Army 
 man. He perfectly agreed with the position taken 
 by the first speaker in regard to the rum traffic. He 
 was a Prohibitionist to the backbone, but did not be 
 lieve that the Republican party was dead or in a 
 dying condition. It was still sound at the core for 
 all the abuses and corruptions of party managers. 
 If brought back to the purity of first principles it 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 81 
 
 could extinguish intemperance as easily as it had 
 slavery; and he put it to their common sense one 
 could always trust the common sense of an Ameri 
 can audience even in the fever of political excite 
 ment whether prohibition would come soonest by 
 working for it in the ranks of an old and established 
 party, or by joining a third, which, as it lacked all 
 the elements of popularity and strength, must be 
 years in achieving even a doubtful success. For his 
 part he preferred the half loaf to no loaf at all. 
 Why give their votes to the Democratic nominee and 
 thus help to secure a triumph for the saloon? Gen 
 eral Putney had been caluminated by his political 
 enemies, and these calumnies he was sorry to hear 
 repeated by the eloquent young speaker who had 
 preceded him. He could state from personal knowl 
 edge that General Putney was a consistent temper 
 ance man, who could be depended on to enforce the 
 law. True, he had once voted a pro-slavery bill in a 
 pro-slavery era. That era had passed forever along 
 with the days of witchcraft in which the good and 
 learned Puritan, Judge Sewell, knew no better than 
 to commit judicial murder. Let him who had no 
 sin of ignorance to answer for cast the first stone." 
 
 u The Colonel means to be elected Representative 
 to Congress next year, said Martin Treworthy, in 
 another grim aside. "Xo half loaf of prohibition 
 for him, but a longer nibble at the whole loaves and 
 fishes of the Republican party." 
 
 The next speaker. Dr. Haynesworth, agreed with 
 all the main points of Col. Morrison s speech, and 
 
82 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 could confirm his statements by remarking that he 
 had been told only the day before by one of the 
 most prominent of the Prohibition leaders that he 
 was in constant correspondence with the General 
 and could vouch for his temperance principles. 
 
 "There is treachery, Ahaziah!" muttered Mar 
 tin under his breath. "But this ain t the first time 
 I ve known the leader of one hostile army to be in 
 correspondence with the other side." 
 
 The doctor deprecated discord between brethren. 
 Prohibitionists should wear the same colors or there 
 was continual danger of mistaking each other with 
 fatal results to the cause. He would be willing to 
 work for a third party if temperance men every 
 where would join it, but as a matter of fact the large 
 majority were faithful to old political friendships; 
 and he was more and more convinced that no better 
 standing-place for union could be found than that 
 same Republican party in which the} had been nur 
 tured, which had once so gloriously lead the van 
 guard of Reform, and might again. And he drew 
 such a glowing picture of that happy time when all 
 differences, forgotten in the joy of victory, high 
 license and low license men, prohibitionists and 
 moral suasionists, should lie down together like the 
 lion and the lamb of prophecy, that it provoked an 
 other side remark from Martin Tre worthy: 
 
 "This is going to be like the witches cauldron" 
 for, unlettered backwoodsman though he was, Martin 
 kept a copy of Shakespeare in his hermitage, which 
 he occasionally studied in the intervals between his 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 83 
 
 Bible and his newspaper " -black spirits and white, 
 white spirits and gray, mingle, mingle, ye that min 
 gle may. An out-and-out speech for prohibition 
 might ruin his chance to be mayor." 
 
 Stephen had been led to suppose that all the 
 speakers would be unanimous for a third party, and 
 he was simply astonished at this unexpected change 
 of base. He felt that he had been treated ipfairly, 
 for though he would not have altered his speech one 
 iota, had he known beforehand what was to be the 
 tenor of the other addresses, it would have prevent 
 ed his speaking at all and thus saved him from the 
 awkwardness of having to defend his position among 
 assumed friends. But to hear this weak apologizing 
 for party corruption and misrule added a feeling of 
 shame and disgust to his sense of injury; and when 
 the climax was reached by claiming General Putney 
 as a temperance man, his old lie-hating, truth-loving 
 Puritan blood stirred within him. When he at 
 tempted to answer, however, there was a scene of 
 tumult between the saloon element which sought to 
 prevail by dint of noise, and the cries of "Go on. 
 "Give it to em, r and sundry similar exclamations 
 from the third party men, who knew their champion 
 when they saw him, complicated still more b}~ a set 
 tled disposition on the part of the managers of the 
 meeting to make him reply at a disadvantage by al 
 lowing him onh five minutes, on the pretence that 
 there were a number of others yet to speak. 
 
 But Stephen bethought himself of a certain news 
 paper paragraph which had attracted his attention 
 
84 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 sufficiently to be saved, as just the thing to turn the 
 tables on these political time-servers. So quietly 
 remarking that he believed it to be one of the laws 
 of parliamentary usage that he who makes the open 
 ing speech should also make the closing one, he 
 waited till all had said their say, including one or 
 two rather discouraged advocates for a third party, 
 followed by another seeker after loaves and fishes, 
 who devoted himself to picking up the chips in the 
 wake of Morrison and Haynesworth. Stephen then 
 rose to his feet and simply observed that as there 
 seemed much confusion of opinion as to General 
 Putney s prohibition principles, he would, to set all 
 doubts at rest, read his own testimony on that point 
 at a recent political gathering: "The time has not 
 come for us to take up the temperance issue with 
 safety, and I repeat once more I am not in sympathy 
 with the fanatics who are trying to force this question 
 on the Republican party , knowing that it will bring 
 disruption if not absolute ruin thereto," 
 
 Stephen read this from the slip of paper which he 
 held in his hand, and then paused for a moment be 
 fore adding: "Gentlemen, you have now the witness 
 of his own mouth that he cares less to protect the 
 homes of the nation than to protect a party, and 
 more for the votes of the liquor interest than the 
 wail of its murdered victims. But their cries have 
 entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, 
 and 
 
 E en now from lone Mount Gerizim and Ebal s starry crown, 
 We call the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down, 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 85 
 
 The question of the hour confronts us. As free 
 American citizens what answer shall we give? Shall 
 we put our necks under part} yokes and cower be 
 fore the crack of party whips, or shall we assert our 
 blood-bought right to vote as we choose, asking no 
 consent from political demagogues? It stands be 
 fore us like the Sphinx, and it will not down at the 
 bidding of fear or interest. That question has got 
 to be answered. Every election da}* it will stand by 
 the ballot-box sterner and more awful till we are 
 compelled a word for slaves, not for freemen a}~e, 
 compelled to answer it one way or the other. Oh. for 
 a voice that shall go forth to-morrow from every 
 voting precinct in this State, and sound like the 
 trump of doom in the ears of -them that build a 
 town with blood and establish a city by iniquity. 
 but clear as the clarion of victory and tender as the 
 voices of pitying angels in the hearts and homes 
 made desolate by the liquor traffic: -Down with this 
 giant abomination, down with legalized robbery and 
 murder under the. name of license ! But up with 
 the snow-white banner of Prohibition ! Fling it wide 
 to the breeze with the name of the noblest of her 
 leaders blazoned upon it, the name of Col. Grail 
 Hicks. And may G-od forever speed the right. " 
 
 Stephen stopped, his whole frame quivering like a 
 racer s at the goal. His ingenious flank movement 
 had succeeded. Those who had hoped to see the 
 meeting end as it had at one time threatened to, in a 
 ridiculous fizzle, were doomed to disappointment 
 
 "If he didn t floor them fellows handsomely, now," 
 
86 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 chuckled Martin Trewortlry. "A sight of their faces 
 was worth all the specie in my tin box." 
 
 "Well, I must say I m disappointed in Colonel 
 Morrison/ replied Nelson, discontentedly. To stand 
 up for prohibition and Putney in the same breath is 
 good Lord and good devil with a vengeance." 
 
 "Oh, it only shows how well the Masonic lodge is 
 educating our politicians," returned Martin, with a 
 grim smile. "The result is, they stay politicians. 
 They can t grow into statesmen under lodge training 
 no more than the dwarf trees that I ve read the 
 Chinese raise in thimbles can grow into real oaks 
 and elms." 
 
 "But all our public men are not Masons," objected 
 Nelson. 
 
 "No; but the lodge influence goes everywhere like 
 malaria, and they can t help breathing it in, and 
 then good, simple souls wonder what ails Congress 
 that we have such crooked goings on back salary 
 grabs, and Credit Mobilier schemes, and Star Route 
 swindles, and nobody knows wha.t else. They can t 
 imagine why there is so much boss rule and party 
 spirit and so little patriotism; so much cheating of 
 the government and so little common honesty; so 
 much practical infidelity and so little practical Chris 
 tianity. Now, Nelson, you are a sensible fellow on 
 the whole, and I want you to look at this thing just 
 as it stands. The lodge takes three dollars 
 from each of its members where it pays out one 
 to help them in return. What is that but a 
 lesson in swindling? Then it puts on a great 
 
Loaves and Fishes. 87 
 
 show of piety and religion, and calls it benevolence. 
 That is lesson in hypocrisy number two. It de 
 mands obedience to all its laws and requirements, 
 and no questions asked. There is lesson in boss 
 rule number three. It refuses to expel a traitor to 
 his country Jeff Davis or Benedict Arnold, it 
 makes no difference which because treason is not a 
 Masonic sin. There is lesson in disloyalty number 
 four. It tears Christ s name from his own New Tes 
 tament and preaches another gospel. There is les 
 son in infidelity number five. And so I might go 
 on to the end of the chapter. Will politicians 
 trained in such principles, think you, sacrifice a jot 
 of their self-interest to put down all the saloons in 
 the land? Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs 
 of thistles? Do you think we can have the lodge in 
 every city and village and town and not have to take 
 the fruit of the lodge along with it? Can we sow 
 the wind and not reap the whirlwind? Yes; if his 
 tory and the Bible can go back on their own records 
 and contradict themselves. But that ain t a thin^ 
 
 t> 
 
 they are likely to do in a hurry, thank the Lord! 
 not even to please the politicians." 
 
 Nelson Newhall turned awa}~ in gloomy silence. 
 His sanguine hopes of an overwhelming prohibition 
 vote had fallen to zero. Even the young lawyer s 
 fiery eloquence had failed to make the meeting any 
 thing but a wet blanket on the prohibition cause, 
 and he felt uncomfortably sure that the leaders, for 
 reasons of their own, had so intended it from the 
 beginning. Like King David, he wns ready to say 
 
88 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 in his haste, "All men are liars." He was besides 
 conscious of feeling half impatient with his old 
 friend, which added a slight touch of compunction 
 to his sense of discomfort, for he loved and rever 
 enced Martin Treworthy, and only wished he was not 
 such a fanatic on the lodge question. Were there 
 no paramount issue to be met it might be well 
 enough to discuss it, but prohibition was the ques 
 tion of the hour, and it was nonsense to think that 
 any other issue could be prior to it in magnitude or 
 importance. 
 
 So reasoned Nelson Newhall. Whether he was 
 right or wrong the sequel of this story will show. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A NEW FACTOR IN POLITICS. 
 
 The morning of election day rose in a chill mist, 
 a perplexing, uncertain mist which might roll away 
 by nine o clock A. M. and leave a clear sky, or might 
 with equal probabilit}- grow denser and darker and 
 finally settle into a downright storm. In one sense 
 it was very appropriate weather, for it exactly rep 
 resented the political sky as it appeared to many a 
 voter Nelson Newhall for one. His first conscious 
 thought on waking was the election, and yet for 
 ordinary politics he did not care the snap of his fin 
 ger. It is only as we look at them through the 
 small end of our object glass, that is to sa}~, the lens 
 of our own private hopes and fears, that political 
 questions assume large proportions. Nelson New- 
 hall was a common working man to whom the sup 
 pression of the liquor business had grown to be a 
 vital subject, for it meant not only release from a 
 constant, wearing anxiety, but the temporal and eter 
 nal welfare of one to whom he was bound by ties 
 that in their protecting tenderness were almost ma 
 ternal. 
 
 He sprang out of bed and began hastily dressing 
 himself, making as little noise as possible that he 
 might not waken his still sleeping brother. But the 
 
90 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 latter stirred and began to cough. In an instant 
 Nelson was bending over him. 
 
 "I hoped I shouldn t disturb you, Tom. I will 
 get you a spoonful of your cough medicine and then 
 perhaps you will go to sleep again. It is very early 
 yet." 
 
 He measured out a spoonful of the syrup and ad 
 ministered it as deftly as a woman; then he built 
 up the fire which seemed to share in the general de 
 pression and needed much coaxing to boil the 
 chocolate or toast the bread, for Nelson always pre 
 pared his own breakfast and his invalid brother s 
 before going to work. Tom, though much better, 
 was still feeble. On bright, warm days when his 
 cough did not trouble him much he would drag him 
 self down stairs and sit in the sun, finding amuse 
 ment in the society of their landlady s children; and 
 she, a buxom, motherly, Scotch-Irish woman, cheer 
 fully agreed "to look after him a little," while Nel 
 son was absent in the shop. 
 
 "He ain t a bit more trouble than a chip sparrow, 
 Mr. Newhall, and he keeps the children so still I m 
 sure it is a real favor to me to have him round. I 
 had a brother once that was something like him 
 the quietest, gentlest soul that ever G-od made, if he 
 didn t know quite as much as most folks. Many s 
 the time I ve wished I was as near the kingdom as 
 poor brother Sandy." 
 
 And good Mrs. McG-owan wiped away a tear with 
 the corner of her apron while Nelson responded 
 gratefully: "Tom has but one failing, and you know 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 91 
 
 what that is, Mrs. McGowan. But I don t think he 
 is half as much to blame as the men who make and 
 sell the cursed stuff, or those in power who are will 
 ing for the sake of a little more revenue to li 
 cense it" 
 
 "Just what I ve always stood to, Mr. Xewhall. I 
 say that mone}* got in that wa}~ is blood money, and 
 if it is enough to make a man lose his soul, I can t 
 see for my part how government can take it and ex 
 pect to prosper." 
 
 Airs. McGowan was a woman and unversed in 
 political subtleties. Furthermore, she was a good 
 Presbyterian who made a conscience of reading her 
 Bible straight through in course not skipping one 
 of its terrible burning words against those -who de 
 cree unrighteous decrees," "who build up Zion with 
 blood and Jerusalem with iniquity;" and the reader 
 must excuse her if she had not yet attained to the 
 broader and more enlightened views of some of our 
 modern statesmen. 
 
 Martha Benson, when she stitched the burial robe 
 for the murdered innocent whose little life had gone 
 out in such cruel tortures, felt every holy instinct of 
 womanhood rise in revolt against this awful traffic 
 in human anguish. And as womanhood is pretty 
 much the same the world over, the sacred fires of a 
 noble indignation and a brave purpose to do what 
 they could were burning in many other hearts that 
 fire from the Lord which first kindled the Woman s 
 Crusade, that flashed like a meteor and was gone, 
 yet not before it had kindled in its turn a flame that 
 
92 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 has gone on increasing till now it lights the whole 
 country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 The Woman s Christian Temperance Union has 
 come to be a recognized power. Politicians may 
 coolly ignore its inconvenient requests and snub the 
 petitioners. None the less do they tremble before 
 the oncoming tread of the Divine Deliverer who has 
 sent before his face these silver-tongued messengers, 
 saying to the haughty Pharaoh of the liquor traffic, 
 "Let my people go that they may serve me." With 
 their simple weapons of faith and prayer they have 
 wrought miracles. We of this present century can 
 not estimate the full scope and power of the move 
 ment. We are too near; but the coming generations 
 will see it as it reall} r is, in many respects the grand 
 est, the most unique of all those moral and spiritual 
 revolutions that have stirred modern Christendom. 
 
 Nelson knew that a band of white-ribbon workers 
 had been organized in Jacksonville to meet the ap 
 proaching crisis, for so Martha had informed him, 
 adding with a smile and an arch shake of her finger, 
 "You men will find out after awhile that you can t 
 get along without us women. Politics have got into 
 the muddle they are in now by a law of nature, just 
 as a house will get to be dust and cobwebs from top 
 to bottom when there are no women to wield the 
 broom and the scrubbing-brush." 
 
 "Well, Martha, God knows I would be willing to 
 have the women vote if they could help us get rid of 
 this rum curse; but as things are I don t really see 
 how they are going to accomplish much." 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 93 
 
 "We can pray." 
 
 The words leaped from Martha s lips like an in 
 spiration so suddenly that Nelson felt for a mo 
 ment as if a supernatural voice had spoken. "Was 
 there not such a thing as a divine lever -which 
 moves the hand that moves the world?" and was 
 there not a bare possibility that the weakest woman 
 laying hold of God s eternal strength was mightier 
 than he, "the sovereign citizen" at the ballot-box? 
 Nelson believed in prayer, but the atmosphere of the 
 workshop had covered his faith with a coating of 
 something a little more like skepticism than he 
 would have been willing to own. If he could have 
 accompanied Martha, as the reader is privileged to 
 do, that gray, foggy November morning into the 
 vestry of the First Presbyterian church in Jackson 
 ville, he might have had his faith strengthened, and 
 even discerned a gleam of light in the political hori 
 zon, cloudy as it appeared. 
 
 The little throng before us, composed entire!}- of 
 the non-voting sex. who, perhaps for the very reason 
 that the} are excluded from expressing their con 
 victions at the ballot-box speak them all the more 
 eloquently and freely in the ears of Infinite Justice, 
 contains a few faces that are a study sweet with the 
 pathos of a nameless endurance, beautiful with those 
 fine heroic lines that only start out under the chisel 
 of a life-long sorrow. Yonder, for instance, sits one 
 who for ten wretched years felt the iron of a great 
 legalized wrong enter into her soul; but, womanlike, 
 all her sorrow was swallowed up in joy when her 
 
94 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 husband, a man of education and brilliant talents, 
 reformed and even began to win some reputation as 
 a popular temperance lecturer. But one night he 
 failed to meet his engagement; was missing forty- 
 eight hours, and then brought home dying. King 
 Alcohol had recaptured and this time slain his vic 
 tim; but it was in a properly-licensed saloon, and 
 with liquor that had paid its lawful share of the gov 
 ernment tax, and what could be said except that it 
 was all legal and constitutional? Only this woman 
 believed like poor Chloe, when her husband was 
 sold South to die under the slave- whip, that "thar 
 was suthin wrong about it somewhar;" and singular 
 ly enough it did not reconcile her in the least to 
 know that the price of his blood had added a few 
 cents less or more to the nation s treasury. 
 
 And here sits a noble-looking woman clad in 
 Quaker gray, with shining silver curls framing a 
 dear, motherly face as bright and peaceful as the 
 new moon when it rises over the hill-tops on a sum 
 mer night. Yet hers had been a trial by fire. This 
 Christian mother had one son whom she taught to 
 say, "Our Father," and "Now I lay me down to 
 sleep," morning and night; whose tottering steps she 
 guided to the house of G-od, and into whose young 
 mind she labored to instill all right and pure and 
 holy principles. But, alas ! the drink taint was in his 
 blood and he fell fell into a deeper abyss of degra 
 dation and ruin for those sun-crowned heights where 
 a mother s love had placed him. He rests to-day in 
 a drunkard s grave. It is all over the long, mid- 
 
A New Factor in Polities. 95 
 
 night vigils, the tears, the agonies of prayer. She 
 has been robbed of her boy, and the liquor traffic 
 under the shield of law has done it. 
 
 Near by sits another who has suffered cold and 
 hunger and abuse, yet through it all has clung to her 
 drunken brute of a husband instead of taking the 
 advice of friends who urge a legal separation; for 
 after all there are times when the brute is a man, 
 when the light of the old affection is in his eyes, and 
 he weeps over the past and makes all kinds of vows 
 for the future and she? well, she half believes him, 
 knowing all the while the}* are vows written on the 
 shifting sand. Of course she is a fool, but haven t 
 you, dear lady, who "wouldn t for the world live with 
 a drunken husband and don t think it is an}* woman s 
 duty to," read somewhere of a divine foolishness 
 that confounds all earthly wisdom? In spite of the 
 doctrine zealously advocated by many of the polit 
 ical prophets of our day. that -prohibition don t pro 
 hibit," this woman labors under the singular delus 
 ion that her husband would not drink if there were 
 no saloons. And so she has come here to-day ready 
 to add her mite of prayer and effort, though not the 
 weight of a finger may she or her sister sufferers lay 
 on that onl}* lever which can move law and law-mak 
 ers out of the ruts of legalized evil the ballot-box. 
 
 Others there are from comfortable and happ}*, even 
 luxurious homes, large-hearted, refined, noble Chris 
 tian women who have heard, over all the demands of 
 pleasure and fashion, the bugle call of duty, and 
 sprung to answer it with no half-hearted zeal 
 
96 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 women that are known in their respective social cir 
 cles as prudent managers, careful mothers, and faith 
 ful wives. But we need not spend more time in in 
 troductions. This is the Jacksonville branch of the * 
 W. C. T. U., who having, as we hinted in the last 
 chapter, a plan of their own for election day, are here 
 met to spend a few brief moments- in prayer before 
 the opening of the polls will leave them free to put 
 it in execution. 
 
 Meanwhile we are not unconscious of a host of 
 grumblers and objectors at our elbow. "I don t 
 hold to such things," remarks very decidedly a gen 
 tleman on our right. "I don t believe in a woman s 
 neglecting her husband and children to go gallivant 
 ing round the country holding temperance conven 
 tions." 
 
 We notice that the gentleman wears the three 
 links of the I. 0. 0. F. conspicuous^ displayed on 
 his watch-chain, and a little bird of the air takes oc 
 casion to whisper in our ear that his invalid wife is 
 left to long evenings of uncheered solitude while her 
 husband is at the lodge, generally detained to a late 
 hour on important business. 
 
 But let us hear Mrs. Orderly. 
 
 "At this hour in the morning these women ought 
 to find enough to do at home. A pretty slight their 
 kitchen must be in!" 
 
 Not so fast, my dear madam. Did you never at 
 the call of pleasure or duty leave your own domestic 
 establishment to run itself for a day, secure in the 
 thought that ever} T necessary preparation had been 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 97 
 
 made and ever} needful direction been given the 
 night before? All this a woman may do to go to a 
 picnic; but reform work, especial!} if it trenches on 
 the forbidden realm of politics oh, that is another 
 thing. 
 
 But these women of the W. C. T. U. are actually- 
 preparing to go to the polls and persistently urge 
 ever} voter, seconding their persuasions by cups of 
 the most excellent tea and coffee, to vote for "no 
 license." And strong in their faith and courage they 
 are willing to even encounter the tide of profanity 
 and tobacco-spitting at the ballot-box, from which the 
 respectable, easy-going male citizen is so apt to 
 shrink back into his comfortable home privacy, 
 feebly crying, "Have me excused." These women 
 are not partisans nor politicians, yet all their labors 
 and prayers and hopes are with the minority that 
 from a feeble beginning have risen to hold the bal 
 ance of power between the two contending factions 
 that are now bidding for the vote of the saloons; 
 and by interviewing local candidates and pressing 
 the claims of prohibition on young or doubtful vot 
 ers they have done work in a quiet way which will 
 tell in the election returns. They mean to have 
 Jacksonville a no-license town, and at the same time 
 they are painfully aware for some of these good 
 women have sons how inadequate is local option to 
 the real needs of the case. 
 
 "For my part I think mothers would do more to 
 stop intemperance by staying at home and training 
 their children," says a voice at our left; and as a 
 
98 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 general chorus of "amens" follows this view of the 
 subject, which is really the most sensible objection 
 that has thus far been made, we will stop to con 
 sider it at length. 
 
 Would it satisfy a mother, who knew that a pan 
 ther was ranging over the country, to procure a work 
 on zoology, and gathering her children about her 
 show them from the pictures how a panther looks? 
 Would she consider it enough to give them a famil 
 iar description of its haunts and habits, and warn 
 them to be careful when they went berrying to keep 
 a sharp lookout for its gleaming eyes, its stealthy 
 tread, its cruel spring? Would she not, rather, if 
 she had a true mother s heart in her bosom, shoulder 
 a good trusty gun if there was no one else to do it 
 and attempt herself the death of the monster? 
 
 "But it seems unwomanly to be mixed up with 
 such dreadful goings on as they so frequently have 
 at the polls," puts in a feminine voice at our right. 
 "Why, it is almost as bad as voting." 
 
 For our part we think it considerably worse, and 
 on this slight basis of agreement let us call for a 
 general truce. 
 
 The president is now addressing a few words to 
 the little assembly no other than the matron with 
 the silver curls, Mrs. Judge Haviland. Every 
 woman present loves and reveres her, not because 
 she bears a distinguished name in society, but be 
 cause she is exactly what she is, so motherly, so 
 Christlike, of so grand a courage, with such far- 
 reaching sympathies that the poorest and most sor- 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 99 
 
 rowful feel uplifted and strengthened though they 
 touch but the hem of her garment. The real mag 
 netism which pours life into faint, discouraged, sin- 
 sick souls must come from actual, personal, daily 
 contact with Him who is the heavenly Magnet for 
 all earth s sorrows. There are human hands whose 
 lightest touch is healing; but they are hands that in 
 the mountain-top or in the valley, in darkness or in 
 light, in storm or sunshine, have never let go of the 
 crucified One. 
 
 "My dear sisters, our enemies sometimes accuse 
 us of seeking notoriety, but every calumny will fall 
 harmless at our feet if we only go forward trusting 
 in the Lord alone. And here do we not make a mis 
 take? We, at least many of us. desire the ballot. 
 We desire it, not for purposes of selfish ambition, 
 but to protect our homes; and so far we are right. 
 Our error, it seems to me, has been in looking to 
 man to give what is really not his to give. Does 
 not our Father hold the nations in the hollow of his 
 hand? Is not he the true author of all national and 
 civil polity? And in his own good time how easily 
 he can cause the gates of brass to fly open with a 
 touch. I think he is now teaching the women of the 
 W. C. T. U. a great lesson to depend more upon 
 him and less on man. We have petitioned legisla 
 tures, political conventions, men in high official posi 
 tions, and though certain Michaels all honor to 
 them have stood up and helped us, we all know the 
 story. We stand to-day without the shadow of hope 
 from either of the two great political parties. Poli- 
 
100 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 ticians have united to ignore us we have no votes 
 to give them. But all our petitioning and memorial 
 izing has not been in vain if their failure but drives 
 us nearer God. Let us cease from man and pray: 
 Grive ear, Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest 
 Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the 
 cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephriam and Benja 
 min and Manasseh,stir up th} T strength and come 
 and save us. " 
 
 And in the deep ground-swell of the old Hebrew 
 psalm we seem to catch the voices of all the martyr 
 generations that have gone before an innumerable, 
 palm-crowned multitude who once were faithful unto 
 death, and now recognize kindred souls in this band 
 of earnestly ed women. It is the cry of finite 
 weakness to infinite strength, which, though feebler 
 than the dying sparrow s, can pierce the veil of the 
 unseen, and above the song of the seraphim, above 
 even the triumphal chants of this redeemed, sound in 
 the ears of One who, as grand old Augustine has 
 said, "is patient because he is eternal." 
 
 But we feel moved to turn aside once more for a 
 brief converse; first, with the politicians. 
 
 Men in high places who stand to-day as the repre 
 sentatives of this free Christian Republic, can you 
 disregard the appeal of such women and be guilt 
 less? not of a great moral wrong simply, but of a 
 great political blunder. Does not the prosperity of 
 a nation centre in its homes? and what of the policy, 
 what of the statesmanship that would license an evil 
 which more than any other is at the bottom of our 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 101 
 
 frequent divorces; which causes most of the cases of 
 brutality and desertion, to say nothing of the domes 
 tic unhappiness that never gets into the papers be 
 cause it never rises to the dignity of tragedy? 
 What sort of political economy can we call it that 
 allows a traffic which takes nine hundred millions 
 from the wealth of the country that it may put a 
 matter of eighty millions or so into the nation s ex 
 chequer? or that completely ignores eTery axiom of 
 political science in proposing to lighten the burdens 
 of State taxation by dividing among them the sur 
 plus revenue from that, which, as the chief fountain 
 of crime, misery and pauperism is likewise the chief 
 source of all the taxation that oppresses honest in 
 dustry? 
 
 But we have a word to say to the voters. Honest- 
 hearted, hard-handed farmers and mechanics, how 
 long will }T>u be led by mere party interest which 
 only means the interest of some party leader who 
 wants your votes to support men and measures 
 with whom and with which your whole moral sense 
 is nt war? Is it wise to do so? Is it patriotic? Is 
 it safe? With all our seeming peace and prosperity, 
 thoughtful, far-seeing souls tremble as they eaten at 
 intervals gleams of subterraneous lightning pla}ing 
 below our social and political horizon, and hear the 
 low, ominous rumblings that warn of a terrible vol 
 canic power beneath our feet that may find voice to 
 morrow in the earthquake shock startling continents. 
 More and more American cities are getting to be the 
 resort of Communists, Nihilists, dynamiters men 
 
102 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 who hate law and every institution based on law; 
 and more and more both our towns and cities are 
 gathering a mass of inflammable material precisely 
 fitted under such leadership to enact on American 
 soil the scenes, of blood and terror that we have 
 grown to regard as the legitimate fruit of old-world 
 serfdoms only. "And what will JQ do in the day of 
 visitation and in the desolation which shall come 
 from far," if jfou vote to license the liquor traffic? 
 or, what is the same thing, cast your ballots for 
 rulers and legislators committed to its interests? 
 Liquor to the passions of a mob is as the torch to 
 the powder magazine, the match to the fuse. What 
 warrant have you for the safety of life, property or 
 home, if, to maddened crowds goaded by real wrongs 
 and inflamed by the harangues of socialist leaders, 
 liquor can be dealt out freely, thus priming them for 
 murder and violence and rapine? Truly, there is a 
 whole eternity in the word longsuffering, yet let us 
 beware that we wea^ not that patience beyond 
 which there is nothing but a certain fearful looking 
 for of judgment and fiery indignation on a guilty 
 people. 
 
 The neat sign up at every polling place, Hot tea 
 and coffee served free," over the letters W. C. T. U., 
 was a surprise which caused the saloon party to 
 gnash their teeth; for their plan had been kept as en 
 tirely to themselves as if bound by any number of 
 oaths ever to conceal and never reveal it" a fact 
 which we commend, by the way, to the attention of 
 those gentlemen in the Masonic order, who, when 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 103 
 
 questioned as to the reason why the lodge so rigor 
 ously excludes all the weaker sex, sauvely reply, "0 
 women can t keep secrets, you know." 
 
 Though Nelson Newhall in his inmost heart dis 
 liked the idea of any feminine meddling with the 
 mysterious machine of politics, he was perfect!} sin 
 cere in what he had said to Martha he was ready 
 to welcome any instrumentality that promised to 
 overthrow the haught} , tyrannous, ever-encroaching 
 saloon power; and when Mrs. Judge Haviland her 
 self handed him a no-license ticket with the re 
 quest that he would vote it, he could not help feel 
 ing that this royal woman, who might have sat for 
 an artist s dream of universal motherhood, did not 
 look so very much out of place after all. 
 
 "Shure, an its a fine cup o tay; and thank ye 
 kindly, ladies;" spoke up a rough-looking Irishman 
 who had just treated himself to a cup of the steam 
 ing beverage, and then he looked a little doubtfully 
 at the ticket placed in his hand. 
 
 Though poor Pat had neither money nor learning, 
 at the ballot-box he counted for as much as if he 
 was a millionaire or had a whole string of college 
 degrees attached to his name, and usually the Demo 
 cratic side had secured his vote by liberal supplies of 
 cheap whisky and equally liberal doses of that 
 peculiar species of political oratory vulgarly denom 
 inated "buncombe." Like too many of his country 
 men, he fell a victim at periodical intervals to the 
 attractions of the saloon; and, as it happened, the 
 one to which he usually resorted was kept by an old- 
 
104 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 
 time Democrat, who had suddenly turned into an 
 
 ardent Republican, under the stimulus of promises 
 to wink at all future violations of law on his part if 
 he would but give his vote and influence towards 
 electing Gen. Putney. So Pat had lately been in the 
 way of hearing talk which had quite revolutionized 
 all his political ideas. He had learned to his aston 
 ishment that it was the Republicans and not the 
 Democrats who had all along been the defenders of 
 the poor man s rights. G-en. Putney, he was told, 
 was a strong "protectionist," and ought for that rea 
 son, if no other, to have the votes of all laboring 
 men; for the Democratic hobby of "free trade," if 
 once allowed, would mean starvation wages for the 
 workman, colossal fortunes to the capitalist, and, 
 most horrible of all, an influx of Chinese to which 
 the Egyptian plague of locusts could not compare 
 for a moment. That neither he nor his instructors 
 could for their lives have given the dictionary mean 
 ing of the terms they used so glibly was but a 
 trifling matter. Pat had come to the polls sure that 
 he comprehended the whole political situation. 
 
 But this poor Irishman, though capable of swal 
 lowing whole any lie that political demagogues chose 
 to tell him, had a heart and a very respectable bit of 
 a conscience. He loved his wife and children, and 
 for their sakes had made more than one manful 
 struggle against the whisky jug, but what availed it 
 when the saloon with its tempting free lunch of salt 
 fish, or some other equally thirst-provoking viand, 
 stood always open, its attractions seconded by the 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 105 
 
 cravings of an ill-nourished physical system, and the 
 utter lack^of any mental resource as a refuge against 
 bodily weariness? And which* is the most to be de 
 spised, poor Pat or the Congressman who sits down 
 to a luxurious dinner with half a dozen courses of 
 wine, and now and then goes off on a grand spree at 
 the nation s expense? In our humble opinion Pat 
 is decidedly more of a man, inasmuch as he always 
 pays his liquor bills himself. 
 
 To this adopted citizen of great and glorious Colum 
 bia did Mrs. Judge Haviland now address herself 
 with all that sweet and persuasive tact which is the 
 gift of woman. 
 
 "We want to have no saloons in Jacksonville this 
 year, and we ask you as a personal favor to vote for 
 no-license. You, and I, and everybody else would 
 be better off if no liquor was allowed to be sold any 
 where. Your vote may go a great ways towards ac 
 complishing what we so much desire." 
 
 Pat had been asked for his vote before, but never 
 so winningly; and he thought how glad it would 
 make Katy, his Katy, who had the brightest eyes 
 and reddest cheeks for miles around when he wooed 
 her in the "ould counthry," if he should never get 
 drunk again. And if nobody was allowed to sell 
 him liquor how could he get drunk? 
 
 Of course if Pat had been a politician he would 
 never have reasoned in this simple fashion. He 
 would have doubted whether laws restricting the lib 
 erty of the individual citizen to eat and drink what 
 he chooses are constitutional. He would have point- 
 
106 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 ed to the difficulty, if not the utter impossibility, of 
 enforcing such laws as a proof that they originated 
 in a narrow and ill-regulated zeal; and he would have 
 capped the climax of his arguments and objections 
 by saying that, so long as taxation was the nation s 
 only source of revenue, the true policy was not to 
 prohibit liquor but to tax it so heavily as to make it 
 the servant and ally of government, even letting it 
 pay the entire school bill of the Union; and thus 
 lifting the whole business to the dignity of a perma 
 nent institution based on national interests. 
 
 But, unfortunately, this poor, unenlightened Hi 
 bernian had never been instructed in those peculiar 
 views of political economy which prevail among so 
 many of our statesmen at Washington; and in his 
 new hope of getting the upper hand of the whisky- 
 jug forever, must we say that he forgot, with all the 
 reprehensible fickleness of his race, every one of his 
 of ^repeated promises to vote only for the Republi 
 can candidate! 
 
 "It s all thrue, what ye say. I d be a sight better 
 off, and Kat} r and the childher, if there warn t a drap 
 o the vile crathur to be had in the wide worruld, let 
 alone Jacksonville. And if Col. Hicks will be 
 afther shutting up the dramshops, Pat Murphy is 
 the man that ll vote for him, and glad to do ye a 
 favor, mum." And Pat went up to the ballot-box to 
 enjoy for the first time since he took out his natural 
 ization papers the full exercise of lik freeman s 
 right; while one of Jacksonville s leading saloonists 
 who did a large business in so-called "temperance 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 107 
 
 drinks," and considered himself in a modest way as 
 decidedly a benefactor to societ} T , expressed rather 
 loudly his opinion that "it was a shame for respect 
 able women to be bull-dozing poor laboring men into 
 voting away their personal liberty. They had as 
 much right to their beer as the} had to their bread." 
 
 Martin Treworthy, waiting with the throng of vot- 
 ers, heard this speech, and was moved by the spirit 
 to reply. 
 
 "If this is the kind of bull-dozing they practice, 
 all I can say is it s a pity we can t have more of it. 
 They ve made the polls for one day a fit place for a 
 decent man. You are dreadful tender of the poor 
 man s right to his beer, but why not turn the tables 
 once in awhile and give us a talk about the rights of 
 his wife and children to their brea d? It would be a 
 kind of refreshing variety, now." 
 
 The vender of "temperance" drinks found too 
 many in the crowd against him to make much reply, 
 and slunk away discomfited; while, heedless of 
 everything but their one object, this brave detach 
 ment of the great white ribbon army, through evil 
 report and good report, kept steadily at their posts, 
 pouring out the steaming cups and handing no- 
 license tickets, till the polls closed with this united 
 testimony from friend and foe that never before had 
 so orderly an election been held in Jacksonville. 
 
 Its results we will leave for our next chapter, 
 while we transport our readers once more to that 
 farm-house among the hills where another letter from 
 Stephen has just arrived, to be read and re-read and 
 
108 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 talked over, and then laid carefully away in a corner 
 of the square mahogany desk, which, according to 
 authentic tradition, formed one of the few earthly 
 possessions of the exiled clergyman previously al 
 luded to as the founder of the Howland line; and 
 which was, therefore, dated less than half a century 
 after the sailing of the Mayflower. 
 
 This family ark, the sacred depository for the 
 family valuables, Mrs. Phoebe Howland now pro 
 ceeded to reverently unlock and open, while her hus 
 band, wearied with his farm work, leaned back com 
 fortably in the feather-cushioned arm-chair and con 
 templated the fire; his thoughts traveling meanwhile 
 over quite a circle of new ideas opened before him 
 by Stephen s letter. Finally he broke out: 
 
 "I don t care what folks say about woman s 
 sphere; it is always right where G-od puts her, and 
 I m glad for one that the women are rousing up to 
 stop this saloon business. I hope God will give em 
 grace to hang on till the whole cursed system falls 
 as flat as the walls of Jericho." 
 
 Now Mrs. Phoebe Howland was the most conserv 
 ative of New England matrons, which is saying a 
 great deal. The only place where she allowed her 
 native gifts to have full scope was the female prayer 
 meeting. There, her wonderfully earnest petitions, 
 her pointed exhortations and eloquent appeals to 
 Christian duty made her a natural leader. But 
 there were times when her heart was thrilled with 
 such a deep longing to give out more freely and fully 
 of what was in her that it was almost pain; yet her 
 
A New Factor in Politics. 109 
 
 soul, naturally tuned to the grand and the heroic, 
 fitted itself to the humblest daily duties without a 
 murmur, and the result was no actual narrowing of 
 her spiritual powers, but rather a condensing, as of 
 some exquisite perfume under the distiller s art, so 
 that whatever she said or did was like a drop from 
 the alabaster box of ointment. Its fragrance filled 
 the house. 
 
 "Women followed Jesus to the cross," she said, 
 coming back to her seat and her knitting (four pairs 
 of lamb s wool socks destined for the absent Stephen). 
 "I think I could follow him to the polls if I felt cer 
 tain that God called me there. But I greatly fear 
 that in this movement there may be many who will 
 not stop to take counsel of the Spirit, but run before 
 they are sent, to the harm and hindrance of the 
 cause. I rejoice at everything that looks like a ful 
 fillment of the prophecy, I will pour out my Spirit 
 upon all flesh; but in this calling of women to pub 
 lic work I can onl}~ rejoice with trembling, for they 
 are human as well as men, and if they don t keep 
 close to the Lord I know how it will be. Pride and 
 ambition and self-seeking will come in and spoil all 
 they are doing." 
 
 And there fell between the two a long silence, 
 broken again by Mr. Josiah Howland whose thoughts 
 though they seemed to be pursuing another track, 
 had really followed logically in the line of Phoebe s 
 last remarks. 
 
 "Mother, there s one thing I ve noticed about 
 Stephen s letters lately. He don t say a word about 
 
110 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 religion, yet I think he gave good evidence before he 
 went from home of having met with a change, and I 
 feel kinder afraid that he s letting his mind get all 
 taken up with other concerns. Temperance work 
 can t be carried on to have it amount to much with 
 out Christ behind us, and I wish when you write to 
 him you d say something that will draw him out a 
 little to speak of his spiritual state. I m glad he s 
 prospering and getting on; tell him that. I don t 
 grudge a dollar I ve spent on his education. But 
 what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
 and lose his own soul? 
 
 To this Puritan couple this problem held in 
 solution every interest of time and eternity; for what 
 were riches, learning, or fame, but as the small dust 
 of the balance weighed against immortal life? 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MARTIN TREWORTHY DISCOURSES ON HUMBUGS. 
 
 Martin Tre worthy s hermitage looked as inviting 
 as a bright light and a good fire could make it. The 
 furniture had all been bought in reference to that 
 marriage which never was to be; and so it happened 
 that man} T tasteful bits of ornament scattered here 
 and there through the homely apartment seemed to 
 shed over it the light of a gracious feminine pres 
 ence, as if the one who was to have been its pride 
 and joy had only left her sewing-chair in the corner 
 for one brief moment. 
 
 On a bracket in one corner stood a vase of dried 
 grasses; her hands had arranged them. In the win 
 dow stood a pot of ivy; she had rooted it from a tiny 
 slip. There was not a niche or corner to which Mar 
 tin Tre worthy s eyes could turn without resting on 
 some momento of her he had loved and lost, and he 
 liked to have it so. 
 
 He was really one of those crystallized poets whose 
 feelings move to rhyme and rhythm while they gen 
 erally talk the most rugged, matter-of-fact prose. 
 He had a dim idea, which he could by no means 
 have explained, that there are vibrations of soul as 
 well as of sound and light, so that even in the inef- 
 
112 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 fable glories of the New Jerusalem the spirit of his 
 beloved might be conscious that he still remembered 
 her with an affection stronger than death. And who 
 shall say that it is not so? What warrant for be 
 lieving that earthly love founded in heavenly hope 
 can perish? The blossom may be nipped, but the 
 root is perrennial and native to Paradise. 
 
 It was a disagreeable evening. A keen, raw wind 
 was blowing the clouds in great dark masses across 
 the sky treasuries of snow and hail that only waited 
 Jehovah s bidding to be unlocked by the angel of 
 the elements and scattered broadcast over the shiver 
 ing earth. Nelson Newhall occupied one corner of 
 the settee that extended its comfortable length be 
 fore the fire which was blazing brightly under Mar 
 tin Tre worthy s vigorous application of the poker. 
 
 "Seems as if the cold weather was setting in un 
 common early," the latter remarked. "If signs 
 mean anything we are going to have a cold winter. 
 I met an old comrade of mine the other day per 
 haps you ve heard of him, Dan Carter he was with 
 me in Kansas, but he s settled down now to the trap 
 ping business; been at it ten years; and he tells me 
 he never saw the fur so thick on the musk-rats as it 
 is this season." 
 
 But Nelson just now was not interested in weather 
 prognostications, and abruptly changed the subject. 
 
 "I want to know how long we ve got to submit to 
 having our rights over-ridden in this fashion. With 
 a fair ballot and a fair count Jacksonville could 
 have been carried triumphantly for no-license. 
 
On Humbugs. 113 
 
 Now we must stand the saloon curse another year. 
 It is perfectly infamous and outrageous to play such 
 a trick on temperance men in the first place, and 
 then deny us the right to a recount." 
 
 Martin Treworthy drummed gently with the pokeo* 
 a moment before speaking. 
 
 "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. I ve 
 known times when it was like pulling eye-teeth to 
 say that; when it seemed as if the devil was reign 
 ing, and every good man ought to hide his head and 
 wear sackcloth and ashes; when I saw husbands and 
 fathers shot down like dogs on the plains of Kansas 
 just for defending their right to a free home on a 
 free soil; when I saw the flag of my country, the 
 blessed old Stars and Stripes, turned against me, and 
 waving over ruffians that were hunting me down for 
 no other crime than because I had tried to be a re 
 fuge for the Lord s outcast ones. Nelson, you hain t 
 got into the deep waters yet. If thou hast run with 
 the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how 
 wilt thou contend with horses? and if in the land of 
 peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, 
 then how wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan? " 
 
 "I can t help it, Mr. Treworthy. Your blood was 
 hot as mine once. Submitting to God s will is one 
 thing, and submitting to injustice and fraud is an 
 other. There has been too much of this last kind. 
 Wiry, if all the men who call themselves Prohibi 
 tionists had only voted according to their convic 
 tions we should have elected our man by a good 
 majority." 
 
114 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "There ain t no reasonable doubt of that," placidly 
 returned Mr. Treworthy. 
 
 "Well, it just makes me mad to hear Christian 
 men talk about the evils of intemperance and pray, 
 Thy kingdom come, and then eat their own words 
 by voting with rumsellers and distillers at the bid 
 ding of a party. It s the inconsistency of the thing 
 Tm looking at." 
 
 "Don t you know," returned Martin Treworthy, 
 leaning forward in his chair and giving the fire an 
 extra poke, "that these good men believe all the 
 while they are voting for temperance. They are 
 humbugged and don t know it. He that letteth will 
 let till he be taken out of the way. There s a lying 
 spirit abroad in the world, in the church, everywhere 
 an organized Satanic power that will either plant 
 itself square in the way of every honest reform, or 
 if it has got too strong to be stopped, checks and 
 hampers it; puts a bridle round its neck and a bit in 
 its mouth, covers it with fine trappings, and then 
 rides on it just where it wants to go. Look at the 
 Glood Templars, started in 1851 when the temper 
 ance reform was thirty or forty years old, and had 
 got too strong a grip on the hearts and consciences 
 of the people to be shook off who were its chief en 
 gineers? High Masons. And what has it done for 
 temperance? Well, I ll tell you. It has humbugged 
 a great many temperance folks into sitting with 
 folded hands and trusting to the lodge to do their 
 work for them; it has humbugged lots of others into 
 joining, and then kept them busy with childish non- 
 
On Humbugs. 115 
 
 sense; it has humbugged thousands of Christian men 
 and women into supporting secrecy as a principle; 
 and in short it has been nothing else but a first-class 
 humbug clear through." 
 
 But what has all this to do with temperance men 
 voting for Gen. Putney?" asked Nelson, rather im 
 patiently. 
 
 "I hain t come to it yet." answered Martin Tre- 
 worthy, serenely, still keeping his hold on the poker. 
 "It s a long story; it s got as many coils and ramifi 
 cations as the old Serpent himself. Now take the 
 Grand Army of the Republic. I believe the rank 
 and file of the members are honest men, but they are 
 humbugged. They are made to believe that all the 
 reason for loyal soldiers banding together in secret 
 like a company of robbers is to cultivate fraternal 
 feelings and assist one another, when the real object 
 is to get offices for the leaders. Take all the secret 
 orders in the land and their name is legion they 
 are nothing but different manifestation* of one lying 
 spirit Freemasonry. Good Templars, or KuKlux, 
 or Nihilists it is all the same. Men that will be 
 humbugged by a secret order will be very easily 
 humbugged at the polls. Men that will bind them 
 selves by an oath, or an obligation I don t care 
 which to obey leaders they never saw or heard of. 
 will be just as easily made slaves to a party, especi 
 ally if that party is itself nose-led by the lodge. 
 There s the whole thing in a nutshell. Gen. Putney 
 has been elected by the votes of old soldiers, prohi 
 bitionists and liquor men; and I can tell you how it 
 
116 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 has been done. In the first place he was nominated 
 over the heads of other and better candidates by 
 Masonic leaders of the G-. A. R. who all had axes to 
 grind of one sort and another. The Gr. A. R. is a 
 grand machine for getting fraudulent pensions, and 
 there s lots of bounty jumpers who ought to bless 
 the G-eneral for his work in that line when he was 
 Representative. But does anybody who knows Joe 
 Putney and has got as much common sense as you 
 can put on the point of a cambric needle, think for a 
 minute that he cares for the soldiers any more than 
 just to catch their votes. Then the next thing was 
 to dupe the Prohibitionists with lies and fair speech 
 es; and how was that done? "Why, by means of 
 Masonic influence controlling the secret temperance 
 orders just as it controls the G. A. R.; magnifying 
 the Republican party, belittling the prohibition 
 movement, ridiculing the prohibition leaders, and 
 lauding Gen. Putney for a temperance man, when it 
 is a fact that brewers and distillers all over the State 
 have poured out money like water to secure his elec 
 tion. Maybe you don t know it, but every saloonist 
 in Jacksonville is a Republican, because the party 
 managers have given him to understand that that s 
 the side his bread is buttered. Support our ticket 
 and we won t interfere with your business. That s 
 the word; and when every bar-keeper is a Mason, or 
 an Odd-fellow, or a Knight of Pythias, or all three, 
 they know pretty well they don t run much risks 
 promising. So the lowest groggery becomes a trap 
 to catch the votes of the drinking class, and we are 
 
On Humbugs. 117 
 
 treated to a spectacle that is enough to make the devil 
 laugh in his sleeve, bar-keepers and temperance men. 
 church members and drunkards, ministers and row 
 dies, all voting together for the same man!" 
 
 "I must say you are making out the political situ 
 ation to be in even a worse muddle than I thought," 
 observed Nelson, with a shrug of his shoulders. 
 "But if I have been told once I have fifty times that 
 the Gr. A. R. was not in the least a political organiza 
 tion." 
 
 "Tell that to the marines. No; to somebody a 
 great deal greener than the marines, a jack Mason; 
 but don t you go to riling me up by talking as 
 though you believed any of that stuff, Nelson New- 
 hall, or I vow, I don t know but I shall be tempted 
 to show you the door." 
 
 Nelson laughed quietly, as a threatening flourish 
 of the poker, which had been buried long enough in 
 the coals to show a red-hot tip, gave emphasis to the 
 words. 
 
 "Their hand has been plain enough in this elec 
 tion, I ll confess. It s an idea I don t like. I am 
 not down on secret orders hammer and tongs like 
 you, but I hold to their keeping their fingers out of 
 the political pie and not making a worse hocus pocus 
 of it than it is." 
 
 "Might as well say that a cat ought to go against 
 its nature, and not catch birds and mice," retorted 
 Martin. "It is the nature of the lodge to want 
 power, and the way to power is through politics. 
 The saloon party has played us a trick" 
 
118 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Which they won t do another time," growled Nel 
 son, who felt that his indignation was most right 
 eous; for through a purposely ambiguous wording 
 of the ballots it was found that many Prohibitionists 
 had voted Yes, on the question of license, believing 
 all the while that they were voting No a fraud 
 which doomed Jacksonville to another year of rum- 
 rule, the just demand for a recount having been re 
 fused. 
 
 "Not the same trick, but maybe another just as 
 bad. When the lodge and the saloon strike hands 
 what can honest men expect? Years ago the Lord 
 opened my eyes to see that lodgery, and slavery, and 
 rum, and every other evil that is opposing the reign 
 of Christ, were so many links in the devil s chain; 
 and, Nelson Newhall, the day is coming when your 
 eyes will be opened, too." 
 
