“‘God made man,’ the preacher saith,‘From a handful of dust, by a whiff of breath.’‘No,’ say the sages, ‘man made God,From nothing at all, by creative nod;Organ for organ, and limb for limb,In the image of man, created he Him.
“‘God made man,’ the preacher saith,‘From a handful of dust, by a whiff of breath.’‘No,’ say the sages, ‘man made God,From nothing at all, by creative nod;Organ for organ, and limb for limb,In the image of man, created he Him.
“These people evidently made their Gods, for they admit it. I wonder if we made ours?”
Careful Leo!
“What a wonderful city is Eurania! What a wonderful country is Cavitorus! What a wonderful people are the Shadowas!
“But that meeting! The calm dignity of those four hundred Councillors of State was amazing. What marvellous dispassionate interestis taken by the enormous throngs of people, who occupy the main body and galleries of the Temple.
“Proud Oseba! Well may I call thee ‘master.’ Oh! how I wish the appreciative Sir Marmaduke were here.”
Yes, Leo, I would like to have been with you, but, maybe, that would have meant that I would be with you now, out of the cold, poor fellow!
But here the fellow strings it out as though our days were also nineteen hours long, and our lives a thousand years. He keeps us on so high a key, that we begin to wonder what there is in it for him. I will “blue pencil.” For the once impatient Leo Bergin has forgotten, I fear, the customs of this upper world, and that every ear is attuned to the popular rush.
If you’ve something good to say,Get a move!If you’d have us go your way,Get a move!If it’s goods, fling out your sample,If religion, show it’s ample,But—Get a move.
If you’ve something good to say,Get a move!If you’d have us go your way,Get a move!If it’s goods, fling out your sample,If religion, show it’s ample,But—Get a move.
’Pon my word! Leo’s “borrowed lines” inspire me with a poetic vein. But Leo is becoming as tedious as an Australian drought, a West Coast “wet spell,” or a debate on a “no-confidence motion,” so I shall here draw my critical pencil through many lines. Leo Bergin is clearness itself, and from his language there flows, to the intelligent brain, a true conception of the situation; but for the sake of brevity—from vanity, maybe—I shall condense, in my own language.
Well, at the appointed time and place the people assembled. The four-hundred members of the Council of State occupied favoured seats in front of the platform, while many thousands of the citizens filled the stalls and ample galleries. It was an impressive scene. The meeting once called to order, “Music, such as heard outside of Eurania or heaven was never, burst upon the ear.”
That’s Leo’s, but I shall be more prosy and more brief.
When the last strains of music had died away, and the applause ceased, the chairman arose, and after giving a brief but comprehensive review of the national traditions, the discoveries and events that led to these unparalleled adventures, he re-read the commission under which Amoora Oseba acted, and impressed upon the audience the importance of the report from the lips of Eurania’s most gifted son, and the world’s most intrepid explorer.
The chairman said, in opening the proceedings, that while little real attention had been given to the vague traditions that had floated down the centuries, there had always been a feeling among the Shadowas that they were in a most peculiar situation, and that science would some time solve the mystery that seemed to hang over them.
He said, since the dawn of civilisation there was an “absolute knowledge” that they were on the inner surface of a hollow planet, and there was a vague belief that there were like beings on the outer surface.
He explained that, through the enterprise of the Council of State, and the intrepidity of Amoora Oseba and his brave comrades, that question, the most momentous in the long history of Cavitorus, it was hoped, had been solved, and they had met to hear a report on that most interesting matter.
He said, as the Committee had given the most careful attention to the books, maps, charts, and globes brought by the returned party, and having had the generous assistance of Oseba himself, and Leo Bergin, a native of the upper world, they had familiarized themselves somewhat with the geography, history, customs and manners of the various nations of the upper world, by the assistance of the views to be presented, a fair understanding would be easily reached. Then, too, as the press had been generous and enterprising, he thought the people were quite prepared for an intelligent appreciation of the gifted traveller’s oration. “Mr. Oseba, the father of the new philosophy,” said he, “will now speak to us, as to his children.”
