when i first entered the large hall of shawmut college, where i was to deliver my lectures, i noticed near the door of the room a gentleman of about forty years of age. he was too old to be one of the students and as i had not seen him when dr. leete introduced me to the professors of the institution, i was somewhat curious to know in what capacity he honored my debut.
the cordial reception i had met at the hands of the professors, the fact that every seat of the large hall was occupied, acted as a stimulus and when dr. white, the president of shawmut college had introduced me with a few complimentary remarks as a living witness of the nineteenth century, i began my first lecture in the best of spirits.
my speech contained naturally many of the points that dr. leete had most dwelt upon, when, in his conversations with me, he had compared the organization of society of the nineteenth and that of the twentieth centuries.
i said in substance, that my hearers must not expect a synopsis of the civilization of the two centuries or a panegyric of the present state of affairs. i would point out but a few conditions, regulations17 and institutions that could serve as criterion of the spirit of their times.
as characteristic of the spirit of the civilization of the nineteenth century, i described the insane competition, where a man in a foul fight must “cheat, overreach, supplant, defraud, buy below worth and sell above, break down the business by which his neighbor fed his young ones, tempt men to buy what they ought not and to sell what they should not, grind their laborers, sweat their debtors, cozen their creditors,”[1] in order to be able to support those dependent on him. i showed “that there had been many a man among the people of the nineteenth century who, if it had been merely a question of his own life would sooner have given it up than nourished it by bread snatched from others.”[2] i pictured the consequences of this insane and annihilating competition as a constant wear on the brains and bodies of the past generation, intensified by the permanent fear of poverty. the spectre of uncertainty walked constantly beside the man of the nineteenth century, sat at his table and went to bed with him, even whispering in his ears: “do your work ever so well, rise early and toil till late, rob cunningly or serve faithfully, you shall never know security.18 rich you may be now and still come to poverty at last. leave ever so much wealth to your children, you can not buy the assurance, that your son may not be the servant of your servant or that your daughter will not sell herself for bread.”[3]
[1] such parts of mr. bellamy’s book as are characteristic of his manner of dealing with the present and with the future, i give with marks of quotation, adding in a foot note the page of “looking backward,” where the sentence may be found. the above remarks are taken from page 277.
[2] page 277.
[3] page 321.
and while one hundred and thirteen years ago all men worked like slaves, until completely exhausted, without having even a guaranty that they would not die in poverty or from hunger, the men of the twentieth century were walking in the sunlight of freedom, security, happiness and equality. after receiving an excellent education in standard schools and then passing through an apprenticeship of three years, the young people of the twentieth century select their vocation. short hours of work permit them, even during the years of service in the industrial army, to spend more time for the continuation of their studies and for recreation than the people who lived a hundred years ago had ever believed to be consistent with a successful management of industries, farming or public affairs.
free from all cares, in perfect harmony with each other, without the disturbing influence of political parties, enjoying a wealth unprecedented in the history of nations, we might verily say: “the long and weary winter of our race is ended. its summer has begun. humanity has burst the chrysalis. the heavens are before it!”[4]
[4] page 292.
19
i had spoken with enthusiasm, yes, even with deep emotion and i expected, if not a warm, at least a sympathetic reception of my address. but only a faint and very cold applause followed my remarks. i had the impression that not one fourth of the young men present had found it worth their while to show their approval of my lecture, and that the applause of even these few had been an act of courtesy rather than a spontaneous outburst of feeling. the chilly reception was such a great disappointment to me that i could not rally courage enough to leave my chair and pass through the students as they were leaving the hall.
i busied myself at the little desk before me until everybody had gone with the exception of the gentleman who had arrested my attention when i entered the room. he remained at the door evidently waiting for me.
“you belong to the college?” i asked, to hide my embarrassment.
“indeed i do”, he answered with a light smile, that challenged another question.
“i suppose i have the pleasure of meeting one of my colleagues”, i continued. “my name is west”.