 Martin Treworthy spoke with a strange solemnity 
 which impressed Nelson too much to ask him what 
 he meant; and in the silence which followed he be 
 gan to think feeling almost angry with himself 
 meanwhile that the recollection should occur to him 
 at just that moment, for what could it possibly have 
 to do with Martin Treworthy s prediction? how the 
 day before h,had been visited at his lodgings by a 
 stranger who represented himself as an agent of the 
 Union, empowered to look into matters connected 
 with the works where Nelson was employed. In his 
 immaculate broadcloth and spotless beaver, with his 
 massive gold watch and chain, and his fat, white 
 hands bedecked with rings, this champion of the 
 
On Humbugs. 119 
 
 laborer s rights seemed so evidently to belong to 
 that class of humanity which like the lilies of the 
 field "toil not, neither do they spin," that Nelson did 
 not feel inspired with any particular confidence; but 
 he answered his inquiries frankly. There had been 
 a recent cut-down in the wages which he considered 
 unjust and unreasonable, and this had caused some 
 dissatisfaction among the workmen. But when 
 asked "if there was any talk of a strike," he had 
 bluntly answered "that with the winter just on them 
 and promising to be a hard one, he shouldn t sup 
 pose anybody but a fool would talk of such a thing. 
 The capitalist could barricade himself behind his 
 dollars, and then when the strike was over start up 
 again with perhaps an improved market, while ten 
 to one the men would go back to work at the old 
 prices." This vigorous speech was met by the agent 
 with the smooth reply that it was the settled policy 
 of the Union to avoid strikes if practicable, and in 
 deed it was in accordance with this policy that he 
 had been sent out to make these inquiries. But the 
 assurance for some reason did not allay Nelson s 
 feeling of distrust; and still further was it increased 
 when he picked up and began to read a paper left 
 behind him, either accidentally or purposely by this 
 white-handed and be-ringed representative of labor. 
 It was a Socialistic sheet filled with accounts of 
 many real wrongs and abuses and some fancied 
 ones; but with the same false, dangerous, unrepubli- 
 can remedies for all. He read it awhile, then threw 
 it into the fire with an impatient "pshaw!" for Nel- 
 
 
120 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 son Newhall, as a typical American* workman, de 
 sired most devoutly the elevation of his own class, 
 but with ideas rather than dynamite. 
 
 There was reason why Martin Treworthy s words, 
 though not remarkable .in themselves, should im 
 press him like a solemn prophecy of things already 
 close at hand. Side by side with his rough, practi 
 cal common sense ran a vein of that spiritual fire 
 that burns in the souls of prophets and seers; his 
 rough border experience, filled with episodes of un 
 written heroism, had fanned the divine flame. Alto 
 gether Martin Treworthy was a unique character who 
 never could have been developed on other than 
 Western soil, with a dash of the Yankee, the Puritan 
 and the backwoodsman, all combined. His news 
 paper had educated him as it has many an American 
 citizen with few early advantages, so that he could 
 talk in a pungent, practical style with no very seri 
 ous grammatical lapses; while his daily study of the 
 Bible had given him a kind of Hebraistic turn of 
 thought and feeling. Nelson had heard of his 
 strange foretelling of our great civil struggle, and 
 for an instant he felt vaguely thrilled and startled 
 that involuntary shiver that passes over the spirit 
 when touched by the breath of the supernatural. 
 
 "Well," he said, rising with a sigh from his seat 
 before the fire; "this seems home-like, but 1 must go. 
 Tom don t seem to be quite so well to-day. 1 wish 
 I could get hold of something that would cure his 
 cough." 
 
 "Oh, you must keep up heart. Cut and try, cut 
 
On Humbugs. 121 
 
 and try; that s the way. Now there s Balm of G-ilead 
 buds, with a little ipecac and balsam of fir; I ve 
 known that to cure a man given over in consump 
 tion. I ve got some of the buds; always calculate to 
 keep them on hand for sprains and bruises." And 
 Martin Treworthy began to rummage among his 
 rather heretogenous stores on the shelf where he 
 kept his "tin box" with a brisk cheerfulness which 
 might have wakened a heart of hope in the very 
 bosom of despair. 
 
 But we must not forget Stephen Howland, who 
 still continued to live with a Spartan economy, satis 
 fied with the thought that he was laying the basis 
 for a legal reputation which would not dishonor the 
 Howland ancestry. Stephen felt not a little honest 
 pride in the good old Puritan stock from which he 
 sprang, and in fighting the liquor oligarchy was he 
 not doing just what they did two or three hundred 
 years ago, only in a different shape and fashion? 
 
 He was also fast becoming a good Odd-fellow, ac 
 cording to Mr. Bassett s idea of the term that is to 
 say, he attended the lodge regularly and was slowly 
 beginning to see some of its peculiar advantages. 
 He had passed all the degrees of Friendship, Bro 
 therly Love and Truth. He had acted over the story 
 of David and Jonathan and the parable of the Grood 
 Samaritan with a promiscuous company of church 
 members, ministers, deists, and we must add, pro 
 fane swearers and libertines. And in all this steal 
 ing from Holy Scripture never a mention of that 
 Name above every name which is the central pivot 
 
122 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 on which all divine truth turns ! He had been shown 
 various instructive symbols, such as the All-Seeing 
 Eye, a skull and crossed bones, a coffin, a Bible, and 
 a serpent lifted on a pole, but neyer a hint of dod s 
 wonderful plan of redemption; for even the latter 
 symbol was explained to him as bearing merely the 
 pagan signification of Wisdom, and not as typifying 
 that atoning sacrifice for human guilt once uplifted 
 on Calvary. 
 
 To be sure, Stephen was familiar enough with 
 Bible truth. Like young Timothy he had known the 
 holy Scriptures from a child; but the lessons that he 
 learned at the lodge were softly, slowly letting down 
 a veil over his spiritual sight through which the doc 
 trines taught him at his mother s knee, of repent 
 ance, of a new birth and faith in a risen Redeemer, 
 appeared as dim and indistinct as the images and 
 sounds about him to one half-locked in slumber. 
 He never thought of Odd-fellowship as a form of 
 salvation or even a form of religion, and had he been 
 questioned would have emphatically denied it was 
 either. He would have scouted the idea that these 
 nightly meetings with their Christless prayers, their 
 equally Christless morality, and ceremonies borrowed 
 from pagan sources, had stolen from him his early 
 faith. And why? Simply because the lodge knows 
 that to keep its victims unconscious of the robbery 
 it must substitute in the place of those truths sham 
 semblances to counterfeit them, as a wax figure coun 
 terfeits the living, breathing human form. He read 
 in the Odd-fellow s manual, kindly lent him by Mr. 
 
On Humbugs. 123 
 
 Bassett, that "his initiation into the order was the 
 same thing as regeneration b} the Word;" that "it 
 was a leading characteristic of all the ancient rites 
 from which Odd-fellowship was copied that they be 
 gan in sorrow and gloom and ended in light and 
 joy," just as in the Christian religion the soul passes 
 to the joys of salvation through the narrow gate of 
 conviction and repentance. He read, furthermore, 
 that "the order was a miniature representation 
 among a chosen few of that fraternity which God 
 has instituted among men" in other words, of the 
 Christian church, the holy nation, the royal priest 
 hood, the peculiar people; that Love (not the love of 
 Christ which constrains us to act justly and merci- 
 fulh* by all men, but that kind which excludes from 
 its bowels of compassion more than four-fifths of the 
 human race) "was the hidden name in the white 
 stone;" and, to crown all, that he had only to be a 
 good Odd-fellow, practicing all its three cardinal vir 
 tues "to have the bow of hope span his last resting- 
 place," and "find the mysteries of heaven unveiled 
 to his admiring vision." 
 
 One who has taken a deadly dose of laudanum may 
 seem to be only in a sound, natural slumber, while 
 ever} moment is locking him faster in the sleep that 
 knows no waking. This was the" trouble with 
 Stephen. That old-fashioned couple in their hill 
 country home who held to the old theological land 
 marks with a pertinacity quite in keeping with the 
 rocky, stubborn soil from which they drew their live 
 lihood; who believed in the inspiration of the Bible 
 
124 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 from Genesis to Revelation; who held that the deep 
 est conviction of sin could not fathom the awf ulness 
 of that guilt which cost the Son of G-od his life; who 
 looked upon time as the only preparation for etern 
 ity, and on all departed souls gone into the invisible 
 as beyond the power of any prayer or ceremonial 
 rite whatever to alter their final state, could not un 
 derstand, what Stephen had never told them, that he 
 had been spiritually chloroformed by the false wor 
 ship of the lodge, which fascinated him with its 
 dreamy, shadowy semblance of the true religion, as 
 the mirage with its vision of palm-fringed lakes fas 
 cinates the desert traveller. 
 
 Not that he was wholly satisfied, for it sometimes 
 crossed his mind that he did not fancy standing in 
 fraternal relations to men of such free and easy 
 morals, as Yan Gilder, for instance; and he even had 
 strong suspicions that many of the members secretly 
 adjourned after lodge meeting was over to some of 
 those very bar-rooms upon which he, as attorney for 
 the Law and Order League, had been waging such 
 vigorous warfare. Indeed, he once hinted as much 
 to Mr. Basset, who answered him with a reassuring 
 Scriptural quotation. 
 
 " Wheat and tares, wheat and tares. They ve got 
 to grow together in the lodge as well as in the 
 church. As to Yan Gilder, I don t stand up for the 
 man; you know I don t; but still he s no worse than 
 a good many others, and if we went to expelling all 
 the unworthy members I don t know where we 
 should stop. We all have sins and shortcomings 
 
On Humbugs. 125 
 
 enough to lead us to deal charitably with weak and 
 erring brethren." 
 
 Stephen felt rebuked, as if Mr. Basset had deli 
 cately accused him of Pharisaism, not reflecting that 
 such a man as Van Gilder might easily be in posses 
 sion of too many secrets (which was in fact the case) 
 affecting the reputation of seemingly respectable 
 members of the fraternity to be safely expelled. 
 And as to the vexatious and needless drawbacks 
 which he had met with in prosecuting liquor sellers 
 it is true that Stephen himself had solemnly prom 
 ised "to warn a brother of any approaching danger, 
 whether from his own imprudence or the evil designs 
 of others;" but he would have repelled with scorn 
 and indignation the idea that this could ever mean 
 shielding a criminal from the consequences of his 
 crime, and he was far too honest and fair-minded to 
 impute any such understanding of it to others. 
 
 From all this the reader will see that Stephen 
 Howland was very thoroughly humbugged, and 
 would have afforded a fine illustration for Mr. Tre- 
 worthy with which to point his arguments and facts 
 when discoursing to Nelson. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A NEW KIND OF MACHINE. 
 
 Chronologically speaking, this chapter is out of 
 place, for it belongs to an early epoch in our story, 
 when Stephen Rowland was patiently waiting for 
 slow-footed Fortune in the shape of his first client, 
 Nelson Newhall. 
 
 Fairfield is one of the pleasantest of prairie vil 
 lages, and the finest farm therein is owned by Israel 
 Deming, himself as fine a specimen of the well-to-do 
 Western farmer as one often meets. At the present 
 moment he sits on his shaded back porch discussing 
 the news and the crops with Uncle Zeb, and at the 
 same time enjoying the cool breeze that has sprung 
 up after a day of unusual sultriness. Uncle Zeb is 
 a lean, dried-up little man who might have sat for a 
 picture of Timon after the goddess turned him into 
 a grasshopper, so much did his long, thin legs, and 
 a certain lively quirk in his. voice, to say nothing of 
 a happy faculty of living without work or worry, re 
 mind one of that musical insect. 
 
 "They say corn is going to yield more to the acre 
 than it did last year, Mr. Deming," remarked Uncle 
 Zeb, briskly. "Them frosts we had along back 
 didn t do no great damage arter all. I see your 
 wheat is coming out heavier than the average. 
 
A New Kind of Machine. 127 
 
 Some folks think it is all luck, but I believe what 
 Solomon says, The hand of the diligent maketh 
 rich. And I tell em if they ll only pattern after 
 Israel Deming, always up and at it, early or late, 
 rain or shine, they ll have as good luck as he." 
 
 "Anyhow I don t get much more than my living," 
 replied the person thus complimented; "and no 
 farmer can with these high freights and middle men 
 taking all the profits. These confounded corpora 
 tions lobby round, and wheedle and bribe Congress 
 into voting away the people s land and mone} r to 
 make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Farmers 
 ought to combine like other working men to protect 
 their own interests, /say." 
 
 Now the wrongs of the farmers was a theme on 
 which Mr. Deming always waxed into a fiery indig 
 nation, and if some of his strong speeches on this 
 subject could have been uttered in the ears of the 
 Senatorial "dough-heads" (his mildest term of con 
 tempt for law-makers who truckle to class interests) 
 it might have made their ears tingle, but would cer 
 tainly have done them no harm. 
 
 "They says there s going to be a farmer s grange 
 started in Fairfield afore long," responded Uncle 
 Zeb. 
 
 Mr. Deming broke off a head of orchard grass that 
 peeped through the lattice, and chewed one end of it 
 reflectively. 
 
 "To tell the truth I ain t certain about these 
 granges. No offence to you, Uncle Zeb, but I want 
 nothing to do with anything that is patterned after 
 
128 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Masonry, and 1 have alwaj s been suspicious that the 
 grange was a kind of Masonic institution. But then 
 I don t know anything about it." 
 
 "I ain t one to give offence, Mr. Deming least 
 ways not when I know it and I never take what I 
 ain t ready to give," was Uncle Zeb s reassuring re 
 ply. "I m a Mason, but not one of your thin- 
 skinned kind. There s bad and there s good in 
 Masonry, and I see no sense in acting as though the 
 thing was a powder mill, and if anybody said a word 
 it would blow up. But I ll tell ye how I look on 
 this ere matter of the grange. It s jest a new kind 
 of machine. Farmers must test it and take their 
 chances. It may break down arter usin of it awhile 
 and cost more for repairs than its wuth. And it 
 may be hard to get the hang on t. Some machines 
 are awkward things if a green hand tries to run em 
 without knowing how; get caught in em and they ll 
 pound a man to jelly or cut him up into inch pieces. 
 And then agin, " 
 
 How far Uncle Zeb s lively imagination would 
 have carried him in picturing all the possibilities of 
 "the machine" must forever remain among the 
 things untold, for he was interrupted at this junc 
 ture by a pretty, girlish figure suddenly framed in 
 the doorway, while a voice, saucy and sweet as a 
 bobolink s, cried out, 
 
 "Now, Uncle Zeb, what do you mean, saying such 
 awful things? Father will be more prejudiced 
 against the grange than ever, and I was hoping they 
 would start one in Fairfield right away." 
 
A New Kind of Machine. 129 
 
 "I only called it a machine," said Uncle Zeb, 
 composedly. "I had to make some sort of a com 
 parison, and they use machines for everything un 
 der the sun, nowadays, so that seemed to come 
 handiest. I never said whether it was bad or 
 good." 
 
 The nymph in the doorway tossed her bright head. 
 She and Uncle Zeb were used to bandying words 
 with each other, and both enjoj ed the exercise. 
 
 "Well, /think it is good. I don t like Masonry, 
 but I like these societies that women and girls can 
 join as well as men and have a nice time. And they 
 do have splendid times in the grange. Mrs. Thomp 
 son told me all about it." 
 
 "Marthy Washington!" ejaculated Uncle Zeb, who 
 had an odd habit of using the name of that distin 
 guished lady when he felt the need of a mild ex 
 pletive. "They say women never can keep secrets, 
 and now I shall believe it sure enough." 
 
 "Oh, nonsense, Uncle Zeb. You know I didn t 
 mean that Mrs. Thompson told me an}~thing she 
 hadn t a right to. She says the grange is really 
 nothing but a farmer s club, only the secrecy makes 
 more fun. You will join, won t you, father?" 
 
 "I don t know, Dora. I shall have to think it 
 over first. Of course its natural for young folks to 
 like a frolic, but a society that s all play ain t going 
 to benefit the farmers much." 
 
 "I don t fancy the idea anyhow," put in Mrs. 
 Deming, very decidedly, from her seat by the open 
 window. "I remember how it was with the Good 
 
130 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Templars. When a lodge was started here I let 
 Dora join because I thought it a good thing for 
 young people to get interested in temperance work. 
 But the way they carried on! The last time Dora 
 went they had a dance, and she didn t get home till 
 after midnight. I never let her go again, and so 
 many of the other parents in Fairfield thought as I 
 did that the lodge died down in less than a year 
 without reforming a single drunkard, so far as I 
 could find out." 
 
 "I can see into that easy enough," said Uncle Zeb. 
 "I ve known plenty of drinking men that jined the 
 Good Templars, and thought they d reformed as 
 much as could be, but when they had gone through 
 it all there wa n t anything more behind to hold em; 
 and so they d go back to their cups, and their latter 
 end would be wussthan their beginning, as Scripter 
 
 "That just goes to prove what I ve said all along. 
 If you want to reform a drunkard better try and 
 hitch him on where there is a power strong enough 
 to hold him up. I never knew a reformed man to 
 join the church and give good evidence of conversion 
 and then go back on his pledge. It is in reform as 
 it is in everything else. If we want to accomplish 
 anything worth speaking of we must buckle down to 
 real, right-down, honest work; turning work into 
 play won t answer." 
 
 "That s so," assented Uncle Zeb, with an energy 
 of speech not at all abated by the fact that he cher 
 ished a mortal hatred to work of all kinds. 
 
A New Kind of Machine. 131 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Deming, "I m a good deal of my 
 wife s way of thinking about the Good Templars. 
 But the grange don t pretend to have an} moral aim, 
 1 take it; and just as a mutual benefit and improve 
 ment society for the farmers, I don t see as there 
 would be any harm in starting one and seeing how 
 the thing worked." 
 
 "And just remember, Mr. Deming, that when a 
 man invests his money in a machine that don t work 
 he s so much out of pocket." 
 
 Which was touching her husband on a weak point 
 a smooth-tongued agent having once beguiled him 
 into doing that very thing, buying a new kind of 
 patent reaper which proved worthless when it came 
 to the test. 
 
 Uncle Zeb gave a mild chuckle of inward amuse 
 ment. "I guess you re about in the right on t, Mrs. 
 Deming. Well, I must be a going. Looks as though 
 we might have a dry spell. I see the moon turns up 
 considerable." 
 
 And Uncle Zeb shambled off to finish his evening 
 round of gossip somewhere else, while Mrs. Deming 
 called to Dora to come in and pick over a pan of 
 beans for the next day s dinner. 
 
 Dora obeyed, thinking meanwhile just such 
 thoughts as come naturally into a young and foolish 
 girl s head. She was prett} and she knew it. She 
 was fond of admiration and a good time, and all the 
 reason why she wanted to see a grange started in 
 Fairfield was because its meetings promised to sup 
 ply her with both those desirable things. 
 
132 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Mrs. Deming s rule over Dora (who, as the reader 
 has probably guessed, is no other than Nelson New- 
 hall s sister) had been vigorous enough; but it was 
 the vigor of real, maternal affection to which we can 
 forgive an occasional hardness supposed to be for the 
 good of the subject. Dora was Mr. Deming s pet; 
 he never crossed her in anything, and she would cer 
 tainly have been in a fair way to be spoiled if her 
 adopted mother s sound common sense had not come 
 to the front. 
 
 Under this combination of influences Dora Deming 
 had grown up a bright, merry, thoughtless creature^ 
 loving her foster parents dearly, popular among the 
 young people of her own age, with a general desire 
 to do right; and sometimes, under an especially mov 
 ing sermon, or when there was a period of religious 
 awakening, feeling a vague longing after something 
 higher and nobler than her life had yet developed. 
 In short, her s was a nature of that very common 
 and mortal type from which most of the happy 
 wives and mothers about us are made. But as she 
 stands in the Paradise of her maiden innocence we 
 have grave fears for Dora unbalanced, undisci 
 plined, ignorant of her own heart, when the serpent 
 whose trail is over every earthly Eden whispers in 
 her ear his subtle temptation, will she be wiser, 
 stronger to withstand him than was the first Eve? 
 God grant it. 
 
 Mrs. Israel Deming has spoken for herself. She 
 was a good woman, active and stirring, who placed 
 laziness in the same category with dirt and flies as 
 
A New Kind of Machine. 133 
 
 a thing to be held in. utter abomination; but at the 
 same time she tolerated Uncle Zeb with a good- 
 natured, half -contemptuous tolerance much as she 
 would a monkey or a parrot. The fact is. everybody 
 has a tender side for the village gossip or the village 
 joker, and Uncle Zeb, in a small way, practiced both 
 vocations. 
 
 Mr. Israel Deming was, like his wife, a staunch 
 church member, a law-abiding, law-upholding Amer 
 ican citizen, who wanted to see everything of a ras 
 cally nature put down so effectually that it would 
 stay put down, whether it was polygamy in Utah or 
 a whisky ring at Washington. He was also an Anti- 
 mason, though not very thoroughly instructed. He 
 had a plain, honest man s dislike to fuss and feath 
 ers as savoring of monarch! al rather than republican 
 institutions. But the idea of the grange fell in with 
 his weak side. He was told that it was a society in 
 tended to unite American farmers in one grand com- 
 bination against the gigantic monopolies that were 
 driving them to the wall. 
 
 Now there were some things Mr. Deming under 
 stood as well as the average Congressman. He knew 
 that our patent laws, which could be so grossly pros 
 tituted as to tax, in the interests of great mone}*ed 
 corporations, ever\ T thing used in working his farm 
 down to the very material with which he built his 
 fences, needed a thorough overhauling. He knew 
 that gamblers in grain were allowed to depress or 
 inflate the markets at their own will to the injury of 
 consumers and producers alike; and railroad mag- 
 
134 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 nates to filch their heavy dividends on watered stock 
 direct from the pockets of the long-suffering farm 
 ers; while Congress, which had not passed a single 
 bill of any importance in aid of the agricultural class 
 since the Homestead Act, was squandering millions 
 in land grants to corporations of its own creating, 
 and closing up vast sections of the public domains 
 to the poor and honest settler. Naturally enough, 
 he thought, it was time that government should be 
 made to see that it was killing the goose which laid 
 the golden egg. But what spirit of madness and 
 folly could lead honest, intelligent Israel Deming, 
 and thousands of others like him, to imagine that 
 monopoly could overthrow monopoly, that ring rule 
 could banish ring rule, and the devil of organized 
 selfishness cast out the devil of political bribery and 
 corruption? 
 
 Mr. Deming disliked secrecy, and all dark-lantern 
 ways in general, but to such infinitesimal doses as 
 the grange offered him, coupled as it was with a 
 vague promise of unknown good, he felt no great 
 objection. And in spite of Uncle Zeb s oracular 
 warnings and his wife s plainly-expressed antipathy 
 to the whole thing, Mr. Deming concluded to try 
 "the machine," with a result which we will leave for 
 future chapters. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 IX WHICH THE QUESTION IS MET FACE TO FACE. 
 
 Nelson went to his work day after day with a 
 strange new sense of uneasiness. There was an 
 ominous electricity in the air the presence of un 
 known forces which he could not guage or analyze 
 an} more than he could that mysterious power that 
 can change the face of the solid land and fling up 
 mountain peaks in mid ocean. A strike in the dead 
 of winter, with all its entailed idleness and pinching 
 want, was a folly that he found nearly as difficult to 
 understand as voluntary suicide. Nor did he be 
 lieve that the men themselves, if left to the dictates 
 of their own common sense, would adopt a remedy 
 so much worse than the disease; but he strongly sus 
 pected what reall} proved to be the case, that the 
 same Union agent whose advances he had so bluntly 
 repelled was secretly and with no inconsiderable suc 
 cess laboring to foment discontent among the other 
 hands. Some hundreds were employed in the works, 
 foreigners and native born, as miscellaneous in their 
 political and religious creed as in their nationality, 
 but nearly all bound together by the tie of the secret 
 Trades Union. 
 
 "The fellow is a disguised socialist," he said to 
 Martha; "and I believe he is doing a great deal of 
 
136 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 mischief in his smooth, quiet kind of way. The ma 
 jority of the men are too ignorant or too unthinking 
 to see that any attempt to injure capital is simply 
 cutting their own fingers. They know they are un 
 justly treated, and the impulse is to strike in a 
 blind, blundering fashion at what they think is hurt 
 ing them. They don t stop to consider that three or 
 four months of enforced idleness, during which he 
 will receive no wages at all, is an injury far more 
 real to the working man than to be docked of a por 
 tion, however unfairly. But I ve talked till I begin 
 to think the wisest way is to keep silence. I believe 
 already some of the men and they are honest fel 
 lows whose good opinion I value are beginning to 
 look upon me as taking sides with their employers, 
 and acting the part of a traitor to my own class." 
 
 "And if the order comes to strike?" queried 
 Martha. 
 
 "I shall obey it, of course. To do anything else 
 would be like trying to stem the tide of Niagara. 
 If it was merely the local Union one had to with 
 stand, resistance would be possible; but behind 
 every subordinate Union stands the National Union, 
 and simply to attempt resistance would be to be 
 ground between the upper and the nether millstones. 
 You know I don t mean to go back on what I have 
 always said," added Nelson, struck by a sudden 
 sense of incongruity which he felt that the keen 
 witted Martha would be sure to note. "Some people 
 call this depotism; I don t. I grant that the Nation 
 al Union wields a tremendous power, but it is only 
 
TJie Question Met. 137 
 
 what the workingman needs to counterbalance the 
 money power of the capitalist. I grant, too, that 
 like other kinds of power it is liable to abuse and 
 incidental disadvantages. A locomotive is an ex 
 cellent thing, but it sometimes runs off the track. 
 So is a steamboat, but it sometimes bursts its boil 
 ers; and then we have an investigation, and a ver 
 dict of criminal carelessness, or ignorance, or incom 
 petence, on the part of somebody or other; but no 
 one suggests that we had better go back to stages 
 and sailboats." 
 
 Martha knew better than to hint that all this elab 
 orate and uncalled-for display of argument was a 
 confession of weakness; an attempt to convince him 
 self rather than her; and Nelson continued after a 
 moment s silence: 
 
 "Of course I have my private reasons for not de 
 siring a strike just now. My board will be paid by 
 the Union, and something additional for Tom s sup 
 port, but in his present state he has to have a good 
 many things in the way of food and medicine that 
 would not be taken into the account. If the strike 
 is long continued I shall have to fall back on the 
 money I have laid up. The result will be a longer 
 deferring of our marriage and the spoiling of a good 
 man\ of my plans. Still I don t want to look at the 
 matter selfishly, as if my own interest was the only 
 thing to be considered. If Jacksonville could have 
 been carried for no-license last fall, I shouldn t mind 
 the strike half so much. The new mayor ma} talk 
 temperance as much as he pleases; I don t trust him. 
 
138 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 He was elected by liquor votes, and when a pinch 
 comes he won t dare offend the party to whom he 
 owes his office. So this is the way the few govern 
 the many. I was foolish enough once to suppose 
 that the majority ruled, but I m beginning to change 
 my mind." 
 
 It will be observed that in thus declaiming against 
 the liquor olig*arch} r , while he patiently submitted to 
 the ordering of a few irresponsible lodge leaders, 
 Nelson was straining at a gnat and swallowing a 
 camel in the sweetly unconscious fashion of our in 
 consistent humanity generally. 
 
 "I know I was terribly disappointed with the re 
 sults of the last election," said Martha, thoughtfully; 
 "and I don t think I felt quite right about it till Mrs. 
 Haviland talked to us so beautifully at our last 
 W. C. T. U. meeting. She gave us a Bible reading 
 from the eighty-first psalm, dwelling especially on 
 the seventh verse: I answered thee in the secret 
 place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of 
 Meribah. She said some among us could look back 
 to the days of the Crusades when we were small and 
 weak, with no weapon but prayer, and remember 
 how gloriously God answered us in his secret place 
 of thunder. Now we are an army with banners 
 marching in to possess the land. If he allowed the 
 wicked a momentary triumph it was only to prove 
 us as he proved Israel at the waters of Meribah. 
 We must put down every feeling of discouragement 
 and rest patientl} in the promises; and when we had 
 thus prepared the way for him in our hearts we 
 
The Question. Met. 139 
 
 should see his salvation. Nelson, I held my breath 
 while she was speaking. I am not a perfectionist. 
 I don t believe the best of us live without sinning, 
 yet I could never see a single human weakness in 
 that woman. I remember reading somewhere that 
 refiners of silver consider the process finished when 
 the metal perfectly reflects the face of the person 
 who bends over the crucible. I always think of that 
 when I see Mrs. Haviland and remember what she 
 has gone through. I never look at her nor hear her 
 speak without gaining a more vivid and personal 
 conception of Christ himself, as a real, living, ever- 
 present Saviour." 
 
 Nelson did not answer for a moment, and then he 
 said with a sigh. "I suppose I ought to have a 
 stronger faith, Martha; but I believe women are al 
 ways more gifted in that line than men." 
 
 "Well, you see it gave me a kind of new revelation. 
 I went away from the meeting perfectly satisfied. I 
 hate this dreadful business as much as ever, and my 
 heart is just as sore over the misery it causes; but I 
 know God hates it worse than I can and pities its 
 victims infinitel}* more. And I feel so sure the day 
 is hastening when he will answer the prayers of the 
 souls crying under the altar that I am willing to sec 
 the politicians play their little game a while longer. 
 I am even willing to see the beauties of high license 
 illustrated in Jacksonville the coming year." 
 
 "High fiddlesticks," said Nelson. "I believe it is 
 worse in one sense than the free, unlicensed sale, 
 for it is a greater swindle and delusion. A few of 
 
140 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the smaller fry among the saloon-keepers will have 
 to go under, but that will only make better standing 
 room for the others. This compromising with evil, 
 I hate. I want the lines sharply drawn. If there 
 are but a handful on the right side and Gk>d with us, 
 I don t care. Let it be war with the liquor traffic, 
 and war to the knife; but for heaven s sake none of 
 these disgraceful, halting compromises that only 
 make the evil worse." 
 
 "Precisely my sentiments, Mr. Newhall; but how 
 is Tom to-day?" 
 
 "I think he is improving. He s certainly stronger 
 and don t cough near so much. I have been careful 
 not to give him liquor in his medicines in even the 
 smallest quantity, and since his sickness he has 
 seemed to show no desire for it. All will be well if 
 his appetite for drink can be kept dormant. But, O 
 Martha, just think for a moment what this dreadful 
 traffic in human misery has done for me and mine! 
 How it has orphaned us, crushed the mind of my 
 only brother, and made me a stranger to my own 
 sister! And yet Government sanctions it, coolly 
 puts the wages of blood into its treasury. What do 
 they care, these Congressmen, only to keep their 
 places and draw their salaries." 
 
 Nelson spoke bitterly; but, reader, put yourself in 
 the place of this young workman as he looked back 
 over his shadowed childhood and sorrowful youth, 
 and remembered that the very government under 
 which he was born had made itself a party to his 
 wrongs. 
 
The Question Met. 141 
 
 "Nelson," said Martha, taking up her pocket 
 Bible, "let me read you something that has com 
 forted me a great man}- times when everything 
 looked all wrong and mixed up. -Fret not thyself 
 because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious 
 against the workers of iniquity. For they soon shall 
 be cut down like the grass and wither as the green 
 herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou 
 dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. " 
 
 Nelson s brow cleared. It seemed so like his 
 mother s own voice that he felt a strange calm en 
 wrap his soul as she read. The eternal rock of 
 God s righteousness stood firm; and what was 
 human wrong and injustice but passing waves that 
 dashed against its immovable base to be swept into 
 the tide of the yesterdays, and leave not a trace be 
 hind on his grand to-morrow, when there shall be a 
 new heavens and a new earth; but no more sea, no 
 angry whirlpool of opposing moral issues, but for 
 every great and burning question that agitates the 
 nations to-day a final, irrevocable settlement by the 
 laws of everlasting Right. 
 
 "Thank you, Martha," he said when she finished. 
 "It has done me good." 
 
 The next day it was about two weeks before New 
 Year s the order came to strike. It was a cold, 
 cloudy morning, the call to work had just sounded, 
 and the men were trooping in with their dinner-pails, 
 but in an hour the whole place was deserted and 
 silent. A Napoleon might have envied the power 
 which had only to issue its mandate and be thus 
 
142 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 obeyed. To be sure it is a power fraught with some 
 danger more particularly in a republic which as 
 serts every fourth of July as its foundation doctrine, 
 the sacred, inalienable rights of the individual citi 
 zen, which would seem to include among other 
 things the right to sell his own work at his own 
 price. 
 
 During the day the men gathered in little groups 
 and talked over the situation. There were rumors 
 of a compromise. It was said that the emplo} T ers 
 had expressed themselves willing to make certain 
 concessions if met half way, and were conferring to 
 this end with a committee from the Union. The re 
 sult was awaited hopefully by some. Others, in 
 whom was working the socialistic leaven, were less 
 anxious for a peaceful settlement of the difficulty. 
 Nelson found himself in the course of the day in the 
 midst of one of these groups. 
 
 "Newhall don t believe in strikes; thinks the man 
 ufacturers ought to be allowed to make their pile of 
 money and grind us working men into the dirt," 
 was the greeting that fell on his ears as he came 
 up. Nelson happened to know the speaker very 
 well, and thought this a good chance to prove to 
 his fellow-workmen that he held opinions of an 
 exactly opposite tenor to those imputed to him. 
 
 "Now be fair," he said good-humoredly, "and let 
 me tell you what I really do think. Granted that 
 every manufacturer in the country is making his 
 money unjustly, don t that money go to create more 
 capital? And how can cutting off the fountain 
 
The Question Met. 143 
 
 which supplies us with our wages make us any bet 
 ter off? It is playing a game in which we have 
 hardly one chance in a thousand of coming out 
 ahead. But I don t believe, and I want you to un 
 derstand that I don t believe, in tamely submitting 
 to wrong. I am only talking against the kind of 
 resistance that bounds back on ourselves and leaves 
 us worse off than we were before. What hinders us 
 working men from putting our money and brains to 
 gether and running factories and shops and mills on 
 our own account? Now there would be a kind of re 
 sistance based on justice and common sense." 
 
 "What hinders us? Hain t these moneyed rascals 
 got the staff in their own hands? and don t they 
 mean to keep it there?" 
 
 "How did they get it in the first place?" asked 
 Nelson, coolly. "Most of our rich men began life 
 with hardly a cent. Now I think it is a pity if three 
 or four hundred working men, if they are sober, in 
 dustrious and skillful at their trade, can t be equal 
 to at least one capitalist." 
 
 "That s all fool s talk," growled the leader in the 
 group, a man of German parentage, but American 
 born and bred. -The power is all on the side of the 
 rich, and there s got to be a revolution, a turning 
 upside down of society before things will be 
 righted." 
 
 "But just remember." answered Nelson, good- 
 naturedly, "that when this general overturning 
 comes on if }-ou and I should happen to be under 
 the heap it might be awkward for us. Volcanoes 
 
144 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 and earthquakes may be necessary things, but it 
 always seemed to me that I had a little rather keep 
 out of their range. The fact is, Schumacher, you 
 have read these papers that talk as if American 
 working men were all in a state of serfdom till you 
 have begun to believe it It is no such thing. Not 
 a capitalist under heaven could grind us into the 
 dirt if we all understood as we ought to that labor 
 has got a vantage ground of its own. Our numbers 
 are our def enced city, and, to make it as impregnable 
 as Gribralter, we only need intelligence, sobriety, 
 economy, and I am going to add, though I know you 
 have thrown both these things overboard, faith in 
 God and hope in a hereafter." 
 
 "Hang your religious rubbish. What do we know 
 about a hereafter, whether we shall be nothing or 
 start up cabbages." 
 
 "For my part," responded Nelson, "I had rather 
 a good honest cabbage should spring from my dust 
 and that be the end of me than to go into the other 
 world weighed down with all the rascalities and 
 meannesses that some men have to carry with them, 
 and if your belief helps to make life more cheerful, 
 why I am glad. It would have just the opposite ef 
 fect on me. But we are wandering wide of the 
 question. What hinders us working men? What 
 is the foe in the rear that is always hanging on the 
 skirts of the great army of labor? It is these thou 
 sands on thousands of legalized dramshops scattered 
 over the country. So long as we are content to keep 
 an army of lazy saloonists living on the fat of the 
 
The Question Met. 145 
 
 land there is no sense nor reason in our cursing capi 
 talists. Just look at this thing a minute. The nine 
 hundred millions that it takes every year to keep 
 the country s one hundred and seventy-five thousand 
 dramshops running means so many millions less to 
 run its shops and stores and mills; and do you sup 
 pose because you are neither drunkards nor tipplers 
 yourselves that you can escape pa} ing your share of 
 this enormous tax when it is money taken right out 
 of every honest business by which working men earn 
 their living? This monstrous traffic sucks indus 
 try s very life blood, and which side, think you, feels 
 the drain the most, the capitalist who, when he sees 
 a hard time ahead, can haul in his sails with no 
 great inconvenience to himself and wait till the 
 storm blows over? or the average working man to 
 whom a shut down means less food, less fire, less 
 of everything that makes life comfortable and pleas 
 ant? Take off this terrible tariff, this millstone 
 round the neck of labor, and what would be the re 
 sult? Why, it would increase its earning power at 
 least one-third, which is the same as to say that you 
 let rum take one dollar out of every three you earn, 
 and bear it patiently, while you grumble and growl 
 if a manufacturer cuts you down in your wages 
 twenty cents!" 
 
 Two of the men laughed. The third one looked 
 thoughtful. The fourth member of the party, which 
 was Schumacher, shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "We are not Grand Moguls. Liquor will be sold 
 and drank for all us." 
 
146 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "So it will while we allow it. As a class we hold 
 the sovereign power in our own hands, and if, in 
 stead of listening to political demagogues every elec 
 tion, each working man would make his ballot a 
 straight shot at the rum power, I warrant that it 
 wouldn t be a great while before our Senators and 
 Representatives at Washington would get some new 
 light on the subject. Better read over again the 
 fable of Hercules and the wagoner. If we working 
 men are ever to improve our condition the help must 
 come from ourselves first. And it won t come by 
 sitting still and railing against the rich. If they 
 oppress us the worst is their own, but at the least 
 they give us work and wages. What does the liquor 
 power do for us? Cripples and paralyzes every sin 
 gle industry by which we earn our bread. Let us 
 roll that burden from our shoulders and then labor 
 will be prepared to resist the tyranny of capital to 
 some purpose." 
 
 But talk like this was making Nelson unpopular, 
 for though his fellow-workmen dimly realized that 
 he stood on a higher mental plane than the most of 
 them; had read more, thought more, and observed 
 more still there were many, as he told Martha, who 
 construed his words into a tacit desertion of their 
 cause, and turned the cold shoulder on him in con 
 sequence. 
 
 He went back to his boarding-place feeling as if it 
 was a strange new kind of Sunday without the Sab 
 bath peace and spirit of "devotion. Tom was sitting 
 in his old place coughing feebly, and watching with 
 
The Question Met. 147 
 
 dull, vacant gaze a belated fly that was slowly and 
 stiffly buzzing about in a streak of cold, white sun 
 shine. 
 
 Outwardly Tom bore a much closer resemblance to 
 his mother than either of the two others. As nature 
 had given him at the start a much weaker physical 
 frame than the stalwart Nelson, so she had cast his 
 features in a proportionately finer mould; and the 
 epileptic fits which had fastened on him in child 
 hood, the result of that injury to the brain received 
 from his father s drunken blow, however they might 
 dim his intellect could not wholly mar the original 
 beauty of the chiseling. 
 
 "Well, Tom, old fellow!" was Nelson s cheery 
 greeting; "I m going to stay with you all day. What 
 do you say to that? It seems good to see the sun 
 coming out. Let me wheel } our chair into it." 
 
 Nelson had devoted himself heart and soul to his 
 unfortunate brother without the least idea that he 
 was doing anything very noble, or worthy of particu 
 lar remark. There are natures that seem to be mor 
 ally "born in the purple," and the most unlimited 
 drafts on their generous self-devotion are honored at 
 first sight with the confidence of one who has in his 
 soul a whole royal exchequer to draw from. 
 
 So he had fought Tom s battles with a rude and 
 scornful world, and no wonder that he seemed to the 
 latter a perfect incarnation of wisdom and strength. 
 Tom stood somewhat in fear of him, it is true, but it 
 was that kind of fear which we are told in Scripture 
 is not inconsistent with the highest love; and when 
 
148 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 his fit of coughing subsided, he showed Nelson with 
 much delight a newspaper on which he gravely 
 marked with his forefinger a length of about two 
 columns and a half. To make believe read was one 
 of Tom s amusements, and Nelson always humored 
 him by taking the matter very seriously. 
 
 "All that this morning! You ve done bravely, 
 Tom, since I ve been gone. I m thinking you ll be 
 lots of help to me when I get my farm." 
 
 Tom smiled contentedly. That farm was his 
 Eldorado. His feeble mind made his anticipations 
 of its freedom, plenty and varied delights like a 
 child s, a pleasure from which all elements of care, 
 worry, or possible disappointment were entirely 
 eliminated. Though Nelson did not now feel in just 
 the mood for such castle-building, he went over the 
 story again for Tom s amusement, and when he could 
 think of no further enlargements or additions that 
 could be truthfully made to it, he began to sing in a 
 melodious, baritone voice 
 
 "On Jordan s stormy banks I stand 
 
 And cast a wishful eye, 
 To Canaan s fair and happy land, 
 Where my possessions lie." 
 
 In singing to Tom he generally chose old-fash 
 ioned hymns. They chimed in best with his strong, 
 thoughtful, earnest, nature; and they reminded him, 
 besides, of his mother. How she used to satisfy the 
 hunger of her homesick heart with Watt s grand old 
 lyrics! 
 
 When he reached the last line of the hymn Tom 
 was asleep. Nelson got up, poked the fire a little, 
 
Ttie Question Met. 149 
 
 and then took the newspaper which Tom had 
 dropped. He looked over the usual list of murders, 
 wife-beatings, and brutal assaults in which, strangely 
 enough, high-licensed whisky appears to be just as 
 prolific as the more plebeian sort which lacks that 
 peculiar stamp of respectability; and then he passed 
 to the column headed, "Labor Troubles." Every 
 where there seemed to be an epidemic of strikes. In 
 the coal-fields Molly Maguirism was cropping out. 
 and the whole industrial world appeared to be gener 
 ally in a state of upheaval and disturbance. 
 
 Nelson took a pencil and figured up on the white 
 margin something like a rough approximation to the 
 sum lost by labor per week. Startling as were the 
 figures, he knew he had under-rated the factors by 
 which he had obtained this result 
 
 And what of that vast sum lost every year by the 
 liquor traffic? Nelson was enough of a political 
 economist to understand with Adam Smith that the 
 one great law on which all equitable trade is built is 
 the law of corresponding values; in other words, 
 that value taken must always mean value received in 
 something of direct profit or service to the buyer. 
 And when the liquor business ignores utterly this 
 underlying law in political economy, this rule of re 
 ciprocal giving and taking, and decrees that all the 
 profit and advantage shall be on one side only, can 
 such mischievous violation of so fundamental a prin 
 ciple help reacting disastrously on trade? Is it not 
 laying a hand on the very main-spring of every law 
 ful industry? and must not the legitimate fruits be 
 
150 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 dull times, poverty, distress, and that remedy worse 
 than the disease strikes? 
 
 And what of the liquor power as a ruling force in 
 government? Did not every election prove that its 
 immense wealth was simply a bribery fund? To 
 this corrupt and corrupting factor in politics with 
 its hundreds of millions annually stolen from the 
 people, could anything be said to be impossible in 
 the way of chicanery and fraud? One wrong fos 
 tered, one injustice upheld made room for others to 
 gather their foul brood under the same broad shield 
 of national law; and legislative integrity thus sapped, 
 on what could the poor man base any reasonable 
 hope of being protected from the greed of unscrupu 
 lous money kings and soulless corporations? 
 
 Nelson wanted to confront the question fairly. 
 He believed he had done so, when in reality he had 
 seen but one side of this double-faced Janus. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 WHICH TREATS OF MATTERS HISTORICAL AND PRO 
 PHETIC. 
 
 At this juncture we perceive a growing restless 
 ness among some of our readers. Countless voices 
 are raised in defence of their own pet insurance 
 society, and learned college professors hope we shall 
 not be so unwise and unjust as to include their be 
 loved Greek letter fraternities in the same condem 
 nation. And as many of these good people take 
 pains to assure us that they are opposed to Masonry; 
 that they have some adequate idea of its ability to 
 corrupt the courts, paralyze the hand of justice, and 
 shield every murderer, rumseller, or bank defaulter 
 who puts his trust in its shadow, we will stop the 
 thread of our story long enough to relate a certain 
 episode in the career of Napoleon, which, though un 
 familiar to the average student, was one of those 
 hidden factors of Providence which bring about the 
 mysterious and unlooked-for results that so often 
 baffle human calculations. 
 
 At the very threshold of his conquests, at the 
 very moment when his hand was stretched out to 
 grasp imperial power, he met, like the heroes of 
 Greek story, a dragon to stay his farther progress. 
 That dragon was Freemasonry. Masonic lodges 
 
 
 
152 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 covered alike Protestant Germany and Catholic 
 Spain. Under their mask aristocrat and anarchist, 
 free-thinker and Jesuit, could plot together in a hor 
 rible unity the unity of the pit. Already it had 
 overthrown the Puritan commonwealth in England, 
 and lighted in Paris the lurid flames of the French 
 Revolution. 
 
 Two courses lay open before him. He could grap 
 ple with the monster crush, annihilate it if possible; 
 or he could make it his tool, his slave, his faithful 
 ally. The "Man of Destiny," whom neither Alps nor 
 Russian snows could daunt, and at the tread of 
 whose armed hosts all Europe was shaking in terror, 
 quailed before the first alternative and chose the 
 second. At his dictation his own trusted generals 
 and marshals entered the various lodges, became 
 their leaders, and controlled them completely in the 
 interests of imperialism till St. Helena ended the 
 drama. 
 
 t was not the first time that Masonry has been 
 paid in her own coin, nor will it be the last that this 
 spiritual sorceress in her trade of duping and fooling 
 men has been made herself the dupe and fool of 
 crowned and mitred heads. This shrewd stroke of 
 Napoleonic policy was only a slight variation of her 
 own favorite game, and one which she is now play 
 ing in our own free Columbia with much success. 
 
 Odd-fellowship and the hundreds of minor secret 
 orders she officers with her own most tried and 
 trusted generals, and has no desire indeed would 
 have the greatest objection to see the rank and file 
 
History and Prophecy. 153 
 
 turn Masons. She well knows that the}* make far 
 more tractable subjects as the}* are. Vowed to obey 
 unquestiomngly Masonic superiors, and those super 
 iors sworn in turn to obey all above them in contin 
 ual gradations till the apex is reached at the top of 
 which sits the commander-in-chief in the shape of a 
 most Sublime and Illustrious Sovereign Grand In 
 spector General, we can easily see how with only the 
 bridle of a minor temperance order the whole body 
 can be turned about in any given Masonic direc 
 tion. 
 
 The strike continued, with no prospect of a speedy 
 end; and many of the workmen found their unoccu 
 pied hours dragged less heavily if passed in some 
 place of common resort. Unluckily there were 
 enough saloons left in Jacksonville to supply that 
 want; and they furnished precisely the soil needed 
 for the sprouting of socialistic tares, though the pre 
 viously mentioned "Union agent," having finished 
 his seed sowing, had some time before left for "pas 
 tures new." The saloon-keepers, warned by the 
 popular storm which had so nearly wrecked their 
 business, and with some little fear of the W. C. 
 T. U., practiced more circumspection and more 
 secrecy; but bar-rooms fitted up underground may 
 be as favorable gathering-places as the cave of 
 Adullam for "every one that is discontented" with 
 the prevailing order of society; and it is certain that 
 over the fiery potations there dealt out strange 
 threats were sometimes uttered, and the speeches of 
 noted communistic leaders quoted with a gusto that 
 
154 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 would have been far from pleasant to peaceful and 
 law-abiding ears. 
 
 "I believe there is more drink sold in Jackson 
 ville now than before the strike," said Nelson to 
 Martin Treworthy one morning in the latter part of 
 February. "What is our temperance mayor about?" 
 
 "Fulfilling his Masonic obligations," growled Mar 
 tin. "Liquor men and Good Templars voted to 
 gether for him last fall, so now he s got to be all 
 things to all men in a sense the Apostle Paul never 
 dreamed of. But then it comes tolerable easy to a 
 man that has taken a dozen or two of Masonic de 
 grees." 
 
 "The strike ought to have been at an end long 
 ago," said Nelson, choosing to ignore this explana 
 tion of the case. "I know men that were steady and 
 industrious before it happened, and now they spend 
 in drink half the money allowed them by the Union 
 to support their families. It is ruinous, it is suicid 
 al this long, fruitless strife in which nothing is 
 gained and everything lost on the side least capable 
 of bearing loss. It is the ambition and selfishness 
 of men like G-errish and Reynolds that is prolonging 
 this state of affairs, and I ve about made up my 
 mind to break with the Union entirely if I ve got to 
 be under such leaders." 
 
 A dry smile curled Martin s lips. He was not at 
 all averse to seeing this young Hercules of labor 
 chafe under his lodge fetters. Perhaps Nelson did 
 not see the smile. He went on. 
 
 "They have stood from the first of it right in the 
 
History and Prophecy. 155 
 
 way of an} adjustment of the difficulty. The man 
 ufacturers were ready for a compromise long ago, 
 that the majority of the men I for one would 
 have been willing to accept. Here we are losing 
 money and time, and suffering all the demoralizing 
 influences that come from idleness. But what do 
 these men care for that? They don t want to see 
 the wrongs of labor righted. It is for their interest 
 to keep up this strife and contention. It is the way 
 they get their living. They are too lazy to work, 
 and to beg they are ashamed, but they manage some 
 way to get all the offices themselves, and wear their 
 kid gloves and draw their comfortable salaries, and 
 we working men must submit to their tyranny." 
 
 The reader may perhaps remember that Nelson 
 had once himself innocently informed Martin Tre- 
 worthy that the leaders of the Union were generally 
 Masons or Odd-fellows. But the latter made no al 
 lusion to this fact as furnishing a possible kejv to 
 the nn stery of these easy berths. Experience was 
 beginning to teach Nelson a good many truths be 
 fore unheeded, and he was quite willing to leave 
 him for awhile to the tutelage of this stern in 
 structor. 
 
 "The fact is they represent no interests but their 
 own, and I don t wonder the manufacturers refuse 
 to treat with them. I should in their place. I heard 
 to-day that the works were going to start up next 
 week with a large force of non-union laborers, and if 
 the new hands can t be intimidated or bought off 
 there will be trouble. I see it and feel it." 
 
156 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "And that no man might buy or sell save he that 
 had the mark or the name of the beast or the num 
 ber of his name," slowly repeated Martin Treworthy. 
 
 "But I always thought the beast was popery. 
 Commentators explain -it so," added Nelson, inno- 
 centty. 
 
 "When I see prophecy fulfilled right before my 
 eyes I don t have to go to the D.D.s" returned Mar 
 tin, dryly. "But I hain t got no grudge against 
 Masonry for anything it has done to me, though I 
 remember in one of the first battles of the war how, 
 as we were retiring, I turned right back in the very 
 face of the rebs as they were dashing down hill I 
 don t know what possessed me unless it was the 
 spirit of G-ideon and picked up our colors and car 
 ried them safe into camp; but I never got any pro 
 motion for it, though I was told if I d only been a 
 Mason I should have got promoted fast enough." 
 
 That was shameful injustice," said Nelson, indig 
 nantly. 
 
 "I want you to understand," replied Martin Tre 
 worthy, coolly, "that its losing me a pair of shoul 
 der-straps don t make it that there s any debt or 
 credit account between us. "Why, I read that thir 
 teenth chapter in Revelations nigh a hundred times 
 on my bended knees before the Lord revealed to me 
 what it meant. It was the Spirit of the Lord that 
 taught me to hate Masonry, not anything it has done 
 to me or mine. It seemed as if I could see the* 
 beast, and the long procession of worshipers filing 
 up lawyers that wanted clients, and ministers that 
 
History and Prophecy. 157 
 
 wanted pulpits, and politicians that wanted office: 
 and all the murderers and adulterers and rumsellers 
 that wanted to get clear of the gallows and the jail-, 
 small and great, rich and poor, bond and free, wear 
 ing his mark on their foreheads or in their hands. 
 Then the thought came to me that worship always 
 implies a religion of some kind, and so the beast 
 must represent some universal religion. And as it 
 was in the likeness of a lamb, but not the Lamb as 
 it had been slain, it must be a religion of works 
 without an} atonement. And with that the Holy 
 Spirit flashed the truth right into my mind. As 
 Masonry required worship without Christ, and prom 
 ised salvation without repentance, it was the only 
 religion that would suit the natural heart every 
 where. And I saw that in its pride, lust of power, 
 blasphemy, and spirit of persecution, it was an 
 image of the old papal beast; and every secret order, 
 whether it was in Russia, Africa or America, was an 
 image of Masonry. A religion that will suit every 
 body, Jew or Christian or heathen, must be the same 
 in principle the world over, and yei be able to 
 change its outward shape. That is what Masonry 
 does in all the little secret orders; it changes its 
 shape, but it is the same thing at heart- anti-Christ, 
 whose coming is with all manner of deceiveableness. 
 And when the Lord showed me this I was astonished 
 like Ezekiel by the river of Chebar. But I knew 
 *there was more light to come. So I considered fur 
 ther on the matter, and I saw that until the time of 
 the end all the great world powers like slavery and 
 
158 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 rum and Mormonism would agree to give their 
 kingdom unto the beast. And from the day that 
 the Spirit of the Lord revealed this to me mind, I 
 hadn t read a tract, book, or paper about it then 
 I ve fought the evil thing with might and main, and 
 I mean to keep on fighting it to the last. To see the 
 victory will be for younger eyes than mine, but I m 
 satisfied so long as I know who my Leader is." 
 