However, as the people had requested that the poetess Vauline be permitted to ask for occasional explanations, this was provided for.
Here the record tells us—I have boiled out twenty pages of delightful “toffy”—that the chairman introduced Amoora Oseba as: “The most intrepid explorer the world ever knew,” at the same time inviting Leo Bergin and the other members of the returned party to the platform.
Of this episode of the ceremony, the modest Leo Bergin says: “I was embarrassed.”
A fine canvas, some sixty feet square, had previously been raised at the end of the hall, and, with the assistance of attendants, a large instrument, from which could be thrown moveable views of the earth’s surface, was properly adjusted. With an explanation all too brief, as Leo himself thinks, the first picture was thrown on the wall. It was our planet, represented by a globe forty feet in diameter, revolving slowly on its axis. It was a true model of our globe, on Symmes’ theory, the angle to the axis being 23°, with the north opening plainly visible, and Cavitorus was easily located.
This, we are told, was entirely novel, even to the Committee; but so skilful are the mechanics of Eurania, that from a small model or instrument taken across by the party, this wonderful piece of complicated mechanism was perfected.
What a revelation this must have been, bursting so unexpectedly upon the astonished gaze of these strange people!
But as in the magic hand of the “loved and lost” Leo Bergin there are both pen and brush, I here invoke his genius, for my pen falters.
He says:—
“As the vast assembly gazed in almost breathless awe, the master said: ‘This is Oliffa, our own planet, as it is hurled through space at 68,000 miles an hour, with this brief forty feet expanded to 8,000 miles.’
The Drop Scene, Wanganui River.The Drop Scene, Wanganui River.
The Drop Scene, Wanganui River.
“I looked into the faces of the most intellectual, the least emotional, and most observing people I have ever seen, and yet no pen, no brush, no imagination could reproduce that scene. Considering the intelligence and the unemotional character of this vast audience, the evidence of surprise was really alarming. For once, these people acted almost like we fools of the ‘upper crust.’”
Humph! it makes me crawl.
“The sitting was adjourned.”
I’m glad of it, for it makes me shiver. But it seems to me, considering the cool intellectuality of the Shadowas, that Leo Bergin is drawing that rather long. Let’s see! These Shadowas are a very intellectual, a very thoughtful, a very cultivated and civilised people. But let us reason this out. They were utilitarian; amiable as their environment, and learned, in what was necessary for their happiness, or within their reach. Yes, but nine-tenths of the universe—of the outer world—was shut off from them. They, for 21,000 years, had been on one side—the inside—of a great tube. Practically back of them, the world lifted abruptly up; front of them, they could but see above the rim of the bowl of which they were well toward the bottom.
The field of observation was narrow, the visible facts of Nature were few. At the near opening of the “tube” there was eternal ice and snow, an endless expanse of frozen mystery; while at the other, there could sometimes be seen many weird clusters of stars,but, usually, only clouds and storms, and desert and mountains, and dangerous whirlpools.
They had no telescopes; their point of view was too narrow for the study of astronomy, and, as all thoughts, all ideas, all conceptions of all natural objects must be formed from observation—from sensuous impressions—how could they draw anything like correct conclusions regarding the outside worlds? Intellectuality does not always, if ever, mean universal, or even very great, knowledge.
Well, then, maybe Leo was even drawing it mildly. Maybe, a vision so strange, a view of a known thing from so surprisingly unexpected a standpoint, at a time, too, when the public imagination was at a high tension, presenting so strange a phenomenon, would affect the fine but impressive mind more than it would the less thoughtful. Maybe, I say, Leo is right, but it seems a little lofty.
But let’s back to Leo’s notes. He says:—
“After lunch”—that sounds familiar—“the meeting recommenced, and the people, having conversed fully and freely over the matter, seemed in their normal condition.