“until about a month ago i was professor forest, your predecessor in teaching the history of the nineteenth century; to-day i am one of the janitors and my chief has been good enough to recommend this room to my care.”
i had during the last few days seen and heard so20 many new and strange things, that i was prepared to be surprised at nothing, however astounding.
but the information, that to a professor of history was assigned the duty of cleaning the rooms, where he had once lectured, sounded so incredible and opened such an unpleasing prospect for my own career, that i could not conceal my amazement.
“and what has caused this singular change of position”, i inquired.
“in comparing the lot of humanity in 1900 and 2000 i came to conclusions very different from yours”, responded mr. forest.
“you do not mean to say, that the condition of the people of the nineteenth century was better than that of the present generation?” i asked with some curiosity.
“that is my opinion”, said mr. forest.
“the only way i can understand you holding such extraordinary views, is that you are personally quite unacquainted with the civilization of which you speak so highly,” i declared.
“i have as a matter of course, drawn my information from our libraries, and i am forced to admit that you can support your argument in regard to the civilization of the last century by pointing to your personal knowledge. but i am afraid that you are not so familiar with the present state of affairs, at the fountain of your information in regard to the twentieth century is only one man, dr. leete. i may therefore claim that my information of the civilization21 of your days is better than yours of our institutions, because mine is based on the testimony of more witnesses than one.”
“then you must of course disapprove the views developed in my lecture?”
“your address will undoubtedly be published in extenso in all the administration organs, that is, in nearly every newspaper in the land”, said mr. forest, evading a direct answer to my question.
“administration organs you say”, i asked with surprise: “has the administration organs, and why does it need them?”
“of course the administration has organs”, answered forest. “and it is both difficult and unpleasant to edit an opposition paper. therefore we have only a few of them.”
“but dr. leete said: “we have no parties or politicians and as for demagoguery and corruption, they are words having only a historical significance.”[5] and yet you speak of opposition and of administration papers?” i said this very likely with an expression of some doubt in my eyes.
[5] page 60.
my companion broke into a loud laugh, after which he asked: “excuse, please, my merriment, but dr. leete is a great joker, who never fails to “bring down the house.” well! well! that is too good. i wish i could have seen his face when he gave you that information.”
and mr. forest laughed again.
22 “i beg your pardon, mr. west”, he continued, when i met his merriment with silence; “but you would not only excuse but share my laughter, if you were familiar with our public life, if you knew dr. leete as well as i do and then learned that he had claimed, we were suffering from a want of politicians. but i wish to say right here”, added mr. forest in a more composed tone, “that i have not a poor opinion of dr. leete. he is a practical joker, a shrewd politician, but otherwise as good a man as our time can produce.”
“dr. leete is a politician?” i asked in the utmost astonishment.
“yes. dr. leete is the most influential leader of the administration party in boston. i owe it to his kind interference, that i am still connected with the college.”
noticing that i did not know how to construe this statement, mr. forest added:
“when, in comparing the civilization of your days with ours, i came to the conclusion, that communism had proved a failure, i was accused of misleading and corrupting the students and the usual sentence in such cases: “confinement in an insane asylum”, was passed. because, it is claimed, that only a madman could find fault with the best organization of society ever introduced. dr. leete, however, declared, that my insanity was so harmless, that confinement in an asylum seemed unnecessary, besides being too expensive. i could still earn my living by doing light work about the college building; and my case would serve as a23 warning to all the professors and students to be careful in their expressions and teachings. so i retained the liberty in which we glory and was spared doing street cleaning or some such work, which is generally awarded to “kickers” against the administration.”
“the students seem to share your opinion, at least they received my remarks very coldly,” i remarked, in order to avoid a discussion of the qualities of my host.