 And the grizzly-headed hero of more and different 
 battles than Nelson ever dreamed of took his de 
 parture, leaving the latter feeling rather uncomfort 
 able. He was thoroughly disgusted with the 
 tyranny of the Union, while his apprehensions of 
 more serious trouble yet to follow made the low, 
 monotonous undertone of Martin Treworthy s speech 
 seem like the far off thunders of a coming judgment. 
 
 Could he have overheard a conversation that was 
 going on meanwhile in one of the basement saloons 
 at which the new mayor, in due respect to his Ma 
 sonic vows, had found it convenient to wink, it 
 would only have darkened his musings. 
 
 Beside a table covered with green cloth, each with 
 a glass of beer before him, sat two men. In the 
 features of one was a hint of Celtic extraction; he 
 had very white teeth that, when he smiled, seemed 
 to have the treacherous gleam of a wild beast s, was 
 graceful in person, and rather particular about his 
 dress a kind of Americanized Robespierre. It is 
 not an enjoyable fact to ponder, but it is a fact 
 nevertheless, that we have in our midst men of the 
 same type with that blood-thirsty triumvirate who 
 
History and Prophecy. 159 
 
 ruled Paris in 93, though our American sun of free 
 dom shines rather too brightly in their eyes, and 
 they generally burrow in the darkness of illicit 
 saloons and secret lodges. 
 
 The other man was coarse-featured, large-boned, 
 much given to profanity, and wore a Knight Tem 
 plar s badge conspicuously displayed. The fumes 
 of their cigars mingled sociably together as they 
 sipped their beer and conversed in low and confi 
 dential tones; and, in short, they answered very well 
 to that graphic description given by David in the 
 sixty-fourth psalm of the wicked "in secret counsel." 
 
 "Don t forget a good stiff glass of whisky all 
 round to prime em up for the job, Reynolds, 71 said 
 the personage first described. At which reminder 
 the other only nodded as if he was in no danger of 
 neglecting so important a matter, while the first one 
 continued. 
 
 "That cranky fool, Newhall, must be made to hold 
 his tongue. All the opposition to the strike has 
 been stirred up by him." 
 
 "Not so easy; he s deep as a well." 
 
 "A knife for traitors," was the significant re 
 sponse. This laconic remark, however, was not 
 quite original, being in reality quoted from a late 
 speech of Herr Most 
 
 "If you ain t a cool one, Gerrish! exclaimed the 
 other with an oath, clapping his companion on the 
 shoulder. "You d be a match for the devil him 
 self." 
 
 "Bah!" was the scornful reply. "Keep that old 
 
160 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 woman s talk to yourself. I don t believe in a devil 
 no more than I do in a God. Men are what we ve 
 got to deal with in this age of the world." 
 
 Reynolds was used to being snubbed and lectured 
 by his chief, and his only answer was to drain his 
 glass and meekly wait further orders. 
 
 But of this precious pair, in whose creed dynamite 
 and whisky were the leading articles of belief, we 
 shall give the reader out of respect to his moral and 
 religious scruples at being placed in such company, 
 but the briefest possible glimpse. Reynolds was 
 blacklisted discharged for his own fault, but he 
 represented himself as persecuted for belonging to 
 the Union, and played the martyr role with such suc 
 cess that he found himself hoisted at once into a 
 place of power and notoriety very much to his lik 
 ing, and where he drew a salary larger than his lost 
 wages. He was obliged to play second fiddle to 
 Gerrish, however, for though not so much of a bully 
 and a blackguard the latter was a born leader, and 
 by far the more dangerous of the two. He had not 
 been long in Jacksonville, and Nelson as well as 
 many of his fellow-workmen were inclined to resent 
 this dictatorial sway of one whose antecedents were 
 so little known, quite forgetting that there was a 
 slight inconsistency involved in such a state of feel 
 ing. Had they not sworn to obey all the rules and 
 regulations of the Grand Lodge? thus virtually plac 
 ing themselves under the complete despotic control 
 of its chief a man they knew as little about as they 
 did of the Shah of Persia? 
 
History and Prophecy. 161 
 
 The variety of uses to which secrecy may be put 
 is an important but neglected branch of knowledge 
 among the great bulk of its simple-minded members. 
 Missionaries in Africa tell us of secret societies 
 among the natives, under whose wings of darkness, 
 demon-worship, kidnapping and cannibalism are as 
 freely practiced as more civilized crimes in the safe 
 shelter of a lodge of Masons, Odd-fellows, or 
 Knights of Pythias. How long before Christians in 
 America will be as wise as their brethren in Africa 
 and refuse to fellowship secretism in any form even 
 when disguised in the holy garments of temperance? 
 How long before temperance workers will under 
 stand that the cause of God and the cause of the 
 dev-x cannot be fought with the same weapons; that 
 in taking the vows of secrec}* they are actually strik 
 ing hands with all the Masonic saloon-keepers, 
 brewers and distillers, as well as their Masonic allies 
 in our courts and legislative halls? How long be 
 fore honest workingmen will understand that when 
 they join a secret trades union they are joined as 
 one body to the dark, aristocratic, monarchial, anti- 
 republican institution of Freemasonry; and through 
 it with the Nihilist, the Socialist, the Ku Klux men 
 whose profession it is to stir up rebellion, revolution, 
 anarchy; and who without the aid of liquor, labor s 
 greatest enemy and curse, could not achieve half the 
 triumphs they have in the past or will in the future 
 unless God in his mercy opens the eyes of our na 
 tion to its danger? 
 
 There can be but one answer to such questions. 
 
162 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Society will never frown upon any evil that the 
 church tolerates. Political action will never be 
 taken against it till Christian voters and Christian 
 statesmen demand such action. When Zion puts on 
 her beautiful garments; when she casts out of her 
 midst with scorn and loathing every thing that 
 would defile her purity; when she shows herself 
 "terrible as an army with banners" against every 
 form of sin and iniquity, then the honest temper 
 ance worker and the hard-handed son of labor will 
 no longer believe a lie; and evil men and seducers 
 will have a foretaste of the coming terrors of that 
 Judgment Day when they shall say to the rocks and 
 to the mountains, "Fall on us and hide us from the 
 wrath of the Lamb." 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 THE YOKE OF BONDAGE. 
 
 The yoke of fraternal love and duty fastened so 
 long ago on Nelson s boyish shoulders by a mother s 
 dying hand, had often been a fetter on the freedom 
 of his personal action on his soul, never. But 
 when he ignorantly degraded his manhood to wear 
 the yoke of a secret labor union, he found, like many 
 another honest American working man, that he had 
 sold his birthright of liberty for a mess of pottage. 
 He had never been a very active member, but had 
 contented himself for the most part with simply pay 
 ing his dues, and cherishing the comfortable delu 
 sion that he was thereby helping to rear up a break 
 water against the greed and tyranny of capital. 
 Thus he was as ignorant as any outsider of the dark 
 designs hatched in its secret conclaves; or how, lit 
 tle by little, through the operation of that law in 
 lodger}*, certain as any law in mechanics, (by which 
 the unprincipled, unscrupulous element as surely 
 rises to the top as the decent, virtuous, Christian 
 element sinks to the bottom) a new class of leaders 
 developed b}~ the present crisis were coming to the 
 front, whose regard for the laborer was like that of 
 a wolf for a sheep 
 
 Nelson was slowly waking up to the consciousness 
 
164 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 that their joke was hard and their burden anything 
 but light. His hope of a speedy marriage, his dream 
 of some quiet prairie farm where his life and 
 Martha s should glide away in rural peace, the dream 
 which had so often come to him in the heat and 
 grime of the workshop like a vision of cool waters 
 all this he must put far away into the indefinite 
 future. The faster Tom regained health and 
 strength the nearer came the time when he must 
 take up his old burden of anxiety. And the worst 
 of it was he was powerless. He could say some 
 very true and bitter things of the few leaders who, 
 to serve their own selfish ends, were willing to keep 
 three or four hundred men out of employment. But 
 he must bear it, though the cords were already be 
 ginning to cut into the flesh. 
 
 Nelson Newhall was not a physical or moral 
 coward to be afraid of men he despised -and yet he 
 was afraid. We bespeak for him the reader s char 
 ity, however, as well as for the minister whom one 
 or two Masons or Odd-fellows in his congregation 
 can intimidate so effectually; not that they wield as 
 individuals more influence than others, but the whole 
 lodge power stands behind them that subtle, mys 
 terious, Satanic force of which Revelation is full of 
 dim hints; that backs up every popular iniquity; 
 that cannot be grasped, or measured, or analyzed; 
 that sways politicians, controls legislatures, gags the 
 pulpit, persecutes the saints; and which to resist 
 means in short either more courage or more faith in 
 God than most men possess. 
 
The Yoke of Bondage. 165 
 
 But matters were coming to a crisis. The dan 
 gerous, vicious element among the strikers was as 
 wax in the hands of the leaders; and in fact Mr. 
 Crerrish, who was a professional labor agitator, had 
 instigated more than one riot and directed more 
 than one assassination while engaged in that congen 
 ial field among the Molly Maguires of the coal re 
 gions. 
 
 The day the non-unionists were expected to arrive 
 passed off quietly, though an extra force of police 
 had been engaged in anticipation of trouble. But 
 the following night the watchman, in his tour of in 
 spection through the works, discovered a suspicious- 
 looking parcel, which, on examination, was found to 
 be an infernal machine containing enough dynamite 
 to wreck the entire building. That the perpetrators 
 of the act designed to destroy life as well as prop 
 erty there could be no doubt. Jacksonville was 
 thrown into a fever of excitement over the diabolical 
 attempt; the papers chronicled it in startling head 
 lines; men and women discussed it with blanched 
 faces; and those astute gentlemen, the detectives, 
 hastened to the spot, made an examination of the 
 premises, looked wise, and stated to the satisfaction 
 of all inquisitive interviewers that they had found a 
 clue, but did not wish at present to give further in 
 formation. 
 
 Stephen Rowland, with the sturdy }*eoman blood 
 in his veins that had loved justice and hated tyranny 
 since the day it wrested Magna Charta from an un 
 willing king, could not but feel a keen interest in 
 
166 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the struggle, despite his horror of such lawless 
 methods of warfare on the part of the laborers. 
 
 "What a pity," he said to Mr. Basset, "that work 
 ing men can t be made to see that when a third party 
 with interests diametrically opposite to either, steps 
 in between them and their employers, it must only 
 lengthen and make more deadly this unnatural strife 
 between labor and capital. They are robbed on 
 three sides by the selfishness of rich men, the am 
 bition of designing leaders, and the grog-shop. 
 Such is the terrible triumvirate that the American 
 laborer has to face to-day; and if Christian people 
 cannot force something like Christian action on our 
 government in relation to these evils, we must ex 
 pect a reign of socialism sooner or later." 
 
 "That s so," returned Mr. Basset, in his easy way 
 of agreeing or seeming to agree with everybody he 
 happened to be talking with that Stephen found at 
 times secretly exasperating. He had begun to feel, 
 without exactly knowing why, that Mr. Basset was 
 not exactly his ideal of a reformer. 
 
 "The grog-shop is the worst of the three," he con 
 tinued, thoughtfully. "The passions excited by 
 their real or fancied wrongs it sets on fire of hell. 
 And as for high license here in Jacksonville, it has 
 worked just as I thought it would. It has only been 
 a temptation to evade the law and increase the num 
 ber of unlicensed saloons. Still there is nothing 
 like seeing a thing tried to convince people, and the 
 women are certainly doing a grand work in pushing 
 on public sentiment in this matter." 
 
The Yoke of Bondage. 167 
 
 "Oh, we never could get along without them they 
 are so earnest and devoted always to the front 
 when there s any good work going on." gallantly re 
 sponded Mr. Basset. For though that gentleman 
 had never actually given them a cent s worth of real 
 aid, he was after all not very different from many 
 politicians, noted and unnoted, to whom, if flattering 
 words and promises could be made to take the place 
 of down-right honest help, the women of the W. C. 
 T. U. ought to be everlastingly grateful. 
 
 A few fanatics like Martin Treworthy had the 
 hardihood to suggest that the package with its terri 
 ble contents was never placed there by the prime 
 movers of the plot, but by men whose secret lodge 
 oath of unquestioning obedience made them fit tools 
 in the han^s of communistic leaders to do their un 
 pleasant or dangerous work; and unless the secret 
 societies which hatched such conspiracies were sup 
 pressed, and that speedily, by the stern hand of law, 
 dynamite outrages would become as frequent in 
 America as in Europe. 
 
 "I ve put in considerable money into the Union," 
 said Nelson, "but I never put in a cent to buy 
 dynamite with, or to clothe in soft raiment men lazy 
 and unprincipled enough to want to live off the earn 
 ings of honest labor. It is time this thing was 
 stopped. We are forfeiting what the laborer can 
 least afford to lose all public sympathy and re 
 spect. But we can t handle communists in America 
 just as Bismarck handles them in G-ermany." 
 
 "Masonic Congressmen can t anyway," retorted 
 
168 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Martin, dryly. "It would be too much like passing 
 sentence of hanging on a family relation. Look at 
 the way they ve done in Utah how they ve let this 
 foul thing, polygamy, spread and spread, and why? 
 Because the only way to stop polygamous marriages 
 is to suppress the secret oaths of the Endowment 
 House, and Congress would no more put its hand to 
 a bill to do that than it would take a poker by the 
 hot end. Your average politician hates to burn his 
 fingers. And* it is with dynamiters exactly as it is 
 with Mormons, they don t dare to lay the axe at the 
 root of the tree. Touch one secret order and the 
 whole Masonic Grand Lodge would come tumbling 
 down about their ears like the temple of Dagon on 
 the Philistine lords and they know it." 
 
 "But there is this terrible grog-shop question to 
 be settled first," said Nelson. "I hold to taking one 
 thing at a time." 
 
 "Just what the Anti-masons said in 1835 when 
 the slavery question came up. And so they stopped 
 fighting the lodge to fight slavery. And what was 
 the result? The lodge sneaked South in the Mor 
 gan uprising, laid the egg of treason and brooded it 
 thirty years till in 61 the full-grown viper crawled 
 out to plant its fangs in the nation s heart. And all 
 the while slavery kept growing more powerful, get 
 ting a stronger hold on the government, and all the 
 business interests of the country, till it was strong 
 enough for rebellion. Masonry stood behind it just 
 as it stands behind the saloon now, getting up secret 
 temperance orders to do the bidding of the Masonic 
 
The Yoke of Bondage. 169 
 
 Grand Lodge the very bulwark of the dram-shop. 
 Dispose of this question and let some other one 
 come up, and it will skulk behind that and so on; 
 and the end of it all would take a wiser man than I 
 am to foresee." 
 
 To this speech, delivered with Martin Tre worthy s 
 usual vigor of utterance, Nelson could think of no 
 better answering argument than this: 
 
 "Anyway, the saloon in its immediate effects is 
 worse than the lodge. I ve suffered enough from the 
 rum curse to be sure of that Of course I don t 
 know anything about slavery, but I should say it 
 was a rather worse evil than Masonry." 
 
 Martin Treworthy stopped in his walk up and 
 down the room. 
 
 "Don t you suppose / know what slavery is? 
 Look there." 
 
 He tore off his jacket, and disclosed his bare 
 shoulders, ridged and seamed with terrible scars. 
 
 Nelson stood aghast at the sight. 
 
 Why, Mr. Treworthy, what does that mean?" 
 
 Martin smiled grimly. 
 
 "It only means that when you was a little shaver 
 not out of long clothes, I was finding out what slav 
 ery was. Those are the marks of a whipping that I 
 took at the hands of slave hunters thirty years ago 
 for refusing to tell them the hiding-place of a fugi 
 tive; and why the ruffians didn t finish off with a 
 bullet through my brains I never could tell, unless 
 they thought it unlikely I should ever come to after 
 such usage." 
 
170 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Terrible," said Nelson. "You suffered all this to 
 give liberty to a fellow-being, and yet this is the first 
 I ever knew of it. You are a strange man, Mr. Tre- 
 worthy." 
 
 "I have had no call to tell of it before," said Mar 
 tin, coolly, "though every single one of these scars 
 I am prouder of than I should be of the stars of a 
 Major General. I only want you to know that I 
 have made about as intimate acquaintance with the 
 devil of slavery as you have with the devil of the 
 whisky jug, and for my part I would rather have 
 fetters on my body than on my soul." 
 
 A momentary silence fell between them, and then 
 Nelson said with a sigh, 
 
 "I really believe if it weren t for Tom 1 would go 
 away from here. Even hiring out on a farm would 
 be better. I could at least sell my labor at my own 
 price without anybody s else dictation." 
 
 And at that Martin was wise enough to be satis 
 fied with the adyantage gained, and held his peace. 
 *###*###*# 
 
 Meanwhile the sagacious detectives before men 
 tioned had unriddled their clue a piece of paper 
 with some writing on it dropped near the place 
 where the dynamite had been deposited, along with 
 other bits of circumstantial evidence needless to par 
 ticularize here; and in their Solomon-like wisdom 
 were not simply suspicious but absolutely certain 
 that Nelson Newhall was the real perpetrator of the 
 attempted outrage. 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 IN WHICH CERTAIN CHARACTERS IX THE STORY GET 
 "MORE LIGHT." 
 
 Nelson s arrest caused much excitement in Mrs. 
 McGowan s quiet boarding house, and fell on Martha 
 like a thunderbolt But if she was not exactly a 
 heroine, she had the stuff in her of which heroines 
 are made, and she neither wept nor fainted when 
 Martin Treworthy told her the news, but exclaimed 
 indignantly: 
 
 "It is all a wicked plot. His opposition to the 
 strike has made him enemies among the workmen, 
 and they have laid this scheme to revenge them 
 selves on him, and turn off suspicion from the real 
 criminal." 
 
 "But, you see Nelson has been fool enough to 
 join a secret clan, and from tJieir point of view the 
 wretches, who actually put the dynamite in the build 
 ing and perilled scores of lives, were guilty of noth 
 ing worse than imprudence and have got to be 
 shielded from the consequences some way or other. 
 Nelson has incurred their hate by opposing the 
 strike and opposing the leaders, and he can fill up 
 the gap as well as any other innocent man; under 
 the circumstances maybe a little better." 
 
 "Oh, can it be that God will let Nelson suffer un- 
 
172 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 der such a wicked accusation so absurdly false on 
 its very face!" burst out Martha. Whereat Martin 
 Treworthy cut short his growling, and essayed to 
 comfort her with that kind of advice which, however 
 trite and commonplace it may seem, has comforted 
 people in trouble in all ages. 
 
 "Keep fast hold on your trust in God. Don t let 
 that slip. Anchor your heart right on to his prom 
 ise, He shall bring forth thy righteousness like the 
 light, and thy judgment like the noonday. That is 
 the best way to do now. It is all coming out right. 
 Why, bless you, there ain t anybody believes him 
 guilty. The only witness against him whose testi 
 mony amounts to anything is a worthless fellow 
 who would sell his soul for a drink of whisky. That 
 young Howland says there ain t a jury in the land 
 would indict him on such evidence. He ll come out 
 all clear from this but "Martin Treworthy spoke 
 the last words in the slow way in which he always 
 uttered his strange half-prophecies that were the 
 more impressive from the fact of their being so 
 often couched in Scriptural language "the end is 
 not yet." 
 
 To Martha they sounded like the echo of her own 
 unvoiced forebodings, and struck a chill to her very 
 heart. But she asked no questions. 
 
 Stephen Howland had felt more than a passing in 
 terest in the young workman who had been his first 
 client in Jacksonville, and undertook his defence 
 with much ardor as a case even better suited to his 
 chivalrous temper than prosecuting rumsellers. 
 
More Light. 173 
 
 The torn fragment of paper found where the 
 dynamite was deposited was a part of a letter with 
 Nelson s name attached; but Stephen s quick, judic 
 ial sense saw at once that all this "circumstantial 
 evidence" if it proved anything proved too much, as 
 the real criminal would in all probability have cov 
 ered up his tracks better; while under his sharp 
 cross examination the miserable fellow who had 
 been hired to perjure himself became involved in 
 hopeless contradictions, and finally broke down at a 
 point where he testified to having recognized Nelson 
 on a certain occasion, the hour being late in the 
 evening, by the light of the moon; a statement which 
 the almanac failed to verify, as Stephen, after due 
 examination of that important authority, quietly in 
 formed the jury. 
 
 Nothing now remained but to sum up in one brief 
 and powerful argument all the facts in the case, 
 which proved a conspiracy to criminate his client on 
 the part of some members of the Union who were 
 dissatisfied with his course in relation to the strike. 
 The evidence was so overwhelming that Nelson was 
 triumphantly cleared of the charge without the 
 jury leaving their seats. 
 
 In the course of his speech Stephen incidentally 
 remarked, "I believe fully in the right of laboring 
 men to organize for their own better protection, but 
 when these secret organizations become engines of 
 intimidation and terrorism, and fetter personal lib 
 erty, they are a nuisance to the world and the great 
 est possible curse to labor;" and in doing so he 
 
174 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 merely expressed an opinion which he supposed 
 would be shared as a matter of course by every good, 
 intelligent citizen. In his own mind it really seemed 
 like a very innocent and well-turned sentence, and 
 decidedly apropos to the defence, but Mr. Basset, 
 who had dropped in to hear the proceedings of the 
 court, as soon as it was over made him aware of his 
 mistake. 
 
 "It won t do now to condemn the secret trades 
 unions for the rash acts of a few. It will be likely 
 to hurt your practice if you say such things. So 
 many Masons and Odd-fellows belong to these socie 
 ties that there s a kind of connection, you see. And 
 besides you are likely, unaware, to hurt the feelings 
 of a brother, and so go contrary to that rule of char 
 ity which is such a fundamental principle with all 
 true Odd-fellows." 
 
 It did not occur to Stephen that if he fully car 
 ried out this rule and never said or did anything 
 that could by any possibility hurt the feelings of 
 Masons or Odd-fellows, it would effectually prevent 
 him from making another speech against the saloon 
 business as long as he lived. But Mr. Basset s 
 glorification of his favorite order upon all possible 
 occasions had begun to slightly pall upon his taste, 
 and it did strike him as an unpleasant idea that 
 there should be any link between him and dynamit 
 ers which he was on the point of dryly observing 
 when he saw Martin Treworthy a little distance off, 
 his rugged features in a glow of delight, and turned 
 away rather abruptly to shake hands with him. 
 
More Light. 175 
 
 The old soldier with his odd mingling of various 
 and seemingly opposite characters, who had fought 
 and suffered for the cause of human liberty, in those 
 days already as much a part of history to the gener 
 ation to which Stephen belonged as Bunker Hill or 
 Valley Forge, had made a strong impression upon 
 his fancy on the occasion of the former trial, and he 
 was glad of this opportunity to renew his acquaint 
 ance. But the greeting he received from the old 
 border hero was decidedly more confusing than Mr. 
 Basset s. 
 
 "That was good the way you come down on 
 these unions. God bless you, and give you the 
 chance to hit the whole brood of secret orders a good 
 many such raps." 
 
 Poor Stephen felt himself in an awkward dilem 
 ma, but the Howland honesty came to his rescue, 
 and he said, while the blood rushed uncomfortably 
 to his face, "I fear you misunderstood me, Mr. Tre- 
 worthy. M} r remark was not intended to condemn 
 all secret societies, or even the trades unions further 
 than their tyrannical abuse of power. I am an Odd 
 fellow," he added hesitatingly, "but I trust I am a 
 good citizen for all that. I no more believe in any 
 society which tries the dynamite argument, or re 
 stricts personal liberty, than I do in rum-selling, and 
 should feel that it was just as much my duty to 
 fight it." 
 
 This was decidedly an opening for Martin Tre- 
 worthy, who had enough of the wisdom of the ser 
 pent not to speak his real chagrin at the unexpected 
 
176 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 revelation. He only muttered, "I might have known 
 they would rope you in, my fine fellow;" and then, 
 taking advantage of the unsuspecting Stephen, said: 
 
 "Well, you have fought the saloons like a young 
 Jephthah, as though you d been regularly raised to 
 the business, but somehow we hain t got rid of the 
 Ammonites yet." 
 
 "The fact is, Mr. Treworthy, saloon-keepers are 
 the very hardest kind of fish to catch. In the first 
 place all kinds of obstacles are thrown in the way of 
 procuring evidence, and when evidence is obtained 
 there is the difficulty of convicting. The jury fail 
 to agree, or there is a loophole in the statute book. 
 It is really discouraging." 
 
 "Well, I remember going on a hunt once after 
 mail robbers," said Martin, in the slow, ruminative 
 fashion in which he used to begin his stories of bor 
 der experience. "They belonged to a gang that had 
 kept the whole country in terror for years. They d 
 ride into a town with their revolvers cocked right in 
 open day, and take whatever they wanted. Some 
 times, out of sheer cussedness, they would amuse 
 themselves by picking a quarrel with some poor fel 
 low in one of the stores or restaurants shoot him 
 dead, and then ride off without anybody s daring to 
 move a finger to stop em no more n as if they had 
 the numb palsy." 
 
 "That was a pretty state of aflairs," commented 
 Stephen, whose Eastern ideas were much shocked. 
 "I hope you caught the villains and hung them to 
 the nearest tree." 
 
More Light. 177 
 
 "We rode miles and miles through the brush 
 wood," continued Martin, "and at last we sighted 
 the rascals were, in fact, nearly within pistol range, 
 when I seen one of the fellows raise himself in his 
 saddle, fling up his arms and then let them drop 
 down to his side. And after that there was no 
 more luck about the house as the old song says. It 
 was really queer what accidents happened to put us 
 back, till finally we lost the trail altogether. I 
 didn t understand the matter as I did afterwards. 
 The fellow give the Masonic sign of distress; the 
 leader of our party was a Mason himself, and 
 worked it so as not to have them captured." 
 
 Stephen felt us if a calcium light had been flashed 
 on sundry puzzling points encountered in his legal 
 practice, but its chief effect just then was to give 
 him a sense of discomfort like the light let too sud 
 denly in on eyes that have been long bandaged. So 
 he only said, "Aha," while Martin wound up with a 
 moral to his tale as follows: 
 
 "They say sauce that is good for the goose is good 
 for the gander, and if secret signs and grips are 
 good for thieves and murderers, they are good for 
 rumsellers; and if they are good for that kind of 
 gentry they are good for dynamiters. Better stick 
 a pin in there. It may come handy to refer to next 
 time you have a liquor case to try." 
 
 And Martin Treworthy, with a curious smile on 
 his face, strode awa} T , and left the }*oung attorney to 
 recover as well as he could from the effects of "more 
 light" than had been flashed upon his understanding 
 
178 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 by any degree of Odd-fellowship which he had yet 
 taken. 
 
 The Union denied emphatically any knowledge of 
 or sympathy with the dynamite plot, and there were 
 plenty of unthinking, good people who never stopped 
 to consider that though this might be true of the 
 brotherhood as a bod} r , there could easily be a wheel 
 within a wheel a lodge of dynamiters inside of a 
 seemingly innocent trades union, bound together by 
 the same secret covenant to shield - imprudent" 
 members. 
 
 The scheme of blowing up the works and then fas 
 tening the guilt on Nelson had been planned by Mr. 
 G-errish as a fine piece of double revenge: first on 
 manufacturers who had failed to appreciate his office 
 and titles as he deemed they deserved; and secondly 
 on the young workman, who from first to last as a 
 recognized leader of the better element among the 
 operatives was regarded by him much as Haman re 
 garded Mordecai. The task of seeing it carried out 
 by trusty underlings into whom he had talked his 
 own atheistic and communistic ideas he handed over 
 to Reynolds, according to his usual plan of furnish 
 ing the brains, and letting some obsequious tool do 
 the labor. He had not counted on the egregious 
 failure of both schemes, and when his subordinate 
 held another secret conference with the chief, he 
 found him in anything but an amiable mood. He 
 stormed and swore at his unfortunate aid-de-camp, 
 and told him that "he had managed the job like a 
 ." The concluding noun and adjective we 
 
More Light. 179 
 
 forbear to give, though really very just and applic 
 able to their subject It had the effect, however, of 
 making Reynold s eye flash and his countenance red 
 den, as if there was some limit to his endurance. 
 
 "That ain t hardly safe talk, let me tell you, to a 
 man that could have you arrested by dropping a lit 
 tle hint to the police." 
 
 Gerrish did not, as might have been expected, 
 break out into oaths and curses at this threat. He 
 only smiled that tigerish smile before which Rey 
 nolds, with all his superior bulk, shrank as it is said 
 even lions will shrink before the hyena; and with an 
 almost imperceptible motion of his hand towards 
 the glittering dirk concealed in his bosom, he hissed 
 slowly between his teeth: 
 
 "Remember tJie penalty of a traitor." 
 
 The two glared at each other for a second, and 
 then Re}*nolds said with an uneasy laugh: 
 
 "Come, what is the use of all this? I think we 
 
 had better attend to business." 
 
 
 
 "So do I," was the laconic response of his chief. 
 And the worthy pair who had quarrelled before, and 
 knew that in all probability they would again, made 
 up after the fashion of their peculiar species that 
 is to say, they smoked a couple of cigars together, 
 and indulged in considerable profanity while they 
 discussed the general situation of affairs. There 
 was no ignoring the fact that the strike was every 
 day growing more unpopular, and as their power 
 over the workmen must be in some way retained, 
 they came to the united conclusion that to appear in 
 
180 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the role of peacemakers, bound to have a pacific set 
 tlement of the difficulties, would be decidedly more 
 for their interest than to keep up the agitation. But 
 when the tiger is once unchained it is not always an 
 easy matter to get him back into his den a fact on 
 which Grerrish and Reynolds failed to count. 
 
 Comparative quiet, however, had reigned since the 
 discovery of the dynamite plot, owing to the refusal 
 of the frightened "scabs," as the strikers called 
 those who had taken their places, to go back to work 
 until there had been a thorough examination of all 
 the premises. But under the calm were strange 
 elements of fierceness and fury. It was the omin 
 ous quiet that precedes the cyclone. 
 
 Nelson was popular with the best class of the 
 workmen. They greeted him with cheers as he 
 came out of the court-room, and altogether he was 
 considerably more of a hero after his unpleasant ex 
 perience than he had been before. The sight of 
 their honest faces, and the real joy which they 
 showed at his release, touched him. 
 
 "How I wish I could get all the workmen together 
 and talk a little common-sense into them. I think I 
 could," he said to Martin Tre worthy, who had ac 
 companied him to his lodgings for a little conversa 
 tion over the day s events. 
 
 Martin only gave a low grunt, which, if it ex 
 pressed anything, expressed skepticism. And Nel 
 son so understood it, for he continued eagerly: 
 
 "They are under bad leaders, and they don t know 
 it. Even that faction among the workmen who have 
 
More Light. 181 
 
 a grudge against me I do not feel like greatly blam 
 ing. They are so ignorant, and the} have real 
 wrongs. These men who claim to represent them, 
 ;md don t represent them no more than wolves rep 
 resent a flock of sheep, hold them in a state of the 
 most complete vassalage. This strike has opened 
 my eyes to a good many things, and one is that 
 some new form of organization on a free, open dem 
 ocratic basis would be a great deal better for work 
 ing men than these secret labor unions which afford 
 such dangerous facilities of leadership for mere 
 adventurers and deadbeats and blacklegs. I have 
 been a fool, Mr. Tre worthy. I dare say you enjoy 
 the confession." 
 
 "Mightily," chuckled Martin -I knew you d cut 
 your wisdom teeth after a while. But we ain t 
 through with trouble yet. The}* are going to try 
 starting up the works again to-morrow. The men 
 have got pretty much over their scare now and can t 
 afford to loaf round, but as the strikers can t play 
 the dynamite game over twice, a riot will most likely 
 be the next thing in order. Last night I happened 
 to be going past when one of them Socialist fellows 
 was holding forth, and I thought I would just turn 
 to and listen a while. The chap stole a sight of his 
 talk from Ingersoll, and forgot to put in his quota 
 tion marks every time. And he could quote the 
 Bible, too told them it would only be spoiling the 
 Egyptians as the Israelites did, if the} should rase 
 to their foundations a few of the fine houses of the 
 rich, and take all they could lay their hands on. 
 
182 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 The rabble he was talking to cheered like mad when 
 he said that. They were just primed for a riot." 
 
 "A good part of the crowd that gather to hear 
 such talk," said Nelson, "is supplied from a class 
 outside of the workmen. The increasing number of 
 no-license towns -has brought into Jacksonville more 
 of the saloon element than ever before. There are 
 always plenty of that kind of fish round where there 
 is any labor disturbance. These Socialist chaps can 
 swill down beer by the hogshead, and bluster and 
 rant; but that is about all they can do. Their bark 
 is terrific, but their bite is of small account. It is 
 these liquor saloons, these underground doggeries at 
 every street corner that are going to play the mis 
 chief. I believe that without their inspiration 
 Socialism, at least here in America, would be as 
 harmless as a viper with its head cut off. But 
 we ve dethroned King Cotton and put up King 
 Whisky, and the end will be nobody knows what. 
 Take foreigners, now, like many of the workmen here 
 in Jacksonville, ignorant of the first principle of 
 free government, self-government; take our rich 
 capitalists, caring for nothing but to get rich faster; 
 take these Socialist firebrands, and then add the 
 liquor element, and we certainly have the material 
 for riots, dynamite explosions, or everything else of 
 a lawless nature." 
 
 And, as it happened, Nelson was just then, like 
 all of us at times, more of a prophet than he 
 thought. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN WHICH JACKSONVILLE REAPS THE WHIRLWIND. 
 
 Matthew Densler, the chief proprietor of the 
 works, had begun life himself as a commoc opera 
 tive, had amassed his large fortune by a combina 
 tion of shrewdness and diligence, and had also de 
 veloped in his early struggles with adversity a tem 
 per as unbending as his own iron and steel. He had 
 no unkindly feeling towards the class from which he 
 had risen, but he made very little allowance for their 
 peculiar weaknesses; in fact, he was rather inclined 
 to look with a slight contempt on the laboring man 
 who had not been able to do as svell as he had him 
 self. Trade unions he hated above everything else 
 on the face of the earth, and all his stubborn powers 
 of resistance were brought into play by the present 
 crisis. 
 
 He made a point of visiting the works himself in 
 person, and thus trying to infuse something of his 
 own feeling into the new hands, who were in truth a 
 rather cowed looking set. To have to be escorted 
 back and forth from their work by policemen, and 
 be subjected to a course of terrorizing and intimida 
 tion harder to bear than open violence, were not 
 things especially inspiriting, and the majority heart 
 ily wished themselves back where they came from. 
 
 
184 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 The day passed quietly, but groups of strikers had 
 been slowly gathering on the street, and when the 
 non-unionists left off work at night, they had to pass 
 through a gauntlet of foes, yelling, shouting all man 
 ner of derisive epithets, and armed with stones and 
 clubs a few with concealed knives. 
 
 But at the very commencement of the melee, a tall 
 figure in a workingman s garb stepped forth from 
 one of those groups, and mounting on an empty bar- 
 rel called out in a clear commanding voice, which 
 for an instant silenced the rioters. 
 
 "Fellow workmen, I want to speak to you." 
 
 It was Nelson Newhall. 
 
 His audacious movement had taken the mob com 
 pletely by surprise. A man thoroughly in earnest 
 alwa} T s possesses a strange magnetic power over 
 others, and in that instant of astonished, startled 
 silence, both the attacked and the attacking parties 
 waited, curious to hear what would come next. 
 
 "I want to talk to you for five minutes as one in 
 telligent working man may talk to another. Is it 
 any worse for the capitalist to oppress and ill-treat 
 you than for you to oppress and ill-treat your bro 
 ther workmen? B} what right do you forbid them 
 to earn their daily bread? Is it the right of the 
 strongest? That is the right the capitalist pleads. 
 How long will you handle this two-edged sword? 
 How long will you imagine that one wrong can right 
 another? that riots and strikes and unlawful violence 
 will ever alter cause and effect, or change your con 
 dition one iota except for the worse? 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 185 
 
 "But now I want to talk to you about the chief 
 cause of all this trouble. Run it right down to the 
 roots. What causes strikes? Low wages. And 
 what causes low wages? Dull times. And what 
 causes dull times? I will tell you in a few words. 
 You pay away your money for beer and tobacco in 
 stead of bread. You go to the saloon, order a drink, 
 and pay your dime over the counter. One dime 
 paid over the counter of the two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dramshops, licensed and unlicensed, in 
 these United States amounts to twenty-five thousand 
 dollars in one day. In a year it would amount to 
 over a million and a half. This is only the price of 
 one drink daily, remember. Multiply this by the 
 actual number of drinks sold and the sum goes into 
 the hundred millions. Supposing these hundred 
 millions went to buy the things the world needs and 
 wants, would anybody lack employment? How 
 quick every iron and cotton and woolen mill would 
 start up all over the country. Now when times are 
 dull, there are alwa}~s fools enough to say, It is all 
 owing to over-production, when the fact is there 
 can t be too much to eat or to wear, or too much of 
 anything, in short, which goes to make human 
 beings happier or more comfortable. It is all owing 
 to under-consumption. People get along without 
 things they want, or with less of them, because, to 
 put it in plain words, these two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dramshops have taken the money. I don t 
 deny that in our land to-day there are men who have 
 made big fortunes by grinding the faces of the 
 
186 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 poor." Cries of "That s so," greeted Nelson at this 
 juncture, and a voice, thickened by heavy potations 
 of beer or something stronger, shouted out savagety, 
 "String the rascals up to the lamp-posts." The 
 young workman was dealing with turbulent material, 
 but he took no notice of these interruptions except 
 to calmly continue. 
 
 "While you are cursing capitalists, just remember 
 that the liquor dealers and distillers whom 3 r ou sup 
 port by your money and your votes are capitalists 
 too, and the amount of their united capital is over 
 one billion of dollars. Now this vast sum invested 
 in honest manufactures would give work at good 
 wages to every laboring man in the United States. 
 These are hard facts, but you won t hear them from 
 politicians dependent on the rum vote, and you 
 won t hear them from men who counsel murder and 
 arson and pillage as a remedy for the wrongs of 
 labor. Suppose the late plot to blow up the source 
 of our daily bread here in Jacksonville had suc 
 ceeded, would you have been any better off to-day? 
 The fact is, we working men don t know where our 
 real power lies. With one stamp of our feet we 
 could put down this miserable dramshop business 
 that has more to do with low wages and dull times 
 than all other causes combined. By a system of in 
 telligent co-operation we could make every monopo 
 list shake in his shoes from Maine to California. 
 By voting in our own interests instead of the inter 
 ests of whisky politicians, we could make our hand 
 felt where it needs to be felt on the wheels of gov- 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 187 
 
 ernment. Instead of sending millionaires to Con 
 gress, whose first thought will be when this or that 
 measure comes up for consideration, How is it 
 going to affect my stocks or my bonds? we could 
 send men from our own ranks whose first thought 
 will be, How is it going to affect the working 
 classes? Now the great iron and woolen interests 
 are represented in Congress because the}- are backed 
 up by the money power behind them, and labor, 
 without which those interests would be valueless, 
 ought to find full as efficient a backer in its millions 
 of votes thrown away every election because one 
 half of you don t understand the intelligent use of 
 the ballot and the other half are bound to sustain a 
 party because some office-seeking demagogue tells 
 you that the whole country will go to rack and ruin 
 if you don t" 
 
 Now this speech was not exactly "made on the 
 spur of the moment" It had been thought out in 
 his hours of respite from toil. It had been as a fire 
 shut up in his bones through all the long wear} days 
 of the strike, and now that he had an opportunity to 
 let it forth, his burning, trenchant sentences came 
 like the rush of many waters. The electric fire with 
 which his whole being was charged even passed to a 
 few of the more sober and thoughtful part of his 
 audience. The} began to cheer. 
 
 Nelson might have finished his speech in good 
 order and had the satisfaction of quelling the incipi 
 ent riot in its first stages, but two untoward things 
 prevented. For in the first place scattered through 
 
188 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the crowd of workmen were numbers of that loose, 
 floating class of whom he had spoken to Martin Tre- 
 worthy, and who were not at all suited by any such 
 tame ending of affairs. They had joined the mob 
 for the fun of seeing a riot, and a riot they meant to 
 have. And in the second place his scathing arraign 
 ment of the saloon as the chief source of their ills 
 was not agreeable to those of the workmen who had 
 imbibed the theories of Socialistic speakers. They 
 were accustomed to hearing all the blame laid on the 
 shoulders of the manufacturers, and preferred de 
 cidedly that solution of their difficulties. Such wild 
 and lawless elements were not to be controlled, 
 though they might receive a momentary check by 
 the array of statistics and argument in the young 
 workman s speech. To the majority of the rabble it 
 had only been, to use the words of Jeremiah, "like a 
 very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice 
 and can play well on an instrument." The novelty 
 over, the reckless, rioting spirit again began to mani 
 fest itself. 
 
 "Come, dry up now. We ve heard enough of your 
 talk. You are the feller that s been standing up all 
 along for these rich, lazy, lollypops of manufactur 
 ers. And that s what I think" here followed an 
 expression rather too emphatic for these pages, 
 while a bricKbat whizzed uncomfortably close to 
 Nelson s head, and struck against the walls of the 
 building behind him "of you or any other working 
 man who will take the part of bloated aristocrats, 
 and go agin his own flesh and blood." 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 189 
 
 "That was a weighty but not a convincing argu 
 ment," said Nelson coolly and sarcastically as he 
 dodged the missile. "The friend who just inter 
 rupted rne must take surer aim next time if he wants 
 to shut my mouth. This wild, communistic talk 
 may do for Europe, but God help us working men 
 of America should we ever make assassination and 
 dynamite the weapons of our warfare, for then hate 
 will rise up to answer to hate, passion to passion, 
 and I warn you the contest will be a very unequal 
 one. Bad leaders and bad liquor do the cause of 
 labor more harm than all the -bloated aristocrats in 
 the land." 
 
 "If the rich uns mought ev their wine, the poor 
 uns mought ev their beer," shouted out a brawny 
 Cornish man, whose Vulcan-like strength was only 
 to be surpassed by the ugliness of his temper when 
 too full of his favorite dram. While another chimed 
 in derisively: 
 
 "I ll be bound old Densler keeps plent}* of the real 
 stuff in his cellar. Maybe we ll make a visit there 
 to-night and find out." 
 
 The mob laughed and shouted at this piece of 
 bravado. 
 
 Nelson opened his mouth to reply. A stone 
 struck him squarely on the jaw. The spirit of riot 
 had once more taken possession of the crowd, and 
 there was only time for the heartsick feeling that he 
 was indeed a prophet without honor to rush over 
 him in a bitter wave, before the necessity of looking 
 out for his own personal safety became pressingly 
 
190 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 apparent. In vain the policemen used their clubs. 
 Stones and brickbats flew promiscuously. 
 
 Nelson was agile and quick in expedients. He 
 turned down an alley with half a dozen of the rioters 
 at his heels, intent on giving him rough usage if 
 they should succeed in getting their hands on him, 
 then darted through an open doorway, the door 
 kindly shutting to behind him and interposing a 
 strong barricade of bolts and bars against his baffled 
 pursuers, who hung around it for awhile like en 
 raged wasps, and then left him alone with his de 
 liverer, who was no other than our old friend Pat 
 Murphy. Ever since casting his vote for the W. C. 
 T. U. Pat had stood fairly by his newly discovered 
 principles, considering all the temptations to do 
 otherwise which were in his way. It must be re 
 marked, however, that the women of the W. C. T. U. 
 have a habit (inconvenient for liquor sellers and 
 their political allies) of not abating a whit of their 
 fervor and zeal when election day is over, and their 
 lines of effort are wonderfully varied. Mrs. Judge 
 Haviland herself had sent flowers and hot-house 
 grapes to his daughter slowly dying of consumption, 
 and baskets of warm clothing for the younger chil 
 dren; and it cannot be denied that such ministra 
 tions in the saloon-cursed homes of Jacksonville 
 had, to illogical minds like Pat s, a peculiarly con 
 vincing power. Anyway he held "the temperance 
 women" in high regard, and had they been veritable 
 canonized saints could not have spoken of them on 
 all occasions with more reverential respect. 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 191 
 
 Pat knew Nelson and liked him. 
 
 "Och, Misther Newhall, but }-e re safe now. Bad 
 luck to the murtherin villains." 
 
 "I wish I could see Mr. Densler," said Nelson, 
 after he had duly thanked his rescuer. "I wonder 
 if he has left his office yet." 
 
 "The boss?" and Pat grinned "He come here 
 about tin minutes ago in. about as big a hurry as 
 yerself. Ye ll foind him in that little room beyant, 
 but och, he s cross as a bear with a sore head." 
 
 Nelson started in very natural surprise to find that 
 his retreat was shared by his employer, but the fact 
 was Matthew Densler enjoyed the distinction of 
 being the best-hated manufacturer in Jacksonville. 
 He had left his office by a back way, but when he 
 saw that the rioters had full possession of the street 
 he would have to traverse in order to reach his 
 home, he concluded that it would be more prudent 
 to seek some place of safety and wait, either till the 
 disturbance was over, or a guard of policemen could 
 be summoned to escort him. At present those 
 officials had their hands full, and all that the dis 
 comforted manufacturer could do was to watch the 
 progress of affairs from the cobweb-curtained win 
 dow of his retreat a rough, unfinished room used 
 for purposes of general storage. 
 
 He was, as Pat had informed Nelson, in a decid 
 edly bearish frame of mind, and gave only a surly 
 nod to the latter, who now, that the excitement was 
 over, felt both weary and heartsick. He had cast 
 his pearls before swine. Was it strange that they 
 
192 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 should turn again and rend him? But the heart of 
 the young workman throbbed too deeply in pity and 
 sorrow for his misguided brethren to feel altogether 
 sympathetic towards his irate employer. 
 
 "The mob is threatening to sack your house, Mr. 
 Densler," he said. "They would not attempt such 
 a thing till night, of course, and they may not at 
 tempt it at all, but I think it would be wise to set a 
 guard over it." 
 
 Nelson received but small thanks for his informa 
 tion. 
 
 "A pretty pass things have got to when an honest 
 citizen has to seek the protection of the civil authori 
 ties in his own home! But the} T needn t think to 
 frighten me into giving in. No; not while my name 
 is Matthew Densler." 
 
 Nelson had spoken his mind to the riotous work 
 men. Here was an excellent chance, often longed 
 for, to speak his mind to the other side. 
 
 "Mr. Densler, I want to say a word." 
 
 "Say on," was the gruff response. 
 
 "Supposing you manufacturers all went by the 
 Golden Rule, and treated your employes exactly as 
 you would like to be treated yourselves, do you 
 think there would be all this strife and violence?" 
 
 "Yes;" was the furious response. "While they 
 have their Grand Worthy Something or other, like 
 that Gerrish I can t remember all the fellow s titles 
 to come between and stir it up. Curse their con 
 founded impudence! The other manufacturers may 
 give in. They ll find I am made of sterner stuff." 
 
Reaping the Whirl win J. 193 
 
 "I think myself," said Nelson, steadily, "that 
 these secret labor unions are not for the good of 
 either side, though I n^self belong to one. But. 
 Mr. Densler, if I mistake not, you yourself belong 
 to a Board of Trade whose onl}~ object is to so con 
 trol the market as to add to the alread}* colossal for 
 tunes of its members. While you capitalists com 
 bine together to innate or depress prices at your 
 own will, can you blame working men for combining 
 too? Can you set them an example of selfishness 
 and greed and not expect that they will follow it?" 
 
 Some men rather like a blunt presentation of the 
 truth. Matthew Densler was one of that class. He 
 smiled grimly. 
 
 "Go on. You are just the kind of a chap I like 
 to hear talk, and if I had had two or three like you 
 to treat with in the beginning of the fuss there 
 might not have been any at all." 
 
 "I have but one thing more to say, Mr. Densler. 
 The working man s enemy is yours. When drink 
 steals away his brains he is read}* for riots read}* 
 to kill and burn and destroy. But you manufactur 
 ers think too much of your business, your comfort. 
 or your convenience, to attend the caucusses and 
 primaries, and look out for what the saloon interest 
 is. doing. If you allow it to bribe, to corrupt, to 
 control, do not wonder when you reap the bitter 
 fruits of your own sowing." 
 
 Matthew Densler called himself a temperance 
 man, and in one sense this was true. He did not 
 drink liquor himself, nor did he offer it to others, 
 
194 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 and if the mob carried out their threat of visiting 
 his house they would have been likely to be disap 
 pointed in the contents of his cellar. But at the 
 same time he had never taken any strong ground 
 for prohibition. A political measure was of interest 
 tojiim merely as it might injure or benefit his busi 
 ness. Prohibitionists and reformers generally he 
 was a little inclined to despise they did not know 
 how to make mone} 7 . 
 
 We take pleasure in sketching Matthew Densler s 
 portrait thus minutely, not that he has much to do 
 with our story, but because he represents very fairly 
 a class of "penny-wise, pound-foolish" manufactur 
 ers who are quite too common. But this much 
 must in justice be said of him. If he was a hard, 
 obstinate, irrascible man, he was at least an honest 
 one. He had the Anglo-Saxon instinct for fair play 
 and no favor, and was not at all displeased with the 
 young workman for this frank statement of his 
 opinions. 
 
 "Go on," he said, with the same grim smile. 
 "You seem to have taken it upon you to set my sins 
 in order before me, and as it happens I haven t any 
 thing to do just now but to listen." 
 
 "Mr. Densler," said Nelson, flushing, "my remarks 
 were not intended to have a personal bearing. I be 
 lieve you are full as just as the average, but while 
 you rich manufacturers care more for making money 
 than for the bodies or souls of your workmen, 
 these foreign anarchists and socialists will find a fair 
 field among them. Not a third of the hands are 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 195 
 
 concerned in this riot, but of that third beer and 
 whisky are the leaders. If you persist in ignoring 
 the greatest issue of the age, why, look out The 
 time may come when you will have to call for armed 
 soldiers to defend your property instead of a few 
 policemen." 
 
 But even as the last words left Nelson s lips an 
 unwonted sound for the streets of Jacksonville 
 caused them both to start. Above the roar and 
 yells of the mob came the sharp and simultaneous 
 report of firearms. In the melee one of the strikers 
 had drawn his knife, seriously stabbing a policeman, 
 and the men of law, tired of using their clubs, had 
 at last opened fire on the rioters. 
 
 Matthew Densler was not an unfeeling man. "With 
 a pallor in his face and a shiver through his limbs 
 he turned to Nelson. 
 
 "You ve come down on me hard, but I don t think 
 any the worse of you for it. God knows I would 
 have given my right hand not to have this happen." 
 
 "I believe it, Mr. Densler," said Nelson, earnestly. 
 
 At that moment employer and employed had a 
 much better understanding of each other than ever 
 before. 
 
 The riot was soon over. The mob melted away 
 in confusion, leaving two of their number prostrate 
 on the pavement one stone dead, the other breath 
 ing faintly, but shot through a vital part. 
 
 The} earned him -into the works, it was the near 
 est place, and made him as comfortable as possible 
 for the few hours of life which remained to him. 
 
196 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 The streets were soon quiet abnormally quiet. 
 Business and pleasure were alike suspended. All 
 sorts of wild stories were flying about, rumors of 
 wholesale incendiarism were in the air, and many of 
 the citizens formed themselves into armed bands to 
 patrol the streets till daybreak. Lodge-ruled and 
 saloon-ridden Jacksonville was beginning to eat the 
 fruit of her own doings. 
 
 Just as Nelson, seeing that the danger was over 
 for the present, was about to leave his place of re 
 fuge, a summons came for him to hasten with all 
 speed to the side of the dying man. 
 
 "His name is Schumacher," said the messenger, 
 in response to Nelson s inquiry. "He s seemed 
 awful restless and uneasy pears to have something 
 on his mind like." 
 
 Socialist and infidel though he was, Nelson had 
 always felt a certain liking for Schumacher as a man 
 capable of better things, and he felt shocked and 
 grieved. 
 