“Oseba turned the globe slowly, explained the nature of the earth and of the sun, why the days were ‘thusly’; then the ‘outside’ conditions, and why it was not all eternal frost, as they had imagined. He showed the map of land and water, how there were on the outside of our planet, or Oliffa, 1,400,000,000 of people—afew of them very decent fellows—and suggested the enormous importance of communicating with them.
“Then he showed a globe, with continents, islands, seas, rivers, and the geographical divisions of the land as claimed by nations, empires, states, and communities, making suitable remarks, that his impressions might lack nothing in clearness.
“He explained that the varied blocks and patches, distinguished by colored lines, marked the ‘possessions’ and claims of various races, nations, or political communities. He here described the enormous waste of water, and mountains, and uninhabitable land, and how little really desirable country there was on the outer surface of Oliffa. Yet, he told his audience that the Outeroos did not dwell in peace together, but divided the land according to might, and lived isolated in semi-hostile communities. ‘These,’ said he, ‘are the lands, the countries, and the peoples I have “discovered.”’
“But, he said, while the nature and necessity, the hopes, the aspirations, and the desires of all men were much the same, there existed on the outer surface of Oliffa such a variety in customs and manners adopted for the accomplishment of desired ends, that only by a visit to, and a study of, all countries, could the object of his mission be fulfilled, so for five years he and his companions had wandered, observed, and taken notes, and now it was only by reviewing the situation with some detail that an intelligent understanding could be conveyed.
“Here he pointed out on the maps the localities of the various countries, briefly describing the climate, soil, and style of government in general, and said he would now discuss a little more fully the merits of the various countries and peoples—with his conclusions from the inquiry—for his discoveries had been important and many.
“He reminded his audience of the prime purpose. His mission was to gain from the outer world a knowledge that might aid them in the better management of their domestic affairs; to discover, if possible, a country to which they might send a colony of the surplus population, and to find a people with whom they could open communications, that they might become co-workers to the mutual happiness of the newer and the older inhabitants of the world.
“Oseba,” says the record, “re-arranged his instruments, saying that he would show us, as occasion required, the globe as a whole or a sectional map. He would begin his review with a country, probably the oldest settled, and certainly the most populous, on the outer surface of Oliffa—that of the Chinese Empire.”
Here, I may remark that I have carefully studied the notes of poor Leo Bergin. They are full, carefully revised, and show a masterly understanding of the situation, but they are too copious for even extensive quotation. From many closely and well-written pages, the notes report Oseba’s orations, with hardly a break or comment. For the sake of brevity, I shall appropriate Oseba’s story, and, save by a fewpointed quotations, I shall use my own language in the review of the next scene. I realise that by this method the story will be marred, the language will be less picturesque and expressive, and probably less correct, but it will be economy of space, and, what is of importance to me, “economy” in the expenditure of intellectual force. That is worthy of consideration!
The imaginative Leo seemed to be absorbed in the changing scenes of the unique situation. During a lull in the proceedings he notes:—
“How like a dream! Oh, my soul, how I do hope!”
But, probably being again confronted by that “if,” he seems to hang his head, halt, and ponder, for he writes:—
“Hopes, like joys and promising children, grow into regrets, or wither and die.”
Thesage Oseba, after locating China on the globe, threw a view of the map of the Empire on the wall. He explained that this country “embraced” 4,000,000 square miles of the surface of Oliffa, and contained about 400,000,000 “souls,” or nearly one-third of all the Outeroos. But this includes the Mandarins, who are not supposed to have “souls.”
With amusing speech, he reviewed the history, the social, political, and industrial conditions of this “peculiar” people.
It was in China that Oseba became first acquainted with the aggressiveness, the pretentiousness, and the real power of the European or Occidental Nations. As a race, these “foreign devils” were taller in stature, stronger of limb, and lighter in complexion, and they had better opinions of themselves than the Orientals. Conceit is a strong factor in all these mighty games.
