The complete works, p.101
The Complete Works, page 101
The voice ceased. There was a confused murmur
of disapproval among the crowd. "Damned niggers."
A man began to harangne near them. "Is
this the Master's doing, brothers? Is this the
Master's doing?"
"Black police!" said Graham." What is that?
You don't mean--"
Asano touched his arm and gave him a warning
look, and forthwith another of these mechanisms I
screamed deafeningly and gave tongue in a shrill voice.
"Yahaha, Yahah, Yap! Hear a live paper yelp!
Live paper. Yaha! Shocking outrage in Paris.
Yahahah! The Parisians exasperated by the black
police to the pitch of assassination. Dreadful
reprisals. Savage times come again. Blood! Blood!
Yaha!" The nearer Babble Machine hooted stupendously,
"Galloop, Galloop," drowned the end of the sentence, and proceeded in a rather flatter note than before with novel comments on the horrors of disorder.
"Law and order must be maintained," said the nearer Babble Machine.
"But," began Graham.
"Don't ask questions here," said Asano, "or you will be involved in an argument."
"Then let us go on," said Graham, "for I want to know more of this."
As he and his companion pushed their way through
the excited crowd that swarmed beneath these voices, towards the exit, Graham conceived more clearly the
proportion and features of this room. Altogether,
great and small, there must have been nearly a thousand of these erections, piping, hooting, bawling and
gabbling in that great space, each with its crowd of excited listeners, the majority of them men dressed
in blue canvas. There were all sizes of machines,
from the little gossipping mechanisms that chuckled
out mechanical sarcasm in odd corners, through a
number of grades to such fifty-foot giants as that which had first hooted over Graham.
This place was unusually crowded, because of the
intense public interest in the course of affairs in Paris.
Evidently the struggle had been much more savage
than Ostrog had represented it. All the mechanisms
were discoursing upon that topic, and the repetition of the people made the huge hive buzz with such
phrases as "Lynched policemen," "Women burnt alive," "Fuzzy Wuzzy." "But does the Master allow such things? " asked a man near him. "Is this the beginning of the Master's rule?"
Is __this__ the beginning of the Master's rule? For a long time after he had left the place, the hooting,
whistling and braying of the machines pursued him;
"Galloop, Galloop," "Yahahah, Yaha, Yap! Yaha!"
Is this the beginning of the Master's rule?
Directly they were out upon the ways he began to
question Asano closely on the nature of the Parisian struggle. "This disarmament! What was their
trouble? What does it all mean?" Asano seemed
chiefly anxious to reassure him that it was "all right."
"But these outrages!" "You cannot have an omelette,"
said Asano, "without breaking eggs. It is only
the rough people. Only in one part of the city. All
the rest is all right. The Parisian labourers are the wildest in the world, except ours."
"What! the Londoners? "
"No, the Japanese. They have to be kept in order."
" But burning women alive! "
"A Commune!" said Asano. "They would rob you of your property. They would do away with
property and give the world over to mob rule. You
are Master, the world is yours. But there will be no Commune here. There is no need for black police
here.
"And every consideration has been shown. It is
their own negroes--French speaking negroes. Senegal
regiments, and Niger and Timbuctoo."
"Regiments?" said Graham, "I thought there was only one--."
"No," said Asano, and glanced at him. "There is more than one."
Graham felt unpleasantly helpless.
"I did not think," he began and stopped abruptly He went off at a tangent to ask for information
about these Babble Machines. For the most
part, the crowd present had been shabbily or even
raggedly dressed, and Graham learnt that so far as
the more prosperous classes were concerned, in all
the more comfortable private apartments of the city
were fixed Babble Machines that would speak directly a lever was pulled. The tenant of the apartment
could connect this with the cables of any of the great News Syndicates that he preferred. When he learnt
this presently, he demanded the reason of their
absence from his own suite of apartments. Asano
stared. "I never thought," he said. "Ostrog must have had them removed."
Graham stared. "How was I to know?" he exclaimed.
"Perhaps he thought they would annoy you," said Asano.
"They must be replaced directly I return," said Graham after an interval.
He found a difficulty in understanding that this
news room and the dining hall were not great central places, that such establishments were repeated almost beyond counting all over the city. But ever and
again during the night's expedition his ears, in some new quarter would pick out from the tumult of the
ways the peculiar hooting of the organ of Boss
Ostrog, "Galloop, Galloop!" or the shrill "Yahaha, Yaha, Yap!--Hear a live paper yelp!" of its chief rival.