 He found him tying on his hastily improvised 
 couch, with his eyes closed and the pallor of death 
 upon his face; but when Nelson approached he 
 opened them and said faintly: 
 
 "I want to see you alone." 
 
 The standers-by respected his wish and withdrew. 
 In the presence of this soul going into eternity, even 
 curiosity to know what he had to say to him grew 
 dormant in Nelson s mind. The rough room, the 
 dimly-burning lamp, which happened to be so placed 
 that his own figure was cast in grotesque outlines on 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 197 
 
 the wall, all seemed to waver and shift before him 
 like the figures in a dream, while with straining ears 
 he listened to the dying man. who spoke in faint but 
 distinct whispers. 
 
 -I made that machine for blowing up the works. 
 I didn t put it in the building. I don t know who 
 did. But I never thought of their accusing you. 
 On nry soul I didn t." 
 
 Let that all go," said Neson, soothingly; for on 
 the whole he was not much surprised at the revela 
 tion. "Had 3*ou meant to injure me I should have 
 f orgi ven you all the same, for I hope I am a Chris 
 tian, and as it is there is nothing to forgive. It is 
 against GTod and your fellow-men that you have 
 sinned." 
 
 "But I had to do it. I must tell you that. We 
 were detailed. Each one had his share in the job, 
 and if we had refused or let on, it would have been 
 death." 
 
 Horror-struck. Nelson listened. He had read of 
 the Nihilists. Invincibles. and Black Hand, but 
 always with a faint and far-off kind of interest as 
 something that did not and never would directly 
 concern him. Yet right here in Jacksonville there 
 was, according to Schumacher s statement, a secret 
 organization which, whatever might be its name, was 
 modelled after them, both in purpose and methods 
 of working. 
 
 "That isn t all," he added, speaking with a strange, 
 feverish energy. "We ve got our list of marked 
 men obstructionists, we call them. Matthew Dens- 
 
198 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 ler is one; you are another. Last night we held a 
 meeting and drew lots. We don t go by our own 
 names, we go by numbers. The red paper with 
 your name on it was drawn by No. 10. I am 
 No. 10." 
 
 Nelson gasped for breath. He felt a horrible 
 sense of suffocation, and then a sudden wave, half 
 of pity, half of increduility, rolled awaj 7 the night 
 mare feeling sufficiently for him to speak. 
 
 "You never would have taken my life, Schumach 
 er. I don t I can t believe it." 
 
 "I was bound by my oath to do it or be killed my 
 self. That s a kind of a tight place to put a man 
 into. But now you must go away from Jackson 
 ville; there s no other way. I couldn t die without 
 warning you. You must go go quick." 
 
 The d} T ing man sank back exhausted by the effort 
 of speaking. Nelson hastily summoned the physi 
 cian and watchers. A stimulant was administered 
 and he partially revived, but his mind seemed to 
 wander. The words he uttered were not coherent, 
 only one several times repeated sounded like 
 "mother." He was back in his childhood s home 
 with his parents, simple, Bible-loving German Chris 
 tians, who never dreamed when the old Lutheran 
 pastor sprinkled the baptismal drops on his infant 
 brow that their only son would be left to wander in 
 the dark mazes of infidelity. 
 
 And how did it come about? Through associa 
 tion with the atheistic, communistic leaders of a 
 secret labor union. And the same process is going 
 
Reaping the Whirlwind. 199 
 
 on all over our land to day ; the subtle poison is 
 being silently injected through the myriad Christ- 
 excluding lodge worships that are paraded in the 
 newspapers and defended by unthinking, Christian 
 people as nothing but harmless benefit societies. 
 Poor Schumacher had only become a convert to the 
 universal religion of Masonry that puts the Bible, 
 the Koran and the Vedas on the same level; and if 
 to him Christ was only a great spiritualist medium, 
 a mere man, of wonderful powers but perfectly to 
 be accounted for, let not that minister or church 
 member who offers strange fire at altars where the 
 very mention of that Holy Name by which he is 
 called is forbidden, cast the first stone at this be 
 wildered and deceived workingman who simply fol 
 lowed out to their logical conclusions the doctrines 
 taught in every Masonic or Odd-fellow lodge. 
 
 Suddenly he opened his eyes with a gleam of con 
 sciousness. 
 
 "It is dark," he muttered, "dark, DARK!" 
 
 Do 3*ou want a minister sent for?" inquired the 
 doctor, who thought it about the right thing to pro 
 pose, though he had no great faith in ministers, 
 being himself a believer in the same -universal re 
 ligion." 
 
 But he shook his head, and his eye fell on Nelson 
 with a look of supplication. Over that sandy 
 foundation of negatives on which he had built his 
 faith, or rather no faith, were fast rushing the cold 
 waters of death fierce, inexorable, hungry for their 
 prey. 
 
200 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Nelson was a Christian man; he knew that implor 
 ing glance was directed to him. He must say some 
 thing. Slowly and distinctly he repeated that prec 
 ious text, which, while the world stands, shall be as 
 a beacon light flashing far out over the dark sea of 
 eternity: 
 
 "Gk>d so loved the world" Nelson s heart was 
 tender with his own recent practicing of the God 
 like grace of pity, and perhaps for that reason he 
 threw into the familiar words, all unconsciously to 
 himself, a, deeper pathos and power "God so loved 
 the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." 
 
 Over the face of the dying stole a strange calm: 
 whether the calm of dissolving nature or the peace 
 which passeth all understanding, who shall say? 
 
 A moment s labored breathing, and Schumacher, 
 infidel and socialist, lay dead. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A MODERN PUBLICAN. 
 
 We will now visit quieter scenes. 
 
 Fairfield is rejoicing in a flourishing Farmer s 
 Grange, and though Israel Deming s trial of "the 
 machine" had not been altogether satisfactory, none 
 of the sanguinary results which Uncle Zeb s com 
 parison had seemed to dimly predict have yet hap 
 pened. As for Dora, she has found the grange pre 
 cisely what she wanted and expected a field for 
 new conquests over the hearts of her rustic admir 
 ers, as well as a most advantageous theater for the 
 display of her pretty features, and all those general 
 feminine bewitchments which ever since the Fall 
 have beguiled the foolish Adams of our race. 
 
 Uncle Zeb sometimes slyly inquired with an in 
 ward chuckle "if the machine was working well." 
 
 "Beautifully," broke in Dora on one of these oc 
 casions, addingly saucily, "You needn t ask father. 
 He hasn t got his mind made up yet" 
 
 Mr. Deming laughed and gave her rosy cheek a 
 playful pinch. 
 
 "I believe a good frolic is all you young folks 
 care about." 
 
 "We were all young ourselves once/ sagaciously 
 observed Uncle Zeb. "I remember the husking 
 
202 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 parties I used to go to when I was a boy amost as 
 well as though the last one only happened yester 
 day. And I remember the hogsheads of New Eng 
 land rum they used to tap whenever there was a bee 
 or a raising or anything of that kind. How the 
 times have altered. It does beat all. Our minister 
 used to preach rousing sermons on election and fore- 
 ordination and the eternal sovereignty, and I rely 
 think he was a good man, but he used to like his 
 glass of toddy as well as anybod}^ and it s a fact 
 now I ve known him in his parish visits to take so 
 much at the different places he went to that when 
 he come to go home he couldn t walk straight. 
 Talking about that makes me think of what Deacon 
 Wetherby told me to-day about Snyder that keeps 
 that doggery over to the east part. He s got con 
 verted." 
 
 "You don t say so," responded Mr. Deming. 
 "Well, well; that s good news, if it is true," he added 
 with a little touch of doubtfulness, which perhaps 
 he ought not to have felt, considering how many 
 times he had read the story of Zaccheus the publi 
 can. 
 
 "Oh, there ain t a bit of doubt," briskly responded 
 Uncle Zeb, who could gossip about anything, a con 
 version or a revival as soon as a marriage or a 
 death. "Deacon Wetherb}^ says it makes him think 
 of Saul of Tarsus to hear him a praisin and a 
 prayin . And you know he was one of the lowest 
 kind of critters before. And sez I, Deacon, that 
 shows we ain t to despair of the most miserable sin- 
 
A Modem Publican. 203 
 
 ner that walks the earth. The Lord s mercy ain t 
 straitened. And the Deacon, he jest grasped my 
 hand and sez he, Uncle Zeb, I feel like goin around 
 and singin "Amazin grace" all the time since I 
 he erdonV" 
 
 Dora had slipped away while this conversation 
 was in progress. We must confess the truth 
 neither temperance nor religion were to this young 
 damsel very attractive themes. She hated the sight 
 and smell of rum, and as for rumsellers, they were a 
 miserable, degraded set, and drunkards wives and 
 children why, they were to be pitied of course. 
 But as she generally ended by putting all such 
 thoughts out of her head as soon as possible, the 
 reader will perceive that no very great drafts were 
 made on her sympathies. She was glad in a general 
 way that that wretched Snyder was going to quit 
 rumselling and lead a better life. Why couldn t 
 everybody be good and respectable? It would be 
 so much easier for themselves and better all round. 
 
 The deep, solemn problems of human existence, 
 that mystery of sin and misery under whose weight 
 creation groans and travails, she either passed over 
 entirely or touched with the same ignorant lightness 
 with which a butterfly might be supposed to sun its 
 wings alit on a page of mathematical diagrams. 
 
 This modern publican was no other than Peter 
 Snyder, who, since he was cast out from Jackson 
 ville, had wandered through dry places seeking rest, 
 and finding an empty shanty in a part of Fairfield 
 where he could ply his trade without much risk of 
 
204 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 molestation, he had taken possession thereof and set 
 up what was ostensibly a small grocer}- store, but 
 where the initiated could obtain at any hour of the 
 day or night the very vilest brand of liquor in the 
 market. 
 
 It is decidedly pleasant to look upon one s self as 
 persecuted in a good cause. Peter Snyder consid 
 ered himself a martyr to the doctrine of personal 
 libert} T , but we must confess that he showed very lit 
 tle of the martyr meekness. If, during his stay in 
 Jacksonville, he had seemed possessed of an evil 
 spirit to seduce and destroy, like the man in the par 
 able, that evil spirit had returned to him since he 
 settled in Fairfield intensified sevenfold. He had 
 always sold rum for a living and he meant to sell it; 
 and every bothering, fanatical fool, who, as he 
 pathetically expressed it, "was trying to ruin a poor 
 man s business," he consigned in no gracious terms 
 to the adversary of God and men, with whom, judging 
 from the frequency and freedom with which he used 
 his name, Mr. Peter Snyder seemed to be on very 
 intimate terms. 
 
 But why should the candid reader utterly condemn 
 this poor, nineteenth-century publican for his reso 
 lution. He had the government permit to sell liquor. 
 Why shouldn t he sell it? We are told in Holy 
 Writ that earthly governments are God s viceroys; 
 and if, standing in the place of Eternal Justice, 
 Eternal Purity, Eternal Love, they dare to license 
 that which is the cup of death to soul and body, to 
 put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness 
 
A Modern Publican. 205 
 
 for light and light for darkness, is it strange that in 
 the minds of the governed, especial!}- that class who, 
 like Mr. Peter Sn}-der, are not in the habit of mak 
 ing nice moral distinctions, there should exist some 
 confusion of ideas. Why is it right for the nation 
 to sell rum, and wrong for the individual? And if 
 rumselling is right, wh}- may not some other things 
 be right too? It is from the class of minds thus 
 taught to question that the socialist will always 
 make the readiest converts to his doctrine of dagger 
 and dynamite. Congressmen, legislators, and "all 
 in authorit}-" from the Chief Executive to the local 
 magistrate, can 3-011 afford to run the fearful risk 
 that eveiy government must run which makes right 
 and wrong mere rhetorical terms b} T licensing 
 iniquity, and then joining as an active partner by 
 taking to itself ninety per cent of the profit? Is it 
 not warming in its own bosom the serpent s eggs 
 which in time will hatch the cockatrice of anarchy 
 and revolution? 
 
 But to return to our publican. He was low and 
 despised. Decent and respectable society would 
 have shuddered at the very idea of admitting him 
 within its pale; but was there in his heart some la 
 tent seed of good, or did the prayers of his long- 
 sainted Methodist mother come up in remembrance 
 before God, or was it that sublime, inscrutable pur 
 pose of Jehovah to have mere} on whom he will 
 have mere}- that wrought the miracle? For while 
 theologians dispute over the nature and laws of 
 miracles and look askance on cases of faith healing 
 
20(> Between Two Opinions. 
 
 as a superstition of weak and simple minds, the 
 work of the supernatural goes on in the same grand 
 ly immutable fashion with which the sun shines and 
 the rain falls and the seasons come and go and ask 
 no leave of any theological school. 
 
 Mr. Peter Snyder had moments when his con 
 science was not at ease, and like the troubled sea 
 when it cannot rest, it cast up mire and dirt. It was 
 at these periodical seasons that he swore the loudest 
 and declaimed most violently against "hypocrites," 
 under which comprehensive term he meant to in 
 clude in a general way everybody who made any 
 pretensions to be better than himself. For it must 
 be explained that Mr. Snyder decidedly resented 
 being classed among the world s off-scourings its 
 pariahs and its Ishmaels. In his own opinion he 
 was no worse than the professing Christian who, for 
 the sake of gain, rents his property to a saloonist, 
 or the politician who, for the sake of securing votes, 
 caters to the saloon interest, or the public official 
 who winks at violations of the law in his Masonic 
 brethren; and on the whole, looking at the subject 
 from an unprejudiced point of view, we are inclined 
 to think him in the right. 
 
 So when it was reported that a series of revival 
 meetings were going to be held in the neighborhood, 
 Mr. Snyder had considerable to say on the subject, 
 but we will not take the trouble of transcribing his 
 remarks as the reader can easily imagine their gen 
 eral drift and tenor. 
 
 "They say Elder Wood is a goin to come down 
 
A Modern Publican. 207 
 
 on the Masons red hot. That ll suit you, Sn}*der." 
 chuckled Jack Bender, who, with several other red- 
 . nosed and bloated specimens of humanitj*, was 
 lounging round the bar-room stove, discussing the 
 forthcoming meetings in that free and liberal style 
 with which such matters are general!} argued un 
 der the inspiration of an atmosphere reeking with 
 oaths and tobacco smoke. 
 
 "You don t say so," responded the worthy pro 
 prietor of the establishment; and after an instant s 
 reflection he brought his fist down on the counter 
 and roared out with a tremendous oath: 
 
 " Then Til go to hear him: 
 
 Jack laughed. 
 
 "Did ye hear that, boys? Snyder is willing to go 
 to hear the water saint jist for the fun of hearing 
 him blow up the Masons. If that ain t about the 
 nighest to cutting off }*er nose to spite yer face as 
 anything /ever hearn on." 
 
 But Mr. Snyder s resolution was not of a kind to 
 be shaken by a little harmless chaffing. 
 
 "I don t care if it is, he responded fiercely. "I ve 
 said I ll go, and I will go. And now jist look here. 
 Any on ye as goes to acting off shines on the 
 preacher will have me agin him square. I give ye 
 fair warning." 
 
 This was not altogether an idle threat, as Mr. Sny 
 der had been in former days a pugilist of consider 
 able local renown. Even now he was a match for 
 three rowdies like Jack Bender. 
 
 Good Elder Wood had no idea that the rough, 
 
208 Jlctween Two Opinions. 
 
 hardened-looking man who took his station close to 
 the platform and listened with such edifying atten 
 tion was really plaj ing the part of a protecting 
 angel; still less of the strange leadings through 
 which God was about to glorify his name by one of 
 those signal triumphs of redeeming grace which in 
 the biographies of a Bunyan or a Newton seem to 
 show us as by a lightning flash the unsearchable 
 depths in that love which passeth knowledge. 
 
 Neither was an}^ such thought in the mind of 
 Peter Snyder when he went to hear this anti-rum, 
 anti-tobacco, anti-lodge apostle. His anger against 
 the Masons had burned with a steady flame ever 
 since they refused him admission into their "ancient 
 and honorable fraternity." He understood the reasons 
 for this refusal perfectly well. It was not because 
 he sold rum. It was not because he was a profane, 
 hardened sinner. He knew that the lodge took in 
 others as profane and hardened as himself; that 
 being a brewer, distiller, or dealer in alcoholic 
 liquors was never in itself a bar to membership. 
 But a low, illiterate, and altogether disreputable 
 rumseller could be no honor to the craft; and so the 
 lodge simply acted with a keen eye to its own credit 
 in thus turning upon him, as we have seen, the cold 
 shoulder, and treating him in the same manner, in 
 short, in which it treats women, fools, cripples, 
 negroes, minors, and old men in their dotage. 
 
 He waited with a satisfied smile on his face to 
 hear the elder begin on the subject of Masonry. 
 The most scathing exposure of lodge hypocrisy and 
 
A Modern Publican 209 
 
 fraud would have been as nectar to Peter Snyder s 
 soul. But suddenly, with the power of a two-edged 
 sword dividing the joints and marrow, God s truth 
 struck him, transfixed him in an agony. He forgot 
 what he came to the meeting for. He forgot every 
 thing but one terrible fact that he was a sinner. 
 It seemed as if he heard the very hissing of the un 
 quenchable flames, and felt their breath in his face. 
 He shivered, his features worked convulsively, and 
 then with one despairing groan he fell forward in 
 front of the preacher s stand and lay as one from 
 whom the life had departed. 
 
 The early history of Methodism, both in England 
 and America, abounds with instances of strong con 
 viction inducing a kind of cataleptic state, especially 
 in rough, uneducated natures, as if the body lay for 
 the time a bound and helpless captive to the spirit 
 over which it has so long held brutal domination. 
 The} belong for the most part to a religious era that 
 has passed away, but now and then a similar com 
 bination of causes will produce a similar effect. 
 And whether struck down by a supernatural power 
 directly exerted, or as modern materialism would ex 
 plain it, by intense excitement causing temporary 
 paralysis of the great nerve centers, the result in 
 Peter Snyder s case could not have been seriously 
 altered by either conclusion. He always averred 
 that while lying in that strange trance he saw the 
 Lord, and those who knew him before his conversion 
 never felt inclined to doubt the statement. 
 
 He came to himself no longer a swearing rough, 
 
210 Bitwttn Two Opinions. 
 
 but meek and gentle as a little child, and the first 
 thing he did to attest the depth and genuineness of 
 his conversion was to roll out every cask of liquor 
 in his shanty and empty their contents into the creek 
 which ran back of his dwelling. 
 
 He happened to be engaged in this employment 
 when Dennis Sullivan, a regular habitue of his 
 establishment, came to get his black demijohn filled. 
 He gazed on the frightful waste too spellbound with 
 horror to utter even an exclamation, till he saw him 
 knock out the head of the last cask. Then he could 
 contain himself no longer. He rushed forward in 
 the vain hope of saving it from the general destruc 
 tion, but already half its contents had mingled with 
 the waters of the creek, and gone to poison the 
 fishes. He made a maddened grab to catch some of 
 the precious liquid, cursing himself meanwhile for 
 bringing a demijohn instead of a dipper. But he 
 was too late, and with a howl of rage and disappoint 
 ment he turned and fled, as he honestly believed, 
 from the presence of a lunatic, astonishing Mrs. 
 Sullivan by the unheard-of phenomenon of his re 
 turn home at an early hour with his demijohn un 
 filled, and perfectly sober. 
 
 The news of Peter Snyder s conversion spread far 
 and wide through the region. He was as strong an 
 Anti-mason as before, though from very different 
 motives. His opinion of the lodge from his new 
 standpoint he one day expressed to Deacon Weath- 
 erby, who rejoiced over this brand plucked from the 
 burning, as only saints and angels can rejoice. 
 
A Modern Publican. 211 
 
 "A long time ago," said he, "I wanted to jine the 
 Masons, and I felt dreadfully cut up because they 
 blackballed me. Now I ve he erd some folks say 
 that the lodge was as good as the church, but jist 
 see the difference. Has Masonry got a word of kind 
 ness for the poor wretch that everybody despises? 
 When he s sinking in the miry clay of his sin wili it 
 go to him and try to help lift him out? Will it 
 show him the Lord Jesus as / see him a hangin on 
 the cross with the nails in his hands and feet, and 
 say, There, poor sinner; you ve hated the only One 
 that kin save you, but there he is a dyin that you 
 may live. When Masonry will do that it may call 
 itself as good as the church, but till it does it is a 
 swindle, a cheat, and a devil s lie." 
 
 But as Peter Snyder is to reappear again in our 
 story, we will leave him for the present and go back 
 to Jacksonville. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 DRIVEN FORTH. 
 
 "You must leave Jacksonville," said Martin Tre- 
 worthy, decidedly, as he paced up and down the 
 hermitage. "If you stay here your life won t be 
 worth insuring." 
 
 "But Tom what will he do without me?" 
 
 "Oh, that s settled easily enough. I can take 
 charge of him for awhile. Tom and I are good 
 friends." 
 
 "But it will be too much trouble for you," said 
 Nelson, doubtfully. 
 
 "I never expected to live without trouble," an 
 swered Martin, dryly; "and anybody that does will 
 be amazingly disappointed." 
 
 Nelson was silent a moment, doing meanwhile a 
 good deal of painful thinking. It was to him a bit 
 ter cup to be thus driven forth to a new field of com 
 bat, and all because he had sought too faithfully the 
 welfare of his class, and fought too bravely against 
 the anti-Christian forces that were seeking to drag 
 them all to one common, brutish level of the beasts 
 that perish. And if he had voiced his own thought 
 at that instant it would have been to utter the wail 
 of the old Hebrew prophet, "My people are destroyed 
 for lack of knowledge." 
 
Driven Forth. 213- 
 
 "Yes," he said, "I will go. And after all it is for 
 Tom s sake." 
 
 Martha and her aunt lived in the immediate neigh 
 borhood of the riot. They had passed a troubled 
 and anxious night, and when in the early morning 
 there came a tap at the door, Martha hastened to 
 open it with a premonition of coming ill. Nelson 
 stood there, his face blackened and bruised where 
 the rioters missiles had struck him, and haggard 
 with want of rest. She suppressed a slight scream, 
 and in a few brief words he explained the situation. 
 
 "Yes, you must go," she said firmly, but with pal 
 lid lips, "for Tom s sake and mine." 
 
 "I know I can find work of some kind somewhere 
 else," responded Nelson, thinking how just like 
 Martha it was to put herself last. "Tom, poor fel 
 low, has taken it into his head that 1 am going oflf 
 to find the farm I have talked to him so much about, 
 and I let him keep the idea. I didn t know but it 
 might make him happier and more contented. He 
 will miss me sadly." 
 
 "Well," answered Martha, her bright, brave 
 woman s nature asserting itself, "let us take a lesson 
 in child-like trust from Tom. Between the stores on 
 Mr. Treworthy s medicine shelf, and the dainty 
 dishes I shall compound up to tempt his appetite, 
 we will work wonders. But you must not stay," she 
 added with a slight shiver. "You must go. God 
 bless and keep you, Nelson." 
 
 And so Nelson turned his back on Jacksonville, 
 and went forth not knowing whither he went. 
 
214 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 He had laid Schumacher s information promptly 
 before the mayor, but the latter had been disposed 
 to receive it rather incredulously. Like too many 
 aspirants to public service, he liked office but hated 
 trouble, and so far the coveted muyorality had not 
 brought him much of anything else. The temper 
 ance agitators would not let him alone, but kept re 
 minding him by implication, if not in plainer terms, 
 of his unfulfilled promises. The strike had added 
 another element of uneasiness to his overflowing 
 cup, and now here was a secret society of Anarchists 
 to ferret out. It is a disagreeable necessity to have 
 to fight one s own kith and kin. Let us pity Jack 
 sonville s unfortunate mayor. 
 
 "This is an extraordinary statement most extra 
 ordinary in fact," he said, as he nervously fingered 
 his watch-chain, which was so heavily weighted with 
 the various mystic insignia of the different secret 
 orders to which he belonged as to be quite a marvel 
 to the uninitiated. He was a little man, rather fussy 
 and important, the sort who bustle about on days of 
 processions and displays as if in their native ele 
 ment, but are mere nonentities, or worse, when any 
 sudden crisis calls for energetic action. "Of course 
 we shall look into this matter, but we can t arrest 
 without knowing the place of meeting or the names 
 of some of the members. I don t see as the law can 
 do much till they actual!} commit some overt act 
 and so furnish us with some kind of a clue." 
 
 Whether Schumacher would have made a fuller 
 revelation had death delayed the stroke a moment 
 
Driven Forth. 215 
 
 longer was a question that Nelson never quite an 
 swered to his own satisfaction. To know that such 
 an organization existed among the workmen, and 
 that he himself was one of the predestined victims, 
 filled him not so much with emotions of personal 
 fear as with a kind of horror in which individual 
 feelings had no share. No. 10 had gone before a 
 tribunal where all secret oaths taken in darkness and 
 ignorance are null and void, but it had not }*et oc 
 curred to him to wonder who would take the place 
 of No. 10. He had been irritated by the maj or s 
 want of backbone on the liquor question, and as he 
 started for the door could not forbear giving him 
 this one sharp thrust. 
 
 "A simultaneous raid on all the unlicensed liquor 
 dens of Jacksonville would, in my opinion, discover 
 both the leaders and their place of meeting without 
 waiting for some life to be sacrificed first. It is in 
 these dens that this Socialist mischief is brewed. 
 The screens that hide one iniquity are just as con 
 venient to hide another. I have told all -I know in 
 regard to this matter, and now it remains for the 
 authorities to act and act promptly." 
 
 Jacksonville s chief functionary was unused to 
 such a vigorous style of address from a common 
 workman, and the reader will not probably wonder 
 that he did not like it over much. It must be ac 
 knowledged that Nelson in his rough garb and his 
 stern, rebuking speech might have passed with a 
 very little stretch of fancy on the mayor s part for 
 an incarnation of all those disturbing social qucs- 
 
216 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 tions which nowadays make official pathways so dis 
 agreeably thorny. 
 
 Matthew Densler read the note of warning which 
 Nelson contrived to dispatch to him with a face as 
 imperturbable as if it had been a report on the con 
 dition of the money market. The hard-handed and 
 hard-headed millionaire was made of very unimpres 
 sionable material, and shared to some extent that 
 Napoleonic belief in fate which is rather common in 
 men who, without much faith in the guiding hand of 
 a higher Power, have carved out their own destinies. 
 If it was his fate to die by bullet or dynamite, why, 
 he should, and nothing could avert it. It was dis 
 agreeable to contemplate, but so was death in any 
 form. Meanwhile, to Matthew Densler s shrewd 
 mind, trained to forecast chances in the financial 
 world to a hair s breadth, and not without consider 
 able keenness of sight at reading the signs of the 
 times politically, this was a very threatening and 
 dangerous state of affairs. Anarchy was in the air. 
 This discontent, this spirit of rebellion and revolt 
 everywhere meant something something ominous, 
 something dread. But he comforted himself as did 
 Hezekiah of old, and Louis XIY. in more modern 
 times, by reflecting that the social earthquake which 
 these things portended would not be likely to come 
 in his day. And then he took ink and paper and 
 rapidly wrote two checks, each for a considerable 
 amount, and the next day sent them to the families 
 of the men who had been killed in the riot. 
 
 Martin Treworthy, when he heard of it, only shook 
 
Driven Forth. 217 
 
 his grizzly head with the characteristic remark, 
 "He s rung truer than most of em would, but there s 
 fire under all this smoke, and its justice, not alms 
 giving, that s going to put it out" 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 KILKENNY CATS. 
 
 As organized secrecy appeals to nearly every pas 
 sion of the human heart, it is not strange that it 
 should draw into its net fish of every kind. With 
 Schumacher the governing idea had grown to be 
 this: that the laboring classes were wronged, that 
 they by no means had their rightful share in the dis 
 tribution of that wealth which their hands created. 
 And as the best wine makes the sharpest vinegar, so 
 that constitutional hatred of oppression which might 
 under other circumstances have made him a patriot, 
 under the atheistic, anti-republican influence of the 
 secret lodge system made him a conspirator. For 
 Mr. Gerrish we cannot say as much. Born and bred 
 in the Roman Catholic church, his rebound from its 
 restraints had been accompanied by a fierce, unreas 
 oning hate of all law, ecclesiastical or civil. He 
 possessed naturally the qualities for a conspirator, 
 the coolness, the adroitness, the mixture of boldness 
 and craft; and under no circumstances would he 
 have been anything else. The other members were 
 chiefly foreigners, whose future labor millennium 
 was a social revolution in which all property lines 
 should be obliterated, all obstructionists destroyed, 
 and everybody be as good as another. 
 
Kilkenny Oats. 219 
 
 Exactly how this state of affairs was to be brought 
 about the}* did not know, but they had great faith in 
 what their leaders told them, that it was going to be 
 accomplished some way, and they were not of a class 
 to be much troubled with any philosophic or moral 
 doubts. 
 
 The tidings of Schumacher s revelation spread like 
 wild fire. Jacksonville stood aghast at this discov 
 ery of a society of modern Thugs in her midst, and 
 very reasonably; but is it possible that the good 
 people who talked it over and exclaimed, "Awful! 
 terrible! What is the world coming to! : were ignor 
 ant of the fact that a secret order comprising half a 
 million members known as Free and Accepted Ma 
 sons, scattered over the country and meeting nightly 
 on their high places, were bound by oath to obey 
 every summons of their leaders, and shield everv 
 brother right or wrong, under no less a penalty than 
 throat-cutting, disembowelling, and a burial in the 
 sea at frijA. water-mark where the tide ebbs and flows 
 once in twenty-four hours? oaths of which that un 
 compromising old statesman, John Quincy Adams, 
 once wrote that u a cannibal ought to be ashamed?" 
 But as we happen to know that some of these good 
 people had taken those very oaths themselves, while 
 others had accepted without examination the witness 
 of friends and acquaintances that -Masonry is a 
 good thing," the theory of ignorance is not exactly 
 tenable, and we can only find a reason for their bit 
 ter denunciations of a handful of Socialist workmen 
 who were only putting their own Masonic principles 
 
220 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 into practice, on that broad and general ground of 
 human inconsistency which accounts for so many 
 strange things. 
 
 The order of the Brothers of the Red Mark was 
 thrown into consternation. They could not be sure 
 how much or how little was known to the authori 
 ties. But one thing was certain, Nelson Newhall 
 was with Schumacher in his last moments, and soon 
 after he had suddenly and quietly left Jacksonville. 
 The warning that he was "spotted" must have come 
 from No. 10; but death had stepped between, and 
 all the vengeance they could wreak on the traitor 
 was to pass a resolution, when they next met in 
 secret conclave, consigning his memory to everlast 
 ing disgrace and infamy among all true and worthy 
 brothers. 
 
 The meeting was a stormy and excited one Pan 
 demonium on a small scale. Some of the members 
 had really shrank with horror from the plans of the 
 organization as slowly unfolded before them, but 
 fear of the consequences should they divulge any 
 thing, and also something of the same regard for 
 their oath that Herod felt when he beheaded John 
 the Baptist, had kept them quiet. But now they 
 saw a way out. And so the brotherhood was broken 
 up into two separate factions, one proposing to dis 
 band till a more favorable time for carrying out 
 their peculiar scheme of social amelioration, the 
 other denouncing all cessation of warfare as a cow 
 ardly compromise with robber capitalists and 
 moneyed despots. 
 
Kilkenny Cats. 221 
 
 Some of these poor laborers had begun to realize 
 in dim fashion that they had been robbed of time, 
 wages, manhood, and self-respect; that the conspir 
 acy against society into which they had been in 
 veigled had only made public sentiment their enemy, 
 and now threatened to turn against them the sword 
 of law; and furthermore, that all this mattered very 
 little to such leaders as Mr. Patrick Gerrish, whose 
 chief concern at this critical juncture appeared to be 
 concentrated on the one point of escaping himself 
 out of the imbroglio with a whole skin. Re3 nolds, 
 to do him justice, had been to a certain degree sin 
 cere in his advocac} of the laborer s rights. He had 
 acted the part of a sycophant and a toady, but, as 
 we have seen, not without some stormy interludes 
 between him and his chief. 
 
 But we will give the reader for another, and, we 
 are happy to add, the last time, a free ticket of ad 
 mission into the beer saloon which was their chosen 
 place of meeting. 
 
 "Brothers of the Red Mark," shouted No. 5, a 
 fiery little German radical, the power of whose lungs 
 seemed to be in inverse ratio to his size; "the tocsin 
 of liberty shall one day resound through the length 
 and breadth of the land, and the banners of the 
 Social Revolution be planted on every church and 
 public building. Let us bide our time, but keep to 
 our motto: Down with tyrant capitalists, down with 
 priestcraft; down with law, down with government 
 they are allies of both; but in secret let us agitate, 
 organize, plan, till the time is ripe for open revolt 
 
222 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 All who counsel submission are traitors, and ought 
 to be treated as traitors." 
 
 This speech of No. 5, delivered with a foreign ac 
 cent which we have not tried to reproduce, caused a 
 most uproarious and tumultuous scene between the 
 opposing factions, one side feeling themselves per 
 sonally branded with this opprobrious title, the 
 other taunting them with its justice till fierce re 
 criminations, dire threats and shaking of fists, added 
 to too much liquor in their brains, culminated at 
 last in a free fight. 
 
 The unpleasant passage between the two leaders 
 mentioned in a former chapter had caused a breach 
 which was not healed over. Reynolds feared Ger- 
 rish; G-errish distrusted Reynolds. The latter had 
 outwardly acquiesced in the plan of the formes for 
 ending the strike by arbitration, but reflection con 
 vinced even his rather obtuse mind of two facts. 
 While he himself had not the smallest hope of being 
 reinstated in his old place, and was therefore inter 
 ested to have the strike continue as long as possible, 
 the case with the other one was widely different. 
 That gentleman was, as we have stated before, a 
 labor agitator by profession. It was his usual policy 
 to stay long enough in a place to stir up all the 
 trouble he could between workmen and their em 
 ployers, but never to prolong a strike beyond the 
 point when it ceased to be for his personal advan 
 tage to do so. 
 
 On the whole Reynolds had some reason to feel 
 dissatisfied with his reward for the cat s-paw part he 
 
Kilkenny Cats. 223 
 
 had played, and in the contest he now took sides 
 with the opposite faction and boldly accused his 
 quondam leader with a cowardly desertion of their 
 cause. Gerrish retorted with laconic sarcasm. 
 
 "Look out, answered Reynolds, angrily. "I can 
 tell a story that would send you to the gallows." 
 
 Perhaps there was more swagger than real truth 
 in this statement, but to a man conscious that his 
 past life had been *ull of ugly episodes, the threat 
 could not fail tc have a disagreeable sound. 
 
 "Liar!" hissed the one. 
 
 "Traitor!" thundered the other. 
 
 And in the confusion, nobody saw just when or 
 how, Gerrish gave Reynolds a deadly stab. He 
 managed to stagger out into the street with a cry of 
 murder which brought the police to the spot. They 
 made a few arrests, which did not, however, include 
 the principal actor in the tragedy. 
 
 At this point, very much to our relief, and doubt 
 less to our readers, Mr. Patrick Gerrish fades from 
 our story. At present he figures as an Irish dyna 
 miter, a line of business for which his talents pecul 
 iarly fit him. 
 
 And so the Brotherhood gave up the ghost in a 
 drunken brawl and was heard of no more. And as 
 the Grand Union refused to sustain the strike any 
 longer, the deceived and betrayed workmen were 
 only too glad to resume work at the former prices. 
 
 Stephen Rowland sent a copy of the Jacksonville 
 Patriot to the old couple who were thinking of him 
 and praying for him in that far-off village among 
 
224 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the New Hampshire hills, with a lengthy article in 
 it bearing these headlines: STARTLING REVELATIONS! 
 A secret society of Ku Klux among the laborers un 
 earthed by a murder in a saloon. A manufacturer and 
 a young workman on the marked list. The latter 
 leaves the place to save his life. 
 
 "Jacksonville must be awfully wicked," observed 
 Mr. Josiah Rowland, after reading it over carefully 
 to his wife who heard it in silence. "I kinder wish 
 Stephen could have made up his mind to stay East. 
 
 Mrs. Phoebe, in her mother s yearning after her 
 first born, had often been tempted to wish the same 
 thing, but she always changed it to a prayer: "De 
 liver him, Lord, from the temptation that is about 
 him, and bring him safe into thy heavenly king 
 dom." So she only answered, quietly: 
 
 "Well, I don t know, father. If the Lord lead 
 him there it must be for some good purpose. Let 
 us wait and see." 
 
 Mrs. Phoebe s whole life was a blessed waiting 
 time. She loved, and prayed, and worked; and 
 when she reached the limit of the possible in human 
 action, she let the threads go without a careful or 
 anxious thought. She had done her part. Another 
 would perfect the web. 
 
 "All this agitating, and shaking, and overturning, 
 only seems to me like one of the signs of the end," 
 she added. "Men s hearts failing them for fear and 
 for looking for those things which shall come upon 
 the earth." 
 
 For Mrs. Phoebe, to a New England matron s 
 
Kilkenny Cats. 225 
 
 clearness of mind and keen grasp of all common, 
 every-day subjects, added a mystical side a delight 
 in the mysterious, the sublime, the incomprehens 
 ible. And it was in keeping with this part of her 
 nature that she should joy in the thought of the Sec 
 ond Advent, and see in all the portentous signs of 
 the political and social heavens but the omens of His 
 near approach who will judge the earth in righteous 
 ness, and whose coming will be with burning and 
 fuel of fire. 
 
 "I can t see," said Mr. Josiah Rowland, "why peo 
 ple are not more awake to the dangers of secret 
 societies. Mason and Odd-fellow and G-ood Tem 
 plar s lodges are fairl} eating out the life of the 
 churches. I ve been seeing it this good while though 
 I hain t said much, not perhaps as much as I ought 
 to. We wonder there ain : t no revivals, and we labor 
 and pray, and have meetings, and try to get up an 
 interest only to have the lodge steal away our con 
 verts. If such things are done in a green tree, what 
 shall be done in the dry? If ministers see no harm 
 in secret societies, why should ignorant working- 
 men? I take it that the church must be purified 
 first before the world will grow much better." 
 
 " And if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith 
 shall it be seasoned, " softly repeated Mrs. Phrebe 
 Rowland. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 NABOTH. 
 
 Despite Nelson s fears, Martin Treworthy did not 
 find Tom a troublesome charge. He was as ready 
 to be amused as a child, and gentle even in his rare 
 fits of refractoriness. Sometimes he would take 
 strange whims into his head, but they were usually 
 of a harmless sort. Nelson had always managed 
 him easily, and Martin, from being so much with 
 him during his sickness, had gained an influence 
 over him only second to his brother s. 
 
 Martha, true to her promise, allowed scarcely a 
 day to pass without looking in upon the two, and 
 bringing some little delicacy to tempt the invalid s 
 rather feeble and capricious appetite. 
 
 "Mr. Tre worthy," she said on one of these occa 
 sions, as she placed on the table the bowl of sage 
 broth she had brought, and looked up into his rough, 
 kindly face, with her clear, earnest eyes, "I have al 
 ways told Nelson I would help him keep the promise 
 he made his mother to take care of Tom that I 
 neve r would think of him as a burden, or to be 
 ashamed of in any way, but love him and do for 
 him as if I was his very own sister. And I am glad 
 I can begin now." 
 
 If Martin Treworthy had spoken his exact thought 
 
Naboth, 227 
 
 just then, it would have been to say that at last he 
 had seen the woman whom he deemed fit to clasp 
 hands as a peer and equal with her who was sleep 
 ing in her maiden beauty under the prairie roses. 
 But he had been trained in a school of knighthood 
 that was prolific in deeds by which to prove its chiv 
 alry and ver} sparing in words. 
 
 So he only said, as he emptied the broth into a 
 tin kettle and set it on the stove competent house 
 keeper as he was in his small domain 
 
 "It ain t one woman in ten thousand that would 
 come up to the mark like that, though I needn t tell 
 you of it you know it as well as I do. But now," 
 he added, answering the mute inquiry in Martha s 
 face, "we needn t expect to hear from Nelson yet 
 awhile. He won t want to write till he finds a place 
 and has something to write about. I don t think his 
 going away was a mistake. Maybe there wouldn t 
 be an} danger now in his coming back, and maybe 
 there would. To my mind there s no saying about 
 that. Matters are quiet now, and it don t look as if 
 there was going to be any more trouble. But we 
 can t tell. He has roused a double enemy a snake 
 with two heads. The saloon men don t forget what 
 he did last fall, and when they owe a grudge they 
 know how to stir up the evil passions that are in 
 human nature nearly as well as the lodge knows 
 how to plot to carry them out. He s stayed long 
 enough in Jacksonville that s my opinion. The 
 Lord didn t make man as he did the trees and vege 
 tables, to stay in one place all the time. It will do 
 
228 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 him good to get away for awhile and enlarge his 
 ideas a trifle. They ll bear it. He don t know 
 everything yet." 
 
 At the very moment when Martin Treworthy was 
 pronouncing this dictum, Nelson, in a small river 
 town about forty miles distant, was "enlarging his 
 ideas" very considerably on one or two important 
 subjects a process that is sometimes a disagreeable 
 and painful one, like cutting teeth, especially when 
 it involves some matter about which we have hereto 
 fore obstinately refused to be enlightened. 
 
 He had not left Jacksonville without a definite 
 plan in his head a plan he had thought of before, 
 and which only the seeming impossibility of leaving 
 Tom for a sufficient length of time had prevented 
 him from carrying into execution. The spring was 
 opening, the sap was beginning to stir in the trees 
 and patches of green to show by the wayside. He 
 would hire out on a farm for the summer, and make 
 such arrangements as would permit him to have 
 Tom with him. The country air and country living 
 would be better than doctor s drugs, or even Martin 
 Tre worthy s treasury of roots and herbs. On the 
 whole he might have rather enjoyed this unexpected 
 opportunity to pursue a course he had so often had 
 in mind if it had not seemed to his brave nature too 
 much like a cowardly flight. But how could he 
 keep the promise made to his dying mother unless 
 he guarded the life so precious to Tom? He knew 
 too well the bitter hatred felt by many of the 
 workmen a hatred which had its basis in igno- 
 
Naboth. 229 
 
 ranee, and as Martin Tre worthy truly conjectured, 
 had been fostered and fed in low liquor saloons 
 whose proprietors kept the fact in remembrance that 
 Nelson s prompt and successful proceedings against 
 Snyder was the first shell fired into their camp, the 
 initial step in the warfare that was now threatening 
 their destruction. 
 
 The conversation which was having this satisfac 
 tory effect on Nelson s ideas, he was holding with a 
 man dressed in blue jean trousers tucked into boots 
 that were a marvel of the cordwainer s art. His 
 hair, which was abundant though much streaked 
 with gray, he wore long; his beard was likewise of 
 patriarchal length, but bore marks of careful trim 
 ming. Indeed, there was about his whole dress and 
 person a singular mixture of neatness and slovenli 
 ness, carelessness and refinement; and his speech 
 was something on the same order, for while strongly 
 seasoned with the rustic patois of the southwest, he 
 was evidentl}- a man who had at least the rudiments 
 of education, and when he thought it worth the trou 
 ble could express himself in good grammatical Eng 
 lish. 
 
 The surroundings were in keeping: the four walls 
 of a rough cabin; a rifle, with powder, shot and 
 gamebag stacked in one corner; a rude bed made of 
 leaves; a table which was nothing but a board laid 
 over a flour-barrel; a rusty stove, a teakettle, a skil 
 let, and much unclassified rubbish, completed a pic 
 ture to which Martin Tre worthy s hermitage was the 
 height of civilization. 
 
230 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Come from fur away, did ye, stranger?" 
 
 "Not from outside the State," answered Nelson, 
 indirectly. 
 
 "Wall, ye look honest enough," continued the man, 
 eying him with a scrutinizing glance, "but for all I 
 know ye may be the biggest rogue in these parts." 
 
 "And for all / know you may be the captain of 
 some robber gang who make your cabin their head 
 quarters," retorted Nelson, coolly. "I am not sure 
 as it is safe for me to stand here talking with you." 
 
 The man burst into a horse laugh, evidently de 
 lighted with this prompt payment in his own coin. 
 And then he sobered suddenly; a fierce, vindictive 
 glitter came into his gray eyes, and a singular look 
 overspread his whole face. 
 
 "I say, stranger, did ye ever read the story of 
 Naboth?" 
 
 "Yes," was Nelson s answer to this abrupt and 
 rather startling question. "Why do you ask?" 
 
 "Because there s a right smart heap of Naboths 
 in the world," was the laconic reply. 
 
 Nelson saw he had hold of un odd character. 
 
 "I am sorry if it is so," he said, eying his inter 
 locutor rather curiously, "for that would seem to 
 prove that there must be a good many Ahabs in the 
 world, and I want to think better of human nature." 
 
 "Maybe you want to think better of it than the 
 Lord does," responded the other, shortly. "You see 
 I m one of the Naboths." 
 
 "That s bad," said Nelson; "but it would be a 
 great deal worse to be on the other side." 
 
Naboth. 231 
 
 "I reckon you are about right, stranger," said the 
 man, giving Nelson another scrutinizing look. "Now 
 if you ll excuse me for quiriu , Be}*ou a Mason?" 
 
 Nelson replied in the negative, and he went on, 
 talking in a rapid, excited fashion. 
 
 "Then I ll tell you my story. My name is Jesse 
 Dukes; I was born and raised in Tennessee. I come 
 here and I bought a farm two hundred acres of 
 good bottom land, the best there was in the county. 
 I paid down my money in good faith, hard cash, and 
 then it turned out that there was something wrong 
 about the papers. Ahab wanted my vineyard and 
 he got it. My wife was sickly and the worry killed 
 her. Our two boys we buried before we left Ten 
 nessee. I lost heart. I didn t care for an} thing. 
 I don t now, only to come across the rascal that 
 swindled me out of all I had in the world just once" 
 and he clenched his hard hand "see if I wouldn t 
 give him his deserts, law or no law, for he won t 
 never get em any other way. I made a hard fight, 
 and if it could only have been a fair fight but he 
 was a Mason, a high Mason, and the lawyers were 
 Masons, and so was most of the jury and the very 
 judge on the bench. And it was all a gone case 
 from the start. Now 3*ou ll low, stranger, that must 
 ha come mighty hard on a man." 
 
 Nelson had heard Martin Treworthy relate such 
 instances of Masonic justice in our courts of law, 
 but it was another thing to stand face to face with 
 one who had felt the iron enter into his soul, and 
 hear him tell the tale. 
 
232 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Indeed it was hard," he said. "And more than 
 that it was iniquitous." 
 
 Mr. Dukes went on. 
 
 "You was inquirin , stranger, if this was a no- 
 license town. Wall, lawfully nobody kin sell a drop, 
 but bless yer soul, what s law to a man that by jest 
 raisin his Hands to his head and lettin em drop 
 down agin by his side so" and Mr. Dukes went 
 through a pantomimic representation of a Mason in 
 distressed circumstances appealing to a lodge bro 
 ther "kin put every constable on the wrong scent. 
 Now I was raised among the mountains where they 
 manufactur d a smart lot of moonshine whisky. 
 Nigh every one among the farmers was in the busi 
 ness, or else knew consider ble about it. They had 
 their secret oaths and grips and false names to call 
 each other by; and they jest defied all guv nment 
 could do to break em up. Our nighest. neighbor, 
 Colonel Barker, was head of the gang, and he was 
 Deputy United States Marshal; and of his two right- 
 hand men, one was Moses Kittle, a deacon in the 
 church, and the other was Marion Hawkins, circuit 
 judge. When there was any arrests made, there was 
 the jury made up of Masons and members of the 
 gang, and Hawkins himself on the bench, and in 
 course they d be discharged." 
 
 Rejected truths have a curious faculty of bewild 
 ering us by their sudden reappearance in all manner 
 of unexpected ways and places. Nelson had stub 
 bornly shut his eyes to the fact that there could ex 
 ist any such alliance offensive and defensive between 
 
Naboth. 233 
 
 Masonry and the liquor traffic. He had said with 
 thousands of unthinking prohibitionists, "The lodge 
 and the dramshop are separate issues," and refused 
 to believe that the} were in reality Siamese twins. 
 But if one could so successfully protect the other in 
 a lonely mountain region of Tennessee, why not in 
 Jacksonville? why not anywhere else? 
 
 Jesse Dukes was a true mountaineer. He had 
 that spirit of retaliation and vindictiveness which 
 has made his race famous in the history of family 
 and border feuds; he had also their gracious in 
 stincts of hospitality as shown by the way in which he 
 pressed Nelson to come in and share his humble fare 
 and lodgings. The latter was much too hungry to 
 refuse the first, which he found excellent; and too 
 weary not to be able to put up with the latter, in 
 spite of the utter lack of all civilized appliances: 
 and naturally he improved the opportunity to learn 
 more about his host. 
 
 On losing his property, Dukes had taken up the 
 trade of a trapper and built him a rude cabin by the 
 edge of the river, and while he attended to his traps, 
 or smoked his pipe in his low cabin door through 
 the long, dreamy, summer afternoons, he nursed in 
 his heart dreams of vengeance. This modern Na 
 both was by no means an ideal Christian, who could 
 forgive until seventy times seven; on the contrary 
 he was a very good specimen of an unregenerate 
 man. For the lodge under whose protecting shield 
 he nad been swindled out of his all he cherished 
 that feeling of sullen, helpless wrath with which 
 
234 Between Two Opinions . 
 
 wronged and outraged men regard institutions too 
 powerful for them to combat, and on which they can 
 only heap smothered curses. 
 
 Seated by the fire after they had eaten their 
 homely supper, for the evening had closed in chill 
 and frost}*, Jesse Dukes entertained his guest with 
 a series of anecdotes, showing the singular majesty 
 of the law under Masonic rule. 
 
 "I member now a treasurer in a bank, a high 
 Mason, that spekilated with the bank s money to the 
 tune of thirty thousand dollars," he said, while the 
 dim light played over his features and threw the 
 corners of the cabin into deeper shadow, giving a 
 Rembrandt-like touch to both. "Wai, they rested 
 him and put him under bonds for trial. One o the 
 bondsmen was a high Mason, too, and doggoned ef 
 the sneakin varmint didn t contrive to put all his 
 property out of his hands, so that when the treas 
 urer took leg-bail and run off to Canady, he didn t 
 hev to fork over a red cent; the rest hed to pay it 
 all. One on em it completely ruined that was my 
 old neighbor, Ben Barksdill. Jist cleaned him out 
 of everything he hed. Ben was a stout, strong man, 
 but he was too far along in life to ever reckon on 
 scrapin enough together to git back the home and 
 the farm all clear of incumbrance that hed to go un 
 der the hammer afore he could pay his part o the 
 surety. Arter that happened he sorter went inter a 
 decline and died. The doctors called his diseasejDy 
 one of their larn d names, but they needn t tell me. 
 I watched with him the night he died, and I tell ye, 
 
Naboth. 235 
 
 
 
 stranger, that man died of a broken heart A few 
 years afterward the treasurer come back spick and 
 span and smilin , and the justices let him go free 
 never laid a finger on him. But they took up a 
 poor boy that never had any eddication or bringin 
 up whatsomever, and sent him to jail for five years 
 jist for stealin an old watch; and it wa n t re ly 
 proved agin him, nuther. 
 
 "And I member a case meaner nor that of a man 
 that was treasurer for a town, and stole a right 
 smart lot o the town s money. He was a Mason, 
 and what should he do but go out to the barn, git a 
 rope and tie himself up, so s to make it appear as if 
 it was all the work of robbers. He made up a good 
 story, a re l thrillin one, fit to go inter a novel, and 
 some believed it and some didn t. When the case 
 come to trial, the sheriff, right afore judge and jury, 
 took a piece of rope and tied his own hands in ex 
 actly the same kind o knots, and showed the court 
 jist how easy it could be done. Now what would a 
 been your verdict, stranger, ef } T ou d been sittin on 
 that ar jury?" 
 
 "I don t see but one conclusion, Mr. Dukes," said 
 Nelson. "I should think no better proof could have 
 been given that the treasurer stole the monev him 
 self and hit on this ingenious plan to evade detec 
 tion. He certainly was not acquitted?" 
 
 "He sartinly was, stranger, with all that evidence 
 right afore em. And I kin tell you of meaner 
 things nor that. We hed some onpleasantness at a 
 lection, and Dick Mosely, a sand}--haired chap that 
 
236 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 never happened to hev jined the lodge, got mixed up 
 in the fracas, and was rested on the charge of flour- 
 ishin a revolver round a leetle too promiskus like. 
 He swore he didn t hev one about him, others swore 
 he did, and he was sent up for four years. And not 
 long aterward a feller that was a Mason picked a 
 quarrel with a man he hed a grudge aginst, whipped 
 out his revolver and fired, jist barely missin his 
 head, and the court fined him ten dollars. 
 