The clergymen, or missionaries, were among his first acquaintances from over the seas.
A mischievous consular clerk, he says, who seemed to have a grievance, used to sing:—
“They came in shoals,To save the souls,Of Hop, Lee, Sing, and Wu.They gathered gear,Both far and near,As you or I would do.”
“They came in shoals,To save the souls,Of Hop, Lee, Sing, and Wu.They gathered gear,Both far and near,As you or I would do.”
These “solemn men,” as Oseba called them, apologising for the digression, came first of their countrymen, not for “filthy lucre,” but to “save all the sons of Confucius and to take them to Heaven, where, together, they could sing and associate forever, and forever, and forever.” “This,” said Oseba, “seemed kind of them,” but he soon learned that the nations who sent these agents to prepare the social situation for “the sweet by-and-bye,” were “not at home,” to Hop, Lee, Sing, or Wu, during their brief stay on the surface of Oliffa.
“We love you,” said the genteel agents of a hundred disputing creeds, “go with us to a land that is better than day.”
“Velly well,” says Hop, Lee, Sing, and Wu, “we likely go ’Melica.”
“Nay, nay!” says the good shepherd, “afterwhile, in the sweet by-and-bye. ’Tis of a better world we speak—patience, meekness, and love.”
“Why,” asked the poetess Vauline, “are the other Outeroos not ‘at home’ to the Chinese while they are quite alive?”
With a smile, Oseba said, “The Chinese, my children, are very industrious and frugal.”
“Are they an inferior race?” asked the poetess Vauline.
“They are ‘different,’” said Oseba, “but every race, people, nation, tribe, or creed on Oliffa, thinks itself ‘superior’ to any and all others. Vanity is absent—with few of the Outeroos.”
At considerable length, he reviewed the political, social, and industrial situation of China, and said:—
“All the outer world might learn lessons of patient industry from China, but for us, there is nothing in China.”
After a brief review of the social and political situation of each, he dismissed all the countries of Continental Asia, but he said Hongkong and Singapore, two of the world’s modern wonders, had done much to apprise the world of the hidden treasures in these Tartarean regions.
He drew attention to his discovery of Japan, as it appeared on the map with Asia, and then removing this, he threw the globe on the canvas. He dwelt in almost raptures on the beauty of the country he was now to examine. Of the Japanese, of whose condition he would first inquire, he said they had an old history. They had been isolated for many centuries. They dreamed in their narrow world, played in their little backyards, worshipped their monarch, and had been happy; but recently, touched by the magic wand of modern civilisation, they aroused, and having for a brief spell cast about them, they “girded up their loins”—tightened their belts—and hurried to join the front ranks of the army of progress, with an enthusiasm, and even a wisdom, never before known on this little globe.
Cathedral PeaksCathedral Peaks, Lake Manapouri
Cathedral Peaks, Lake Manapouri
Once aroused by the exhilarating thrill of progress, they as readily adjusted themselves to the peculiar conditions of their natural environmentsas children to a new playground. The mountains suggest liberty, the seas adventure, and to the fearless adventurers of those inhabiting the indented shores of the water-front, are the Outeroos indebted for all the blessings of modern progress—for civilisation is the ripened fruit of ocean commerce.
“But,” said the sage Oseba, “the present 42,000,000 Japs have but 147,000 square miles of dirt, half of which is waste. Under the delirium of modern conditions the population is rapidly increasing, and thus are the inhabitants already beginning to crowd each other. The nation is becoming wealthy, while the people are becoming poor. The real estate on little Oliffa is already staked out, and conspicuously adorned with that strange device—‘keep off the grass.’ There is no vacant corner for the surplus population, my children, and the Japs are land animals.”