mr. forest’s keen grey eyes rested for a moment upon my face, and then he said in a friendly tone:
“i believe you were convinced of what you said, mr. west; but did it not occur to you, that you treated your time and your contemporaries very severely? did competition really demand, that one should defraud his neighbor, grind his laborers, sweat his debtors and snatch the bread from others? were the majority of the men of your time swindlers and shylocks? were the laborers all slaves, working each day until completely exhausted? i remember distinctly, that the wage-workers of your time struck frequently for eight hours, declining to work nine or ten hours per diem for good pay. i think you had a strong, proud and independent class of laborers, who could not fairly be regarded as slaves. and as for the girls, i have seen the statements and complaints, that help for housekeeping was very scarce in your days and was paid from $2. to $5. per week, with board, so that there was no excuse for any decent girl to sell herself for bread.—of course your state of civilization was very far from24 being faultless; in fact there is no such thing as perfection in anything. but your description of the civilization of the nineteenth century is painted in such dark colors, that our students, who are somewhat familiar with the history of those days, could not very well enthuse over your lecture; especially as many of these young men do not regard our present institutions with such complete admiration as you do. i speak frankly, mr. west, and i hope you will excuse my frankness, because of my desire to serve you in describing men, things and institutions as i see them.”
the warm tone of his voice and the sympathetic expression of his eyes caused me to shake hands with forest, although everything he had said went directly against my friends, my views, my feelings and my interests. i left him in an uneasy mood and walked home revolving in my mind his criticism of my lecture.
i met dr. leete and the ladies, and edith inquired whether my debut as professor had satisfied my expectations.
i have always tried to be frank and true: so i gave dr. leete and his family a synopsis of my speech, mentioned the cool reception of my address and my disappointment. i spoke of mr. forest’s criticism, leaving out, of course, his observations relative to dr. leete, and confessed that his censure was not wholly undeserved inasmuch as i had gone too far in charging upon the whole people the bad qualities which reckless competition had stamped on certain individuals.
25 dr. leete was evidently not altogether pleased with my remarks. after a short pause he said: “i think the reckless competition of the last part of the nineteenth century could not fail to demoralize more or less, in most cases more, all the people, who were conducting a business or who had to work for a living. i think furthermore that your lecture was an excellent exposition of principles and that you have no reason to yield an inch of your position. the cold reception you met with, ought not to worry you. it is due to forest, who has planted in the hearts of our students his idiosyncrasy, his blind admiration of competition and his aversion to our form of civilization. it is your task to enlighten the young men in regard to the comparative merits of the two orders of things.—mr. forest is placing a heavy tax on the patience of his fellow citizens by his persistent efforts to mislead the students.—did he mention the fact that he was your predecessor?”
“he did, when i asked him if he were a member of the college staff of teachers. he said that he was discharged for his heresy and that he owed his comparatively lenient treatment to you.”
“it is not forest’s habit to conceal his opinions and he may have given you a nice idea of dr. leete”, my host said with a smile.
i thought best under the circumstances to repeat forest’s remarks in regard to dr. leete, which remarks were very good natured and rather complimentary to my host. i may add that i desired very much to26 know what dr. leete would say in answer to the charge of being a politician and a leader of the administration party.
so i said: “mr. forest laughed heartily when i repeated your remarks that you have no party nor politicians. he called you a great practical joker, a shrewd politician, the leader of the administration party in boston and a good man.”
dr. leete smiled somewhat grimly as he replied: “that is a character i ought to be grateful for, considering that it comes from a faultfinder like forest. concerning his references to me as a politician i will say that i never held an office, but that the administration has occasionally consulted me and other citizens on important questions. political parties we have not. there are of course a few incurable faultfinders like mr. forest and a few radical growlers, but we pay but little attention to them so long as they do not disturb the public peace. if they do, we send them to a hospital where they receive proper treatment.”
although these words were spoken in the tone of light conversation, they impressed me deeply. “if they do, we send them to a hospital, where they receive proper treatment.” did not this confirm forest’s statement, that the usual sentence against the opponents of communism was confinement in an insane asylum?
my unpleasant thoughts were interrupted by edith’s sweet voice remarking: “i think mr. forest is an27 honest well meaning gentleman and he should be permitted to express his views, even if they are wrong and queer. the students will certainly eventually be convinced that our order of things is as good as it can be made, and besides it is so entertaining to hear once in a while another opinion.”
with an expression of fatherly love, dr. leete placed his right hand on edith’s thick hair and said: “the ladies of the court of louis xvi. of france also considered very entertaining the ideas that caused the revolution and cost many of the “entertained” ladies and gentlemen their heads beneath the guillotine.—ideas are little sparks. they may easily cause a conflagration if not watched”.