 "And 1 kin tell you meaner things nor that," con 
 tinued Jesse Dukes, taking up his climacteric re 
 frain. "I know d a Masonic sheriff that was sent to 
 rest a man on a double charge of forgery and big 
 amy, but he kept puttin it off till the raskill made 
 tracks for Mexico. Now I want to tell ye how that 
 same sheriff did by poor Job Muzzy. Doggoned ef 
 it don t rile me up when I git to thinkin on t. Job 
 was as honest a feller as ever breathed, but he d 
 been unfortunit sickness in his family, and then he 
 wa n t re ly one o the forehanded sort, he nor his 
 pap afore. But he did one thing and another 
 teamed some and so managed to rub along. I come 
 across him one morning, and he seemed oncommon- 
 ly chipper. I m goin off to work at lumberin , sez 
 he, for awhile. I ve jist bought a wagon, and I ve 
 mortgaged m}^ hosses as part payment on t, and I m 
 kalkerlatin to make a fresh start in the spring, 
 And he spoke of how he hated to loave his family, 
 and his little gal in perticler. He was jist bound 
 up in that child, Lil her name was, and no wonder, 
 for she was the cutest, peartest thing; and I mem- 
 
Naboth. 237 
 
 ber while we stood there a talkin , her a runnin out 
 in her white sunbunnit and her curly hair, yaller as 
 gold, callin pappy in her putty baby way. Job 
 went off tellin everybody the same straight story 
 that he told to me, and what did that Masonic sher 
 iff do but send a special deputy arter him to bring 
 him back on pretense that he was goin off to evade 
 pay in the debt, and lodge him in jail where he lay 
 three or four weeks without the shader of prgof agin 
 him. And that wa n t the wust on t. While he was 
 there in jail his little Lil took sick and died, aery in 
 in her last minutes for her pappy. And they sed it 
 was enough to melt a stone to hear poor Job Muzzy 
 take on when he come out, and found only a little 
 grave and one of her yaller curls left him of his dar- 
 lin . I tell ye, stranger, things like them burn inter 
 a man s heart. I ain t a Christian, nor one that s 
 hed much schoolin , but I kin read and I kin think, 
 and I know that in the Book they swear on in every 
 court room there are heaps of sich texts as this: 
 Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees to 
 turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take 
 away the right from the poor. And it s better than 
 meat and drink to me to read them ar passages and 
 think the Lord Almighty has got a day of reckoning 
 eomin ." 
 
 And the trapper s eyes kindled with a fierce, sin 
 ister gleam, as if already his imagination saw that 
 day dawning. This rough mountaineer, sitting in 
 his lonely cabin and pouring forth his terrible in 
 dictments of that Secret Empire which holds in its 
 7^^ 0? " : 
 
 %FI7I 
 
 
238 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 invisible clutches the life and property of American 
 citizens, seemed like a confirming angel who had 
 suddenly started up to bear witness to the truth 
 which from Martin Tre worthy s lips Nelson had so 
 often treated with that apathetic indifference which 
 is more than half skepticism. 
 
 It was in Jesse Dukes cabin that he wrote his 
 first letter after his flight from Jacksonville, but 
 through some unfortunate accident it was delayed, 
 and Martha, in the lack of all tidings from her be 
 trothed, began to feel an anxiety secretly shared by 
 Martin Treworthy, to whom Nelson was as the son 
 of his old age. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 
 
 Tom s idea that Nelson had gone to buy the much 
 talked-of farm proved at first very convenient. It 
 kept him in a child s state of amused expectancy, 
 but like a child his feeble mind soon grew impatient 
 at the delay, and a deep-seated longing after the one 
 human being who had loved and cared for him with 
 a self-sacrificing devotion more motherly than fra 
 ternal took possession of his soul. Hour after hour 
 he would sit gazing dully into vacancy, but there 
 were other times, as we have before stated, when he 
 took into his head the strangest and most unaccount 
 able freaks; really periods of semi-derangement 
 when his weak brain became the prey of some crazy 
 fancy, the pursuit of which seemed to have the effect 
 for the time being of wakening it into an abnormal 
 activity. 
 
 There had been of late a very decided improve 
 ment, so that even Martin Treworthy, who knew so 
 well the deceitful nature of his disease, could not 
 believe that in spite of his apparent increase in 
 strength he was actually failing. But after Nelson 
 went away he began to pine but so imperceptibly 
 that the fact was not realized by his two friends and 
 
240 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 watchers. He would eat a few mouthfuls of Mar 
 tha s carefully prepared jellies and broths, and then, 
 with the caprice of the consumptive invalid, want no 
 more, but he refused no medicine however nauseous, 
 and his great, blue, vacant eyes kept fast the secret 
 of that longing which was consuming his life s 
 already flickering taper. 
 
 He liked and was even fond of Martin Trewortlry, 
 but he had something of the instinct which leads an 
 animal to forsake new and strange quarters from 
 which it misses the familiar hand that has always 
 fed it. One thought he brooded over, but concealed 
 with a cunning he only showed when one of these 
 half-insane fits was on him: and that was to steal 
 away and find Nelson. 
 
 There came a warm, almost summer-like after 
 noon when Martin T re worthy ventured to leave his 
 charge, as he supposed, quietly sleeping. The south 
 wind, the sunshine, and the scents of early spring 
 stealing in through the half-closed door, combined 
 to excite more than ever Tom s restless notion to 
 
 
 
 wander off; and with many furtive glances to the 
 right and left to make sure that he was not watched 
 and followed, he opened the door still wider, and 
 stole out with noiseless footfall and heart as exult 
 ant as the child s who sets out to run after the rain 
 bow. The world was wide, but Nelson was some 
 where in it, and if he walked on and on poor 
 Tom s fancj~ made no more allowance for possible 
 obstacles than the minds of other dreamers he 
 should certainly find him. 
 
The Good Samaritan. 241 
 
 The fever that was burning in his veins buoyed 
 him up with a strange, fictitious strength. In half 
 an hour he had left Jacksonville behind him. and 
 guided by some dim. undefined instinct he took the 
 road that lead due west and directly towards Fair- 
 field. It seemed to him that the farm Nelson had 
 gone to buy must lay somewhere within that circle 
 of golden light, and so he pressed on on with his 
 face set towards those purple and amethyst splen 
 dors, those gates of pearl and opal behind which 
 must lay the Paradise he sought. 
 
 When at length the road deviated to a more south 
 erly direction, he quitted it and took a straight 
 course across the fields. It was not easy travelling. 
 His feet sank in the brown, ploughed earth, sharp 
 pains came with every breath he drew, but the 
 strange impulse was on him still. He stopped at a 
 house where some children were playing, and in 
 quired if they had seen Nelson. A woman carne to 
 the door, but she thought him only a crazy tramp, 
 and his inquiry elicited merely a pitiful comment 
 which he did not understand. He turned away and 
 went on. The light grew paler, till but one long, 
 golden bar remained. The night fell darkling with 
 all its mystery of silence and shadow and starlight. 
 Terribly weary and chilled to the bone he finally 
 crept unnoticed into a barn whose doors stood hos 
 pitably open, and found warmth and shelter, like 
 an} r other vagrant, in the hay. 
 
 It happened to be a barn on Mr. Dcming s estate, 
 to whose household we will pay another visit, while 
 
242 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 poor Tom sleeps on, blessedly forgetful for the time 
 being of the wild notion that has taken possession 
 of his weak brain, and Martin Treworthy, in a state 
 bordering on distraction, has engaged the police in 
 an active search after the missing boy. 
 
 Mr. Israel Deming was discoursing with Uncle 
 Zeb on various matters: the prospect of a war in 
 Europe, the state of the grain market, and the pecul 
 iar disadvantages under which American farmers 
 labored. Dora was standing at the window looking 
 dreamily out to the still faintly glowing west, and 
 thinking but Dora s secret dreams and visions are 
 her own, and though in a sense they are far more 
 foolish than Tom s, we will not meddle therewith. 
 Mrs. Deming, as usual, was not so far distant but 
 that she could put in her word on occasion. 
 
 "I s pose now," remarked Uncle Zeb, "a war in 
 Europe would raise the price of breadstutfs and 
 make business livelier, but then in the long run I 
 don t know about it. War is a bad thing, look at it 
 any way you will." 
 
 "I know it will take more than a brush among the 
 nations on the other side of the globe to cure our 
 hard times," said Mr. Deming, decidedly. "It is a 
 rascally shame the way public affairs are managed. 
 Just look at it a minute. More wheat raised last 
 year than we knew what to do with, and here are the 
 Indians starving on their reservations, and thou 
 sands of unemployed workmen whose families don t 
 know where their next meal of victuals is coming 
 from. The power is all slipping into the hands of 
 
The Good Samaritan. 243 
 
 the few. We used to send brains to Congress and 
 no money; now we send money to Congress and no 
 brains." 
 
 Dora was sorry for an} body who had to starve. 
 It must be dreadful, but then it was nothing that 
 she could help. She didn t vote nor make the laws. 
 And as for the ballot for woman, she had all the 
 rights she wanted already. Why should she con 
 cern her head about politics? Such ideas we may 
 hear daily from the lips of charming creatures who, 
 secure in the affection of husbands and fathers, can 
 embroider lambrequins and crazy quilts, and read 
 the latest society novel all day long if they choose, 
 and never a thought for that great army of sad-eyed, 
 patient women from whom the rum traffic is drain 
 ing the life-blood drop by drop, while they stand 
 selfishly in the way to keep from the hands of their 
 less fortunate sisters the only weapon that can re 
 dress their wrongs. So don t be too severe on our 
 little Dora, who could be pitiful enough to any case 
 of individual distress brought directly under her 
 notice, but whose sensibilities distress in the gross, 
 represented by figures so many starving Indians, 
 or so many victims of the dramshop did not greatly 
 affect. 
 
 "Arter all, farmers have the best on t when there 
 comes a pinch/ said Uncle Zeb. "Got that machine 
 in running order yet Mr. Deming?" 
 
 Mr. Deming had a feeling that Uncle Zeb saw 
 through his disappointment in the grange, and was 
 slyly laughing at him. But he did not choose to 
 
244 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 confess that the machine had not so far paid ex 
 penses. His wife was in hearing distance, and he 
 dreaded her keen opinion much more than he did 
 Uncle Zeb s inward chuckle. 
 
 "There s a good deal about it that I don t see the 
 use in," he said, cautiously. "But then it suits the 
 young people, and if it gives them a taste for the 
 soil and a little innocent amusement besides, why, 
 it s a good thing so far as it goes. I don t suppose 
 it is really time yet to pass judgment on it fairly." 
 
 "Well, when is it time, Mr. Deming?" put in his 
 spouse. "After you ve got your fingers cut? And 
 as for the young people, it is my opinion that the 
 grange will teach them as much of farming as the 
 Good Templars did of temperance, and not a thim 
 bleful of either one." 
 
 Uncle Zeb chuckled in silence while Mr. Deming 
 laughed, it being the only answer he could make un 
 der the circumstances. He had begun to find out 
 that the grange was a rather costly machine, and 
 could not help inwardly acknowledging that for the 
 agricultural classes who had so little ready money, 
 the simple and despised farmer s club had its points 
 of advantage. But it did not occur to his mind, 
 strangely enough, that he was himself helping on 
 the transfer of power from the many to the few by 
 paying away his money to a secret organization, to 
 go in turn into the hands of unknown leaders, thus 
 supplying the means for that very corruption and 
 demagogism he inveighed against so bitterly. But 
 Mr. Deming was perhaps as consistent as most men, 
 
The Good Samaritan. 245 
 
 The limit of our vision which forbids us to see both 
 sides of a sphere at once has its analogy and coun 
 terpart in the moral world. 
 
 To Dora there were some things about the grange 
 which made it more attractive than Good Templar- 
 ism. She liked the mixture of flowery sentimental 
 ity in the lectures; she liked to join in the harvest 
 dance even her mother could not object to a pleas 
 ant, social recreation not lasting more than five min 
 utes and she enjo} ed immensely the distinction 
 accorded her as an acknowledged beaut}*, of person 
 ating one of the three heathen goddesses who are 
 the presiding geniuses of the grange. All these 
 were among the things in which Mr. Deming "saw 
 no use." but a young and pretty girl intent on mak 
 ing conquests, and a hard-headed old farmer who is 
 chiefly interested in the management of stock and 
 the various kinds of fertilizers, might naturally be 
 supposed to regard such a subject from widely differ 
 ent standpoints. 
 
 Dora happened to visit the barn early in the morn 
 ing. She saw a supposed tramp asleep on the hay, 
 and fled for the house with a wild scream that roused 
 Tom and frightened him even more than his sudden 
 apparition had alarmed his sister. He scrambled 
 out of his hiding place, and when Dora had reached 
 the shelter of the kitchen porch and turned to look 
 once more she saw the object of her terror crossing 
 the fields on a curious, staggering run. He must 
 have been drinking. How lucky he hadn t set fire 
 to the barn or done some other dreadful thing! 
 
246 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Dora had a mortal and certainly a very excusable 
 horror of a drunken man. 
 
 Tom, in his feverish sleep, had dreamed of Nel 
 son s farm. He thought they were both there to 
 gether and everything was so beautiful and bright, 
 and he was perfectly happy. Even in the shock of 
 his waking up there still remained a shattered rem 
 nant of the beatific vision. The sun was rising full 
 and glorious. Royally unclosed those golden gate 
 ways of the east for the monarch s triumphal pas 
 sage. But above stretched a low-lying, ominous 
 bank of slaty-colored clouds, and as he rose higher 
 and higher they spread over him their pall-like man 
 tle. The wind grew chill and keen and piercing, 
 and a few drops of rain began to fall not many, 
 but enough to chill poor Tom to the very marrow. 
 
 He had taken once more to the high road. A 
 passer-by eyed him curiously, but his staggering 
 gait was against him and wakened suspicion in other 
 minds besides Dora s that he had been drinking. 
 
 At last, unable to go further, he sank down utter 
 ly exhausted by the roadside. He seemed to have 
 no consciousness but of such utter weariness that it 
 seemed like a bottomless abyss in which even pain 
 was swallowed up. 
 
 Dennis O Sullivan, at that particular moment, was 
 standing in the door of his shanty and calculating 
 the chances for a rainy day, with a thought of his 
 unfilled demijohn. The walk to Jacksonville, the 
 nearest point at which he could procure liquor since 
 Peter Snyder had abandoned the business, was con- 
 
The Good Samaritan. 247 
 
 siderably longer than he cared to take unless the 
 cravings of appetite grew unendurable. 
 
 By way of assisting his mental conclusions he 
 lighted his old clay pipe, apostrophizing meanwhile 
 an aged goat which was allowed free run of the 
 O Sullivan mansion, and over which he unfortunate 
 ly stumbled in his efforts to find a match. The ani 
 mal really looked patriarchal enough with his long 
 beard to have a certain mythological suggestiveness 
 as if he might be some kind of household Lares. 
 
 Dennis, in his sober moments, had sufficient sense 
 to know and acknowledge that he and his family 
 had been better off since the day that Peter Snyder 
 emptied his casks of rum into the creek. But he 
 had given place to the devil of strong drink quite 
 too long for the mere fact that he had now to go 
 several miles instead of a few rods after it to work 
 a thorough reformation. If the strongest advocate 
 of moral as opposed to legal suasion would but 
 make a practical test of his theory on Dennis O Sul 
 livan as he stands at this moment, a poor, ignorant 
 Irishman, ready to sell soul and body for a glass 
 no, for a drop of the fiery poison that has nearly 
 burned up will and conscience in its fierce flame, he 
 might confess that there are cases in which it proves 
 a broken reed, and the need of something stronger 
 grows very imperative. 
 
 Dennis smoked away for a few moments. The 
 clouds gathered thicker, the rain fell in larger drops, 
 but that empty demijohn must be filled. He took it 
 from the shelf and with hat slouched over his eves 
 
248 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 started forth with a feeling that was partly shame, 
 partly a fierce determination to have it or perish, 
 and partly the involuntary impulse of the passion 
 within him. 
 
 At the very same moment Peter Snyder was set 
 ting forth on a vastly different errand. From the 
 moment he had surrendered himself to his divine 
 Captor, one thought, one desire had possessed his 
 soul the thought, the desire that possessed Saul of 
 Tarsus. Oh, to be allowed to do as much good as 
 he had hitherto done evil! And so he had been led 
 irresistibly to tell his experience wherever he could 
 Ind anyone to hear it; and as this is just what the 
 world of sinning, suffering men and women want, he 
 had begun not to preach exactly, in his humility 
 lie would have been the first one to disclaim a 
 preacher s title but to tell the story at temperance 
 and revival meetings of how the Lord had met him, 
 shown him Himself, granted him mercy, hardened 
 wretch though he was, and how that same mercy 
 must then be for everyone. Only the simple, ever- 
 new story of One who calls not the righteous but 
 sinners to repentance. But from Peter Snyder s 
 lips it had a strange power, and as we have said he 
 was often called upon to tell it in an uncultured but 
 earnest, almost inspired fashion that sent many to 
 weeping and praying who had never wept or prayed 
 before. 
 
 They both took the same road. Peter Snyder had 
 a few moments the precedence, and thus he came 
 soonest on the prostrate form of Tom. 
 
The Good Samaritan. 249 
 
 "Sleeping off a spree, most likely," was his first 
 thought; as it appeared to be also of another man 
 who rode by on horseback, then reined in his horse 
 and rode back. 
 
 "He ought to be taken to the lockup, but we 
 haven t a constable worth the name in Fairfield," 
 and with this expression of contempt for Fairfield s 
 rural police the man rode on, leaving Mr. Snyder to 
 deal with the case as he best might, and also to some 
 meditations on Masonic charity for he knew the 
 man to be a prominent Mason that were not flatter 
 ing to the much-vaunted benevolence of the order. 
 
 He bent over Tom, examined him carefully and 
 saw at once the truth. He was in a fainting fit from 
 exhaustion. The face he had certainly seen before. 
 It was Nelson Newhall s feeble-minded brother, and 
 rushing back on his mind came the memory of the 
 wrong he had done or allowed to be done him, and 
 the swift and righteous punishment which had been 
 visited on his head. Mr. Snyder regarded that pun 
 ishment now in a very different light, as all just and 
 right, and not the thousandth part of what he de 
 served. He was about to try alone to bear the un 
 conscious Tom to a place of shelter when Dennis 
 Sullivan came up, but did not pass by, Levite like, 
 as did the other; but stopped, his compassionate 
 Irish heart prompting him to aid all he could. 
 
 Mr. Snyder s eye caught sight of the demijohn. 
 
 "The Lord didn t mean you should get that filled 
 to-day, Dennis. Here is a boy that is sick; we must 
 get him in somewhere out of the rain." 
 
250 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 Dennis threw down his demijohn very willingly, 
 and together they lifted up Tom and carried him to 
 shelter. Dennis had never been quite able to get 
 over his doubts of Mr. Snyder s sanity, but he had a 
 feeling that he was going to do a very foolish thing 
 which he would rue on the morrow, and it seemed 
 even to his ignorant heart as if heaven had had pity 
 on his weakness and stopped him from his errand to 
 Jacksonville. 
 
 Mr. Snyder, on this subject, had no doubts what 
 ever. He had been stopped from giving his testi 
 mony at the meeting to which he was bound. But 
 what matter? He had now other work to do: per 
 haps the undoing in some measure of former evil; 
 at least the trying to, which in the Lord s sight 
 might count for as much. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 TOM S DREAM COMES TRUE. 
 
 It was some time before Tom recovered anima 
 tion, and then he developed symptoms so serious 
 that Dennis O Sullivan was dispatched for a physi 
 cian. This was not simply for the reason that he 
 was close at hand; but Peter Snyder was now as 
 earnest to be his brother s keeper as hitherto to be 
 his destroyer, and it was with a determination to 
 help Providence keep the demijohn empty for one 
 day at least that he sent him on the errand, having 
 first fortified him against his alcoholic cravings with 
 a cup of strong coffee. 
 
 "An shure, Mr. Snyder," said Dennis, when he 
 was told to go for one who lived four miles away, 
 "I moight foind ye a doctor nigher n the Forks." 
 
 Mr. Snyder (for it is a singular proof of the power 
 of Christianity to uplift a man socially as well as 
 morall} that even his old cronies no longer addressed 
 him in their old, familiar fashion) glanced up from 
 the helpless form over which he was working, chaf 
 ing the cold hands and feet and applying restora 
 tives, and hesitated an instant, but only an instant. 
 Then he answered decidedly: 
 
 "I know you could, but I ve got my reasons. If 
 
252 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 it was a dozen miles instead of four I wouldn t have 
 the other one." 
 
 The doctor "nigher than the Forks" happened to 
 be one of those medical practioners with whom a 
 free prescription of whisky seems to be the one re 
 source when, as not infrequently happens, their 
 knowledge is at fault and their materia medico, ex 
 hausted. Peter knew that the first thing he would 
 be -likely to do would be to order alcoholic stimu 
 lants in some form, and this repentant rumseller was 
 determined by the grace of Grod that he would never 
 again be even an accessory to putting the bottle to 
 his neighbor s lips. That the doctor in question 
 was also a Freemason may have somewhat affected 
 his decision, but before the reader accuses Peter 
 Snyder of unfairness and bigotry, let us present the 
 case. 
 
 The bright and shining example of Masonic char 
 ity to which he had just been a witness was in itself 
 an argument strong enough to appeal to obtuser 
 minds than his. He had read the story of the Good 
 Samaritan, or rather had managed to spell it out 
 with much difficulty, but his narrow range of literary 
 attainments did not incapacitate him from judging 
 for himself which carried out most fully both the 
 letter and spirit of the parable: he and Dennis.O Sul- 
 livan who had never enjoyed the benefit of lodge in 
 structions on the subject; or the man of the square 
 and compass who could coolly turn away and leave 
 a fellow-being lying by the roadside, exposed to the 
 pitiless storm, with the hasty surmise that it was all 
 
Twn s Dream Cvmes True. 253 
 
 that fellow-being s fault! Supposing he had been 
 right. Were the thieves who lay in wait between 
 Jericho and Jerusalem, and who only took a man s 
 purse and bodily ill-treated him, half as bad as the 
 modern thieves who lay in wait to rob and murder 
 him soul and body, and then shield their crime un 
 der a government license? Peter Snyder thought 
 not, and it must be acknowledged that he had both 
 logic and Scripture truth on his side. Furthermore, 
 the chances were ten to one that the Masonic doctor 
 would forget to come. He had this convenient 
 habit of forgetfulness when his patients were from a 
 lower strata in society than he cared to attend: and 
 sometimes for he disproved the assertion that doc 
 tors never take their own drugs by a free use of his 
 own alcoholic prescriptions he was not in a condi 
 tion to remember anything. 
 
 Martin Tre worthy, when he heard that Tom had 
 been found and where he was, ma}* be pardoned if 
 he entertained at first some disagreeable suspicions. 
 He had not heard anything of Peter Snyder since he 
 left Jacksonville, and the name suggested only a 
 human spider whose custom was to catch and de 
 vour all the foolish human flies he could inveigle 
 into his trap; though, of course, had the question 
 been fairly put to him, : -Can there be saving grace 
 with the Eternal for such a wretch? Martin, who 
 held firmly to all the cardinal points of evangelical 
 doctrine, would have answered, i; Yes," most emphat 
 ically. Still, as I said before, let us forgive him if 
 such a thing as Peter Snyder s conversion had not 
 
254 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 yet occurred to him as among the possibilities. But 
 upon his arrival he looked in upon a scene very diff 
 erent from what he had imagined. 
 
 Tom lay very quiet. All his vital powers ex 
 hausted, his feeble mind, still more enfeebled by 
 disease, was only conscious of having been terribly 
 tired and terribly cold, and being suddenly lifted 
 into an atmosphere of warmth and rest. There were 
 bright, red drops on the coarse napkin with which 
 Mr. Snyder at intervals tenderly wiped his mouth 
 and lips, but his eyes were closed and he breathed 
 as softly and evenl} r as a sleeping child. The vision 
 of Nelson and the farm no longer danced before his 
 bewildered brain, but in place of it had come a feel 
 ing of delicious assurance that it was all coming 
 true by and by, only he would have to wait a little 
 while longer. 
 
 Some have advanced the theory that in the resur 
 rection state, a certain subtle atmosphere emanating 
 from and enveloping us with a mantle of personal 
 individuality as strong and unmistakable as the 
 physical habits or the bodily features which belong 
 to us in our mortal existence, may form the basis of 
 spiritual recognition. And Martin Treworthy had 
 now an experience slightly similar. This was Peter 
 Snyder, but over him had passed a change that 
 miraculous making over of the entire man when a 
 new heart and a new spirit is put within him, and a 
 new song in his mouth, even praise to Him who hath 
 redeemed him to God by His blood and made him in 
 the glory and mystery of salvation a king and priest 
 
Tom s Dream Comes True. 255 
 
 forever. Such a wonderful thing to happen to him ! 
 
 There were moments when Peter Snyder stood 
 dazed with the strangeness of it that it should 
 really be given to him the new name and the white 
 stone, and the ineffable blessedness of pardon, and 
 most wonderful thing of all that he could actually 
 begin his life over again and live an existence as 
 different and as utterly separate from his former one 
 as an angel s from a fiend s. 
 
 He rose hesitatingly when Martin Treworthy en 
 tered. Something of the shame of his old misdeeds 
 clung about this new life still, like a kind of husk 
 which would never quite drop away; and perhaps it 
 was best that it should not, for it was a healthy 
 shame and had its own mission to perform in mak 
 ing him a better man. 
 
 "I s pose you remember me for a poor, miserable, 
 God-forsaken critter, Mr. Treworthy," he said hum 
 bly; "but you won t see any rum bar ls round here, 
 nor smell any tobaccy, nor hear any swearing. I ve 
 knocked clean off from them things and I want folks 
 to know it, and that Jesus Christ has stood by and 
 helped me all along, and if I ain t what I was once 
 all the praise and glory is his. I want you to know 
 it special" Peter Snyder paused an instant, and 
 then he went on in a tone that, while still humble 
 and even appealing, had a certain manly dignity: 
 Maybe you d prefer to find this sick boy of yourn 
 in other hands, and I can t say I blame ye for the 
 feeling, but I found him laj in b} the roadside in a 
 dead faint, and I ve done all for him I know d how. 
 
256 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 And if you are a Christian, and somehow I take ii 
 you are, you ll feel as the Lord does glad to give 
 me a chance even if I don t deserve it." 
 
 Perhaps there was a little touch of what shall 
 we call it? not defiance, not resentment, but the 
 natural feeling of a converted publican who is con 
 scious that his former life has given his fellow-men 
 great reason to mistrust him, and yet in whom the 
 unspeakable "kindness and love of God our Sav 
 iour" has wakened a strange longing to be trusted. 
 
 Martin Treworthy s spiritual intuitions were quick. 
 He had come with the feeling that he could not even 
 bear the idea of Tom s being touched by the man to 
 whom his present condition was in so large a degree 
 owing, but when he realized the truth, Peter Sny- 
 der s speech did not seem a strange or impertinent 
 one. Why should not this poor publican, if he had 
 truly repented, be allowed to bring forth fruits meet 
 for repentance? Why should he, as he himself put 
 it, be grudged the chance to undo some of his evil 
 work. 
 
 Martin Treworthy held out his hand, and the 
 bright drops stood in his e} T es. 
 
 "The Lord bless you, brother; and may he forgive 
 me for an old Pharisee that I am." 
 
 "But," answered Peter Snyder, his coarse, un 
 comely features half covered with a straggling, red 
 beard, not very dissimilar to that bestowed by old 
 Venetian painters on his apostolic namesake, irradi 
 ated with a smile both humble and sweet, "I said 
 nothing of the kind. I said I didn t blame ye for 
 
Tom s Dream Comes True. 257 
 
 an}* feelin ye might have, and no more I don t. It s 
 only nateral ye should feel so." 
 
 "That don t make any difference," said Martin. 
 "I ve found that the best thing to do when the coat 
 fits is not to get mad about it, or to make believe it 
 don t fit, but to pray the Lord to fill us so full oi 
 grace that our souls will grow too big for weaiin 
 on t comfortable. And now about this poor fellow 
 here; I must take him home as soon as I can." 
 
 "But I ought to tell ye" Peter Snyder stopped 
 for an instant as if it was a little difficult to go on 
 "I ve had the doctor to him. I thought it wouldn t 
 do no hurt, and he says but then doctors don t al 
 ias tell right that his wandering off so, and the 
 fatigue and exposure and everything has onh" 
 brought the end nearer that wa n t a great v?ay off 
 anyhow. We ve done all we could, but if there s 
 anybody that ought to be telegraphed to it had bet 
 ter be done right away." 
 
 By "we" Peter Snj der meant to include his wife. 
 She was a small, pale, broken-down, slatternly 
 woman, with little education, but womanly enough 
 to have known times when she was thankful for the 
 three short graves that covered all her maternal 
 hopes. Her husband had not always been kind to 
 her quite the reverse but she had adapted herself 
 to her lot with a resignation as complete as it was 
 hopeless; so very complete, in fact, that she did not 
 respond readily to the most earnest and well-directed 
 efforts on his part to lift her up to the same moral 
 and spiritual elevation he had himself reached. 
 
258 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Theoretically this should not have been. Sht 
 ought to have risen at once to the height of her new 
 opportunity, but theories and facts are not always 
 reconcilable. Will a flower, beaten to the ground by 
 a week of hard rain, lift itself immediately on its 
 stalk when the rain is over, and the sun comes forth 
 to create a new world out of twinkling grassblades 
 and shimmering leaves, and all the myriad of dim 
 pling, flashing, wayside pools? Then why expect it 
 of a miserable, degraded womanhood, made miser 
 able and degraded by circumstances and associations 
 not of her choosing? And I boldly put it to the 
 good sisters of the W. C. T. U., if our hearts should 
 not of tener go out in prayer for the wives of our two 
 hundred thousand rumsellers. It is a bitter cup 
 many of these women drink. God only knows how 
 bitter. 
 
 Martin Treworthy felt his brain reel. Mechanic 
 ally he went to Tom s side and sat down. If he was 
 onty sure where Nelson was and could dispatch a 
 telegram! But he did not think of a more subtle 
 telegraphy, an electric wire hidden deep in the mys 
 teries of being, over which messages are sometimes 
 strangely flashed to the soul, though philosophy as 
 yet can only class it with the long list of mental and 
 spiritual phenomena about which we may only pre 
 sume to conjecture. 
 
 Tom knew him, for he smiled, stroked his hand, 
 and said something rambling and but half coherent, 
 of which the only intelligible words were "Nelson" 
 and "the farm." 
 
Tom s Dream Comes True. 259 
 
 They watched beside him, one as tenderly as the 
 other, all that day and the next, Martin Treworthy 
 almost feeling his whole being dissolve as it were in 
 the intensity of his one constant petition that Nel 
 son might return before the flickering lamp of Tom s 
 
 life went out 
 
 ********** 
 
 The sun was going down in a glorious sweep of 
 golden light that reflected itself in the tranquil 
 waters of the creek like some dual existence, half 
 dreams and half reality, but one so like the other 
 that the dream seems a reality and the reality seems 
 a dream. 
 
 Tom had been restless much of the time, and now 
 he wanted to be lifted up and look out. The win 
 dow stood wide open to give more air to his ex 
 hausted lungs, but the day had been one of those 
 unusually mild ones which have such a singular 
 charm, as if the spring, in a fit of coquetry, was try 
 ing on some of the matronly airs of summer. The 
 thermometer had registered 75 in the shade. A 
 slight haze from the smoke of far-distant burning 
 prairies gave a dreamy softness to the horizon like 
 a thin veil drawn over glories too bright for mortal 
 view. 
 
 What was passing through his mind, which had 
 seemed too dull and imbecile almost to have 
 thoughts? I think nothing beyond a general sense 
 of calm contentment. The state of partial delirium 
 was over, and he only remembered his strange esca 
 pade like a bad dream from which it is pleasant to 
 
260 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 wake. But suddenly his eyes brightened. He 
 seemed to hear something unnoted by either of the 
 watchers at his bedside. It is a sound of horse s 
 hoofs. They are coming nearer and nearer, and he 
 knows by some strange intuition that they will stop 
 at the door, that the rider will fling himself off in 
 hot haste, and that rider will be Nelson. 
 
 It is even so. Tom is again folded in those 
 strong arms, and the scalding tears are falling on 
 his face, and he wonders why when he is so happy. 
 Does there come before his weak brain the image of 
 a Love mightier than a brother s? of sunshine fall 
 ing on green fields in some far-off blissful clime 
 brighter than all his dreamings, where that love 
 shall enfold him forever and all his miserable herit 
 age of weakness, mental, moral, and physical, drop 
 away and leave him what G-od and nature meant he 
 should be; restoring to him the heritage of which he 
 had been despoiled without hope of redress ? Though 
 our Christian faith bids us believe that to such un 
 fortunates the deficiencies of their earthly lot will be 
 balanced in another world, can any such considera 
 tion diminish aught of the sin and crime of depriv 
 ing them of their birthright here? Do not the high 
 est scientific authorities unite in telling us that the 
 great majority of the feeble-minded children who fill 
 our various asylums are made such by the intemper 
 ate habits of parents? Yet to increase the revenue, 
 and give more power to corrupt politicians, we allow 
 the traffic to go on! On whom shall the blame be 
 put? Who is responsible? Christian voters, answer. 
 
Tom s Dream Comes True. 2(51 
 
 The mysterious change came over Tom s face. 
 Nelson saw it, and it checked his sobs with an im 
 pulse of foreshadowing awe. He lay back on the 
 pillow panting for breath, his eyes wide open and 
 fixed on a warm, golden gleam that shot across the 
 roughly plastered wall opposite. 
 Sing," he said, wearily. 
 
 And Nelson sung the hymn which for some unex 
 plained reason Tom had always seemed to like the 
 best: 
 
 "On Jordan s stormy banks I stand 
 
 And cast a wishful eye, 
 To Canaan s fair and happy land 
 Where my possessions lie." 
 
 Nelson had always wondered why Tom should 
 fancy it, being perfectly certain that his understand 
 ing was not equal to any real grasping of the senti 
 ment of the hymn; but it suddenly flashed on his 
 mind that he had perhaps connected the words in 
 some dim fashion with their old air castle destined 
 to have no earthly realization. 
 
 The thought made it hard for Nelson to go on, 
 but he would not let himself falter. 
 
 And even as his voice rang out sweet and true in 
 
 the closing lines, Tom fell asleep. 
 
 *#####**## 
 
 It was that night in Jesse Dukes cabin. I had 
 just laid down when I seemed to hear Tom s voice 
 and started up broad awake, but everything was 
 still, and there was nothing to be seen only the stars 
 shining down through a chink in the logs; and I fell 
 asleep again after awhile for I was tired. But I 
 
262 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 couldn t get it out of my head that Tom wanted me, 
 and the impression . on my mind kept growing 
 stronger every day, for I stayed round in the neigh 
 borhood thinking I should get a letter right off, and 
 when none came I made up my mind to go back to 
 Tom, and never leave him again." 
 
 This was in substance the explanation which Nel 
 son gave of his startling reappearance to Martin 
 Treworthy, who was blaming himself for a miserable 
 counsellor and heaping on himself many undeserved 
 reproaches for having urged him to leave Jackson 
 ville at all. 
 
 "My dear old friend," said Nelson, affectionately 
 taking his hand, "this won t do. You counselled ac 
 cording to your light. It seemed best at the time 
 that I should go away and seek another home for 
 both of us. And who shall say it was not best so 
 long as G-od ordered it. I thought if I could only 
 put Tom where he would be safe, where not the 
 shadow of temptation could touch him! And the 
 Lord has done just that thing so much better than 
 I could do it." 
 
 And Nelson once more bowed himself over the 
 unconscious dead, dimly wondering if Tom had met 
 their mother, and what they would say to each other 
 as the golden doors of the new life closed behind 
 them. As he stood there he was conscious of a 
 hand touching his arm, and a voice that said 
 brokenly: 
 
 "If I could give my own life in his place, and ye 
 could have him back again, I d do it in a minit, but 
 
Tarn s Dream Comes True. 263 
 
 when a man has been weaving the devil s web most 
 all his life, undoing the threads comes hard. If ye 
 can only forgive nie for the Lord s sake for my 
 share in bringin this trouble on ye." 
 
 Nelson s feelings towards Peter Snyder, so far as 
 he thought of him at all, had not been unlike Mar 
 tin Treworthy s. Still, his anger against the system 
 itself on which he felt his brother s death to be 
 directly chargeable burned with too fierce a flame to 
 leave much to spare in any merely personal direc 
 tion. The moments in which he stood there were 
 not simply moments of communion with his beloved 
 dead, still less of mere indulging in his grief. He 
 was passing through a mighty baptism in great 
 waters, and while he shivered in their chill embrace 
 he felt not only the divine strength that is born of 
 sorrow but that tenderness which comes to the heart 
 when a great grief has smitten it. So he did what 
 six months before he could hardly have imagined 
 himself as doing took Peter Snj der s hand in a 
 friendly grasp and said solemnly : 
 
 "If the Lord has granted you forgiveness, what 
 am I, a mortal man, that I should withhold mine." 
 
 But though Nelson forgave Peter Snyder from his 
 heart, and himself turned comforter to Martin Tre- 
 worthy, he did not choose to send any word to Dora 
 of her brother s death. He believed, and we must 
 acknowledge he was not far out of the way, that 
 Dora in her new relations had so far forgotten the 
 old as not to care to be reminded of them, and fur 
 thermore would be far more likelv to be ashamed of 
 
264 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 the fact that she had an imbecile brother, than to 
 feel any special affliction at his loss. I am afraid 
 he felt a little hard to Dora, perhaps harder than the 
 real facts warranted. But among other indictments 
 of the drink system, which standing by Tom s dead 
 form he had vowed to battle heart and soul all his 
 life through, he might have very truthfully brought 
 this that it had robbed him of a sister. 
 
 Uncle Zeb, who was, as we have before said, the 
 general news-carrier, casually mentioned the next 
 day "that the poor crazy chap he had hearn was 
 dead, that had been picked up over to the east 
 part." 
 
 "It s wonderful now how that Peter Snyder is 
 changed," he continued. "They say he took him in 
 and sent for a doctor and cared for him like a bro 
 ther o mercy. And I wouldn t wonder if it was 
 him that Dora saw tother morning asleep on the hay 
 in the barn." 
 
 Dora thought very likely it was, and she wished 
 she had not been such a goose as to be frightened 
 at the poor fellow. But beyond vague regrets Dora s 
 reflections on the matter did not go. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 MARTHA AND NELSON. 
 
 The motive which had led Nelson to leave Jack 
 sonville no longer existed. The recent labor trou 
 bles had driven off many of the old hands, and new 
 ones had been taken on, so that there was practic 
 ally an almost entire change of the working force. 
 The men for the present had enough of cut- 
 throat organizations, and it was not likely that the 
 Order of the Red Mark would meet with a speedy 
 resurrection. 
 
 Martha, seated at her work-table with Nelson at 
 her side, felt almost as if the past few weeks had 
 been an ugly dream. Only in her visions of their 
 future home there would ever be one form missing; 
 unless, indeed, he came as a gentle ghost whose im 
 palpable hands should drop unseen benisons, sweet 
 ening their united lives as with perfumes of Para 
 dise. 
 
 Nelson took up Martha s scissors and began to 
 toy with them in rather absent fashion. He had 
 some news to tell her. At last it came abruptly. 
 
 4v Matthew Densler has offered me the foreman s 
 place at the works, and I have accepted it." 
 
 Martha did not speak at once; her emotions at the 
 announcement were somewhat divided. She kept 
 
266 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 on with her work but her hands trembled, for Mar 
 tha had her weaknesses like other women where 
 those she loved were concerned, and the terrible 
 scenes of the riot were still vivid in her mind. 
 
 "I left Jacksonville," continued Nelson, with per 
 haps an intuitive perception of what she was think 
 ing, "because it was more to my taste to decamp 
 quietly for a season than to be forced to go about 
 with a concealed dirk or revolver ready to use on my 
 fellow-man. But as you. well know, my chief 
 thought was Tom to get him out of the neighbor 
 hood of the saloons, and rid myself of the constant 
 worrying fear that when he got well I never 
 thought there could be any other ending" and Nel 
 son caught his breath with a half sob "his slumber 
 ing appetite for drink would again be awakened, and 
 I should have a repetition of all the old misery and 
 trouble. I remember so well how I felt the first 
 time Tom came home to me intoxicated, and I real 
 ized the terrible truth that there was a double 
 curse on him. And yet it wasn t his fault, poor boy, 
 that wretches in the semblance of men should decoy 
 him into saloons and make him drunk for their 
 amusement." 
 
 "Nelson," said Martha, earnestly, "try to look 
 away from human wickedness and cruelty to the 
 dear Lord s compassion in thus taking Tom to him 
 self, and so mercifully restraining his appetite all 
 through those long months of his illness, that you 
 only remember what a sweet, loving, gentle soul be 
 was." 
 
Martha and Nelson. 267 
 
 "I do try to, but my heart aches so to see him 
 back in his old place; and then the thought that I 
 shall never minister to his comfort again, never tell 
 him stories or sing him songs, comes surging over 
 me like a great black wave, and leaves me feeling so 
 sore and empty. I know it is selfish; that I ought 
 to be glad he is safe, but it is hard." 
 
 "God knows it is," said Martha, with a sympa 
 thetic tremble in her voice. 
 
 "Most people would wonder I felt so," said Nel 
 son bitterly. "They would say I was only rid of a 
 burden. Little they know about it." 
 
 "Average human nature is coarse-grained," said 
 Martha, soothingly. "We must make some allow 
 ances. You know I don t feel in that way, nor does 
 Martin Treworthy. Dear old man! I believe you 
 are just like a son to him." 
 
 "I dare say I shall feel differently when I get 
 more used to not having Tom to think of and care 
 for. But it is like ravelling out a part of my life, 
 and I really think it is better for me, all things con 
 sidered, that I should come back and take my old 
 place at the works. I have always hated the noise 
 and heat and grime of the shop, and naturally I have 
 a great love for the soil, and for all the sights and 
 sounds connected with a farm, but just now I 
 couldn t bear them. Densler is realh more just than 
 the average of the manufacturers, and I am hoping 
 that since his late experience he will see the reason 
 ableness of adopting a more liberal and conciliatory 
 policy with his workmen. And there is another 
 
268 Between Two Opinions, 
 
 thing. I don t want to forego taking a freeman s 
 part in the next election. I think we shall have an 
 exciting time, when every righteous vote will be 
 needed. Martha, the prophets of our day may cry, 
 peace, peace! but there can be no peace till these 
 great questions that are pressing to the front and 
 clamoring for an answer are settled. And it is 
 American working men, not millionaires, nor the 
 scum and riffraff cast by the old world on our shores 
 who have got to settle them. By G-od s grace I will 
 be one to stand at my post and fire my ballot when 
 ever and wherever I see a wrong to hit." 
 
 Martha dropped her work, and her eyes were full 
 of those unshed tears that only rise in moments of 
 solemn gladness. 
 
 "Oh, Nelson, I will help you to be strong and 
 true! You shall never falter because I am weak. 
 We will work together, pray together for the good 
 time coming when Christ shall reign over our nation 
 and everywhere." 
 
 And was it strange that Nelson, looking into her 
 glowing, earnest face, should feel himself elevated 
 to the height of prophecy, though it only took the 
 form of a familiar Scriptural quotation, at which 
 Martha smiled and blushed, but seemed in no wise 
 offended. 
 
 "The heart of her husband doth safely triLst in her so 
 that he hath no need of spoil. She will do him good 
 and not evil all the days of her life. 1 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 UNCLE ZEB TRIES A MASONIC EXPERIMENT AXP MEETS 
 WITH UNLOOKED-FOR SUCCESS. 
 
 The current of our ston~ bears us once more to 
 Fairfield. It is a summer day, the exact counter 
 part of the one on which we made our first visit to 
 Israel Deming s farm a year ago. Nothing has 
 altered; that is to say, there is the same aspect of 
 careful thrift, the same abundance of creature com 
 forts. There is only the hidden, impalpable change 
 which goes on in all our human lives as unconscious 
 ly as the change of particles in our ph}*sical frames. 
 
 Dora has felt in the last few months the dim and 
 hitherto unknown stirrings of her undeveloped 
 woman s nature, and begun to vaguely realize that 
 her free and happy estate of girlhood cannot last 
 forever. All very salutary knowledge so far as it 
 goes, but in Dora s case it has only gone far enough 
 to produce a misty glamour in which neither the 
 present nor the future assume exactly their right 
 proportions. 
 
 Uncle Zeb and Mr. Deming are discussing matters 
 and things with their usual freedom and familiarity, 
 the topic of their conversation being a recent ser 
 mon preached by Elder Wood from the text, ; -In 
 secret have I said nothing." Fairfield was not used 
 
270 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 to anti-secret sermons, or indeed reform sermons of 
 any kind, and if it excited anger and hard speeches 
 in many quarters, it gave at least a new theme for 
 general discussion, and considered in this light was 
 quite a god-send to Uncle Zeb, who sometimes found 
 his stock subjects of gossip worn very threadbare. 
 
 Probably one of the very best ways of finding out 
 the various points of view from which anything is 
 regarded in the community at large is to hear the 
 matter freely talked over in the domestic privacy of 
 an average household; and for this reason we will 
 join unseen the group in the back porch precisely at 
 the moment that Uncle Zeb is delivering himself as 
 follows : 
 
 11 1 like a preacher that ll keep folks awake, and 
 that s one reason why I m allus on hand when I hear 
 Elder Wood is goin to preach. He s got a master 
 way of kinder takin up things and flashing Gospel 
 truth onto em till they look as different as night 
 and morning. Naterally a man don t like to change 
 his mind arter he s got it once made up, but then 
 that don t alter right and wrong. Whatever a min 
 ister thinks he ought to say without fear or favor, 
 let it hit as it will. That s my doctrine." 
 
 "Why, Uncle Zeb; I thought you was a good 
 Mason," said Mr. Doming, half jocularly. 
 
 There was the slightest perceptible shrug of Uncle 
 Zeb s shoulders as if this might be a doubtful point. 
 
 "Maybe I am and maybe I ain t. Anyhow I 
 know too much to give myself away as some on em 
 are doing. It s real redikerlous all this talk about 
 
A Masonic Experiment. 271 
 
 rotten-egging the Elder and riding him on a rail, 
 jest for standing up and speaking what he thinks is 
 the truth, as if this wa n t a free country where 
 every man has got a right to free speech. That s 
 what I stickle for. I stand by the Constitution and 
 the Declaration of Independence/ 
 
 And Uncle Zeb ended with a rather triumphant 
 inflection of his voice as if conscious that he was 
 holding a position at once patriotic and unassailable. 
 In truth Uncle Zeb ? s Masonry sat as loosely on him 
 as the liberal theology of the present day on some 
 of its supporters; but this latitudinarianism of opin 
 ion was naturally and easily accounted for by the 
 fact that though he had once joined the order and 
 paid dues, nobody knew when, he had long ceased 
 to be numbered with the membership of an}* partic 
 ular lodge. 
 
 "I shouldn t have minded so much his hitting 
 Masonry," said Mr. Deming; -but it seemed to me 
 that when he included the grange, as though that 
 wa n t much better, it was going a little too far." 
 
 "So, ho!" chuckled Uncle Zeb. "Mustn t throw 
 stones at your winders it seems. Might hit that 
 machine inside and put some of the gearing out of 
 kilter." 
 
 Mr. Deming mentally winced, but he remembered 
 that for Uncle Zeb to have his joke was as fixed as 
 an}* fact in nature, and he would not have cared 
 were it not for the consciousness that he had indeed 
 "given himself away" much more freely than he 
 meant. A year ago he would have indorsed ever} 
 
272 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 word of Elder Wood s sermon, but joining the 
 grange had converted this honest American farmer 
 into a tacit apologist for the whole secret system. 
 It is indeed remarkable how a very small admixture 
 of error in our mental lens will make us color blind. 
 
 Dora sat in unusual silence. To her the sermon 
 would have been an agreeable variety for its novel 
 subject, if for nothing else, had the preacher s at 
 tacks been confined entirely to Masonry, against 
 which she entertained a truly feminine prejudice; 
 but Elder Wood, while he looked upon the latter as 
 the old mother serpent, saw no reason why he should 
 not bring down his club of spiritual truth and logic 
 with stunning force on the smallest member of the 
 family that happened to wriggle across his path. 
 So the grange, with other minor orders, received 
 special mention as a system plainly emanating from 
 Masonry, with the same Christless ritual, the same 
 sham benevolence and moralit} 7 , and the same offer 
 of final salvation; to all of which Dora listened with 
 out feeling any particular force in the argument. 
 
 There is nothing in the world more impervious to 
 religious truth than that shell of complacency in 
 which a } T oung and careless soul wraps itself, 
 when secure in youth and health and beauty it feels 
 no need of anything higher, or deeper, or more sat 
 isfying; but repels every offer, every promise, every 
 appeal by saying as did the old Laodicean church, 
 "I am rich and increased with goods and have need 
 of nothing." But when the Elder referred to the 
 paganism of the grange, and asked how many Chris- 
 
A Masonic Experiment. , 273 
 
 tian women would willingly personate its three pre 
 siding heathen goddesses, Ceres. Pomona, and Flora, 
 after knowing the characters which they severally 
 bore, Dora began to feel a new interest, for had she 
 not freen chosen to enact the part of Flora? 
 and did she not at their last meeting wear roses in 
 her dark hair, and roses at her bosom and belt, and 
 look as bewitching and sweet as if she had been a 
 veritable rose herself? And it came with a sudden 
 shock to her self-satisfaction to know that she was 
 personating one of the vile and shameless women of 
 antiquity, whose hand she would on no account have 
 touched had she been a character of the present 
 day. 
 
 Poor Dora! She was vain and foolish, yet pure 
 of heart and intention, and she shrank from the very 
 thought of any connection with impurity and shame 
 as from the touch of red-hot iron. She felt per 
 versely inclined to be angry with the white-haired 
 old minister for telling these homely truths. Wirv 
 couldn t he have kept silent on that particular point? 
 for she felt certain that she could never again act 
 the part of Flora in the grange without a scathing 
 remembrance that would make her cheeks burn. 
 
 Mrs. Deming was setting up the heel of a stock 
 ing, and necessarily occupied in counting stitches, 
 so that she had as yet taken no part in the conver 
 sation. But it was not because her mind was not 
 fully made up on the subject, for she now spoke out 
 decidedly: 
 
 "I believe every word of that sermon was Gospel 
 
274 , Between Two Opinions. 
 
 truth, and I wish there were more ministers like 
 Elder Wood. He s got the real martyr spirit in 
 him. Think how wonderfully that Peter Snyder 
 was converted under his preaching! It seemed al 
 most as it was in the days of the apostles; and for 
 my part I think the warnings of such a man ought 
 to be regarded. It did me good to hear him say 
 right out what I ve thought and said myself ever so 
 many times about Masonry s protecting the saloons, 
 and encouraging drinking and all that sort of thing." 
 
 Now to know that some good and noble soul 
 whom we have reason to look up to with reverence 
 thinks just as we do is certainly one of the best pos 
 sible reasons for holding on to our belief that can 
 be adduced outside of divine inspiration; and Mrs. 
 Deming may be pardoned if she clicked her needles 
 with a conscious sense of superiority. Whether 
 Uncle Zeb cared enough for the institution to which 
 he nominally belonged to take up the cudgels in its 
 defence it is impossible to say, for at that moment 
 the appearance of a man riding by on a light sorrel 
 steed in fact the identical horseman who not only 
 would have passed poor Tom by on the other side, 
 but worse even than the ancient Levite, would have 
 consigned him to the tender mercies of the police 
 and the lock-up turned the current of the conversa 
 tion into a slightly different channel. 
 