The sage Oseba told his audience that “Many nations among the Outeroos regarded the ‘Japs’ as an ‘inferior race,’ but if the achievements of man is the measure of the soul and the intellect, the Japs have no superiors on little Oliffa, for her recent progress pales the lustre of the world’s authentic history; but,
‘If the zenith of strife, sheds a mystical lore,And coming events cast their shadows before,’”
‘If the zenith of strife, sheds a mystical lore,And coming events cast their shadows before,’”
said the sage, as he tortured the immortal Thomas, the brilliancy of Japanese story may soon wane, and as, owing to lack of room, her only path to glory is through unfashionable war, the prospects are not rosy.Though that nation may, for a long time, remain flamboyant, the people may soon writhe in a lower misery than ‘pagan Japan’ ever knew.
However, should the little brown man clip the claws from the Russian bear, and send him back, lame and growling, to his northern lair, and then arouse China, and, by the skill of his wonderful capacity, organize it, Eastern Asia may remember a few thousands of the “insults” heaped upon her people during the last half-century, and conclude to test the question of “superiority” by other than industrial methods.
Of the known Monarchies of Asia, he said, the people were ignorant and impoverished, the officials were insolent and corrupt, the rulers were vicious and despotic, and the governments rotten beyond cure.
As to India, the sage Oseba spoke with sympathy. “Britain,” he said, “is the only country capable of governing an ‘inferior’ race. She has done much to rescue the country from periodic, if not from almost constant war, and famine, and despair; but the ‘people,’ the offspring of thousands of years of misrule and oppression, have reached a condition of crystallized non-progressiveness, and they must finally die out, as they cannot adjust themselves to modern conditions. Its past is sad, its future is hopeless. It will long be a country in which a few cunning bees may load themselves with golden honey, that their far away hives may be filled; but slowly and sadly that strange brown people must pass away. Theyhave reached their ultimate. In them the oak and the steel, necessary for the contests of the future, are wanting.”
The globe was so adjusted as to give a perfect view of the Continent of Europe, and, in interesting speech, were the countries and their peoples described.
Referring to the influence of environment, the orator explained how the comparative smallness of this continent, the fertility of the soil, the variety of plant and animal life, the mountains, and plains, and indented shore lines, with enormous stretch of water-front, together with its extensive river systems and healthful, but erratic climatic conditions, marked this as the garden and nursery for the most active, sturdy, intelligent, and emotional of all peoples on the globe.
Continental Europe covers an area of 3,500,000 square miles, and supports, in various degrees of opulence and wretchedness, some 380,000,000 people—chiefly men, women, and clergymen—with 20,000,000 men in “uniform,” who seem well seized with their own importance. These latter are very influential personages, as they are equipped with very persuasive arguments.
The orator explained that the many-hued and irregular patches on the map represented the possessions and the rule, of as many nations, all of whom had good opinions of themselves, and stood ready to back their pretensions.
These countries were ruled by persons who were fortunate in the selection of parents, or who, at least, were furnished with proper birth certificates.
But with her many governments and nationalities, he said, there was constant confusion. There were fear and oppression, for all these imaginary lines had to be guarded. The armies had to be kept up; the 5,000,000 soldiers must be in constant readiness for slaughter, for only by this means could the people be sufficiently impressed with the validity of the birth certificate.
Asked by the poetess Vauline, what these so-called soldiers did for a living, Mr. Oseba answered:—
“They kill folks, for, short as are the lives of the Outeroos among the superior nations, wholesale murder is the most honored of all pursuits.”
Oseba said: “All the civilised nations keep these armed men, whose duty it is to kill somebody—to whom they may never have been introduced—when their ruler has a grievance, and has no time to attend to the matter himself.
“These armies, too, are potent in diplomatic controversies. When a monarch has a little misunderstanding with one of his class from a neighboring paddock, he says in deep tones:—
“‘Sire, these are the facts, and if you don’t believe it, Sire, look!’—and he points to his ready battalions.