Repeated, too, everywhere, were such __creches__ as the one he now entered. It was reached by a lift, and
by a glass bridge that flung across the dining hall
and traversed the ways at a slight upward angle. To
enter the first section of the place necessitated the use of his solvent signature under Asano's direction.
They were immediately attended to by a man in a
violet robe and gold clasp, the insignia of practising medical men. He perceived from this man's manner
that his identity was known, and proceeded to ask
questions on the strange arrangements of the place
without reserve.
On either side of the passage, which was silent
and padded, as if to deaden the footfall, were narrow little doors, their size and arrangement suggestive of the cells of a Victorian prison. But the upper portion of each door was of the same greenish transparent
stuff that had enclosed him at his awakening,
and within, dimly seen, lay, in every case, a very
young baby in a little nest of wadding. Elaborate
apparatus watched the atmosphere and rang a bell far away in the central office at the slightest departure from the optimum of temperature and moisture. A
system of such __creches__ had almost entirely replaced the hazardous adventures of the old-world nursing.
The attendant presently called Graham's attention to the wet nurses, a vista of mechanical figures, with
arms, shoulders and breasts of astonishingly realistic modelling, articulation, and texture, but mere brass tripods below, and having in the place of features a flat disc bearing advertisements likely to be of interest to mothers.
Of all the strange things that Graham came upon
that night, none jarred more upon his habits of
thought than this place. The spectacle of the little pink creatures, their feeble limbs swaying uncertainly in vague first movements, left alone, without embrace or endearment, was wholly repugnant to him. The
attendant doctor was of a different opinion. His
statistical evidence showed beyond dispute that in the Victorian times the most dangerous passage of life
was the arms of the mother, that there human mortality had ever been most terrible. On the other
hand this __creche__ company, the International Creche Syndicate, lost not one-half per cent of the million babies or so that formed its peculiar care. But Graham's prejudice was too strong even for those figures.
Along one of the many passages of the place they
presently came upon a young couple in the usual blue canvas peering through the transparency and laughing hysterically at the bald head of their first-born.
Graham's face must have showed his estimate of them, for their merriment ceased and they looked abashed.
But this little incident accentuated his sudden
realisation of the gulf between his habits of thought and the ways of the new age. He passed on to the crawling
rooms and the Kindergarten, perplexed and distressed.
He found the endless long playrooms were
empty! the latter-day children at least still spent their nights in sleep. As they went through these, the little officer pointed out the nature of the toys, developments of those devised by that inspired sentimentalist
Froebel. There were nurses here, but much was
done by machines that sang and danced and dandled.
Graham was still not clear upon many points.
"But so many orphans," he said perplexed, reverting to a first misconception, and learnt again that they were not orphans.
So soon as they had left the __creche__ he began to
speak of the horror the babies in their incubating
cases had caused him. "Is motherhood gone?" he said. "Was it a cant? Surely it was an instinct.
This seems so unnatural--abominable almost."
"Along here we shall come to the dancing place,"
said Asano by way of reply. "It is sure to be
crowded. In spite of all the political unrest it will be crowded. The women take no great interest in
politics--except a few here and there. You will see the mothers--most young women in London are mothers.
In that class it is considered a creditable thing
to have one child--a proof of animation. Few
middle class people have more than one. With the
Labour Company it is different. As for motherhood
They still take an immense pride in the children.
They come here to look at them quite often."
"Then do you mean that the population of the
world--?"
"Is falling? Yes. Except among the people under the Labour Company. They are reckless--."
The air was suddenly dancing with music, and down
a way they approached obliquely, set with gorgeous
pillars as it seemed of clear amethyst, flowed a
concourse of gay people and a tumult of merry cries and laughter. He saw curled heads, wreathed brows, and
a happy intricate flutter of gamboge pass triumphant across the picture.
"You will see," said Asano with a faint smile
"The world has changed. In a moment you will see the mothers of the new age. Come this way. We
shall see those yonder again very soon."
They ascended a certain height in a swift lift, and
changed to a slower one. As they went on the music
grew upon them, until it was near and full and
splendid, and, moving with its glorious intricacies they could distinguish the beat of innumerable dancing
feet. They made a payment at a turnstile, and
emerged upon the wide gallery that overlooked the
dancing place, and upon the full enchantment of
sound and sight.
"Here," said Asano, "are the fathers and mothers of the little ones you saw."