 "That Dacey now is a smart-appearing man, and I 
 suppose he s done a good deal in getting the grange 
 started. But it looks to me as though he d got a 
 number of axes to grind with all them farming ma- 
 
A Masonic Experiment. 275 
 
 chines that they say he s agent for. But then," ad 
 ded Uncle Zeb philosophically, "the hull world is 
 putty much like a big grindstone if you look at it in 
 that light" 
 
 Mr. Deming decidedly wished that these remarks 
 had not been made in the hearing of his wife, but 
 she had reached another intricate point in her knit 
 ting and was perhaps not paying much attention, 
 and Uncle Zeb had such an innocent way of bring 
 ing out his inconvenient sayings that Mr. Deming in 
 spite of his inward discomfort could not really be 
 lieve that there was any malicious intent behind 
 them. 
 
 The gentleman just now under discussion was a 
 comparatively new comer in Fairfield, but he always 
 dressed well, and seemed to have plenty of money, 
 and in addition to these two prime points he was, as 
 Uncle Zeb had expressed it, "a smart-appearing 
 man." It was generally understood that he held 
 certain agricultural patents in. trust for interested 
 parties, and there were some in Fairfield who, like 
 Uncle Zeb, thought his activity in organizing the 
 grange sufficiently accounted for by this latter fact. 
 He was good-looking, and a fluent, entertaining 
 talker, and nothing being positively known against 
 him, Fairfield society generally pronounced him 
 charming." It is true there were a few prejudiced 
 people who ventured to disagree with the popular 
 verdict; who saw something sinister, even sharp, 
 low and cunning, under his bland smile and undeni 
 able good looks. But of this class wns not the open- 
 
276 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 hearted, choleric, unsuspicious Mr. Deming; nor 
 Dora, who was rather weary of her boyish admirers, 
 and having made Mr. Dacey s acquaintance at the 
 grange meetings had begun by thinking what an 
 agreeable contrast a mature man of forty, who had 
 traveled about and seen the world, presented to cal 
 low youths of eighteen and twenty, who seemed to 
 know as little what to talk about as what to do with 
 their feet and hands; and she ended by thinking a 
 great deal more about him than was prudent. 
 
 Dora had an intuition that her mother would dis 
 approve of any such match, and possibly her father 
 too; and she never meant to marry without their 
 consent, but what was the harm in such a very pleas 
 ant acquaintanceship that would never be likely to 
 go any farther? The moths who hover about can 
 dles are not always of the masculine persuasion. 
 Dora had not the smallest intention of singeing her 
 pretty wings. That was a thing that never occurred 
 to her in all her dreamings, but why did his next re 
 mark make her feel for the first time in her life in 
 clined to be angry with kind old Uncle Zeb? 
 
 "Dacey looks some like a man I used to know in 
 Ohio. He come from some Eastern State, Connecti 
 cut I think it was, and set up store. And he was 
 jest a going to marry one of the finest gals in the 
 neighborhood when who should come onto the scene 
 but his wife with two of her children! He d spent 
 all her property and then run off and left her." 
 
 "He ought to have been hung," said Mrs. Deming, 
 Tattling her needles with quick emphasis. 
 
.4 Masonic Experiment. 277 
 
 "So I say," echoed Israel Deming. "Such men 
 ought not to be above ground." 
 
 "Fix it any way you ve a mind to there ll allus be 
 rogues jest as there ll allus be grasshoppers and 
 weevils and potato-bugs," replied Uncle Zeb, sagely. 
 
 "There wouldn t be so many rogues if Masonry 
 could be put down," said Mrs. Deming. "It stands 
 to reason. Talk about there being good men in the 
 lodge! So there is, but you put a dozen fools and 
 one knave together, and I ll warrant that the knave 
 will manage the fools." 
 
 "Well, I hain t been nigh the Masons for twenty 
 years," said Uncle Zeb, when he had got through 
 shaking with his little inward laugh. "I expect 
 there s been changes since then." 
 
 "When I was a girl," said Mrs. Deming, "I used 
 to hear them tell about raising the devil in the lodge 
 and wonder how it was done. I don t believe that 
 has all gone by yet" 
 
 "I ve seen it done lots of times," returned Uncle 
 Zeb, boldly. "They d have to rap on the ceilin and 
 say over something in Latin, and then he d come 
 stalking through the room, hoofs and horns and all, 
 lookin as if he d jest stepped out of one of the pic- 
 ters in Pilgrim s Progress." 
 
 "Uncle Zeb, what do you mean by telling such 
 yarns!" exclaimed Mrs. Deming, slightly scandalized. 
 But Dora, who saw only an avenue for her j outhful 
 spirit of fun, sprang up from her seat and said in 
 her prettiest and most coaxing fashion, "Oh, Uncle 
 Zeb, show me how they did it Now do, please." 
 
278 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 It was in vain that he tried to parry this startling 
 proposal with the plea that it was so long ago he 
 had forgotten the precise form of incantation neces 
 sary to use. 
 
 Dora, in her young, bright wilfulness, was not 
 easily turned off from the idea, and with his usual 
 readiness to enter into a jest, Uncle Zeb finally con 
 sented. Mrs. Deming indeed rather disapproved of 
 any such trifling with the invisible powers of evil, 
 but the force of her protest was rather marred by 
 her previous skepticism, and so amounted to little. 
 
 "I guess I ll try it out in that ere back room," 
 said Uncle Zeb; "but there must only be we two. 
 More might break the spell." 
 
 In great glee Dora led the way to an unfinished 
 apartment where the rough work of the family was 
 generally done. There was a good-sized loft above 
 and an open stairway leading to it, while doors at 
 either end opened one on the barnyard, where 
 Dora s favorite bantams cocked expectant eyes and 
 waited for her to throw them their customary feed 
 of corn; the other commanding a splendid outlook 
 over a field of billowy wheat, which, as it met with 
 out a break the blue line of the horizon, gave that 
 sealike sense of measureless distance which is so 
 restful to earth-weary souls like a thought of eter 
 nity. 
 
 Uncle Zeb began to knock with his cane in vari 
 ous places on the walls, muttering meanwhile a pe 
 culiar and self-invented lingo. It is needless to 
 state that he had not the smallest idea of raising 
 
A Masonic Experiment. 279 
 
 an3 r thing except echoes, but magicians, ever since 
 the Witch of Endor s day, have sometimes done bet 
 ter than they expected, and Uncle Zeb was suddenly 
 startled by an answering thump and clatter over 
 head, while to his horrified vision something that 
 owned unmistakable hoofs and horns shot down the 
 stairs and past him out at the door. We are sorry 
 to be obliged to record it of Uncle Zeb, but he was 
 a sad coward, and such unlooked-for success in his 
 experiment put him to precipitate flight, followed by 
 peals of convulsive laughter from Dora, who, when 
 the first instant of half-petrified amazement was 
 over, saw through the whole mystery. 
 
 "Why, mother, it was only the Sullivan goat," 
 she explained between her bursts of merriment, as 
 Mrs. Deming made her appearance with Mr. Deming 
 close behind, just in time to be a witness to the de- 
 noument. "You know the Van E} cks who lived 
 here before we did owned him first, #nd he has never 
 forgotten his old quarters." 
 
 "I declare, wife, if that ain t the best joke I ever 
 heard of. Uncle Zeb really thought he had raised 
 the old Nick himself." And Mr. Deming also ex 
 ploded in a fit of uncontrollable laughter joined in 
 heartily by his spouse, while the unfortunate magi 
 cian finally ventured back looking rather foolish. 
 
 "This is the fust time I ever tried a Masonic ex 
 periment, and I guess it will be my last. But 
 Marthy Washington! I reckon it won t be the last T 
 shall hear on t" 
 
 Uncle Zeb was correct. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A PECULIAR KIND OF MORALITY AND BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 We do not see how we can better apologize for 
 the undignified ending of our last chapter than to 
 give the reader a glance into the law office of 
 Stephen Rowland, whom we have neglected of late, 
 while pursuing the fortunes of the other characters 
 in our story. He set out in his profession as the 
 reader knows with a very high aim, and all things 
 considered, he has kept to that aim with commend 
 able resolution. When a young, ardent soul throws 
 itself with all the earnestness of its nature into the 
 battle against an*organized and powerful wrong, it 
 receives as it were in the very act a kind of invisible 
 guard and shield. This does not always prevent 
 the man, as proved by one or two melancholy in 
 stances in our political histoiy, from being captured 
 by an ignoble self-interest, and made to grind in the 
 prison-house of the very foes he once fought a 
 blind and shorn Sampson, an Ichabod from whom 
 the glory has forever departed. 
 
 It is too early yet to reckon on Stephen How- 
 land s future with perfect certitude, but for our part 
 we have a great deal of faith in the prayers of that 
 simple, hill-country couple even more than we have 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 281 
 
 in his Puritan birth and training, powerful factors 
 though they are. And at the same time Stephen, in 
 spite of all these helping forces, visible and invis 
 ible, stands in a place where he needs all the sup 
 port they can give him. We are told of lying spirits 
 going forth to bewilder and deceive, and there is 
 f ertainly one in our own day which has been even 
 known to air its falsehoods and blasphemies in 
 Christian pulpits: a spirit that substitutes mystery 
 for truth, shadow for substance; that strikes at the 
 heart of faith with the concealed dagger of a dis 
 guised infidelity: and would smirch the white robes 
 of the Bride of Christ herself in the vain attempt to 
 whitewash its own garments. 
 
 This spirit Stephen Rowland is now confronting, 
 and it speaks from the lips of Mr. Felix Basset 
 
 We ve missed you at the lodge meetings lately." 
 began Mr. Basset with his easy, cordial smile. {i and 
 last night especially. We had an installation, and 
 there were a good many visitors from neighboring 
 lodges some notable ones. So it was really quite an 
 occasion, and if I had had a donbt of your being there 
 I should have called round. This lack of interest 
 among members hurts Odd-fellowship more than the 
 attacks of all the anti-secret fanatics. Now I was 
 looking over the reports of the Grand Lodge the 
 other day. and I find we are really losing ground in 
 spite of large accessions so many members drop 
 away after the first year and neither attend nor keep 
 up their dues/ 
 
 Stephen s eyes were by no means fully opened to 
 
282 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the evils of secrecy, but he had begun to feel a nat 
 ural disgust for the reiterated mummeries of the 
 lodge room. The principles taught might be all 
 right might even be as Mr. Basset had so many 
 times averred, a perfect religious system, able in the 
 absence of any other guide to lead its devotees 
 straight to heaven; but Stephen had a strong dislike 
 to farce, and an equally strong dislike for inconsist 
 ency. The Odd-fellow ritual, especially the coffin 
 scene, had not in the beginning recommended itself 
 to his common sense or his good taste; and worse 
 than that he had reason to fear that there existed a 
 deplorable laxity in practice among many of the 
 members of this "moral" order. He had fully 
 meant at some convenient season to have a serious 
 talk with Mr. Basset, in the hope that these unpleas 
 ant doubts and suspicions might thereby be laid to 
 rest, and the present occasion seemed favorable. So 
 he began, rather hurriedly and with a half wish that 
 the talk was safely over, for between his desire 
 neither to offend Mr. Basset nor compromise the 
 truth he was not likely to find very smooth sailing. 
 "I have been pretty busy of late with one or two 
 important cases, and the installation quite slipped 
 from my mind last night. But now we are on the 
 subject, I must say that I have lately learned facts 
 which have both surprised and pained me. I find 
 there are quite a number in our lodge who are in 
 one way or another connected with the liquor busi 
 ness. I am trying, as you know, to serve faithfully 
 the temperance people of this city who have done 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 283 
 
 me the honor, though young and unknown, of mak 
 ing me their special attorney. And it is embarrass 
 ing to feel that I am joined by lodge vows with men 
 who have a personal interest in supporting the 
 traffic. I can well see how cases may, and no doubt 
 will, arise in which I shall have to act against a bro 
 ther Odd-fellow or stultify my conscience: and I 
 have been seriously considering whether it would 
 not be better on the whole to procure a demit and 
 withdraw from the lodge entirely. I have nothing 
 against the order personally, and I know there are 
 good prohibitionists in it. But that has nothing to 
 do with the difficulty, for it is not with those that 
 my business as temperance attorney will be likely 
 to bring me into collision. Wh} , I know from un 
 disputed authority that the saloon property which 
 pays the heaviest tax in Jacksonville is owned by 
 an Odd-fellow, a prominent member of our lodge." 
 
 "Oh, if you come to that," answered Mr. Basset, 
 whose countenance, after the first start of surprise, 
 settled back into its usual agreeable smile, "no so 
 cial or even religious organization was ever perfect. 
 Look at the church ! I can point out to you mem 
 bers in good standing who do that very thing. I 
 could count you off a dozen, to say the least, good 
 Methodists and Presbyterians, who rent their prop 
 erty to saloon-keepers. I don t excuse such incon 
 sistency of course, but the lodge is really no worse 
 than the church when it comes to the point" 
 
 Stephen was silent. At heart he felt a thrill of 
 indignation, as if he had heard some courtesan with 
 
284 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 painted cheeks compared to his mother. If it were 
 so; if he had been deceived all along in both; if one 
 were as good, or, to borrow Mr. Basset s expression, 
 no worse than the other, what better thing remained 
 for a man than to fall back on pantheism, positive- 
 ism, or even a refined paganism, and drift into the 
 unknown abyss with the motto of the old grovelling 
 heathen world of St. Paul s day on his lips, "Let us 
 eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Not that 
 Stephen was really conscious of having any such 
 thought; he would have repudiated it at once had it 
 presented itself in honest fashion. He would have 
 said, "There is something better;" and clung to his 
 old faith with the tenacity of a soul that fears ship 
 wreck. But the unconscious infidelity which is like 
 the microscopic germs that diffuse invisible poison 
 in the air we breathe and the water we drink, I know 
 of nothing that will guard against that but such a 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit as shall consume these 
 spiritual sporadic germs in its swift, down-rushing 
 fires that take the whole life for a sacrifice and the 
 whole heart for an altar. And it was just this that 
 Stephen lacked. 
 
 He was aware that what Mr. Basset had said was 
 sadl} r , unmistakably true. The churches in Jack 
 sonville seemed to be engaged in a pretty even race 
 with the world, which begat the natural fruits: un 
 seemly rivalries with each other, and spiritual dead- 
 ness. They had oyster suppers, and fairs, and fes 
 tivals, and entertainments of every description; and 
 now and then there was a spasmodic effort to "get 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 285 
 
 up a revival;" as useless, and perhaps to heavenly 
 eyes as painful and hideous as the attempt to gal 
 vanize a corpse into seeming life. Was it strange 
 that this modern Sardis allowed to stand unques 
 tioned on her membership roll the names of those 
 who "took the price of blood and the wages of in- 
 iquit}*? or that there were even whispered reports 
 of scandalous sin on the part of some of her promi 
 nent professors? But why did it not occur to 
 Stephen, as a curious coincidence, to say the least, 
 that every professed Christian whom Mr. Basset 
 vauntingly pointed out as in complicity with the 
 liquor traffic was either a Mason or an Odd-fellow? 
 Why did he not think that union with unbelievers 
 who practiced secret works of darkness might be 
 just as disastrous to the purity of the church now 
 as in early times when such unequal yoking" was 
 so strictly forbidden? 
 
 But Stephen, as we have said, was silent. His 
 silence, however, made no difference with Mr. Bas 
 set, who talked on. 
 
 "Now just think of all the benevolent work that 
 is being done by the order. I don t mean to say 
 anything to run down other organizations, but for 
 pure charity commend me to Odd-fellowship. Over 
 two million dollars was paid out for relief last year 
 you can see it for }*ourself in the printed reports, 
 I believe I ve got one in m}* pocket now. When 
 anybody says anything against Odd-fellowship, 
 there s a plump knock-down argument for em. I 
 just turn round and say, Why don t the churches do 
 
286 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 this work? and that generally shuts them up. Just 
 picture to yourself how many widows and orphans 
 have been made glad; how many desolate homes 
 have been cheered; in short, what a munificent work 
 of love and good-will has been accomplished by the 
 judicious distribution of this immense sum! What 
 ever else we do, my dear young friend, don t let us 
 circumscribe our charities. He that giveth to the 
 poor lendeth unto the Lord. " 
 
 Stephen colored. He was naturally generous and 
 open-handed, and he could not bear the tacit impu 
 tation of meanness in his motives for leaving the 
 lodge. But he only reached up to one of the pigeon 
 holes where he kept his papers, and drew out a let 
 ter. 
 
 "What you say, Mr. Basset, reminds me of a let 
 ter that I received to-day from the widow of a cer 
 tain Jacob Strycker, a lately deceased member of 
 our lodge. I should like to show it to you as it re 
 fers to an important matter that I think ought to be 
 set right immediately." 
 
 "Jacob Strycker? let me see," said Mr. Basset. 
 "Oh, I remember now. Mr. Strycker died at Ft. 
 Wayne, slightly in debt to the lodge at the time. 
 That circumstance, you know, cancels all claim to 
 a benefit." 
 
 "But hear what Mrs. Strycker says: I write to 
 you, Mr. Rowland, because you are a lawyer and 
 know about such things. The lodge in Jacksonville 
 to which my husband belonged, and of which I un 
 derstand you are a member, has refused to give me 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 287 
 
 the customary benefit on the ground that his dues 
 were unpaid at the time of his death. This is not 
 so. He mailed five dollars from Ft. "Wayne the day 
 before he died, which was received and credited, and 
 left a small balance in his favor. I know my hus 
 band believed that I would be provided for. Will 
 you please look into this matter, and see that justice 
 is done to a poor widow and her fatherless children, 
 though she can only pay you with her blessing and 
 her prayers. LYDIA STRYCKER. " 
 
 "Of course there must be some misunderstand 
 ing," remarked Stephen, as he folded the letter. 
 "No lodge in the land, I hope, would take such mean 
 and dishonest advantage of a mere technicality, as 
 Mr. Strycker s money was of course on the road at 
 the time of his death." 
 
 "Well, now, that don t seem right, does it? She 
 has written a very touching letter. I declare, I am 
 really very sony for her. But then as a sensible 
 woman she ought to understand that there can t be 
 any rule devised that will not sometimes and in 
 some cases bear hard. The rule of Odd fellowship 
 is, Pay in advance, and of course there will always 
 be some compelled by misfortune to violate it. In 
 that case all they pa} in is forfeited, but they enter 
 with that understanding, so it is really all fair 
 enough when one comes to look at it only, as I 
 said before, it comes hard in particular cases." 
 
 "But Mr. Strycker kept up his dues," interrupted 
 Stephen, impatiently. "Lawfully that money be 
 longed to the lodge as soon as it left his hands." 
 
288 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Well, I think it would have been better to have 
 stretched the point and handed over the benefit; de 
 cidedly I do. Such things give a handle to the 
 anti-secret party if they leak out, and they are sure 
 to. We might pass round a subscription paper for 
 Mrs. Strycker. I don t doubt but you could collect 
 a handsome sum from the members of our lodge by 
 going privately to them and stating the unfortunate 
 features of the case. I would be willing myself to 
 put down five dollars." 
 
 "No," said Stephen, rather hotly. "Mrs. Strycker 
 has not asked for charity but justice, and justice 
 she shall have. There shall be an appeal made to 
 the Grand Lodge." 
 
 Mr. Basset drummed lightly with his cane on the 
 floor and a rather strange thing for him did not 
 immediately reply. Clearly the young lawyer was 
 not made of the most manageable material in the 
 world, and would have to be dealt with carefully, 
 or in other words, dosed liberally with that com 
 modity vulgarly known as "soft soap," which, by 
 the way, as the reader has doubtless perceived, Mr. 
 Basset had a native gift for administering. He had 
 no intention of letting so valuable a member as 
 Stephen Rowland slip out of the order. And here 
 comes in the natural inquiry, what made him valu 
 able? and why should Mr. Basset be so specially 
 anxious to retain him? 
 
 The former of these two questions is very easily 
 answered. Stephen, as a young and rising temper 
 ance lawyer, could give the lodge a moral prestige 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 289 
 
 that would offset an} number of Van Gilders. What 
 could more effectually shut the mouth of anybody 
 disposed to carp at the convivial origin of Odd-fel 
 lowship, or to intimate that while intoxicating 
 liquors might be forbidden in the lodge room, it still 
 kept up the traditions of its birthplace in an English 
 ale-house by gathering in saloons after the meetings 
 adjourned, or circulating pocket flasks privately in 
 committee rooms to an accompaniment of tobacco 
 smoke, vulgar stories and coarse jokes, than to point 
 to Stephen Rowland, attorney for the Law and 
 Order League, as a member in good and regular 
 standing? As acceptable material for the lodge, he 
 ranked nearl}* equal in point of fact to a popular 
 clergyman. 
 
 The second reason is not so easily given. Mr. 
 Basset s love for Odd-fellowship proceeded from 
 mixed motives that could be resolved into unmixed 
 selfishness by a little close analysis. He had an 
 ease- loving nature, and preferred, so to speak, a self- 
 adjustable religion that would fit every phase of 
 worldly requirement; that would have an elastic 
 adaptation to anything doubtful in belief or dubious 
 in practice; in short, something totally different from 
 the tight-fitting Bible code which would expose his 
 moral and spiritual infirmities b} conscious twinges 
 as a tight shoe discovers a bunion. This he found 
 in Odd-fellowship. It made no difference that he 
 was nominally a professor of the Christian religion. 
 Ho could wear the livery of both; and perhaps in 
 the great day of account it will be found that at 
 
290 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 least a part of the guilt of such hypocrisy must be 
 laid at the doors of those churches that allow this 
 double profession, and thus in effect put the Christ- 
 less paganism of the lodge on a level with the soul- 
 saving doctrines of the cross. He never consciously 
 avowed to himself that he looked upon Odd-fellow 
 ship as a possible covert in case of criminal "impru 
 dence," for he hoped on the contrary never to for 
 feit what he was very fond of the good opinion of 
 his fellow-men, by any outward act that would con 
 demn him in the eyes of society. And yet all the 
 while there existed in his mental background a dim 
 shadowy consciousness that the protection clause in 
 the Odd-fellow s obligation might make it a very 
 convenient thing if but Mr. Basset never carried 
 his thoughts beyond that innoeent little preposition. 
 
 Stephen, for his part, looked on Mr. Basset as a 
 good-hearted, social kind of a man, though rather 
 shallow. On the whole he liked him. He had a 
 certain open way with him that is always taking to 
 a frank nature, and any suspicion of selfish motives 
 in the latter s evident anxiety to retain him in the 
 lodge was as far as possible from Stephen s mind. 
 
 Mr. Basset, with all his seeming openness, had 
 not a little diplomatic craft. So he did not tell 
 Stephen that he was morally sure the Grand Lodge 
 would render an adverse decision in Mrs. Stacker s 
 case; or that he himself had been knowing to more 
 than one similar instance where men had paid in 
 hundreds of dollars, but happening to die slightly 
 in debt to the lodge, the moral and charitable order 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 291 
 
 they had so trustingly joined kept their money, but 
 refused all benefit to the widows and orphans sup 
 posed to be the objects of its beneficent care. There 
 was one screw, however, yet unturned, and like a 
 good-natured inquisitor of olden times, he proceeded 
 with an easy smile to make Stephen feel this power. 
 
 "Speaking about a demit now. Of course any 
 body is at liberty to leave the lodge, but you re 
 member the closing part of the Odd-fellow s obliga 
 tion: l Should I be expelled, or voluntarily leave the 
 order, 1 will consider this promise as binding out of it 
 as in it. A demit makes no difference with the ir 
 revocable nature of the vow." 
 
 Stephen felt as if suddenly caught in a vice. He 
 had merely been turning the idea over in his mind 
 of leaving the lodge without coming to any definite 
 resolution, for he meant to take no hasty step; 
 though he could not help acknowledging that he had 
 been very hasty in joining a society which by its 
 very constitution he was prevented from knowing 
 anything about beforehand he could easily slip his 
 neck from under the noose when convinced that it 
 was not a good thing. Now the idea of irrevocable- 
 ness made the obligation which had before rested on 
 him with the lightness of a silken thread press like 
 a band of iron. But he was too proud to let Mr. 
 Basset discern his mental wincings. So he only 
 said quietly, "I haven t made up my mind whether 
 to leave yet or not, and if I do, it will not be be 
 cause I have any difficulty with the obligation as I 
 understand it." 
 
292 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Now that is a very important point to under 
 stand it right," said Mr. Basset, catching eagerly at 
 this latter clause in Stephen s remark. "Unprinci 
 pled men creep into Odd-fellowship. There s no de 
 nying that. I m sorry it is so. But you must take 
 it like everything else, the evil along with the good. 
 This report, by the way, I ll leave with you, and you 
 can look it over when you have leisure. You know 
 we may reason and argue about a thing, but when it 
 comes to convincing, facts and figures do the busi 
 ness." 
 
 And Mr. Basset departed with a smile so beaming 
 in its friendly cheerfulness that he might have al 
 most sat for the benevolent spirit of his favorite or 
 der personified. 
 
 Stephen, in an interval of leisure between the 
 study of his law cases, took up the pamphlet and 
 ran his eye over the figures. It was certainly true 
 that Odd-fellow benevolence had mounted up the 
 last year to over two millions. At the same time its 
 collections had reached a sum of over five millions. 
 Stephen s mathematical mind at once perceived that 
 the lodge was very well paid for its "charity" by a 
 margin of three-fifths of the receipts. Would not 
 an insurance company that took 60 per cent to pay 
 its running expenses be called an arrant swindle? 
 And if the church should do so, would not lodgemen 
 like Mr. Basset be the first to call her by even a 
 worse name? 
 
 These questions Stephen revolved in his mind and 
 half decided in his next letter home to confess his 
 
A Peculiar Kind of Morality. 293 
 
 folly for folly he now considered it and ask 
 counsel. But it would pain the old couple to find 
 out that he had taken such a step and kept it so 
 long a secret from them; and his mind, until Mr. 
 Basset had so coolly showed him that he was reck 
 oning without his host, had clung hopefully to pro 
 curing a demit; for he fluttered himself that then his 
 whole experience as an Odd-fellow would drop out 
 of his life so completely that it need never be re 
 ferred to or thought of again. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 IN RAMAH WAS THERE A VOICE HEARD. 
 
 The president of the W. C. T. U. in Jacksonville, 
 like many another woman in the White Ribbon 
 ranks, had known a time when she construed 
 St. Paul with extreme literalness, and would have 
 faced the cannon s mouth sooner than an average- 
 sized audience. Yet she had conquered early preju 
 dice and native timidity so far as to be not only an 
 indefatigable temperance worker, but one of the most 
 acceptable speakers in the organization, her glowing 
 eloquence and forceful logic being only matched on 
 the platform by the charm of her noble presence and 
 sweet, womanly voice. 
 
 There is nothing more wonderful in this whole 
 wonderful movement than the fact that it has devel 
 oped not one Deborah, that would be nothing re 
 markable but hundreds of Deborahs, each one a 
 host in herself, who have risen in their might "for 
 God and home and native land," unmindful of the 
 sneers or the misunderstandings of smaller and 
 weaker souls. Thank God for the army of temper 
 ance Deborahs! Is it not fitting that by them he 
 should judge the traffic which has made so many 
 Rachels. 
 
A Voice in Rainah. 295 
 
 Martha, however, never thought of herself in this 
 exalted light, for she was in her own humble esti 
 mate only one of the rank and file, though she 
 taught a primary class in the Jacksonville Band of 
 Hope; and so when Mrs. Judge Haviland made her 
 an informal call one day, she was as agreeably sur 
 prised as one of Napoleon s subalterns might have 
 been, unexpected!} honored by a visit from his com- 
 mander-in-chief. 
 
 The weather was warm and close. Mrs. Haviland 
 sank down in the easy chair Martha offered her with 
 a look of weariness and exhaustion in her face that 
 might have been attributed to the heat by any one 
 who did not know that in the past six months the 
 number of local Unions and Bands of Hope which she 
 had organized, the addresses she had made to adults, 
 and the talks she had given the children, to say 
 nothing of the time and strength diffused through 
 numberless minor channels, were more than enough 
 to keep mind and body strained to their highest ten 
 sion. 
 
 "I called to have a little talk with you," she said, 
 "about our Band of Hope especially. I want to 
 praise you, Miss Benson, for the admirable way in 
 which you have trained those little midgets. I was 
 quite surprised as well as delighted the other day to 
 see how clearly the} seemed to understand political 
 economy in its relations to the drink traffic." 
 
 "I am a pupiL myself." replied Martha, modestly. 
 k -I have only lately begun to study these subjects. 
 My first introduction to temperance work was when 
 
296 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 I joined the Good Templars, and the drink question 
 as related to economic or hygienic questions was 
 never once discussed in the lodge to which I be 
 longed; or even alluded to." 
 
 "I do not like to say anything against any society 
 which professes to work for temperance," replied 
 Mrs. Haviland, "but I find that these secret tem 
 perance lodges educate superficially if they educate 
 at all, which I am sometimes inclined to doubt; and 
 the result is a host of nominal laborers who may be 
 well-trained in lodge work but no farther. I rejoice 
 in the broadening scope of the W. C. T. IT. Looked 
 upon merely as a grand educational agency for 
 woman, it is a most powerful force in the mental 
 and spiritual development of our sex. By it God is 
 training the future mothers of our Republic for who 
 knows what duties, what responsibilities!" 
 
 Mrs. Haviland was silent for a moment a silence 
 Martha did not choose to break; and then she con 
 tinued, her face lighting up with a strange radiance 
 as she dwelt on the record of the past, "I was 
 one of the Ohio crusaders. Perhaps our way was a 
 wrong one, but it was the way God led us. Even 
 now I hear people sneer at that first earty movement 
 as a mere craze, a folly, a mistake. Perhaps it was 
 all that, but it was a great deal more. God was in 
 our mistake, our folly, if such it was guiding us, 
 teaching us, leading us by a way that we knew not 
 of. And better to blunder and have God with us, 
 than not to blunder and walk without him." 
 
 "We were native-born American women, educated, 
 
A Voice in Raniah. 297 
 
 religious, home-loving, with all the deep-rooted, 
 moral instincts that belong to such as their native 
 birthright, yet we were bound and helpless. We 
 had to stand by while the temperance laws were 
 made a dead letter, and primaries packed by ignor 
 ant, whisky-drinking foreigners governed the elec 
 tions. And what could we do? We were desperate 
 and the cry of the desperate is to God. In a week 
 every saloon in the city where I lived was closed. 
 We felt almost as if the millennial day had come. 
 But the time was not yet read}^ for us to sing the 
 song of Miriam. In less than a j~ear those gates of 
 hell that we thought we had closed forever were 
 opened wider than before. We could not understand 
 it. Would this have been if all the voters who pro 
 fessed temperance principle had stood by us at the 
 polls? Could men who did not love the cause well 
 enough to risk a little personal discomfort and in 
 convenience to themselves adequately represent wo 
 men who would have gladly died for it? It was a 
 crisis for us and our work, but in that crisis a great 
 idea was born the Woman s. Christian Temperance 
 Union. There are many things I believe in now 
 that I did not believe in then. We had much fallow 
 ground of ignorance and prejudice to break up; but 
 we did it thoroughly, and we sowed seed good 
 seed. Who will reap the harvest?" 
 
 Mrs. Haviland paused an instant in her rapid re 
 trospection ,a shadow swept over her grand face, and 
 she turned to Martha and clasped both her hands 
 with a strangely eager, earnest pressure. 
 
298 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "It is to you we look } T oung, brave, earnest souls, 
 to take our places when we fall in the battle. For 
 we must fall. We are human; we want to see the 
 end for which we have prayed and labored. But for 
 many of us that cannot be. And we know it; I 
 know it." 
 
 Her voice dropped lower, and the brief, detached 
 sentences came slowly as if wrung out by the pres 
 sure of some inward suffering. 
 
 Martha looked up at her wonderingly. 
 
 "Dear Mrs. Haviland; don t talk of any one s fill 
 ing your place, least of all one so humble as myself, 
 without talents, or wealth, or social rank." 
 
 "Martha Miss Benson, you do not know the 
 place you ma} T be filling twenty years from now. 
 What American girl does? 
 
 Martha colored slightly. Although she was a be 
 liever in woman s suffrage, she was a very unambi 
 tious little person. If Nelson ever rose to stations 
 of public honor, she felt that nothing would make 
 her prouder or happier than to shine herself in that 
 reflected glory, but she remembered that Mrs. Havi 
 land might not know anything about Nelson, and be 
 even unaware of their engagement, in which case 
 her words were of course quite innocent of any pro 
 phetic intent. She made no reply save to listen 
 with eager, reverent attention as the sweet, low, im 
 passioned voice sounded on like the notes of an an 
 cient chorus, half wail, half triumph. 
 
 "I entered, the warfare like man} 7 another woman, 
 because I was forced into it by the presence of the 
 
A Voice in Ramah. 
 
 monster in my own home. I had only one child 
 a son. Oh, how I loved him! How I tried to shield 
 him from every touch of evil! But a taste for drink 
 was hereditary in the Haviland blood, and I did not 
 know it till it was too late. Perhaps it would have 
 made no difference if I had known, for how could 
 my weak woman s arms shield him from the snare 
 set on every side? I did my best, and when I could 
 do no more when my Henry was brought home to 
 me dead, killed by a fall from his horse after he had 
 been taking too much wine, I knelt down by his life 
 less form, and I parted the curls away from his cold, 
 white brow, and kissed him over and over just as I 
 did when I hushed him to sleep on my bosom an in 
 nocent babe. Oh, it seemed so long ago I did it. 
 almost as though far aw^- in some lost eternity 
 and I vowed to God then and there never to cease 
 fighting the fiend that had slain iny child. For what 
 was m} son more than any other woman s son? more 
 than poor Bridget Maloney s, for instance, who gets 
 drunk on the vilest kind of whisky instead of sherry 
 and champagne? God made mothers hearts alike. 
 The Democratic party wants the Irish whisk}- vote, 
 and the Republican party wants the German beer 
 vote, and politicians bid for it, and the work of 
 death goes on. Give these Irish and German women 
 who have suffered so much from the brutality of 
 their drinking husbands the ballot, and though many 
 of them drank themselves, they would all vote the 
 prohibition ticket. My heart sickens and my brain 
 reels when I think of all the hideous wrongs and 
 
300 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 cruelties that have come under my notice while col 
 lecting facts and statistics for the work little help 
 less children beaten, frozen, starved, burned to 
 death, or made helpless cripples for life. They were 
 not my children; I never even saw them; but they 
 had mothers with mothers hearts, and I feel like 
 crying, Lord, how long! Must wrong be forever 
 on the throne? Will the day never come when poli 
 ticians shall cease to betray the helpless to advance 
 their own petty selfish interests?" 
 
 Mrs. Haviland paused, and then she said in a 
 changed tone and with her usual gentle smile: 
 
 "I am pouring out all this to you because it does 
 me good. I am a woman and must talk. And now, 
 my dear, as I am old enough to be your mother, al 
 low me to congratulate you on your engagement with 
 so noble a young man as Nelson Newhall. I have 
 had my eye on him for some time. He is worthy of 
 you and you of him." 
 
 There are many prohibitionists like Mrs. Haviland 
 who are working, prajdng, suffering for the cause, 
 and "with brave hearts breaking slow" pass to their 
 rest in the midst of the struggle, and never see the 
 deadly enemy that continually betrays their best ef 
 forts. In proof whereof we will only say that there 
 was a Masonic reunion that very night which was 
 attended by the mayor of Jacksonville, several poli 
 ticians of considerable local note, and a goodly num 
 ber of saloon-keepers. And "they met upon the 
 level and parted on the square" in all that mutual 
 good-fellowship supposed to be peculiarly Masonic. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 TWO WAYS OF ASKING A QUESTION. 
 
 Both the prohibition and anti-prohibition sides 
 were silently marshalling their forces; and, while the 
 political sea remained outwardly calm, one at all 
 familiar with that fickle and dangerous element 
 would have heard and felt the distant groundswell 
 that prophesied of another and still more closely 
 contested conflict than the last 
 
 "I hope all prohibitionists will unite in one solid 
 party phalanx and not play at cross purposes any 
 longer," said Stephen Rowland. "People may talk 
 about making temperance a non-partisan issue as 
 much as they like; it won t alter the fact The pro 
 hibition question has got into politics fairly, and all 
 the king s horses and all the king s men can t get it 
 out." 
 
 These remarks were addressed to a G-ood Tem 
 plar who did not vote the third party ticket at the 
 previous election for reasons which make an inter 
 esting subject of inquiry. He was a staunch prohi 
 bitionist at heart, and had fully resolved to cast his 
 ballot for Col. Hicks, till over the hidden wires that 
 connect Masonic lodges and Grand Army posts with 
 the secret temperance orders, flashed the word: 
 
302 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Gen. Putney is a Mason and a Grand Army man, 
 and you must vote for him." 
 
 Let not the unsuspecting reader suppose that this 
 command was ever orally communicated to the as 
 sembled lodge. It is one of the blessed advantages 
 of organized secrecy that no such vulgar and clumsy 
 method need be employed. It is true that our Good 
 Templar and the majority of his really "worthy" 
 brethren cast their ballots exactly as their Masonic 
 leaders told them to; and yet so gently was it insin 
 uated by those same leaders that the idea of voting 
 for a man they never expected to elect was too ridic 
 ulous for sensible men; so solemnly was it set be 
 fore them as a patriotic duty, in a crisis like the 
 present, to choose the least of two evils, that they 
 marohed to the polls and voted for the Republican 
 candidate, honestly believing that they were follow 
 ing their own sober second thoughts instead of the 
 cue thrown to their chiefs from Masonic headquar 
 ters. In fact, Stephen was answered with one of the 
 very stock arguments that had been so successfully 
 employed on himself the year previous. 
 
 "But you know to vote the third party ticket when 
 there is no reasonable hope of electing it is simply 
 playing into the hands of the Democrats." 
 
 "There is no hope just because prohibitionists 
 don t unite," said Stephen, quickly. "And as to 
 playing into the hands of the Democrats, better 
 open war than secret betrayal. I come of old Re 
 publican, anti-slavery stock, and I am proud of it, 
 but the sceptre has passed into the hands of men 
 
Two Ways of Asking a Question. 303 
 
 who know not Joseph, leaders as stiff-necked and 
 obstinate as Pharaoh ever was; and the question is 
 whether we shall follow their leadership and be all 
 destroyed together in a political Red Sea, or follow 
 the Moses of prohibition even if it means a fort}* 
 years wandering in the desert before we come to our 
 promised land." 
 
 Stephen had been brought up on Old Testament 
 history, and this Hebraistic illustration came natur 
 ally to his tongue. In his own mind Col. Gail 
 Hicks was the prohibition Moses, and he could bj* 
 no means understand the pusillanimous half-heart- 
 edness of temperance men who would go back on 
 such a leader. Why did the Good Templars first 
 indorse Col. Hicks and then vote solidly against 
 him? We have, however, presented the reader with 
 a key to this enigma, and merel}* mentioning that 
 the key in question will fit a great many other puz 
 zles, social and political, we will leave him to apply 
 it at his leisure. 
 
 A coming event which is about to startle Jackson 
 ville already throws its shadow over our pages, and 
 we must hasten on to the denouement. 
 
 Stephen did not procure a demit from the Odd 
 fellows. He wanted to see first what could be done 
 in Mrs. Strycker s case; and possibly vainest of 
 vain delusions! his leaving the lodge might tend to 
 make it worse, for where was the purifying element 
 to come from if all the virtuous members abandoned 
 it? Would it not be giving a rich and powerful or 
 ganization right over into the hands of the devil? 
 
304 " Between Two Opinions. 
 
 So questioned Stephen, forgetting that an organiza 
 tion which professed u to give rest to the soul," yet 
 rejected that Holy One in whom alone satisfying 
 peace is to be found, must be of the devil from the 
 beginning; and that even where Satan is concerned 
 it is always best to pursue a strictly honest policy, 
 and if he can show the shadow of a claim to give 
 him back his own straightway. 
 
 There is a temptation here to make a digression. 
 What is this talk so common nowadays in certain 
 circles about "purifying the stage," and making even 
 the dance and the card-table serve the cause of re 
 ligion and good morals by bringing them into the 
 category of home amusements, but a plan to rob the 
 devil of his own property that which he can prove 
 by affidavits dating thousands of years back has be 
 longed to him from time immemorial? Fighting 
 the devil is all right; it is grand enough work for an 
 archangel, for Michael himself, diamond-panoplied, 
 and wielding the lightning for his sword; but to 
 cheat the devil, to drive Shylock bargains with him ! 
 in the name of common honor and honesty let us 
 have none of it. 
 
 The Rev. Theopilus Brassfield, to whose church 
 Stephen naturally gravitated on joining the lodge, 
 preached sermons of a very advanced type of theol 
 ogy; so much so, in fact, that he was not only a 
 great ways ahead of Paul, but the cross itself 
 loomed dimly through his flowery sentences like a 
 beautiful but rather obsolete symbol of something 
 that had happened a great while ago, but which the 
 
Two Ways of Asking a Question. 305 
 
 fashionable congregation to whom he preached was 
 much too "advanced" to need. Eating husks when 
 it is an altogether new thing may be endured a while 
 for the sake of the novelty, and there are those who 
 are spiritually and mentally enough like donkeys to 
 feed patientl} on a daily course of thistles; but 
 Stephen after a time when a Sabbath proved rainy, 
 or hoi , or cold, or he had got tired by sitting up too 
 late over a law case the night before, began to find 
 that he could get as much good by reading a sermon 
 alone to himself. And Mr. Basset, though a mem 
 ber of this same church, and superintendent of the 
 Sunday-school, never took him too task on the sub 
 ject as he had done for neglect of his lodge duties. 
 Stephen was still moral, upright and manly. 
 These were inherited qualities, and like the color of 
 his hair and the shape of his nose could only be 
 changed to opposite ones by some violent and un 
 natural process. The hardy, virtuous yeoman race 
 who "had put to flight the armies" of the Spanish 
 "aliens" under Elizabeth, "subdued kingdoms" un 
 der Cromwell, and done more than that when it 
 founded in the untrodden wilderness of the New 
 World a theocratic Commonwealth which should be 
 an ideal of free government for all succeeding gen 
 erations, had left upon him their mental as well as 
 their physical impress. His hatred of dissimula 
 tion, his scorn of a lie, his innate chivalry to the 
 weak were inbred, and came from the same source 
 to which he owed his six feet of stature, his firm 
 health and supple sinews. But that New England 
 
306 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Hannah, whose life, ever since Stephen was born, 
 had been a daily pra} er that he might be worthy of 
 sonship in Christ s eternal kingdom, knew that 
 heavenly grace was no hereditary gift; that the king 
 dom of which she longed to have him an heir must 
 be peopled by them "who are born not of blood nor 
 of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 of Grod." Some subtle, spiritual clairvoyance told 
 her that all was not right with Stephen; that he was 
 keeping back something, and often when writing to 
 him she had half a mind to put the question direct 
 ly, but always shrank from doing so with a feeling 
 that she had no right to force even her son s confi 
 dence in a matter that perhaps lay only between 
 himself and God. 
 
 Stephen parted from his Good Templar friend, 
 and stepped out from his den to take an airing, and 
 rest his head which ached with being all day in a 
 hot, ill- ventilated court-room, where a case was on 
 trial that should not have taken more than a few 
 hours to decide; but, thanks to law technicalities, 
 and the fact that the defendant and most of the jury 
 were Masons, seemed likely to last as many days, 
 with an excellent prospect of coming to nothing in 
 the mazes of some higher court. 
 
 Passing the Jacksonville Bank he saw before it a 
 crowd, mostly of the laboring class a quiet, orderly 
 crowd, and yet with painful excitement manifested 
 in their faces and low-toned talk. What did it 
 mean? Stephen was not long left in ignorance, for 
 a passing acquaintance hailed him with the inquiry: 
 
Two Ways of Asking a Question. 307 
 
 Heard the news? The bank has suspended, 
 can t find the cashier nowhere, nor a hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars of the funds." 
 
 Stephen turned pale as death. He had not a cent 
 invested in that bank or any other, and the news in 
 volved no personal loss to him but the absconding 
 cashier was no other than Mr. Felix Basset. 
 
 "It s bad business will be for a good many, I am 
 afraid," continued the other. "He s been falsifying 
 his accounts a good while, and nobody suspected it." 
 
 Stephen s heart was heavy within him. He grew 
 dizz}\ It was like a moral earthquake. Could this 
 be true of a man who had always seemed honest and 
 upright, who had been so friendly to him, and whom 
 he had trusted with the entire trust of a frank and 
 unsuspecting nature? Yet there was the crowd, and 
 a bank official on the steps talking to them, though 
 it was cold comfort for these poor laboring men and 
 women to be told that the law would do what it 
 could to recover their stolen property, in the face of 
 the bad success which had attended the law s efforts 
 in so man} similar cases. 
 
 Nelson Newhall was standing near. He turned 
 round, saw Stephen, and nodded in recognition. 
 
 "I hope you are not one of the losers," said 
 Stephen, forgetting Mr. Basset for a moment in pity 
 for the many obliged to see the hard earnings of a 
 lifetime swept away. 
 
 "All I have laid up was in that bank," was the 
 quiet reply. "But those who have work and are 
 able to work are not to be pitied. I know an aged 
 
308 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 couple whose all was invested there, and now they 
 will have to eat the bread of public charity, which 
 will be bitterer to them than death; and I can tell 
 you of other cases almost as sad. Glod pity them." 
 
 "Amen," said Stephen, and he moved away. 
 
 The next scrap of talk which reached his ears was 
 this: 
 
 "Church members ain t a bit better than folks 
 that ain t. Things have got to such a pass now that 
 when I hear of a man s cutting up as Basset has 
 done I begin to ask what Sunday-school he is super 
 intendent of." 
 
 "Come now, there s a question more to the point 
 than that," gruffly put in another voice which 
 Stephen recognized as Martin Treworthy s. "Bas 
 set was an Odd-fellow, wan t he? I say, better ask 
 what secret society he belongs to." 
 
 It is a curious fact that while the press will record 
 of a noted defaulter the secular part of it with 
 great gusto that he belongs to the church and 
 teaches in the Sunday-school, he may belong to the 
 Masons, Odd-fellows, or any other secret society, 
 and not a word on the subject be breathed by those 
 same respectable journals. And we ask in the name 
 of common fairness, why proclaim the one fact, and 
 be silent about the other? 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE TRUE LIGHT SHINETH. 
 
 The crowd did not linger long around the bank 
 when the uselessness of doing so became apparent. 
 They dispersed quietly, and the building was left to 
 itself, with its closely-drawn shutters, barred doors, 
 and rifled vaults. 
 
 Stephen, in his first shocked bewilderment, had 
 felt as if every prop of trust in his fellow-man had 
 been knocked from beneath him. The facts proved 
 to be that Mr. Basset had speculated on a large 
 scale and under an assumed name, and when fortune 
 turned against him he had to face two alternatives: 
 discovery and the State s prison, or a lengthened ex 
 ile in some country out of the reach of extradition 
 laws, leaving discovery to come afterwards. Strict 
 ly speaking, however, there was but one alternative 
 present in Mr. Basset s mind the one last men 
 tioned; and as in the words of the homely old prov 
 erb, "one might as well die for an old sheep as a 
 lamb," why not crib enough of the bank s remaining 
 funds to enable him to live comfortably in the 
 strange land he must make his future home? But 
 was Mr. Basset all those years during which he had 
 passed in society for a Christian man and an honest 
 citizen, a conscious hypocrite? By no means. He 
 
310 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 had caught the fever which seems almost indigenous 
 to American life, to get rich suddenly, and hud only 
 verified the words of inspiration that "he who 
 hasteth to be rich shall fall into- a snare." He had 
 gravitated to Odd-fellowship from the natural in 
 stinct of a man of weak principle to seek alliance 
 with some system that in its "show of will worship," 
 its teachings of a mere outward morality would flat 
 ter him with a sense of self-merit and prestige in the 
 eyes of the world; and at the same time give him 
 what a weak man always wants an invisible advan 
 tage over others. "But did Odd-fellowship really 
 have much to do with his fall?" inquires the "candid 
 reader." We will try to be equally candid in our 
 answer. 
 
 The writer once heard it remarked on the death 
 of "the oldest Mason in the country" one of that 
 ubiquitous race which the order is continually bury 
 ing, and of whom we are obliged to record that he 
 had robbed the widow and cheated the fatherless, 
 not on so grand a scale as Mr. Basset, but in ordin 
 ary business ways through the greater part of his 
 life that "Mr. H would not have been such a 
 rascal if he had not belonged to the Masonic lodge;" 
 which remark has a true and a false side to it. "Mr. 
 H " had a turn for sharp practices, and a heart 
 that was like the nether millstone when it was a 
 question of his beloved dollars-, but with neither of 
 these two circumstances could the lodge be properly 
 chargeable. It was chargeable, however, with being 
 a secret, oath-bound organization, and as such afford- 
 
The True Light Shineth. 311 
 
 ing just the right kind of covert for men to hide un 
 der who wanted to swindle helpless cowans, keep 
 saloons, or rob banks; an indictment by the way to 
 which even* secret clan must answer sooner or later 
 at the bar of an enlightened Christian public. I 
 once heard a physician express the opinion that the 
 common use of anaesthetics had a deterioriating in 
 fluence on physical bravery. The very knowledge 
 that an agent exists which will give perfect insensi 
 bility to pain takes away the courage to bear severe 
 operations, and the same principle may account for 
 some other things. People lament the prevailing 
 dishonesty, the frauds and peculations too common 
 even to excite surprise, and never stop to ask 
 whether the prevalence of secret societies, each with 
 their Masonic protection clause, ma}* have anything 
 to do with this state of things. Does not the fact 
 that such societies exist, bound to shield each other 
 against the consequences of "imprudent" acts, vir 
 tually tempt to the commission of such acts and 
 thus put a premium on crime? We respectfully 
 submit to all the philanthropists, moralists and re 
 formers in the land whether it is well for govern 
 ment to charter these institutions and then tax law- 
 abiding citizens with the enormous expense of fol 
 lowing criminals through their secret labyrinths in a 
 vain attempt to bring them to justice. More sol 
 emnly would we put the question to every pastor, 
 How far is the church responsible for the fact that 
 our most noted forgers and defaulters are almost 
 without exception nominal members of her fold? 
 
312 .Between Two Opinions. 
 
 The pulpit is silent while the young men of the 
 country are being drawn into the countless lodge- 
 traps which borrow their religion from the idolatries 
 of ancient Egypt, and their laws from the despot 
 isms of the dark ages; it lifts no voice of warning, 
 no announcement of future woe against "them who 
 seek deep to hide their counsel- from the Lord, and 
 their works are in the dark, and they say, Who 
 seeth us? and who knoweth us? Is it strange that 
 her children fall an easy prey to the masked de 
 stroyer? that the clerk or the cashier becomes a 
 Mason, an Odd-fellow, a Knight of Pythias, submits 
 to their degrading ceremonies, adopts their "univer 
 sal religion," and finally startles the community 
 with some gross betrayal of public or private trust? 
 Those readers who expect me to heap maledictions 
 on the head of Mr. Felix Basset, and pursue him 
 with scathing denunciations for his fraud and 
 hypocrisy, will be disappointed. I prefer to keep 
 my execrations, richly though he may deserve them, 
 for others more deserving than he for those who 
 proselyted him to the service of the lodge in his 
 penniless young manhood to make him tenfold more 
 the child of hell than themselves, and last, but not 
 least, for the pastor who could, by officiating at its 
 Christless altars, give the lie to all his pulpit minis 
 trations. 
 
 Stephen had not yet come to the point where he 
 saw these things clearly, but Martin Tre worthy s 
 brave defence of the church against the lodge gave 
 him a new respect for the old soldier; and what did 
 
The True Light Shineth. 313 
 
 him no harm, an added dissatisfaction with himself 
 who had lost his right to do the same. 
 
 He re-entered his office with the feeling that it 
 was a miserable kind of a world, shut his law books, 
 turned down the gas and went to bed. But refresh 
 ing sleep after such a mental shock was impossible. 
 He tossed restlessly about thinking over his first 
 meeting with Mr. Basset, how companionable and 
 kindly he had seemed, and how he had urged him 
 to become an Odd-fellow. He went over in memory 
 the initiation scene. He did not want to and strug 
 gled against it; but in that half-sleeping, half- waking 
 state the will, like some captive Arabian genii, seems 
 the victim of a power that revels in setting it all 
 manner of grotesque tasks. As soon as he shut his 
 eyes he saw before him the grinning skeleton, the 
 lighted torches, the masked faces; and every time 
 they passed before him the thing seemed more and 
 more diabolical like a dream of infernal regions. 
 And then he seemed to be again in the little hill- 
 country church of his fathers. It was communion 
 Sabbath, and the candidates for admission, himself 
 among them, were standing before the table on which 
 were displayed the simple emblems of our Lord s 
 broken body and shed blood. He saw the pastor at 
 the baptismal font as he pronounced the solemn 
 words, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father 
 and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." And how 
 in its heavenly pureness that scene contrasted with 
 the other! Like the pearl and jasper glory of the 
 New Jerusalem with the sulphurous smoke of the pit. 
 