“To a people who never knew of war or poverty—among whom probably not one manwould care to be killed, or could find a person to accommodate him if he should, these statements seemed most amazing.”
Mr. Oseba concluded, from the conspicuousness of military show, that every toiler in Europe carried a soldier on his back. And worse—he had to feed him, to clothe him, to pay him, and then to constantly submit to his insolence. From every home and fireside in Europe the most sturdy supporter, and the best loved one, was taken for target practice; and the burden imposed upon industry for showy barbarism, was crushing the whole of Europe and driving the people into revolution, anarchy and ruin.
“Tell us,” said the poetess Vauline, “are you speaking of the superior, the Christian or civilised peoples?”
“Rather,” said the Sage, “for only the Christian nations could enjoy, and only the superior nations could afford such heroic entertainments. As a fact, the size of the army and range of the gun are the true tests of a country’s civilisation and ‘superiority.’
“Strange, my children, but the ‘superior’ peoples, those worshipping Him who said, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ have the longest guns, and the strongest battalions, and they are most ready to kill on the least provocation.”
The audience, say the notes, was most impressed when told that these arguments—loaded—were aimed by the most civilised nations at each other. Oseba continues:—“Theguns and the military show, help to amuse the people; they regulate home prices, and guard the dignity of the managers. They are practically the ‘keep off the grass’ notice; but, as a fact, my children, they are kept to-day more to overawe the people who pay the bills than to ward off any external danger.
“But there is a marked difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The Oriental is selfish—he wants peace, and is indifferent to the fate of others. The Oriental don’t care what a man believes, or what god he worships, so long as he pays the liken, and moves on; while the superior races are deeply concerned about the soul, and they want to discover all other people, and get them to join them—afterwhile.
“As social units, the Occidentals are more progressive and free, but less secure; they are more sympathetic, but less just; more interested in others, but less tolerant; and more inclined to action, and less to meditation than the Orientals.
“While there is a vast difference in the degree of oppression in Continental Europe, between class assumption, military despotism, official insolence, and creed interference, save for those for whom custom would render hell salubrious, there is no room for a liberty-loving man—especially is it no place for a people with the lofty aspirations of the Shadowas. But, oh, the poverty, the misery, the humiliating sorrow! Oh, my children! If the faith of those pretentious mortals be not folly, if there be somewhere an all-powerfulGod of Love and Justice, if kneeling at His throne there be hosts of saints and angels, who behold the bloody conflicts, see the widow’s tears and the agonizing gasp of want; who hear the sighs of the over-worked slave, the groans of poverty and the prayers that go up to heaven from the white lips of innocence, let the Shadowas implore the masters of Europe’s millions to grant mercy, or the beseeching hearts of heaven will break, and the tears of the angels will drown the world.”
But, like Uphus swinging the doors to welcome the dawn of a new day, we turn to more pleasing scenes.
Atthis stage of the proceedings the Sage Oseba seemed to be in fine form and in most cheerful spirits.
He remarked that he was now to give his people a brief view of the “Country of Countries,” an island region, just off the humming hive of uniformed Europe. Here the globe revolved until the British Isles were conspicuously in view.
“This,” said Oseba, “of all the fertile dirt on the surface of Oliffa, is the most interesting. This, among the countries of the Outeroos, is the classic land of liberty, the sheet-anchor of Europe for more than three hundred years. These rock-bound Isles, with a fertile soil, a salubrious climate, indented shores—fortunately placed geographically—are by nature the best suited for the development of the ideal man of any spot on the surface of Oliffa, and having been peopled by sturdy tribes, all the suggestive hopes of Nature have been realised.”
He told his people that the British Isles embraced 124,000 square miles, and contained 40,000,000 inhabitants; and that, on these few acres, there were more muscle and brain, and intellectual force and stubbornness and haughty pretension, than on any other spot of like dimensions on the surface of Oliffa.
Mount EgmontMount Egmont.