The hall was not so richly decorated as that of the
Atlas, but saving that, it was, for its size, the most splendid Graham had seen. The beautiful whitelimbed
figures that supported the galleries reminded
him once more of the restored magnificence of sculpture; they seemed to writhe in engaging attitudes,
their faces laughed. The source of the music that
filled the place was hidden, and the whole vast shining floor was thick with dancing couples. "Look at
them," said the little officer, "see how much they show of motherhood."
The gallery they stood upon ran along the upper
edge of a huge screen that cut the dancing hall on one side from a sort of outer hall that showed through
broad arches the incessant onward rush of the city
ways. In this outer hall was a great crowd of less
brilliantly dressed people, as numerous almost as
those who danced within, the great majority wearing
the blue uniform of the Labour Company that was
now so familiar to Graham. Too poor to pass the
turnstiles to the festival, they were yet unable to keep away from the sound of its seductions. Some of them
even had cleared spaces, and were dancing also,
fluttering their rags in the air. Some shouted as they danced, jests and odd allusions Graham did not understand.
Once someone began whistling the refrain of
the revolutionary song, but it seemed as though that beginning was promptly suppressed. The corner was
dark and Graham could not see. He turned to the
hall again. Above the caryatidae were marble busts
of men whom that age esteemed great moral emancipators and pioneers; for the most part their names
were strange to Graham, though he recognised Grant
Allen, Le Gallienne, Nietzsche, Shelley and Goodwin.
Great black festoons and eloquent sentiments reinforced the huge inscription that partially defaced the
upper end of the dancing place, and asserted that "The Festival of the Awakening" was in progress.
"Myriads are taking holiday or staying from work because of that, quite apart from the labourers who
refuse to go back," said Asano. "These people are always ready for holidays."
Graham walked to the parapet and stood leaning
over, looking down at the dancers. Save for two or
three remote whispering couples, who had stolen
apart, he and his guide had the gallery to themselves.
A warm breath of scent and vitality came up to him.
Both men and women below were lightly clad, bare-
armed, open-necked, as the universal warmth of the
city permitted. The hair of the men was often a mass of effeminate curls, their chins were always shaven, and many of them had flushed or coloured cheeks.
Many of the women were very pretty, and all were
dressed with elaborate coquetry. As they swept by
beneath, he saw ecstatic faces with eyes half closed in pleasure.
"What sort of people are these? " he asked abruptly.
"Workers--prosperous workers. What you
would have called the middle class. Independent
tradesmen with little separate businesses have vanished long ago, but there are store servers, managers,
engineers of a hundred sorts. Tonight is a holiday
of course, and every dancing place in the city
will be crowded, and every place of worship."
"But--the women? "
"The same. There's a thousand forms of work for women now. But you had the beginning of the
independent working-woman in your days. Most women
are independent now. Most of these are married
more or less--there are a number of methods of
contract--and that gives them more money, and enables them to enjoy themselves."
"I see," said Graham looking at the flushed faces, the flash and swirl of movement, and still thinking of that nightmare of pink helpless limbs." And these are--mothers."
"Most of them."
"The more I see of these things the more complex I find your problems. This, for instance, is a surprise.
That news from Paris was a surprise."
In a little while he spoke again:
"These are mothers. Presently, I suppose, I shall get into the modern way of seeing things. I have old habits of mind clinging about me--habits based, I
suppose, on needs that are over and done with. Of
course, in our time, a woman was supposed not only
to bear children, but to cherish them, to devote herself to them, to educate them--all the essentials of moral and mental education a child owed its mother.
Or went without. Quite a number, I admit, went
without. Nowadays, clearly, there is no more need
for such care than if they were butterflies. I see that!
Only there was an ideal--that figure of a grave,
patient woman, silently and serenely mistress of a
home, mother and maker of men--to love her was a
sort of worship--"
He stopped and repeated, "A sort of worship."
"Ideals change," said the little man, "as needs change."
Graham awoke from an instant reverie and Asano
repeated his words. Graham's mind returned to the
thing at hand.
"Of course I see the perfect reasonableness of this Restraint, soberness, the matured thought, the unselfish a act, they are necessities of the barbarous state, the life of dangers. Dourness is man's tribute to
unconquered nature. But man has conquered nature now for all practical purposes--his political affairs are managed by Bosses with a black police--and life is
joyous."
He looked at the dancers again. "Joyous," he said.