314 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 He finally dropped into a troubled sleep and over 
 slept himself. And in the hurry of getting ready 
 for the early train (for he was obliged to go away on 
 some court business) he had no time to think of 
 troublesome matters. And after all why should he 
 be troubled? It was sad, it cut him to the heart 
 that a man who had stood high in the esteem of the 
 community should turn out a consummate rogue, 
 but this was not the first experience of the kind, nor 
 was it likely to be the last. Still he could not dis 
 miss from his mind a thing that everybody around 
 him was discussing, and which formed the staple 
 news of the morning papers. He could not help 
 overhearing one stranger tell another of a shocking 
 suicide in a neighboring town, the result of a mind 
 unbalanced by the loss of property consequent on 
 the bank s suspension. Of course it must have been 
 a weak mind at the outset, with no strong supports 
 in either philosophy or religion, but this tended to 
 make the case only more pitiful. 
 
 "Basset s safe in Canada by this time," remarked 
 one of the two strangers, both of whom had a decid 
 edly clerical look, and were in reality two D. Ds. 
 returning home from a conference meeting. 
 
 "Yes," returned the other. "All our successful 
 rogues will be likely to make Canada their place of 
 retreat till we can have an extradition law that will 
 reach them. But how a man enjoying so high a de 
 gree of public confidence and esteem could forfeit it 
 all for wealth he can never properly enjoy is a mys 
 tery that even the power of a sudden and overwhelm- 
 
The True Light Shineth. 315 
 
 ing temptation does not to my mind full} explain. 
 I account for it rather on the ground of a general 
 and widespread corruption, a kind of moral miasma 
 that taints church and state. One of the unfailing 
 signs of that national decadence which ends as in 
 the French Revolution with the wreck of all law and 
 government, is the lack of trust between man and 
 man, which always follows where G-od is practically 
 dethroned, as he certainly is in our American nation 
 to-day. As a patriot and a Christian I tremble for 
 my country. The public conscience needs a great 
 arousing. We want a Pentecostal outpouring of the 
 Spirit on our sleeping congregations. This nation 
 must be brought back to the basis of the ten com 
 mandments, but then that will only be by the lever 
 of a living church behind it." 
 
 His companion, who wore glasses, and had a mild 
 Melancthon-like face, shook his head in sorrowful 
 assent. 
 
 "You are right, brother. There is too little pun 
 gent preaching on the subject of common, everyday 
 morals. We are puffed up with denominational pride 
 when we ought rather to mourn our spiritual dead- 
 ness. Oh, that the Lord would remember Zion and 
 comfort again her waste places! 
 
 These ministers were good men. They really felt 
 what they said while they had not the smallest idea 
 that they stood in imperative need themselves of "a 
 great awakening" on one very important subject. 
 Their churches swarmed with Masons and Odd-fel 
 lows, and though the reverend doctor with ihe face 
 
316 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 like Melancthon s hated secretism, lie bore no testi 
 mony against it. The seal on his lips was partly ig 
 norance. He did not know much about the secret 
 orders and he did not want to know anything more 
 about them. He believed, so he would tell you, if 
 you hinted gently at his duty in this regard, in the 
 expellant power of pure Gospel preaching. And 
 while he preached the Grospel and he certainly did 
 preach it and live it women filled his church, at the 
 same time that their husbands and fathers and broth 
 ers were receiving a mock regeneration and new birth 
 in Mason and Odd-fellow lodges. And yet he could 
 mourn and mourn sincerely over the desolation of 
 Zion! 
 
 But Stephen suddenly forgot their talk. Standing 
 on the platform, ready for the northward bound ex 
 press train, stood two men, one of whom carried a 
 carpet-bag, and had a face so covered with huge red 
 whiskers that scarcely a feature was distinguishable; 
 and yet this one glimpse gave Stephen a curious feel 
 ing of having known him in some long ago period, 
 as if they had met and become acquainted in some 
 pre-existent state. It was not till hours afterwards 
 that a strange suspicion flashed through his mind. 
 Could this Esau-like stranger have been Felix 
 Basset? 
 
 There was something peculiar in their parting. 
 When the red-whiskered gentleman had taken his 
 seat in the car he turned his face for an instant to 
 the window with an uneasy glance after his comrade 
 who, during the pause before the starting of the 
 
The True Light Shuieth. 317 
 
 train, had walked up and down the platform with 
 "keen reconuoitering looks to the right and left, and 
 now standing somewhat back from the crowd and 
 thus out of the range of observation, with one single 
 rapid motion he brought both arms together from a 
 horizontal position and touched with the index fin 
 ger of his right hand, the other fingers being doubled 
 inward, the second knuckle joint of the thumb of his 
 left. Stephen, we must confess, was not a very 
 bright Odd-fellow, as, indeed, one cannot well be 
 who has higher objects with which to occupy his 
 mind than the remembering of signs and grips, and 
 though he observed the action it was done so quick 
 ly that he failed to recognize it as the Sign of 
 Safety in the Degree of Friendship. 
 
 Mr. Basset had, in fact, gone off a few days be 
 fore the situation was discovered, but it was only as 
 far as the house of a lodge brother, where he had 
 been all the time hidden; and now cleverlj* disguised 
 and within a day s ride of the Canada line we will 
 take our final leave of him. But in justice we must 
 say that even with a fair prospect of successfully 
 eluding the officers of justice who supposed him a 
 thousand miles away, he was a very miserable and 
 unhappy man. Public disgrace, which but a little 
 while before had only loomed up in the farthest 
 background of his mental visions as a dim possibil 
 ity, was now a real thing as real as the cold clutch 
 of Death s fingers on a soul unprepared and what 
 vow of a secret fraternity could stand between him 
 and the inward avenger? 
 
318 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 But is not this an unfair representation of Odd- 
 fellowship? inquires the reader. Because a few 
 members defend criminals and uphold liquor selling, 
 must it follow that the whole order is responsible 
 for their individual action? Now this is precisely 
 the point we desire to come to. An order that in 
 serts in its obligation a protection clause, which can 
 be construed any way according to the moral sense 
 of the candidate, certainly lays itself open to grave 
 suspicion, and honest men will be in no haste to 
 clear it from the first charge till it tearsTdown the 
 convenient screen between criminals and the law 
 which it has borrowed from its Masonic mother. In 
 reference to the second charge, one single fact will 
 suffice. 
 
 In 1870 a petition was presented to the Grand 
 Lodge of the United States to enact a law allowing 
 State Grand Lodges to prohibit members of subordi 
 nates under their respective jurisdictions from en 
 gaging in the traffic in intoxicating liquors. The 
 petition was refused, it being decided that "it is con 
 trary to the spirit and policy of our institution to 
 pass any law on the subject referred to, creaticg a 
 new test of membership in the order." Thus we see 
 that Odd-fellowship presents no more bar to the ad 
 mission of a rum seller than it does to a Mormon or 
 an infidel. We have conclusive testimony from one 
 of their own standard writers: "No peculiarities of 
 religious belief or practice are requisite to admission 
 in the order, and none disqualify." 
 
 In fact the views of the Grand Lodge on the tern - 
 
The. True Light Shineth. 319 
 
 perance question might even be accepted with very 
 slight changes as a part of the declaration against 
 "sumptuary laws" embodied in their political plat 
 form, as we may learn by another quotation from 
 that same standard authority: -Lodges cannot 
 abridge the liberty of the citizen nor dictate to him 
 what he shall eat nor what he shall drink .... 
 neither will the laws nor the principles of Odd-fel 
 lowship descend to the restriction nor the regulation 
 of the beverage of its members." 
 
 It is a coincidence worthy of note that the 
 Masonic Odd-fellow whom Mr. Basset, as related in 
 a prior chapter, had "warned of approaching dan 
 ger," acting on the familiar proverb that "one good 
 turn deserves another," now played a chief part in 
 aiding and abetting the latter s escape from justice. 
 Attached to the fashionable hotel which he kept was 
 an elegant club room, where assembled every lodge 
 night the convivially inclined among the brethren, 
 who smoked and played cards till the small hours 
 of the morning, and amused each other, while sip 
 ping their glasses of wine and punch, with the vari 
 ous neat fictions about "important lodge work" by 
 which they imposed on the credulity of their unsus 
 pecting wives. Nor did this interchange of recipro 
 cal obligations with a professed prohibitionist shock 
 him greatly in view of the fact that he knew more 
 than one in the lodge who talked as stoutly for pro 
 hibition as did Mr. Basset, while holding secret bus 
 iness relations all the while with the very traffic 
 whose existence they affected to deplore. Mr. Parker 
 
320 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 of the Phoenix House might have listened silently to 
 the praise of Odd-fellowship as a temperance order, 
 and even as a matter of prudent policy gravely as 
 sented, but he would have certainly indulged him 
 self in a good laugh behind his informant s back at 
 the absurdity of the idea. 
 
 Odd-fellowship is Masonry s first born, made in 
 her image, and if anybody wishes a conclusive proof 
 that this is so let him attack Masonry and then note 
 the filial readiness of the average Odd-fellow to 
 spring to her relief. 
 
 Stephen Howland felt as every truly upright soul 
 must over the fall of another, intensely sorrowful; 
 and his trust in what the Rev. Theophilus Brassfield 
 had so often styled "a complete system of moralit} " 
 was sadly shaken. He was in exactly the mood of 
 mind which has lead many a man into downright 
 skepticism of all good. Such an experience must 
 either drive the soul to take a firm foothold on the 
 Rock of Ages, or to launch its little cockle-boat on 
 that wide sea of doubt whose farthest shores are the 
 Cimmerian land of blank atheism where hope is a 
 myth, and faith a dream, and the whole universe a 
 vast hollow Nothing. 
 
 The illness of a juror caused a temporary adjourn 
 ment of the court. Stephen was ttying to while 
 away the time over a newspaper when the opposing 
 counsel sauntered up. 
 
 He belonged to the Bohemian class of lawyers, 
 and considered no case out of the legitimate line of 
 his practice which involved a big fee, or even one of 
 
The True Light Shineth. 321 
 
 reasonable size. He considered Stephen s notions 
 of professional honor and probity as decidedly Quix 
 otic, but such men have sometimes a curious liking 
 for their moral opposites; and though frequently 
 pitted against each other, they were much better 
 friends than one could suppose possible after listen 
 ing to their savage sparring in court hours. 
 
 "It was a queer thing now that Basset should do 
 as he did. It come like a thunder-clap, but there is 
 an epidemic just now of defalcations and embezzle 
 ments and forgeries. Such things seem to have 
 their regular periods like the seventeen-year lo 
 custs." 
 
 "It would be refreshing if we could have an epe- 
 demic of public honesty," returned Stephen, dryly. 
 
 "I think the same, my dear fellow in the ab 
 stract, you know. But for us lawyers phew! it 
 would be as bad as an epedemic of health to the 
 doctors. Now you take this liquor trade; it is a 
 confounded bad thing all through, but if it should 
 be swept out of existence to-day I snould lose half 
 my practice. I defend rumsellers and you prose 
 cute, but, bless you! the}~ d better fall into your 
 clutches than mine. I bleed em well now, I tell 
 you. I took a five hundred dollar fee from one the 
 other da}*, and I don t believe he had enough left to 
 start him in the boot-blacking business." 
 
 The lawyer stopped to laugh, and Stephen could 
 not help laughing too. 
 
 "I have had curious things happen in the course 
 of my legal practice," the former continued, "but 
 
322 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 nothing queerer than what happened once in this 
 very court-house when I was defending two liquor 
 sellers arrested for violation of the Sunday law. 
 You know the old saying, There s no telling how a 
 jury will flop. If you will believe it, with exactly 
 the same evidence in both cases one was acquitted 
 and the other fined seventy-five dollars. I found 
 out afterwards that the one acquitted belonged to 
 some secret society the Noble Order of Red Men, I 
 think it was and his friends managed to get a juror 
 or two who belonged to the fraternity onto the 
 bench. Six were Masons and Odd-fellows. The 
 other rumseller was a poor devil of an Irishman, 
 forbidden any such privilege under ban of his 
 priest." 
 
 "It is a privilege that if often used to mock jus 
 tice will bring in a reign of lynch law sooner or 
 later," said Stephen, indignantl} 7 . "I believe in 
 equal rights and fair play even for liquor sellers." 
 
 The other shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "This secret order business is overdone. It is 
 our American failing to overdo things. When I was 
 first admitted to the bar I joined the Masons and the 
 Odd-fellows and the Knights of Pythias, thinking 
 that when I was in Rome I had better do as the 
 Romans do. And I can walk in their processions, 
 and wear their fol-de-rols, and have a chief seat at 
 all their feasts and pow-wows generally if I want 
 to; but as a rule I contrive to find other fish to fry. 
 Really now, between you and me hark! what s 
 that?" 
 
The True Light Shineth. 323 
 
 It was a sound of fife and drum. Stephen, from 
 his boyhood, had a passionate love for martial 
 music, and the inspiring strains seemed for a mo 
 ment like the wings of some strong archangel lifting 
 him above all his trouble and darkness into a realm 
 of which his only conscious thought was like Peter s 
 on the mount that it would be good to dwell there. 
 
 "A detachment of the Salvation Army, they say," 
 carelessly remarked the other lawyer, after making 
 due inquir) T of one of the throng who were bending 
 their steps in the direction of the nusic. "I m going 
 to hear em." 
 
 Stephen followed with a readiness that surprised 
 himself, for he was somewhat of a stickler for regu 
 lar methods; and, though he did not doubt that the 
 Salvation Army had accomplished good in its pecul 
 iar way, he had looked on a conversion under such 
 instrumentality a little as he might on a miraculous 
 cure wrought by some practitioner outside of medi 
 cal schools rather as a phenomena than a prece 
 dent. But the stirring music, the odd and } et deep 
 ly devout appearance of the company, as in fine mil 
 itary order they marched through the street with 
 waving banners, and defiled on to the common where 
 a rude platform had been erected even the unman 
 nerly interruption of a few rowdies in the crowd, im 
 pressed Stephen with a deeper feeling than that of 
 mere novelty. The effect of their warlike songs, 
 their regular-drilled tread, their earnest faces, was 
 something like that produced by the early Methodist 
 movement. It seemed to sharpen and define the 
 
324 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 lines which an ease-loving pulpit has allowed to 
 grow so dim and misty between the Lord s side and 
 the devil s side. And to Stephen s positive nature 
 it was a relief to feel sure once more that there were 
 two sides, even though he was not equally sure of 
 being himself on the right one. 
 
 The preacher announced no text. Stephen noticed 
 that he seemed to be a very well developed specimen 
 of muscular Christianity, and was evidently an illit 
 erate man; but after the first words fell on his ear 
 he felt that he was standing in the presence of one 
 of those rare orators made by grace and not by art 
 or nature, and ceased to feel any repugnance. Not 
 a suspicion, however, crossed his mind that this was 
 Peter Snyder, the converted rumseller, who had 
 joined the Salvationists because they afforded a 
 channel for free and effective Christian labor, which 
 he could never have found in the set lines of old and 
 respectable religious organizations. He had no cul 
 tured taste to be shocked by their peculiar methods 
 of work, and they on their part did not mind his lit 
 erary and theological deficiencies. But there was 
 no loud, ranting talk, only a deep, sweet earnest 
 ness, a perfect unconsciousness of himself that pro 
 duced an effect like the highest pulpit art. 
 
 "I want to tell you folks about Jesus Christ," he 
 began. "You think you know about him already 
 Maybe some of you do, and if that is so, you hain t 
 no kind of business to be standing round here when 
 you ought to be telling other people about him. Or 
 hain t you got nothing to tell? Didn t he hang 
 
The True Light Shineth. 325 
 
 bleeding on the cross with the nails in his feet and 
 hands and the spear thrust through his side for you? 
 I want to know. 
 
 "But as I suid when I begun, it s t other kind I m 
 a goin to talk to. The Lord is coming with all his 
 armies and riding on his swift chariots of salvation, 
 and you resist him jest as I did, a heapin up sin 
 against sin to be fuel in that da} which shall burn 
 as an oven. But I ain t a goin to talk to you about 
 my sins, for the Lord has cast em all behind his 
 back; and I ain t a goin to talk to you about your 
 sins. Maybe I shall come to em by and by. Peo 
 ple like to tell what they know about. Now I know 
 about the Lord Jesus for 1 have seen him!" 
 
 The speaker made a pause. A startled hush fell 
 on the crowd. Stephen at first thought the man 
 crazy, and was half inclined to walk off, but curi 
 osity impelled him to stay. 
 
 "It was at a big meeting over to the Forks. The 
 Lord was there in power, and he showed himself to 
 me a hardened, profane, swearing ruinseller. That s 
 jest what I was, and do you wonder that I am never 
 tired of telling about his goodness? that I only wish 
 I had a hundred tongues instead of one to praise 
 him with? Now the Bible says the Lord is every 
 where beholding the evil and the good, but he don t 
 show himself where men revile and hate him, nor it 
 ain t reasonable he should. Why, he is in lots of 
 places to-day where you might wait till you were as 
 old as Methusalah and never catch a glimpse of the 
 hem of his garment. A man may be standing at a 
 
326 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 bar or handling dirty cards and be converted. I 
 don t say such a thing hain t never happened, but I 
 do say there s a thousand times better chance of his 
 being struck by lightning. There s one place where 
 I never heard of a man s seeing the Lord I don t 
 believe the angel Gabriel ever did and that s the 
 lodge. Masons and Odd-fellows get converted 
 sometimes, but it s always outside of their lodges. 
 Now what s the reason? Why, the lodge hain t got 
 no Jesus Christ in it. It s death to darkness to let 
 in the light, and any lodge that should let him in 
 wouldn t live an hour. It would be changed into a 
 prayer meeting, and all the members would be sing 
 ing, Glory, glory! as loud as they could sing," 
 
 At this point a drunken Freemason made some 
 attempt at interruption, but before the disturbance 
 had time to spread, Captain Snyder we will give 
 him his Salvation Army title said quietly, "We 
 will sing it now," and signalling to the drummer 
 the army pealed forth one of their most stirring 
 choruses. The Salvationists have certainly this ad 
 vantage, if their opponents can make noise they usu 
 ally know how to make more. But so naturally was 
 it done that the greater part of the audience really 
 thought it only a part of the ordinary exercises. It 
 was a kind of tactics, however, that proved very suc 
 cessful, the would-be disturbers not caring to strain 
 their lungs in such an unequal contest. 
 
 Stephen saw through the ruse, and smiled. Cer 
 tainly he thought, "music hath charms to soothe the 
 savage breast" when there is enough of it. 
 
The True Ldght Shineth. 327 
 
 "Maybe, now, you want to know what I went to 
 that meeting for," the captain continued, wiping his 
 forehead with a red cotton handkerchief. "I went 
 to hear the preacher show up other folks sins. I 
 never dreamed he d put his grappling hooks right 
 into mine, fust thing. I knew my trade was a wrong 
 one; I knew it was destroj ing my soul; and I had 
 my times of feeling bad about it and promising my 
 self it was myself, not the Lord, mind ye that I d 
 quit it jest as soon as I d sold what stock I d got on 
 hand. But when that time come I was no more 
 ready to quit it than the devil was to quit me. He d 
 stand at my elbow and say, Ain t Government in 
 with you in this business, I want to know; and do 
 you pretend to be any better n Government? Some 
 times the devil speaks living truth. Rumsellers 
 tempt men to drink: who tempts the rumseller? I d 
 like to ask some of our big men in Washington that 
 question jest to see what thej^ d say. But the Lord 
 had shet me up in too tight a place for even the 
 devil to squeeze in and try to make me think I was 
 better than I was. Some people say there ain t no 
 sich place as hell. What do you think it is to be 
 shet up where you can t see nothing but pictures of 
 yourself what you ve been and what you are, the 
 meanest, wickedest, most God-forsaken wretch that 
 walks the earth and know you ve got to sit there 
 and gaze, gaze, GAZE forever, and see no way out! 
 "What is it to see the faces of all the widows and 
 orphans you ve made rise up before you as cold and 
 still as the face of the dead before a murderer; and 
 
328 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 all the men who have drank themselves into delir 
 ium tremens at your bar, like avenging fiends laugh 
 ing horribly at your misery! Don t tell a man that s 
 been in sich a place as that there s no hell. Oh, 
 there is sich a thing as the bottomless pit! Don t 
 believe the ministers dressed out in fine broadcloth, 
 with gold rings on their fingers, who try to make 
 you believe there ain t; but oh, every poor, wretched 
 soul, living on in sin and despair, there s something 
 else that s bottomless, and that God s love to you. 
 And I ve got jest the same right to tell }^ou this that 
 I have to tell you the other thing. A man that s 
 seen the Lord knows what God s so loved the world 
 means. Nobody else can. It seemed to me then if 
 I could be shet out of my misery one second it 
 would be like the drop of water the rich man in hell 
 prayed for to cool the tip of his tongue. There s a 
 mighty sight of difference between feeling you re a 
 sinner, and feeling you re a lost sinner. I jest give 
 up. The Almighty had hold of me, and who can 
 struggle with the Almighty? And jest as soon as I 
 had done that the vision of my sins was gone, but 
 right in the place where I had seemed to see em all 
 pictured out, I see a cross, and One was hanging on 
 it, and there was the nails in his feet and hands. I 
 could see em jest as plain. And oh, how loving 
 and pitiful he looked at me! me, that had hated 
 and reviled him all my days. There he was a dying 
 for my sins. Why, I felt as though I d be glad to 
 go and be nailed on a cross beside him like the pen 
 itent thief if that would show how sorry I felt for 
 
The True Light Shineth. 329 
 
 em. How long do you think I held on to my rum 
 kegs arter that? Oh, it is a look right into the face 
 of Jesus Christ that makes the rumseller give up 
 his bar, and the drunkard his cups, and the swearer 
 his oaths. How quick every one of you sinners 
 standing here would throw down your arms and sur 
 render if you could once see the Lord! You may 
 not be bad in 3*our own sight or other folks . You 
 may not sell rum nor drink it; nor swear, nor cheat, 
 nor gamble, but if }~ou ve never seen the Lord Jesus 
 it is because some sin has stood in the way. You 
 know what that sin is and the Lord knows. I don t. 
 But oh, you poor sinner, throw away that weapon 
 with which you are fighting the Lord! It is the 
 spear you are thrusting into his side. When you 
 look on him whom you have pierced it ll be turned 
 against you. The Gospel trumpet is sounding for 
 recruits; bimeby it ll sound for judgment. Come to 
 the Lord and be saved. Come now." 
 
 He proceeded for some time in the same strain of 
 earnest, homely eloquence. Stephen, after awhile, 
 assisted by a chance word from some one in the 
 crowd, had recognized Peter Snyder in the impas 
 sioned, uugrammatical preacher. But it scarcely 
 made any difference in the effect of the message. 
 
 What did it mean this strange troubling of the 
 waters of his soul? Could it be that he had de 
 ceived himself? that he had never seen that glorious, 
 thorn-crowned Face? Or why did all his being go 
 out in a strange yearning after that Vision of celes 
 tial loveliness? Why this bitter longing^ as for a 
 
330 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 treasure he had lost and never missed till now? 
 
 With drums beating and banners flying the Salva 
 tion Army marched back to their barracks, to meet 
 an impediment by the way in the shape of zealous 
 policemen who arrested the leader and several of the 
 musicians for obstructing public travel a vigilance 
 truly edifying in the light of the immunity enjoyed 
 by other violaters of the law, who did not indeed 
 parade the streets beating drums or singing hymns, 
 but who ran illicit saloons unmolested under the 
 very eyes of these watchful public guardians. 
 
 Stephen offered his services in their defense, feel 
 ing justly indignant at what he considered an out 
 rage on equal rights by the authorities who freely 
 allowed public parades of firemen, military compan 
 ies, and secret societies of all descriptions, and of 
 course brought upon himself anew the name among 
 his fellow lawyers of being a legal Quixote, besides 
 causing "the whirligig of time" to bring round som,e 
 curious "revenges." The man he had prosecuted 
 for selling rum he was now defending for preaching 
 the Gospel! 
 
 Stephen did not at first analyze his feelings, or 
 ask why the light of God s Spirit had been so well- 
 nigh extinguished in his heart. But there is a say 
 ing of Pascal s in his Provincial Letters which ap 
 plies equally well to that system of error embodied 
 in the lodge, as proved by the revulsion of feeling 
 with which a member after he has been converted 
 or received a new consecration of the Spirit, invari 
 ably regards it: "There are two things in the truths 
 
The True Light Shineth. 331 
 
 of our religion a divine beaut}* which renders them 
 lovely and a holy majesty which makes them vener 
 able; and there are two peculiarities in error an im 
 piety which renders them horrible, and an imperti 
 nence which makes them ridiculous." Stephen was 
 not exactly like Little Faith, robbed by force of his 
 jewel of heavenly hope. He was more like the sim 
 ple savage, who exchanges his pearl for a glass 
 bead. He knew that his religious affections had 
 grown cold, that he had lost his relish for divine 
 things, and when he found himself turning with a 
 kind of horror from the thought of attending an 
 other Odd-fellow s meeting and associating with 
 men of such diversified moral and religious creeds 
 as there assembled; when he remembered the two 
 contrasting visions that had besieged his sleepless 
 pillow, he saw the reason why. What a "beauty" 
 and "venerableness" in the simple ceremonials of 
 the Christian church! and beside them how horrible 
 and ridiculous seemed the masquerades of lodge 
 initiations! 
 
 To apply for a demit and leave the lodge forever 
 was the one desire now in Stephen s mind. "Come 
 out and be ye separate" seemed to sound like an 
 audible command in his ears. "What concord hath 
 Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that be- 
 lieveth with an infidel?" 
 
 His request, however, was received with strong 
 demurrers, which in the case of a few of the mem 
 bers took a form nearly allied to threats. 
 
 "Now what should you want to leave us for?" 
 
332 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 asked one. "Haven t you always been treated well 
 by the lodge?" 
 
 "I have no fault to find on that score," said 
 Stephen, briefly. "My reasons for withdrawing 
 have already been stated." 
 
 "Now I tell you, in your peculiar situation as a 
 temperance lawyer fighting the liquor party all the 
 time, you need the protection of the lodge, and if 
 you leave it you run more risk than you think." 
 
 This warning came from a man prominent in the 
 Van Grilder clique, and Stephen, considering the 
 source from which it proceeded, did not mind it 
 much till it was repeated in various terms by others 
 of much higher social respectability. His naturally 
 independent spirit cared very little for these undis 
 guised attempts at intimidation, bulb it showed him 
 still another side of this many-sided order. It was 
 willing then to protect an honest man in his warfare 
 against evil, but he must buy that protection in the 
 same way a rogue buys his immunity from the grasp 
 of justice by paying dues and learning signs and 
 grips! He wrote a long letter home a letter which 
 caused much astonishment in the Howland home 
 stead in which he thus alluded to his experience 
 in the lodge the night he took his withdrawal card: 
 
 "I only did what I had a perfect right to do, yet 
 many in the lodge have taken great offense at the 
 step. To be sure they are the least respectable 
 members, but they are the very ones with the will to 
 do me harm. Honestly, such were the looks and 
 demeanor of some of those men towards me that I 
 
The True Light Shineth. 333 
 
 should extremely dislike the idea of meeting them 
 alone in the woods on a dark night." 
 
 "To think Stephen should have joined the Odd 
 fellows! Who d have thought it! Would you, 
 mother?" 
 
 This was Mr. Josiah Rowland s first observation. 
 
 "Not that exactly," answered Mrs. Phcebe, as she 
 folded the letter with hands that trembled, "but you 
 know, father, we ve both of us been a little troubled 
 for fear Stephen might have backslidden, and lately 
 I have been filled with such deep concern, and my 
 whole soul has been so drawn out to agonize with 
 the Lord for him that I have felt sure he was in 
 some kind of a snare." 
 
 There is such a thing as spiritual second sight. 
 Mrs. Phoebe was one thus gifted, and her husband 
 reverenced it in her as something he did not himself 
 possess, and did not quite understand. He had 
 "lathered" his face preparatory to shaving, and now 
 he stood before the little ten by twelve looking-glass 
 thoughtfully "stropping" his razor. 
 
 "But I never dreamed Stephen would ever be 
 trapped into any of these godless secret societies," 
 he repeated, the idea every time he thought of it 
 seeming to come with a fresh surprise. 
 
 "Why not Stephen as soon as any one?" queried 
 Mrs. Phoebe Howland, as she put the letter away, 
 and went quietly about some household task. 
 
 "Well, I don t know why," returned Mr. Josiah, as 
 if this was a new view of the matter; "only I thought 
 we hacl trained him better than that" 
 
334 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Maybe the Lord is training him now, father." 
 
 Mr. Josiah pondered this over while he was shav 
 ing, as was his fashion of pondering his wife s say 
 ings. These expressions of her finer spiritual na 
 ture that would never in the world have occurred to 
 him, found a ready soil of appreciation in his heart 
 where they blossomed in higher faith and profound- 
 er trust, for he had a timid and doubting side, and 
 with all his New England patrimony of shrewd com 
 mon sense it was beautiful to see how in every diffi 
 culty he turned to her clearer insight for counsel. 
 "Somehow Phoebe could always see into things," he 
 would say. 
 
 "Maybe that s so, mother. But I can t help feel 
 ing afraid for Stephen. Perhaps he stands in no 
 danger from the Odd-fellows, but one can t tell in 
 these secret societies, and I do wish he d kept clear 
 of them. They may do something to him yet. And 
 there s the liquor men, they are dreadfully rampant 
 out there. I was reading in the paper only yester 
 day how they set on a young temperance attorney 
 in one place and beat him most to death. 
 
 Mrs. Phoebe Howland grew a trifle paler at these 
 words, and drew her breath quick like one stabbed 
 by sharp and sudden pain. Then she stood straight 
 up before her husband with a deep, solemn light in 
 her dark eyes. 
 
 "Father, you and I gave Stephen to the Lord as 
 soon as he was born. When did we ever take back 
 the gift?" 
 
 Mr. Josiah finished shaving in silence. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE AVENGER. 
 
 Jesse Dukes was sitting in his low cabin door. 
 The river flowed past with a sweet, hardly definable 
 murmur; the woods were a ring of emerald set 
 against sapphire; a soft wind just stirred their 
 leaves with a faint, spirit- like motion; the light 
 wreaths of smoke which ascended from his pipe 
 seemed only a part of all this tranquil beauty; and 
 the figure of the trapper himself as he sat leaning 
 back, his eyes half-closed, and every muscle relaxed 
 in lazy enjoyment of the fine weather, presented no 
 disturbing element in the scene. In fact Jesse 
 Dukes came of a race who are gifted with far more 
 of the Italian dolce far niente than of the Yankee 
 restlessness and vim, and think nothing of taking 
 their time to smoke and sleep out of any part of the 
 day which suits them best. He knew that one his 
 traps needed mending, and by and by he was going 
 to attend to it. Meanwhile he felt in no hurry. 
 The summer days were long in his little cabin, and 
 there would be plenty of time to smoke his pipeful 
 of tobacco before he set to work. 
 
 He was not ill-supplied with reading matter, such 
 as it was. Copies of some ancient magazine lent 
 
336 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 him by the neighbors lay piled up on his rude table, 
 and from the same source he often received the loan 
 of an old newspaper. If a month or even a year 
 had intervened since the date of publication, it made 
 no difference. He read it with as much interest. 
 
 The mountaineer of the Southwest is by nature a 
 fierce political partisan, and retains the freshness of 
 first convictions to an extent apt to waken a smile in 
 places where the mail comes daily, and the constant 
 shifting of factions, reversing to-morrow the posi 
 tions they hold to-day, and uniting to-day on ques 
 tions at which they were at sword s points yester 
 day, so often makes the average voter doubtful of 
 his real standing place. Nowhere else can be found 
 the genuine Andrew Jackson Democrat, who, in his 
 fealty which is, like that of an old French Legitimist, 
 less to a person than an idea, cannot be made to 
 realize that the party has chosen new gods to go be 
 fore it. And it has its pathetic as well as its amus 
 ing side this stubborn tenacity with which he will 
 hold on to principles which that party has long cast 
 out of its platform, and be ready to fight to the 
 death for a political leader, years after that leader 
 has stepped out of the ranks of the living. Jesse 
 Dukes came of such a family. He was one himself 
 and gloried in it. At the same time we must con 
 fess that he would have been a most inconvenient 
 member to take active part in a Democratic conven 
 tion of the present day. 
 
 Finally he rose up and stretched himself with a 
 mighty yawn he was over six feet and his head 
 
The Avenger. 337 
 
 reached nearly to the cabin roof laid his pipe care 
 fully away on the shelf, and was about to turn his 
 attention to the broken trap, when, in his search for 
 some paper to clean it with, he came across a part 
 of a Democratic political speech. To the majority 
 of newspaper readers it would have been like a piece 
 of very stale apple pie, but Mr. Dukes proceeded at 
 once to devour it with a keen appreciation of what 
 seemed to him the most telling points. He was a 
 prohibitionist, but like thousands of Southern Dem 
 ocrats who lean that way, he could not see how in 
 extricably his beloved party had mortgaged itself to 
 the rum power; and if am bod} wonders at such be 
 nighted ignorance on the part of this simple Tennes- 
 seean, the blindness of the average Republican will 
 present him with as great a marvel. He was also, 
 as we have seen, an Anti-mason of the intensest 
 type, but he was entirely ignorant an ignorance 
 shared however by the mass of historical students 
 of that bit of American political history in which 
 the lodge played so important a part when it made 
 Andrew Jackson President, and thus prevented its 
 inveterate foe, John Quincy Adams, from filling the 
 Presidential chair for a second term. 
 
 He had finished it, and was about to appropriate 
 the paper to its intended use when his eye rested on 
 a local paragraph in which occurred a name that 
 had not crossed his mind for ten years save linked 
 with a curse. His face changed terribly when he 
 saw it The lazy, shiftless, good-natured trapper 
 had the failings as well as the virtues of the moun- 
 
338 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 tain race from which he sprung grateful for the 
 smallest benefit, quick to avenge the smallest affront, 
 a trusty friend and an implacable foe. 
 
 It was the name of Dacey James Dacey; a man 
 born of a good family, but with a decided bent for 
 the crooked and devious ways of the transgressor, 
 and with a faculty for keeping clear of the law that 
 much mystified many of his victims. He had been 
 married twice. The first time he had obtained an 
 unjust divorce through the help of an unprincipled 
 attorney who was like himself a high Mason. The 
 second time he had beguiled a simple-hearted, pretty 
 maiden into marrying him; then, after living with 
 her for a while, denied the legality of the marriage, 
 and left her, broken-hearted, in an equivocal posi 
 tion among strangers to support her two children as 
 best she could. Mr. Dacey s regular profession it 
 would have been hard to define. He never stayed 
 very long in one place, and with every change of 
 residence he turned his hand to something new in 
 the line of rascality. At the time Jesse Dukes so 
 unfortunately made his acquaintance he called him 
 self a broker in real estate, though his methods of 
 conducting business were somewhat peculiar. He 
 was really the head of a bogus land company which 
 operated under fictitious names, issuing worthless 
 title deeds to confiding settlers in distant territories, 
 but he sometimes did a stroke of sharp business 
 nearer home, as in the case of Jesse Dukes. The 
 simple mountaineer, utterly unused to trickery and 
 fraud, bravely defended his title to his newly pur- 
 
The Avenger. 339 
 
 chased homestead, and when he realized that the 
 suit had actually gone against him he could scarcely 
 be restrained from springing on his adversary in 
 open court. He swore vengeance as it was, and 
 Dacey, whose forte was rather the smooth and grace 
 ful villain than the bull} , thought it prudent to de 
 camp, having about come to the end of his little 
 game, rather than risk a charge of buckshot in his 
 handsome person. He then became partner in a 
 liquor saloon for a while. He operated a faro bank 
 for a season. He dabbled in various lottery schemes, 
 and indeed it would be difficult to name anything in 
 the line of swindling and roguery to which he had 
 not at one time or another given his attention. He 
 was now agent for some worthless agricultural pat 
 ents, and in consequence a very active grangeman. 
 When the grange should discover, as it must before 
 long, that it had been outrageously duped, he could 
 rely on the close connection of that body with the 
 Masonic lodge to clear him from the consequences. 
 
 Jesse Dukes sat for a long while with his eyes 
 riveted on the paper. But this might be another 
 James Dacey. Anyway he would find out, and if it 
 should prove the one he sought, why Mr. Dukes 
 had no very clear idea of the form his vengeance 
 was going to take, but he meant before he was 
 through with Mr. Dacey to make him repent his 
 action in that particular lawsuit which had broken 
 up his happy home and reduced him to poverty. 
 
 At last with a fierce, determined look he rose to 
 his feet, and not even stopping to put away his traps 
 
340 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 strewed over the floor, he left the cabin standing 
 empty and desolate, and started forth on his quest 
 for vengeance. 
 
 Before we proceed to tell how the quest came out, 
 we have a word to say regarding the startling in 
 crease in our land of that form of lawless violence 
 known as lynch law. In rude, semi-civilized com 
 munities it may be a deplorable necessity to dis 
 pense summary justice in this way, but when we find 
 the papers filled with accounts of horrible lynching 
 affairs, not perpetrated where the reign of law and 
 order has not yet begun, but under the very shadow 
 of our court houses, it is evident that there is some 
 thing wrong in the working of our criminal laws. 
 When a people know that swift and equal punish 
 ment will be meted out to all wrong doers, they are 
 not generally disposed to take the execution thereof 
 on themselves. But when the law has respect of 
 persons, when it discriminates between the man who 
 has robbed the State of a fortune and the poor boy 
 who steals five dollars, because the one is a Mason 
 and the other is not, is there room for wonder that 
 they weary sometimes of the travesties of justice in 
 our court rooms and become their own judges and 
 executioners? 
 
CHAPTER XXVHL 
 
 "VENGEANCE IS MINE." 
 
 "I call this curious weather, Mr. Deming. Makes 
 me feel kinder as though something was going to 
 happen." 
 
 "Can t expect comfortable weather in dog days, 
 Uncle Zeb," responded Mr. Deming, as he took a 
 look around him at the horizon, which was curtained 
 by a thin veil of clouds through which the sun shone 
 with a strange, brassy radiance, while the very 
 leaves on the trees seemed to fairly pant in the life 
 less air. 
 
 "That s a fact," returned Uncle Zeb, as he seated 
 himself in an easy attitude for conversation. "But 
 human nater is dreadful onreasonable. When it s 
 cold we want it hot, and when it s hot we want it 
 cold. Makes me think a little of the weather we 
 had that year Harrison was elected. I remember all 
 about them Tippecanoe and Tyler too times. May 
 be you don t quite so well. You was a trifle 
 younger." 
 
 "Parties have changed a good deal since then," 
 sententiously remarked Mr. Deming, and Uncle Zeb 
 went on. 
 
 "Well, politics is a good deal like a chessboard. 
 It s a move here and a move there, and to them that 
 
342 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 don t understand the ins and outs, why, it s all gam 
 mon. That s the way I look at all this nominating, 
 and canvassing, and stump-speaking. But the Pro 
 hibitionists now they seem to be going on a differ 
 ent tack. I see there was a "W. C. T. U. woman ad 
 vertised to speak not a great ways from here, and I 
 thought I d chirk up and go and hear her. And if 
 she wan t a master head for facts and figgers ! Some 
 of the things she told fairly made me cry like a 
 baby. I ve been all kinder stirred up ever sence a 
 thinkin on em over. It didn t sound a bit as 
 though she was making a speech; she seemed to talk 
 right from her heart as the Lord give her the words. 
 I tell you, Mr. Deming, I ve about made up my mind 
 if I live till next fall to vote the Prohibition ticket 
 and let both the old parties go to grass." 
 
 Now Mr. Deming, it must be said, was a Republi 
 can, who had always prided himself on being sound 
 in regard to all the great moral questions of the day, 
 but he had never yet reached the point of leaving 
 his party; and now to hear such an energetic expres 
 sion from Uncle Zeb, a Democrat of that easy-going 
 type who take up naturally with the party whose 
 platform presents the fewest troublesome issues, 
 touched his conscience as with a vague reminder of 
 the words of inspiration, "The first shall be last and 
 the last first." 
 
 "Well, I am waiting to see who the Democrats 
 will put up," he answered cautiously. "A good deal 
 depends on that." 
 
 "I understand" and Uncle Zeb chuckled, for he 
 
"Vengeance is Mine." 343 
 
 could not help uttering a joke even when it bore 
 rather hard on himself "you know we Democrats 
 are the publicans and sinners. We can turn about 
 and enter the kingdom while you Republican Phari 
 sees are balancing on the fence. There s a kind of 
 Scriptural illustration for ye, as you may say." 
 
 It was one, however, which Mr. Deming did not 
 enjoy, for he felt that in this matter as in that of 
 the grange, Uncle Zeb had the advantage. The lat 
 ter had prudently abstained from making his usual 
 facetious allusions to "the machine," since the un 
 fortunate Masonic experiment recorded in a prior 
 chapter, and Mr. Deming was so relieved by the 
 truce that he could have thanked the O Sullivan goat 
 for its unwitting share in bringing it about, many 
 times as he had voted the animal a nuisance and re 
 solved to complain to the owner for not keeping it 
 more strictly confined. 
 
 It is one of the laws of the grange that no politi 
 cal questions shall be discussed in its meetings, yet 
 "the machine" is one eminently adapted to gain 
 office for the leaders; for who would suspect a society 
 of simple farmers of engaging in political schemes 
 and plottings? least of all those same innocent- 
 minded farmers themselves? Fairfield Grange, 
 though ostensibly devoted to advancing the peaceful 
 art of agriculture, was really a hot-bed of partisan 
 ship, and Mr. Israel Deming had felt very percepti 
 bly the pulling of certain wires; but whose hands 
 manipulated them or the secret of their workings 
 were hidden mysteries. Of the men for whom thero 
 
344 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 was this invisible but strong pressure brought upon 
 him to vote at the coming election, he knew literally 
 nothing except that they were grangemen, who, he 
 was assured, would use their official position to ad 
 vance the farming interests. He was never told, 
 however, that every one of these same seekers for 
 political power were high degree Masons, who were 
 using the simple grangers as the proverbial monkey 
 used the too confiding grimalkin. 
 
 Dora was sitting in the open window, dressed in 
 her light afternoon muslin a most agreeable and 
 pleasing object. She heard the conversation, but 
 not to take any particular interest therein. Her 
 father and Uncle Zeb were always talking politics 
 nowadays, and lugging in that wearisome subject of 
 prohibition. Of course she wanted rum-selling done 
 away with, but what was the use of making such a 
 fuss about it? And as to these W. C. T. U. women 
 she did not understand them in the least. She was 
 sure she could never spend her life as they did, 
 thinking and speaking and writing of nothing but 
 temperance all the time. And then to go round 
 gathering up all these terrible facts which made her 
 feel sick even to read or hear about! It was per 
 fectly incomprehensible. From this train of thought 
 Dora s musings branched off in another direction. 
 She began to think how hot it was, and recall to her 
 mind some of the latest compliments Mr. Dacey had 
 paid her, and wonder whether he really meant them. 
 To the language of polite gallantry Dora was a 
 stranger, and she never thought that a single 
 
"Vengeance is Mine." 345 
 
 glance of honest admiration from one of her young 
 fanner suitors, even when it remained unsaid or was 
 expressed in the most awkward and bungling fash 
 ion, had in it a thousand times more of real knightly 
 chivalry. 
 
 Mr. Dacey on his part took every opportunity to 
 foster her foolish fancy, for he was by no means 
 oblivious of the fact that Mr. Deming was the rich 
 est farmer in Fairfield, and Dora an only child. But 
 he had no idea of appearing as an open and honest 
 wooer where he was sure of meeting opposition 
 especially from Mrs. Deming. There had existed a 
 settled antagonism between them from the first. 
 She was suspicious that all was not right in regard 
 to the grange business, and feared that he was lead 
 ing her eas3^-minded husband into trouble with those 
 agricultural patents. The .very suspicion that he 
 had designs on Dora would have transformed her 
 negative dislike to him into positive fury. But he 
 was sure he could in time prevail on the latter to 
 consent to a secret or runaway marriage, and in fact 
 he had already laid his plans to this end b}^ paying 
 her many clandestine attentions which, if she had 
 not been thoroughly bewitched by his flatteries, 
 would have put her on her guard. For her s was a 
 frank and open nature. The secrecy of the grange 
 in itself had no charms for her. We do- not bait a 
 trap with poison, but with a harmless bit of cheese. 
 Dora s girlish love of pleasure and admiration pro 
 vided all the attraction needed. 
 
 It grew more strangely still and dark and oppres- 
 
346 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 si ye. What little oxygen there was in the air 
 seemed to die out of it. Even her father and Uncle 
 Zeb grew silent as if it was too hot to talk, Mrs. 
 Deming, however, had not succumbed to the weather. 
 She did not believe in succumbing to anything, and 
 now she said decidedly to Dora: 
 
 "Come, child, don t be so idle. If you are at 
 work you won t mind the heat half so much." 
 
 Dora made a pretense of going on with her sew 
 ing, but the gate clicked just then and set her fool 
 ish little heart to beating with the thought that it 
 might be Mr. Dacej^, who had mentioned to her the 
 day before, in one of those clandestine walks which 
 he always contrived to plan in such a way that Dora 
 never really suspected that he meant they should be 
 clandestine, his intention of visiting her father the 
 next day on business. It did not prove to be him, 
 however, but the strangest, roughest looking figure 
 Dora had ever seen. He must be a tramp of the 
 most desperate description, she thought. How very 
 fortunate that her father was at home! Of Uncle 
 Zeb s valor in case of any sudden call upon it she 
 had a pardonably low opinion. 
 
 We, however, have no trouble in recognizing our 
 old friend, Jesse Dukes. Weariness and hunger and 
 thirst he had hardly felt in the fierce heat of re 
 vengeful desire that consumed his soul. He asked 
 for a drink and sat down on the doorstep, unloosing 
 his knapsack as he did so and setting his rifle care 
 fully up against the outside wall. 
 
 Dora brought him water in a tin dipper. Jesse 
 
"Vengeance is Mine." 347 
 
 Dukes looked up at her with something of the pleas 
 ure that one looks at a bright-hued flower or bird. 
 
 "Thank ye, daughter," he said, as he gave the dip 
 per back. But the hard, fierce, vindictive face only 
 softened for an instant. 
 
 "I ve got an account to settle with a man," he an 
 swered reticently, to Uncle Zeb s ready question 
 ings, "and I ve tramped a smart forty miles on pur 
 pose to settle it. So I m feelin a bit beat out." 
 
 There came a low rumble of distant thunder. 
 
 "I reckon there s goin to be a shower," said 
 Uncle Zeb in his slow way. 
 
 The gate clicked again. Jesse Dukes started up. 
 He felt as by intuition the approach of his victim, 
 yet Dace} was within a } ard of him and his foot 
 almost on the door-stone before he recognized the 
 grim face of the trapper. Then he stopped, trem 
 bling. He had reason to tremble, remembering the 
 look of wild-beast fury from which he had cowered 
 in such miserable terror, when, helpless in the net 
 of Masonic injustice, Jesse Dukes had turned upon 
 him in the court-room ten years before. Now to be 
 so suddenly confronted with it was almost like an 
 apparition from the dead. 
 
 He attempted at first to ignore his enemy; then 
 with a poor feigning of sudden recollection he held 
 out his hand affably and tried to assume an air of 
 old acquaintanceship. 
 
 Jesse Dukes took no notice of the motion but 
 stood directly in his path, a grim and frowning bar 
 rier to his further progress. 
 
348 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "You ain t fit to step your foot over a decent 
 man s threshold," he said in a low, fierce voice; 
 "and I ll stop your doing it if I kin. Didn t you 
 cheat me out of every cent I had in the world, all 
 because you was a Mason and could count on a Ma 
 sonic judge and jury to help? And when my wife 
 lay a dyin , and I had only a cabin to shelter her, 
 and no medicine, nor food of the right kind for her. 
 she d want me to read to her out of the Bible, but 
 when I did my ej es would always be a lightin on 
 sich ar texts as these: He turneth the way of the 
 wicked upside down. On the wicked he shall reign 
 snares. Fire and brimstone and an horrible tem 
 pest shall be the portion of their cup. When the 
 Lord comes to reckon with ye, ye miserable varmint, 
 passing yourself off for an unmarried man when 
 you ve got a wife and two children off, nobody 
 knows where ye ll find there s a court up above 
 where they don t make much account of Masonic 
 signs and grips." 
 
 Dora gave a low, quick cry, that nobody heard in 
 the excitement of the moment. It was as if wrapped 
 in a somnambulist s dream she had been standing 
 on the sheer edge of a dreadful precipice, and Jesse 
 Duke s terrible accusations against the man she was 
 foolish enough to think she loved was the voice in 
 her ears that had wakened and saved her. 
 
 Dacey would have run away, but aside from the 
 lack of dignity in such a proceeding it would have 
 been about as safe to attempt flight with the fangs 
 of a bull-dog already fastened in his coat. As a last 
 
"Vengeance is Mine." 349 
 
 resort he appealed to the group in the doorway. 
 
 "This fellow, you must see, is insane, Mr. Dem- 
 ing. How can you allow him to insult and abuse 
 me with such a pack of lies. Uncle Zeb, as a bro 
 ther Mason" 
 
 Here Uncle Zeb rose up in mighty wrath. 
 
 "You needn t brother me. I was green enough 
 once to jine the lodge, and I ve made a kind of a 
 joke of it when it was a sin I d oughter have repent 
 ed of. And if a thousandth part of what I ve he erd 
 jest now is true, I d advise you to be repenting, and 
 in a mighty hurry." 
 
 "This is prolonging a most unprofitable inter 
 view," said Dacey, taking refuge in the coolest ef 
 frontery he could muster to hide his inward scare. 
 "Here is a man ready to take my life, and not one 
 of you stirs a finger." 
 
 But Mr. Deming had enough of the Anglo-Saxon 
 sense of justice not to interfere till really obliged to 
 do so. He knew very well that but for these revela 
 tions now so strangely made by this unknown man 
 he might in the next hour have been in Dacey s 
 power how deeply and inextricably he trembled to 
 think. Such a villain ought to be in state s prison, 
 and though a good fright would go but a small way 
 towards paying him his deserts, it was better than 
 nothing. 
 
 So pre-occupied were the group that no one saw 
 the black curiously-shaped cloud with lurid greenish 
 edges so swiftly approaching from the southwest, 
 bearing desolation and death in its track. Yet the 
 
350 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 very birds had felt the awful shadow of its coming 
 and flown away in terror. 
 
 "Ye sneakin varmint!" and with the old pan 
 ther fury blazing in his eyes Jesse Dukes would 
 have sprung on his adversary, but a Hand parted 
 them. 
 
 Those in the house heard a dull, distant roar, but 
 there was no time for flight before, cutting for itself 
 a path even and clean as if done by a mower s 
 scythe, the tornado swept past, wrecking farm and 
 outbuildings, felling trees, and filling the air with 
 the flying dust and debris. 
 
 The storm demon did his work of destruction in 
 that one brief, dreadful instant. Dora hud shut her 
 eyes in shuddering terror when the blow came on. 
 She opened them to find herself, rather to her own 
 surprise, still a denizen of this world. Uncle Zeb 
 was groaning and praying like an old-fashioned 
 Methodist. Not one of the group had been injured 
 by even a scratch. 
 
 But assailer and assailed! where were they? 
 
 Jesse Dukes had really no intention of taking 
 Dacey s life. He meant to chastise him soundly 
 and show him up for the unprincipled villain that 
 he was, The justice Masonic courts refused to give 
 him he meant to administer for himself accord 
 ing to the rude ideas of justice prevailing among his 
 primitive mountain race. But Dacey s insulting 
 words had heated the furnace of the trapper s wrath 
 seven times hotter. There was murder in his soul, 
 murder in the fierce grip with which be held his 
 
"Vengeance is Mine. 1 351 
 
 enemy till wrenched apart by that terrible Power. 
 ********** 
 
 He knew nothing more till one flash of vivid light 
 ning rent the gloom, followed instantly by the re 
 verberating crash of the swiftly descending thunder 
 bolt The rain descended in sheets, in cataracts. 
 Jesse Dukes raised himself from the sodden earth 
 and suddenly realized that he was alone that the 
 form stretched lifeless on tho ground a dozen yards 
 away was that of James Dacey. God had avenged 
 him of his, adversary, and saved him from blood- 
 guiltiness. 
 