Mount Egmont.
“These sturdy Britons, my children, who have resistlessly held these historic Islandsagainst all comers for many centuries, have done more to elevate, to educate, to emancipate, to civilise and to unite humanity; to free the brain from superstition, the limbs from fetters, and the world from bondage, than any other nation or race that ever inscribed its achievements on the pages of human history.
“Britain, my children, has conquered many foes, but her chief glory has been her conquests in the arts of peace. She has conquered climate, and famine, and pestilence, and the idolatry that would crucify the new upon the mouldering cross of the old régime.
“Britain has given Oliffa its industrial and commercial methods, the tone of its present civilisation, and she is rapidly giving to the whole race her erstwhile scorned language, and in this there seems a magic spell that infects all who imbibe its spirit with a burning desire for liberty. To lisp the English tongue, is to feel—a king.
“Let me tell you a little story, my children, of the most interesting, the most wonderful—yes, even the most marvellous of all the doings of man on this most erratic little planet.
“These British Isles are separated from the Continent of Europe by a damp streak, and they are inhabited by the mixed offspring of a dozen sturdy and virile tribes, all from the northern water-front. All these virile tribes, whether natives or invaders, were strongly imbued with the spirit of liberty—as they understood it. They loved peace—if they had tofight for it. They loved liberty—to squeeze the other fellow. But in the fibre of these people there was a sublime stubbornness that often made things awkward for the authorities.
“Everybody wanted to boss, so nobody would wear the collar. Everybody wanted to be free, but the feeling was so unanimous that there was abundance of officers but no privates, so it took many centuries of disputes, and quarrels, and conflicts, and wars, before they had accumulated sufficient ‘grey matter’ to comprehend the fact that civilised government is a compromise; that where any can be oppressed, none can be secure; and that liberty, which must halt at the gate of the other fellow’s paddock, is the inalienable right of man.
“But the British can learn, and they have so well mastered this problem that the highest now yield the most ready obedience to the law, and the strongest most readily defend the rights of the weak. Though it took Britain, with her sturdy conceit, centuries to learn this, and though she, by her fibre and her position as a coloniser, was the legitimate successor of Phœnicia and Greece, she was rather backward about coming forward, for after the discovery of America, when all the other nations were madly participating in western exploits, she stood aloof for over a hundred years to complete her preparations.
“Then she came with a lunch basket, she came with both feet, she came to stay, and her achievements find no parallel in the history ofhuman progress. Before she opened her foreign real estate office, the new world had been parcelled out. Others had staked their claims—many over-lapping—and there were plentiful notices to ‘keep off the grass,’ but she was undaunted.
“In 1607 she planted her first colony in America. Soon there were thirteen—an unlucky number—then she foolishly taxed them into revolt, and here she learned a valuable lesson. Since then, she has never oppressed a colony; since then, she has never taken one backward step; since then, she has gradually extended her beneficent hand over the earth, until over one-fifth of the land is painted red—her favorite hue—and over one-fourth of the human race bow a willing allegiance to her flag.”
“Oh,” says Leo’s notes, “would not that please dear old Sir Marmaduke!”
“America, my children, of which I shall soon speak, was Britain’s noblest contribution to human progress, for though the two nations have moved under different colours for more than a century, their mutual enterprise has revolutionised the industrial world, and brought humanity in touch.
“Marvel of marvels! When other nations, now in business, boasted of world-conquest, the British were but a ‘handful,’ inhabiting these rock-bound islands, but as mountains suggest freedom and seas adventure, looking over the waters, her daring sons went forth—not to conquer, not to exploit or to devastate, but to develop the world, and to build homes, and colonies, and states, and empires.
“If Britain took a gun in her outings—and she often did—it was to level a place for a home, a shop, or a factory. Where she plants her feet the soil becomes more fertile, and when she meets a savage, he stands more proudly erect—after the first few sermons.