 He staggered to his feet, gave one dazed glance 
 around and covered his face with his hands, moan 
 ing, "0 Lord, I m a poor sinner!" 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 GOING DOWN INTO EGYPT. 
 
 The political contest had assumed new features, 
 and as usual the saloon and the lodge were both ac 
 tive. By this means some curious complications 
 were preparing which would be a surpwse to many 
 who never thought while so confidently predicting 
 results to make allowance for these two important 
 factors particularly the latter. "The way of a ser 
 pent upon a rock" is about as easy to trace as the 
 way of the lodge in politics, but we will essay the 
 task, first giving the reader a map of the political 
 situation that he may better understand what fol 
 lows. 
 
 The Republicans nominated as their choice for 
 Governor Judge Dyer, a Christian man of strong 
 temperance principles in all respects an irreproach 
 able candidate. The determined stand made by the 
 Prohibitionists at the previous election had forced 
 this concession from the unwilling party leaders. 
 To nominate again a demagogue like Gen. Putney, 
 even at the bidding of the Grand Army, would be 
 too much of a risk. On the other hand the Demo 
 crats nominated as before an ex-confederate who 
 stood high in favor with the saloonists. Had the 
 Republican choice been less worthy the Prohibition 
 
Going Down into Egypt. 353 
 
 ranks would have stood firm, but when to its nominee s 
 unquestioned character for integrity and patriotism 
 were added vague promises of submitting a prohib 
 itory amendment to the people, even the staunchest 
 third party men wavered. Stephen Rowland him 
 self, after a little inward struggle, left the prohibi 
 tion Moses and joined the rest who flocked to Judge 
 Dyer s standard in the sanguine belief that they al 
 ready saw the dawn of a new day. 
 
 But Martin Tre worthy was not so hopefully in 
 clined, though if he could have conscientiously cast 
 his vote once more with the party of his first affec 
 tions, so inseparably associated with the memory of 
 his old battles for human freedom and the name of 
 his mourned and martyred chief, it would have re 
 joiced him from his heart 
 
 "Mr. Treworthy, what do you think of voting for 
 Judge Dyer," asked Nelson, who was now in his new 
 position of foreman at the works. 
 
 He was tolerably sure of keeping it, and could 
 speak lightly of his own losses to Stephen Rowland 
 as compared with others whose all had been swal 
 lowed up in the bank s failure. At the same time 
 to have to begin over again the task so nearly ac 
 complished of earning a home for himself and Mar 
 tha was not a very inspiriting outlook. Besides 
 this there were disagreeable things connected with 
 his new position, for while the majority of the men 
 liked him, he knew there existed an unfriendly ele 
 ment which made itself felt in various ways, and 
 which would not only have gladly ousted him from 
 
354 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 the situation, but would doubtless have succeeded 
 in doing so with an employer of less stubborn make 
 or less firmly his friend than Matthew Densler, who 
 turned a deaf ear to all complaints, grimly assuring 
 the fault finders that he was boss over his own con 
 cerns, and if they didn t like the new foreman they 
 might leave and welcome the sooner the better. 
 
 Martin leaned forward in his leathern arm-chair, 
 and was silent a moment before replying. 
 
 "Judge Dyer is a fine sort of a man. He s clear 
 of the lodge; I ve taken the pains to find out that. 
 And once, at least, he s wrote or said something 
 against it. And he s got a good clean temperance 
 record, but then I don t know " 
 
 "Whether it is best to vote for him?" inquired 
 Nelson, as Martin seemed to go off in a deep reverie, 
 leaving the unfinished sentence suspended on his 
 lips. "I don t see as. there is any other alternative. 
 I have said I would never go again with the Repub 
 lican party, but I think I shall vote for Judge 
 Dyer." 
 
 " Woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help ! " 
 repeated Martin slowly and solemnly to this declar 
 ation; " to strengthen themselves in the strength of 
 Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 
 Therefore, shall the strength of Pharaoh be your 
 shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your 
 confusion. " 
 
 But Nelson could not see that this Old Testament 
 prophecy had the slightest bearing on the subject, 
 and answered wonderingly: 
 
Going Down into Egypt. 355 
 
 "What do you mean, Mr. Tre worthy? 
 
 "Didn t the Jews go for help to a nation eaten up 
 by false worships? And ain t that just what the 
 prohibition Israel is doing to-da}*? seeking help 
 from a party given over to the heathenism of the 
 Masonic lodge?" 
 
 "Not more than the Democratic party, surely." 
 
 "That ain t the question. Masonry controls em 
 both. Do you think I want the Democrats to win? 
 Don t I remember their rule thirty years ago under 
 Pierce and Buchanan, when I was whipped and put 
 in prison and chased by bloodhounds? But that is 
 all over and done with. I don t owe the Democratic 
 party anything now, nor they me." 
 
 "Then why not vote for Judge Dyer? such an ex 
 ceptionable candidate I really can t see." 
 
 "No, you can t see," retorted Martin, with quiet 
 sarcasm; "but may the Lord open your blind eyes. 
 Here you be, you and other prohibitionists, and you 
 can t see that a vote for either of the old parties is 
 a vote for the lodge, and a vote for the lodge is a 
 vote for the saloon." 
 
 Martin Treworthy shut his lips and said no more. 
 
 But it was a very cheerful going down into Egypt. 
 The Republicans were confident of victory now they 
 had captured the prohibition vote; the Prohibition 
 ists equally so now that the Republicans had seem 
 ingly acceded to their demands. And though there 
 were some like Martin Treworthy to feel suspicious 
 of this era of peace and good will, they were in too 
 small a minority for their votes to be missed. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 LODGE AND SALOON. 
 
 "The politicians of late years have been playing a 
 game of chess intent wholly upon the board, but 
 never giving a thought to the table under the board. 
 But the table was alive, the back of a people which 
 began to stir, and in the twinkling of an eye chess 
 board and men went to the devil." 
 
 This vigorous paragraph from St. Beuve on the 
 French Provisional government of 1848 is quoted 
 partly because it contains a warning which Ameri 
 can politicians would do well to heed, and partly be 
 cause the last clause describes very exactly the feel 
 ings of many good people when Judge Ityer was ig- 
 nominiously defeated and his Democratic rival 
 elected to the gubernatorial chair. 
 
 The old nursery rhyme of Cock Robin is founded 
 on a deep-seated principle of human nature. If even 
 a pan of milk is overturned it is always consoling to 
 know exactly who or what did the mischief. In 
 obedience to this philosophic instinct of humanity 
 we will now resolve ourselves into a coroner s jury 
 and inquire into the cause of Judge Dyer s untimely 
 political death. 
 
 Masonry never forgets or forgives. On one sin- 
 
Lodge and Saloon. 357 
 
 gle occasion, years before, he had written a letter 
 condemning the lodge. Lodge leaders remembered 
 it, and silently and secretly the} combined together 
 to prevent his election. How did they do it? The 
 answer is easy. They united with the liquor men, 
 and on some slight pretext "bolted" to the Demo 
 cratic side in just sufficient numbers to turn the 
 scale. But even Judge Dyer never suspected the 
 hidden hand of Masonry. His defeat was ascribed 
 to liquor bribery, to the defection in the German 
 vote, to any and ever} cause but the true one. 
 
 The lodge leaders took care that the blame should 
 be thrown on the shoulders of the prohibitionists, 
 and their ideas were reflected in leading Republican 
 papers by such paragraphs as the following: "The 
 utter uselessness of making concessions to prohibi 
 tion fanaticism has been proved once more. As 
 usual it has been a disturbing and disintegrating 
 factor which has not strengthened the party but only 
 brought upon it defeat and loss. It is too costly a 
 folly to be again repeated." 
 
 The liquor men were of course jubilant, and with 
 astonishing unanimity the very saloonists who were 
 such strong Republicans at the previous election, 
 now that victory had perched on the Democratic 
 banners, made haste to doff their new political livery 
 and veer round to the winning side: while behind 
 them stood the lodge Judas smiling complacently at 
 the clever way in which it had tricked the simple 
 temperance folks, betraying them wholesale to their 
 ancient enemy. 
 
358 Bttween Two Opinions. 
 
 But out of the dead lion came forth honey. The 
 W. C. T. U. had no idea of giving up the battle for 
 a change of parties. The prohibitionists, sadder 
 and wiser, fell into line and the work went on to the 
 mingled anger and consternation of the saloon men 
 who had reckoned securely on having things their 
 own way. And now to have the cup of triumph 
 dashed from their lips, as seemed eminently prob 
 able if the bill for submitting a prohibitory amend 
 ment to the people could be made to pass the Senate 
 by a non-partisan vote the following winter, was cer 
 tainly enough to warrant them in declaring, with 
 many unnecessary expletives, that "these W. C. T. 
 U. women never knew when they were beat." 
 
 Martin Treworthy heard the result of the election 
 in grim silence, and did not even say to Nelson, "I 
 told you so." 
 
 Stephen Rowland, on his part, was astonished. 
 He had been very sanguine regarding Judge Dyer s 
 election, but he felt that the two old parties were 
 coming closer and closer together every year. To 
 be sure, the Republicans retained something of their 
 former moral superiority the momentum generated 
 by the sacrifices and sufferings of their early leaders. 
 Corrupt and self-seeking as was the average politi 
 cian of that party, now and then they put up a pure 
 candidate, nor had the rank and file quite lost the 
 memory of their first baptism in blood and tears as 
 the party of liberty and moral progress. 
 
 Altogether it was a far more promising instru 
 ment for the lodge to make use of for the betrayal 
 
Lodge and Saloon. 359 
 
 of the temperance cause than its Democratic rival, 
 of whose reform promises, though it should charm 
 never so wisel} , all true reformers would ever re 
 main reasonably shy. 
 
 Stephen Rowland, about a week before the elec 
 tion, was much surprised to hear the Good Templar 
 acquaintance previously mentioned allude in a doubt 
 ful way to the result of the contest, and remark that 
 "he was sorry the Republicans had not put up a 
 stronger ticket." 
 
 "It is a thousand times stronger in all that consti 
 tutes real strength than the ticket put up last year," 
 responded Stephen, warmly. "Judge Dyer has got 
 no tricks of the demagogue about him. He is a 
 plain, honest man, and as such he ought to command 
 the people s vote." 
 
 "Well, Col. Morrison said to me only yesterday 
 you know he is Republican and enough in politics 
 to get an inside view of the way things are going 
 that Judge Dyer would never be elected. And he 
 went on to tell how it was perilling the German 
 vote; and besides, says he, Dyer isn t personally a 
 popular man. " 
 
 Col. Morrison was one of the "bolters," willing to 
 betray his party for the sake of the lodge, and the 
 above is a very good specimen of the way in which 
 he and other Masonic politicians worked against 
 Judge Dyer less by downright falsehoods than by 
 vague insinuations which carried all the sting of 
 positive charges. But it must not be supposed that 
 Masonry defeated him under her own name. She 
 
360 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 hid behind the secret liquor leagues, but lent them 
 her halls, animated their counsels, and did for them 
 in brief precisely what she formerly did for the 
 Southern Ku-Klux who hid their disguises in Ma 
 sonic lodge-rooms, and whose exploits in burning 
 school houses and killing defenseless negroes were 
 really nothing but Masonic masquerades. 
 
 It has been computed that every saloon in the 
 country must control on an average ten votes, which 
 gives us two million saloon voters. Add to this the 
 dark, silent, invisible factor of the secret lodge, and 
 is it any wonder that pure men should be defeated 
 at the polls and demagogism thrive as in a hot-bed? 
 Yet many good people stand aghast at the idea of 
 joining religion and politics, as if it might be like 
 those chemical unions in which the composing ele 
 ments are harmless enough when kept separate, but 
 as soon as they come together develop explosive 
 properties. 
 
 But is the union of the saloon and politics, or 
 Masonry and politics, any less dangerous? Can the 
 pulpit afford to keep silent regarding questions on 
 which all the dramshops and gambling hells and 
 secret lodges have their freely-expressed opinion? 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A LIQUOR MOB. 
 
 The Jacksonville Legion was not a military com 
 pany, as the reader may innocently imagine, but the 
 name under which the liquor sellers of that city had 
 banded together to prevent the passing of temper 
 ance laws and the execution of those already on the 
 statute book. It was really a branch of a secret sa 
 loon association that could bribe and cajole and 
 threaten and natter the candidates of both parties; 
 that always had delegates at the primaries and cau 
 cuses, and plenty of funds with which to corrupt 
 public officials and defeat and betray prohibition 
 measures. In fact the Legion was a power with 
 capacities for mischief that far transcended the 
 Order of the Red Mark. 
 
 Stephen Howland still continued to worry the 
 liquor men and be the recipient of curses that he 
 did not hear, and which would not have much 
 troubled him if he had. But little as he suspected 
 it his most formidable enemies were among his 
 former Odd-fellow brethren. His defection was an 
 unpardonable offense, an insult to the order. And 
 considered in this light it is not strange that a very 
 active desire to punish him for it in some way was 
 
362 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 developed in the breasts of many of the members? 
 And what easier way to do this than through a Ma 
 sonic understanding with his saloon foes? 
 
 The Jacksonville Legion was freely sprinkled with 
 Masons and Odd-fellows of the Van Grilder type who 
 had never borne very friendly feelings to the young 
 lawyer, and now rather enjoyed the opportunity of 
 hitting him in the dark. Stephen did not even know 
 of the existence of the Jacksonville Legion, but he 
 was soon to learn by disagreeable experience that 
 liquor malevolence with the spur of lodge malice 
 behind it is capable of desperate things. 
 
 Stephen was announced to speak one night on the 
 pending Constitutional Amendment in the First 
 Presbyterian church in Jacksonville. This church 
 was very unpopular with the rum party for the ad 
 vanced ground which its members took on prohibi 
 tion, and also as being a gathering place for the 
 W. C. T. U. So the trustees, shortly after the an 
 nouncement, received an anonymous note from the 
 Jacksonville Legion which read as follows: 
 
 SIRS: This is to inform you that if you let. your 
 church be used by that lying blatherskite of a temper 
 ance lawyer, Stephen ffowland, to spout his injurious 
 nonsense and defame better men than himself, we shall 
 find ways and means to destroy the building. 
 
 BY ORDER OF THE JACKSONVILLE LEGION. 
 
 The trustees quaked in their shoes, and with some 
 reason, for it was not long since an attempt had 
 been made to dynamite a temperance hotel. It 
 would be just as easy to dynamite a church, and it 
 
A Liquor Mob. 
 
 was finally decided to hold the meeting in a public 
 hall. 
 
 Stephen was not without a goodly share of ph} - 
 ical courage, but when he found on entering the 
 place a crowd of irate whisky men filling up all the 
 front seats next to the platform, he felt glad that 
 the measure on which he was going to speak was 
 such a one as to make it not incongruous, but on the 
 contrary highly reasonable and proper that he 
 should open his address with prayer. 
 
 The meeting was not entirely in the hands of the 
 mob, and it was a positive inspiration to catch sight 
 of Martin Treworthy in the audience grim old hero 
 of a hundred by-gone battles; and to meet Nelson 
 Newball s flashing eyes, that Stephen always said to 
 himself had in them the look of a born leader- and 
 see the calm, earnest faces of women that would any 
 day dare a mob for the protection of their homes. 
 But Stephen had put far from him the pride of 
 fleshly confidence when he turned away from "the 
 unfruitful works of darkness" at the call of the con 
 verted rumseller, Peter Snyder, and in an hour like 
 this he felt that the eternal Jehovah himself must 
 be his stronghold. 
 
 His prayer was audible to but few, the mob in 
 front keeping up a perfect Babel of groans and 
 hisses. 
 
 St. George had met the dragon ! 
 
 If Stephen s heart had been a trifle lifted up with 
 his popularity and it was natural that it should be, 
 for he was young, and flattering voices had not been 
 
364 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 wanting to prophesy for him a brilliant political fu 
 ture when the new party of prohibition should take 
 the helm it was strangely humble when he faced 
 once more the riotous crowd. That reverent bowing 
 of the head, that brief, simple petition had been al 
 together unpremeditated. It was a sudden impulse, 
 the feeling of his own weakness coupled with such 
 an inrushing sense of the divine power to uphold 
 that he did it without a thought of anything singu 
 lar in the action. 
 
 It was the first time he had ever fronted such an 
 assemblage. But he had that crowning gift of the 
 orator, a fine, sonorous voice, and was not easily put 
 down. 
 
 At one point in his speech a few rotten eggs were 
 hurled, bespattering a brand new suit. This was 
 disagreeable as it was a nice one, and his funds 
 would not at present warrant him in getting another. 
 
 "I am glad to meet some of our saloon friends in 
 argument," he responded as coolly as if it had been 
 a bouquet of roses, at which there was laughter and 
 applause mingled with other demonstrations not so 
 flattering. "I object to the style of the argument, 
 but I will put up with it if it is the best they can 
 muster. I am not here to-night in the interests of 
 any man or any faction." 
 
 Jeering cries interrupted him, but he went on with 
 perfect good nature. 
 
 "You distrust what I say that I am not a dema 
 gogue swayed by selfish or at best class interests. 
 A man has no right to pronounce an opinion in pub- 
 
A Liquor Mob. 365 
 
 lie on any great question who has not first examined 
 it carefully on both sides, and considered it intelli 
 gently and its relations to all classes in the com 
 munity. If women should have the right to pre 
 serve the peace and virtue of their homes intact; if 
 business men and artisans have the right to pursue 
 their several callings unburdened by enormous and 
 unnecessary taxation, liquor sellers have also their 
 rights which 1 now propose to spend a few moments 
 in considering." 
 
 There was silence now. Even his foes were a lit 
 tle curious to see how Stephen would handle this 
 novel subject. He went on. 
 
 "The saloonist thinks that if he pays fifty or a 
 hundred or five hundred dollars to the State or the 
 city for a license to sell liquor, he has a right, clear 
 and incontestable, to sell it. Certainly so far as it 
 goes he has the best of the argument. The distiller, 
 if he pays ninety per cent tax to the government, 
 thinks he has a right to carry on his business with 
 out let or hindrance, and so far as human law can 
 give it to him has he not that right? This is not a 
 subject which we consider sufficiently. Of those 
 who denounce the liquor seller, nine out of ten have 
 never thought of putting themselves in his place, or 
 reflected that he has rights like other men the 
 right that the government under which he lives 
 should deal fairly by him, and, if his be as legitimate 
 a business as shoeing horses or selling tea and sugar, 
 should impose no more restrictions on him than it 
 does on the blacksmith or the merchant. Now there 
 
366 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 is no middle line between an honest and a dishonest 
 business, between one that injures and one that ben 
 efits society; and the Government in taxing liquor- 
 selling so utterly out of proportion to other trades 
 is either guilty of the most high-handed oppression 
 or the basest partnership in crime. 
 
 "Yet to-day our nation halts between two opin 
 ions. Shame on such cowardly vacillation! Either 
 the business is a legitimate one and should not be 
 taxed at all, or else it is the contrary and should be 
 prohibited forever. Better that our law-givers open 
 ly proclaim the rule of the Drink Moloch than to 
 worship him in secret. Better they should fling 
 wide open the doors of the saloon and force the 
 question to an issue. In the name of justice, of 
 common sense, of patriotism; in the name Of ruined 
 homes, of delicate women suffering nameless atroci 
 ties, of children crying themselves to sleep with cold 
 and hunger, of the thousands who fill our asylums 
 and poor-houses sacrificed between the two mill 
 stones of national and individual greed, give the 
 liquor seller his rights!" 
 
 Stephen stood erect and defiant. He felt as if he 
 would not have minded a pistol at his head. He 
 had reached that height of spiritual exaltation where 
 walk the souls of martyrs palm-crowned. He would 
 have gladly thrown his own life a sacrifice into the 
 chasm of this awful wrong. 
 
 In the beginning of the disturbance some of the 
 most determined among the temperance men fearing 
 personal violence to the young speaker, had forced 
 
A Liquor Mob. 367 
 
 their way through the mob to the platform and 
 made a kind of body guard around him, while one 
 or two of the more timid had quietly slipped out 
 and applied to the Mayor for police to quell the dis 
 turbance. The mob were composed mainly of bar 
 room loafers, convenient tools for the saloon and 
 the lodge; but they quailed before these evidences 
 of a determination to preserve order, and Stephen 
 finished his address in comparative quiet. 
 
 As may be imagined, he did not find the evening s 
 exciting scenes a good preparation for sleep. He 
 still occupied the same office, though it did not now 
 look so bare and cell-like as when we first showed it 
 to the reader. He had indulged himself in a stu 
 dent s lamp of neat and chaste design, a set of new 
 law books, and an easy chair which happened to 
 take his fancy at an auction sale because it was so 
 like one which at home always occupied a certain 
 corner of the family sitting-room, and had been his 
 favorite refuge in many a childish trouble. Instead 
 of directly seeking his couch he threw himself into 
 its capacious arms, thinking that he would sit there 
 a few moments and enjoy the darkness, and silence, 
 and solitude. A soothed, comforted, restful feeling 
 began to creep over him. The scowling, derisive 
 faces ceased to float before his eyes, the tremor of 
 his nerves grew still, and Stephen at last fell into a 
 sound slumber, from which he was suddenly roused 
 with a feeling that he had been repeating an old ad 
 venture of his boyhood, when one night in driving 
 home the cows he was caught in a thunder storm. 
 
368 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 But as he recovered from his bewilderment he 
 grew conscious that it was a real sound which had 
 awakened him the firing of a volley of shot into 
 his office window. 
 
 He hastily turned up his light. The pane was 
 shattered, and in the ceiling directly over his sleep 
 ing place were lodged two bullets. Stephen felt a 
 shivering sense of awe. Never before had he come 
 so near to touching the hand of a protecting Provi 
 dence, for plainly the object of the miscreants who 
 had fired the bullets was assassination. 
 
 The outrage caused, as was natural, intense ex 
 citement, but as it had been planned in secret con 
 clave by members of the Jacksonville Legion, bound 
 by oath in true Masonic style to keep each other s 
 counsels, the perpetrators were never discovered. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE LEADER ON THE WHITE HORSE. 
 
 The bill for submitting a prohibitory amendment 
 to the people stuck hopelessly in its passage through 
 the Lower House. Legislators trembling under the 
 threats of the autocratic ruin power are surpassingly 
 fertile in ways and means by which to evade the de 
 mands of temperance constituents. 
 
 But the W. C. T. U. again set up their banners in 
 the name of the Lord for "no license" in Jackson 
 ville. Again they marched to the polls in a body to 
 beseige the hearts and consciences of the voters, and 
 this time they conquered. Jacksonville stood com 
 mitted for prohibition by a large majority vote, and 
 a band of rejoicing women gathered in the churches 
 to sing Te Deums, and ofler up glad thanksgivings 
 from a full heart, only one thing marring the joy of 
 the victory the resignation of their beloved leader, 
 Mrs. Haviland. 
 
 Physicians had at last told her that she must quit 
 her life-work that she was sinking under a mortal 
 disease; and the sweet motherly face, with its silver 
 curls, was missed forever from their counsels. 
 
 It was all clear now to Martha that strangely ex 
 cited manner, that wail as from a strong heart 
 
370 Httween Two Opinions. 
 
 breaking. She was seeing what Martha could not 
 see a shadowy hand beckoning her silently, stead 
 ily, out of the conflict into the peace everlasting. 
 
 "Yes, they are going," said Martha to Nelson, 
 with a trembling lip, "one by one. But the ques 
 tion in my mind is not whether we who take their 
 places will be more devoted. That we cannot be. 
 But shall we be wiser? Will the time come when 
 the W. C. T. (J. will see that the lodge has been all 
 the while fighting them behind masked batteries? 
 
 "I don t know," answered Nelson. "Rum and 
 secrecy are two pretty formidable enemies to give 
 battle to at once." 
 
 "Yes, but there s no help for it. One war at a 
 time is a maxim that sounds very well, but unfor 
 tunately you and I have been born in an exceptional 
 age. We have got not only rum and the lodge, but 
 infidelity, Sabbath-breaking, Mormonism, and ever 
 so many other tremendous evils to battle with, not a 
 single one of which can be safely let alone." 
 
 "Well, ".answered Nelson, "we are going to have 
 a contest with the liquor men here in Jacksonville. 
 This has been their stronghold so long that they are 
 perfectly furious and determined to fight the law at 
 every step. That outrage on Stephen Rowland was 
 only a specimen of what they would gladly do to 
 others." 
 
 "Yourself included, I am afraid." 
 
 "Myself included, I hope," said Nelson with a 
 laugh. "You surely would not wish me to have 
 their goodwill." 
 
The Leader on the White Hone. 371 
 
 Martha s answering smile was rather grave, for 
 she never could get rid of a haunting fear for Nel 
 son. And in fact at that very moment three burly 
 foreigners, who could neither read nor write, were 
 being treated to divers glasses of raw whisky in a 
 saloon kept by a member of the Legion, as a fit 
 preparation for the commission of a dastardly deed 
 quite worthy of the two dark sources with which it 
 originated. 
 
 The votes which had turned the scale against the 
 liquor party in the last election were cast largely by 
 young workmen whom Nelson had influenced to 
 come out on the prohibition side. Why should not 
 the saloonists hate and fear him? That they cer 
 tainly did almost as much as they hated and feared 
 Stephen Rowland. And how easy to make a few 
 ignorant foreigners their tools of vengeance by cram 
 ming them with stories that he was unfriendly to 
 his own class; that in the recent strike he had taken 
 sides against the laborer, and that his sympathies 
 were all with the rich aristocrats and monopolists. 
 
 But utterly ignorant of any trap laid for his feet 
 Nelson left his place of emplo3~ment as usual to find 
 Martin Tre worthy waiting for him outside the works. 
 He had got into a way lately of doing so, alleging 
 sometimes that he wanted the walk, and sometimes 
 that he wanted a conversation, but the real reason 
 covered by the excuse was in a certain feeling of un 
 easiness in Martin s mind; though he took good care 
 not to let Nelson see that he was the object of this 
 peculiar surveillance. 
 
372 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 "I looked over the prohibition returns this noon 
 as I was eating my dinner," remarked Nelson, after 
 starting several subjects of talk and not getting 
 much reply, for Martin seemed unusually abstracted 
 and silent. "Take the country at large and the gain 
 over last year is wonderful. At this rate it won t 
 be long before the third party will sweep all be 
 fore it." 
 
 "You re young, lad, you re young," dryly an 
 swered Martin. 
 
 Nelson laughed. He was not averse to being 
 called young, even if in his old friend s mind the ex 
 pression stood for something akin to verdancy. He 
 liked to feel that he had the larger half of his life 
 before him. It always gave him a thrill to think 
 that he was standing on the threshold of the world s 
 mightiest conflicts, with forty, or even perhaps fifty, 
 years in which to watch the unfolding of the grand 
 panorama. 
 
 "I tell you," said Martin, his eyes kindling, "this 
 ain t going to be no ninety days struggle. Why, 
 you just look at it a minute. See how Satan is set- 
 ting the battle in array, and do you think he ll run 
 like a whipped spaniel at the first fire? 
 
 "Mr. Treworthy," said Nelson, half humorously, 
 "you are, what do they call it, a pessimist? You 
 are always looking at the dark side of human af 
 fairs." 
 
 "I don t daub with untempered mortar," said Mar 
 tin, bluntly. "There s enough of that done nowadays 
 by the ministers and the politicians." 
 
The Leader on the White Horse. 373 
 
 Nelson relapsed into silence, and when Martin 
 spoke again it was in a slow dreamy fashion almost 
 as if talking to himself. 
 
 "That s a grand chapter in Revelations now about 
 the Leader on the white horse. I remember read 
 ing it first in camp in o. pouring rain, chilled to the 
 bone. That was in Kansas before the war begun, 
 under Capt John Brown. Them were hard times 
 to see the ministers and churches all going agin 
 us, and the government joining to hunt us down. 
 It was that chapter I was reading when the Lord re 
 vealed to me that there was a great war coming. 
 And it did come, and the churches and ministers 
 and government drank the cup of trembling and 
 astonishment. And now the}" are doing the same 
 thing right over, upholding and petting the secret 
 lodge for every other foul thing to hide behind. 
 And if thej don t take warning they ll have the 
 same cup to drink again." 
 
 Nelson had heard Martin Treworthy talk in this 
 way before, but now there was something strangely 
 solemn in his manner. He was about to reply when 
 he heard his name suddenl}" called, and looked 
 around. 
 
 "Hold on a minute!" he shouted, thinking it was 
 one of the men at the works who had some matter 
 about which he wished to speak to him. 
 
 A suspicion crossed his mind on a nearer ap 
 proach that he might be mistaken in the identity of 
 the individual addressing him, and to clear up his 
 doubts he said, inquiringly: 
 
374 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "It is you, Mike?" 
 
 In the darkness he failed to notice the other fig 
 ures lurking behind. An oath answered him, and 
 three clubs, wielded by the three stout arms that 
 had been hired by the saloon and urged on by lodge 
 vengeance, descended on Nelson s head and shoul 
 ders. 
 
 He had separated from Martin Treworthy, though 
 the latter had not gone on but was quietly waiting 
 at a short distance, and when he heard the execra 
 tion and the dull thud of the falling blows, he 
 sprang forward and bursting into the ring which 
 surrounded Nelson received himself the brutal rain 
 of blows and kicks. Martin had once possessed a 
 strong right arm of his own, and did not fully real 
 ize how his rough experience on Kansas plains and 
 Southern battle fields had robbed it of its early 
 vigor, but the diversion gave Nelson a chance to 
 grapple with his assailants and hold his own till help 
 arrived from an unexpected source. 
 
 The assault took place in the outskirts of the city, 
 where there were few passers-by who dared to inter 
 fere. Only one tall, broad-shouldered, muscular 
 stranger seemed to have no notion of waiting the 
 tardy movements of the police, but pitched at once 
 into the melee all unarmed as he was, and with a 
 few skillful blows that showed pugilistic training 
 knocked two of Nelson s antagonists hors du combat, 
 and held the other with firm grip till the officers of 
 the law came up and relieved him of his prisoner. 
 
 It was Peter Snyder, who was now in Jackson- 
 
The Leader on the White Horse. 375 
 
 ville engaged in the double errand of looking out 
 for some stray sheep that within sound of a dozen 
 church bells still persisted in straying, while nobody 
 except a few such self-appointed evangelists as he 
 seemed to regard it as particularly their business; 
 and negotiating for the lease of his old saloon which 
 it had occurred to him was in a convenient locality 
 for a mission that he proposed starting. He had 
 left the Salvation Army. Even there he found the 
 same difficulty in speaking against lodgery that be 
 sets the regularly-ordained minister of the Gospel 
 who can preach against rum and tobacco, or tying 
 or cheating, and everything be as calm as a summer 
 sea, while the least adverse allusion to secretism 
 stirs up a perfect seething whirlpool of angry com 
 motion; and he had finally made up his mind, as he 
 expressed it, "to serve the* Lord on his own hook." 
 
 Nelson, who was not seriously hurt, though some 
 what bruised and battered, felt too great an anxiety 
 for Martin, who lay insensible, to show the surprise 
 he might have otherwise felt when we recognized 
 the Gideon who had so providentially appeared for 
 his rescue. 
 
 "I guess he ll come to in a minute," said Peter, as 
 he made rough efforts for his restoration. "But 
 them were hard knocks for a man of his age to 
 take." 
 
 Nelson groaned as he hung over the prostrate 
 form. But before long Martin Treworthy opened 
 his eyes and managed to stagger to his feet, and to 
 gether, as tenderly as two sons might a beloved 
 
376 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 father, they assisted him to his own domicile, but he 
 
 fainted away when they reached the threshold. 
 
 ****#*#**# 
 
 "I am all right, Martha. It s Mr. Treworthy that s 
 got the worst of it. We must see to him now. He 
 has fairly given his life for mine." 
 
 And Martha, to whom the tidings had come that 
 Nelson had been struck down by saloon ruffians and 
 nearly killed and to whom for an instant that took 
 in a whole lifetime of buried hopes and sweet 
 womanly joys which might never come to the blos 
 soming, everything had seemed to spin around in 
 one dizzy vortex of anguish knelt down by Mar 
 tin s bedside and kissed his rough hand with sobs. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Treworthy, you must get well for our 
 sakes." 
 
 Martin smiled. 
 
 "Supposing Nelson had been killed, had you 
 rather now think well would 3^ou ruther he d been 
 indifferent to the rum business, as so many folks 
 are, and so saved his life?" 
 
 "No," said Martha, with white lips. "If the mar 
 tyr s crown was waiting for him I wouldn t be the 
 woman to keep him from it." 
 
 "Then look here a bit. I reckon the woman I 
 should have married, if she d lived, and that I have 
 been married to in my soul these twenty-five years, 
 would have said the same thing." 
 
 "I think she would," responded Martha. She 
 bent her head and kissed his hand again, and this 
 time there came over her a strange feeling as if for 
 
The Leader on the White Horse. 377 
 
 the moment, there had been a sense of spiritual kin 
 ship and communion between her and Martin Tre- 
 worthy s early love the fair-haired girl who had 
 slept so quietly for a quarter of a century under her 
 low prairie mound. 
 
 But there was another to whom the tidings came 
 in an exaggerated form, and that was Dora Derning. 
 
 She had not quite forgotten her brother Nelson 
 how tender and careful he used to be of his little 
 sister in the years of his over-grave boyhood. A 
 great change had passed over Dora since that sum 
 mer day of awful experience. Dacey s death, the 
 wa} r in which he had swindled the grange, and its 
 utter and hopeless collapse in consequence, together 
 with many unsavory details of his former career 
 now brought to the light, had been the talk for days in 
 circles wider than their immediate neighborhood; 
 but no one dreamed of the brink of ruin on which 
 Dora had so carelessly sported. It was all a secret 
 between herself and God. Perhaps in the .years to 
 come, with her grandchildren about her knees, when 
 the wonder and terror had faded out of her lire and 
 left her only the memory of the deliverance, she 
 might tell them the story for a warning. But now 
 the very thought of it made her shudder with a kind 
 of nightmare horror as one might shudder remem 
 bering an incautious footfall on the sheer edge of 
 some bottomless abyss. 
 
 "Mother, " she said, after sitting a moment in si 
 lence with white cheeks and a great yearning at her 
 heart, "I wish I could see him just once." 
 
 
 
 
 
378 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 "Well, child; I don t know why you shouldn t," 
 returned Mrs. Deming. "He is your own brother." 
 
 And so the very thing came about in the most 
 natural way in the world for which Martha had 
 longed and sometimes even prayed that she might 
 see Nelson s sister she had none of her own and 
 get acquainted with her. 
 
 Martha, like most plain women, loved beauty, and 
 her heart went out at once to the sweet girlish face 
 that looked up at her with such beseeching entreaty. 
 
 "Tell me!" gasped Dora. "Is he dead, my brother 
 Nelson?" 
 
 "No; he is alive and well. You were told wrong. 
 It was Mr. Treworthy, an old friend of his, that was 
 badly hurt in trying to defend him. I have often 
 heard Nelson speak of his sister Dora. He will be 
 glad to see you." 
 
 "I heard of it only this morning," said Dora, with 
 quivering lip. "It seems so dreadful." 
 
 "It is dreadful," answered Martha, taking Dora s 
 little, soft, clinging hand in her s. Martha s hands 
 were not very small, but there was power and char 
 acter in every fibre. They were the kind that Joan 
 of Arc might have had, or any of those heroic 
 women of our early history who could rock a cradle 
 or shoulder a musket. "It is the same dreadful 
 thing that has been going on so long. Only now it 
 has come a little nearer. We grow callous. We 
 read of rum s doings in every paper we take up till 
 it gets to be an old story. We women who lead 
 such peaceful happy lives need to have it brought 
 
The Leader on the. White Horse. 379 
 
 home to us once in a while so that we may feel as 
 we ought for other women. Don t you think so?" 
 
 Dora knew vaguely that her father had been a 
 drinking man, and they had all been very poor and 
 wretched in consequence, but she was too } oung at 
 the time to retain any bitter personal recollections. 
 She had not meant to be hard and unfeeling when 
 in her bright, careless way she had protested 
 that "such things didn t concern her anyway;" she 
 had only been a butterfly happy in her painted 
 wings and caring nothing for the worm crushed un 
 der foot. Something in Martha s face impelled her 
 to be frank. 
 
 "I have not been interested in temperance much. 
 I have been selfish, I am afraid, but I wish I could 
 help put down this dreadful drinking." 
 
 Impulsively Martha took off the bow of white 
 ribbon that she wore and pinned it to Dora s dress. 
 
 "Then we are doubly sisters, for now you belong 
 to the white ribbon ranks as well as I," she said. 
 "We will work and pray together, can we not? And 
 oh, Dora! can t you love me just a little? I have 
 always wanted a sister so." 
 
 Dora s cheeks flushed, and then with a little cry 
 she put her arms around Martha s neck, and clasped 
 
 together in that close embrace Nelson found them. 
 
 *#-*-**###-## 
 
 Though there were a few days in which it seemed 
 as if Martin Treworthy s natural vigor of constitu 
 tion might re-assert itself, he had no such thought. 
 
 One night when Nelson was watching by his side, 
 
380 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 Martin seemed to rouse suddenly from a stupor and 
 spoke his name with sudden, eager earnestness. 
 
 "Nelson, in my tin box on the shelf you ll find a 
 paper that ll tell you what I want done with what I 
 leave behind. And there s one thing two things 
 you must promise me." 
 
 "Anything within the bounds of possibility, my 
 dear old friend," said Nelson, with a choking voice. 
 
 Martin raised himself up and his eyes gleamed 
 with the fire of other days. 
 
 "You said a year ago you could see no hurt in 
 the lodge. Do you see any now?" 
 
 "I see a world of Satanic mischief," responded 
 Nelson, emphatically. "Fighting slavery taught you 
 to hate it. Fighting rum has taught me." 
 
 "Then take my place when I step out of the 
 ranks. My life has been a rough one, but I can t 
 say I hain t enjoyed it. I come of fighting stock. 
 There was a Tre worthy fell with Wolfe on the plains 
 of Abraham; but my battle for the slave was a 
 grander one than his. God grant that your s may 
 be a grander one than mine. For I m going, my 
 boy, and you mustn t mourn for me nor feel bad 
 you nor Martha. There s only one thing more. 
 When I. am gone lay me by the side of her" 
 
 He said no more for a long time. Suddenly he 
 raised his head and exclaimed joyfully, "I see Him 
 the Leader on the white horse." And with his 
 eyes riveted on that wondrous vision, the man 
 whose greatest earthly pride was that he had once 
 fought under John Brown went to join his captain. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. 
 
 A story, like a human life, must draw to its con 
 clusion some time, and as very little remains to be 
 said regarding the fortunes of the characters with 
 whom we have traveled thus far, we will proceed to 
 the inevitable winding up. 
 
 Martha and Nelson stand in the front of the great 
 est moral conflict the world has ever seen. It rages 
 hot and heavy, a battle all along the line. They, no 
 less than the old anti-slavery reformers, live in a 
 time that tries men s souls. 
 
 The paper in Martin Treworthy s tin box made 
 Nelson sole heir to his bit of city property, and 
 paved his way for the purchase of what is now one 
 of the best farms in the State. And in the hermit 
 age, moved to more congenial surroundings, they 
 spent the first years of their married life, which 
 were gladdened by the advent of a little Martin Tre- 
 worth} T Newhall; and even when fortune prospered 
 them and they built a new and commodious resi 
 dence, they still sacredly preserved it, converting it 
 into a kind of summer-house half hid with creeping 
 vines. And if the reader visits it once more, as we 
 now invite him to, he will find the settee and the 
 
382 Between Two Opinions. 
 
 leathern armchair in their old places; even the pot 
 of ivy and the vases of dried grass which Martha is 
 at the present moment engaged in arranging. Nel 
 son is watching one of the most glorious of summer 
 sunsets, and as the radiant level beams convert the 
 broad acres of wheat into a living lake of emerald, 
 he hums softly, 
 
 "Green fields beyond the swelling flood." 
 
 Martha came and stood behind her husband. 
 
 "It is almost like a bit of the New Jerusalem let 
 down to earth," she said. 
 
 "It makes me think of Tom," he answered. 
 
 Martha s only reply was to lean her cheek on his 
 shoulder, and they stood thus together for several 
 moments in silence. 
 
 Nelson had not forgotten Tom, but though he had 
 lost a brother he had found a sister. On the princi 
 ple of the attraction of opposites, Dora had con 
 ceived for Martha that passionate attachment which 
 a weaker nature often shows for a stronger one. 
 She is happily married to one of the worthiest of 
 her farmer suitors, consults Martha in all household 
 difficulties with even more freedom than her ener 
 getic mother, and bids fair to develop into a model 
 of a young American matron. 
 
 "Judge Howland! this is an unexpected pleasure," 
 exclaimed Nelson and Martha both in delighted uni 
 son, as a visitor suddenly makes his appearance a 
 tall, fine-looking man, whose decidedly familiar 
 features convince us that it is indeed Stephen How- 
 land, now privileged to write Judge before his name, 
 
Conclusion of the Matter. 383 
 
 and one of the foremost political leaders in the 
 great party of national reform. 
 
 That Puritan couple have to-day no occasion to be 
 ashamed of the Daniel they have given their coun 
 try and here pardon us one moment s digression. 
 There is much bemoaning nowadays over the loss of 
 the old spirit of integrity that characterized our fore 
 fathers, but if we would have sons of the Puritans 
 filling again our legislative halls and judicial benches 
 there is one way, and only one wa}*, by which it can 
 be accomplished restore again the Puritan home. 
 
 "Business took me in this direction," responded 
 Judge Rowland, as he shook hands with his old 
 client; "and I could not resist the temptation to turn 
 aside and congratulate you on what I presume is no 
 news. I hear your name prominently mentioned as 
 candidate for a seat in the next legislature." 
 
 Martha s cheeks flushed with fond pride as she 
 looked at her husband, who answered quietly: 
 
 "My highest desire is to be worthy of the honor. 
 Then 1 can bear success or defeat with equal com 
 posure. But I want to know, Judge Rowland, if 
 you have any idea of the cause of your failure to be 
 re-elected last fall." 
 
 "Yes, I have," slowly responded the Judge, 
 "though I may not be acquainted with all the facts. 
 I know my enemies got up a malicious story of 
 bribery on my part, and one man even swore to my 
 giving him a large sum of money to buy up votes 
 with a sum larger than my whole personal estate. 
 The story was purposely started nigh on the eve of 
 
384 Between Two Opinion*. 
 
 the election so as to give me no time to deny it till 
 it had done its work in defeating me. Masons and 
 Odd-fellows were the originators and propagators of 
 the whole ridiculous charge. A public man, as soon 
 as he displeases Masonry, is politically doomed." 
 
 "Well, now," said Nelson, "what is to become of 
 the country when the reputation of no candidate for 
 public office is safe; when be must fall down and 
 worship before the brazen image of the lodge, or be 
 cast into a fiery furnace of cowardly defamation and 
 slander?" 
 
 "I don t know unless the moral sense of the na 
 tion awakes to what is now the real Question of the 
 Hour. That question is not so much whether we 
 shall put down this or that great evil not even in 
 temperance, blasting, gigantic iniquity though it be, 
 but whether Christ shall rule our nation through 
 Christian rulers, or Satan through the godless secret 
 lodges. I do not mean to belittle the other great 
 issues which are pressing upon us, but I do assert 
 that this is the one grand issue which contains all 
 others as in a nutshell. I do not wonder that men 
 seeing the tremendous amount of misery and woe 
 wrought by the saloon, and not seeing how this se 
 cret, irresponsible lodge power backs up that and 
 every other evil, should think the temperance ques 
 tion the most important. But how long is it since 
 a Masonic clerk, by neglecting to record the minutes 
 of the Constitutional Amendment passed in this 
 State, killed all the hopes of the temperance men 
 and women who had labored so untiringly for its 
 
Conclusion of the Matter. 385 
 
 passage? How often the County Commissioners 
 and Excise boards are Masons standing in fraternal 
 relations to the rum power? How often liquor 
 cases are tried and juries fail to convict because 
 there is a secret understanding with a Masonic judge 
 or attorney? How man3 T cases are put off on a friv 
 olous-pretext and never tried at all for the same rea 
 son? Temperance men and women must wake up 
 to these things; they are waking. This grand party 
 of Christian reform which has risen up to combat 
 their secret enemy bears the destiny of the Ameri 
 can race in its bosom over our stormy political 
 waters as the Ma}*flower bore the seed for the na 
 tion s planting: and its platform embodies lessons 
 experience has been teaching them through years of 
 disappointment and frustrated hopes, and which 
 once learned can never be unlearned." 
 
 Nelson was thinking of Martin Tre worthy, who 
 would have so rejoiced in this new party but died 
 without the sight. 
 
 Judge Howland paused a moment, and then he 
 said with slow and solemn emphasis: 
 
 " HOW LONG HALT YE BETWEEN TWO OPI.VIONS? 
 
 that is the question God is asking the American 
 nation to-day." 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CHAPTER II. Page 13. The qualifications required 
 are that the candidate must be a free, white man, 
 twenty-one years of age, of good moral character and 
 sound health, and a believer in the Supreme Being, the 
 Maker and Ruler of the Universe. Donaldson s Odd 
 fellow s Pocket Companion, p. 19. 
 
 Chinese, Polynesians, Indians, half-breeds or mixed 
 bloods are not eligible to membership. Ibid, p. 320. 
 
 CHAPTER V. Page 57. Another movement which 
 lost us the active co-operation of thousands of excel 
 lent and able men was the substitution of close for 
 open organizations. Prior to the formation of the 
 order of the Sons of Temperance all our public meet 
 ings were opened to the world. * * * Seven-eighths 
 of our weekly temperance meetings now are held in 
 private rooms. Few of fche aged are there to give the 
 proceedings the dignity and gravity which their pres 
 ence generally confers, and the children are left at 
 home ; and worst of all, the drinking portion of the 
 community, the very portion which we wish to influ 
 ence by our arguments and appeals are excluded. 
 They have not the password. * * * Those petty 
 rivalries which are now frequently occurring between 
 the different orders where they exist in the same com 
 munity, and often between subordinate and neighbor 
 ing organizations of the same order; and those un- 
 brotherly strifes for office and honors which too often 
 occur now, were unknown in the open organizations, 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 absolutely unknown. * * * In less than fifteen 
 years the style of operations I have described [open 
 temperance work] so far revolutionized the public 
 opinion of Massachusetts that the license system was 
 abolished in more than three-fourths of the counties 
 of the State. The old style of operating gave place in 
 the years 1840, 41 and 42 to the Washingtonian sys 
 tem, and that very soon to the Sons of Temperance 
 and other forms of close organization, and they have 
 had the field almost exclusively for over twenty-five 
 years ; and what is the present status of temperance 
 in that State as compared with what it was in 1843 ? 
 It may be doubted whether we are stronger at the 
 polls now [1872] than we were twenty-five years ago. 
 For myself I believe that had the work of reform been 
 prosecuted for the last twenty-five years in Xew Eng 
 land in open organizations with such added provision 
 as experience might have suggested, the liquor traffic 
 could have been crushed before the public attention 
 could have been diverted from that issue by the great 
 struggle for the preservation of the Union. Dr. Chas. 
 JeioeWs Forty Years Fight with the Drink Demon. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Page 123. What regeneration by 
 the word of truth is in religion, initiation is in Odd- 
 fellowship. Grosh s Manual, p. 90. 
 
 It was a leading characteristic of all the ancient 
 rites that they began in sorrow and gloom, but ended 
 in light and joy. Ibid. 
 
 This internal, truly living, spirit of Love and univer 
 sal fraternity, pervading all our rites and ceremonies; 
 * * this soul of all its teachings and workings is 
 Odd-fellowship, the hidden name in the white stone 
 which he knoweth best who most truly possesses it. 
 Hid, p. 78. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. Page 273 Flora, the goddess of 
 flowers and gardens among the Romans, the same as 
 the Chicles of the Greeks. Some suppose that she was 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 originally a common courtesan who had left to the 
 Romans the immense riches which she had acquired 
 by prostitution and lasciviousness, in remembrance of 
 which a yearly festival was instituted in her honor 
 Lempriere s Classical Dictionary. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. Page 286. The case of Jacob 
 Strycker is given for an instance related by Eev. Mr. 
 Brockman, and recorded in the minutes of the State 
 Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for the year 1871, p. 486. 
 
 John Kandolph professed to have found that the phi 
 losopher s stone consisted simply in these four words : 
 "Pay as you go." But an Odd-fellow will more surely 
 find it in the three words : "Pay in advance" Grosh s 
 Manual, p. 192. 
 
 In a perfect financial system of dues and benefits 
 there is no place for charity ; and every dollar taken 
 from the sick fund for mere charity is robbery of that 
 fund. Jour. Proceedings Supreme Grand Lodge, Ses 
 sion 0/1880, p. 8213. 
 
 P. G. M. Joseph Gardiner gives officially the total re 
 ceipts for the thirty-nine years of existence of the 
 Grand Encampment of N. H. Odd-fellows, $121,896.90; 
 "total relief of Patriachs," widows, etc., $31,124.31. 
 Thus it would seem that this charitable society gets to 
 its beneficiaries a trifle over one-quarter of its receipts. 
 Christian Witness. 
 
 According to a report of the work of the Odd-fel 
 lows for 1883, they paid out during that year $2,015,- 
 832.52, while they collected $5,350,181.24. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. Page 818. Lodges cannot abridge 
 the liberty of the citizen, nor dictate to him what he 
 shall eat or what he shall drink. All good Odd-fel 
 lows despise as such the abuse of intoxicating drinks, 
 and in "their war against vice" they look upon drunk 
 enness as incompatible with every principle of the 
 Order. But neither will the laws nor the principles of 
 Odd-fellowship descend to the restriction or the regu- 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 lation of the beverage of its members. White s Digest, 
 Art. 975. 
 
 While temperance is a cardinal principle of the order 
 and must be observed, they will not attempt to en 
 force total abstinence, a principle never intended by 
 the framers to be engrafted on our order. 1849, Jour 
 nal. 
 
THE 
 
 Christian Cynosure! 
 
 A LARGE SIXTEEN-PAGE 
 
 WEEKLY REFORM JOURNAL, 
 
 OPPOSED TO SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 VERY Christian and every patriot needs the CHRISTIAN 
 CYNOSURE. In these days of journalistic competition 
 this is a broad assertion , but we believe it is true, for the 
 following among other reasons 
 
 1. Because it is the only paper adapted to general ^circula 
 tion having the special object of opposition to organized 
 secrecy. Besides the ablest editorial, contributed and selected 
 articles weekly upon this topic, which is of more than national 
 importance, it also has interesting sketches of progress and 
 incidents from the reform lecturers in all parts of the country, 
 reform news and notes, letters from the Old World, etc., etc. 
 It is the especial organ of this movement in America a move 
 ment which is sustained by the utterances of some of the 
 ablest statesmen and divines whom the country has produced. 
 Every person interested in either the family, government, or 
 religion the most sacred interests of humanity is directly 
 affected by secret societies, and needs to keep posted in this 
 movement. 
 
 2. Because it is uncompromisingly right on ALL questions of 
 the day. On temperance, tobacco, Sabbath desecration, Mpr- 
 monism, the Southern and Indian questions, civil-service 
 reform, monopolies, the rights of labor, and every other ques 
 tion, its only aim is to be RIGHT and advocate the TRUTH. 
 It is hence FEARLESS and OUTSPOKEN 
 
 3. Because politically it emphasizes the fact that an en 
 lightened conscience should reign in political as in all other 
 affairs. It supports the American party as the best embodi 
 ment of correct political principles. It exposes the lodge- 
 bound chicanery and corruption of the old parties. 
 
 4. Because in addition to these features, it contains a choice 
 selection of wholesome reading for the family, from oldest to 
 youngest, with religious and secular news, market reports, 
 etc., etc. It is thoroughly Christian, but entirely undenomi 
 national. It is owned by and is the organ of the National 
 Christian Association. 
 
 $2. per Year, Post-Paid ; Clubs of Ten, $1 5, and a copy free to sender. 
 Every friend of reform is appealed to, to aid in spreading 
 needed truth by sending in his own subscription and those of 
 friends. Sample copies, subscription blanks or any desired 
 information regarding publications, free on application. 
 
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