“She is the motherland of America, and, by mutual efforts, the two have become the paragons of civilised progress. She saved old India from the rajahs, robbers, and priests, from famine and pestilence, and made it a paradise—as compared with its former condition. She saved strange, beloved, dreamy, half-mythical old Egypt from rot and ruin, and made it a marvel of hope and progress. She is saving ‘Darkest Africa’ from slavery, superstition, and fratricidal war; and, with diamonds on its golden clasps, she is handing it over to civilisation.
“She gave to civilisation Canada, with its splendid people, its fertile fields, and its stupendous ‘ice-plant’; and she gave to civilisation the seven colonies of Australasia, with the most wealthy, the most commercial, the most progressive, the most advanced, educated, civilised, and free people on the whole outer surface of the planet.
“Then, to show her small respect for dirt, save as a place to fasten down upon—and her marvellous ambition for industrial development—behold! the modern commercial wonders, Hongkong and Singapore! Many nations complain of ‘Britain’s land-greed,’ and that John Bull—as these sturdy Britons are lovingly called—always carries a bucket and a brush,and is everywhere painting the world red; but wherever the carmine shines, liberty and progress are assured. Every inch of soil wrested from darkness by British valour is handed over to civilisation—free to all comers.
“And, marvel of marvels, my children! In her more than a hundred wars—save by her mistake in striving to coerce her own children in America—she has never lost an inch of important dirt by force. And, more glorious still, every inch won from barbarism by her blood and valor, has been handed over to civilisation and human progress.
“But, no! She won much in war, which, to the infinite loss of the world, she gave back in peace.
“She took Cuba in war, restored order, and gave it back in peace. Better for the world had she kept it.
“She took by war, and gave back in peace, the Philippines, Cape Colony, Java, Sumatra, Senegal, Pondicheri, and more than twenty other valuable possessions, all to the loss of the world—and yet she has been accused of territorial avarice—of ‘land hunger.’”
Right! Mr. Oseba, and had the politicians in Downing Street properly backed the sturdy British wanderers, most of Oliffa would have been painted red and done up in a shawl strap long ere this, and the Brito-Yankee race would have been in a position to guarantee peace among all nations.
“But, my children,” he continued, “there are often sombre linings to many resplendent clouds,and lest you may all conclude to rush out of Cavitorus to these wonderful islands, I must show you a few of the less attractive pictures.
“Remember, that for modern civilisation among the Outeroos, the world is indebted to the colonial enterprise and success of Britain; but remember, too, that it is not always the ‘colonising nations,’ but the ‘colonists’ of the ‘colonising nations,’ that carry the standard of social progress to advanced grounds.
“The basis of modern colonial success, was, of course, in the fibre of the British race; but for the resistlessness of British colonial enterprise much was due to flagrant faults in Britain’s domestic policy.
“We are land animals—we live on, and from the land, and Britain had but 124,000 square miles of dirt. ‘Room’ was scarce, so people had a ‘far-away look.’ But worse, a very few in the Motherland ‘owned’ most all this meagre surface, so people saw opportunity only in a change—for a deep love of liberty forced the evils of monopoly upon their attention.
“Well these sturdy Britons, with the mixed blood of the rugged Danes, Jutes, Celts, Saxons, Angles and others did not feel at home as guests, serfs or tenants, so they began to roam around.”
The orator said he would present a few little “reasons” why the Shadowas would not care to “flock” to the British Isles, and also a review of conditions that might have had some influence in arousing the spirit of foreign adventure.
“They discovered,” said he, “that of the 76,000,000 acres of dirt on the whole British Isles, one man—great only in his possessions—owned 1,350,000 acres, while another owned 460,000 acres, the two being the born owners of over 2 per cent. of the whole, upon which 40,000,000 men were compelled to live.
“They found that about two hundred families owned about half of all the land; that less than one per cent. of the people owned over 99 per cent. of the land, and that more than 90 per cent. of the people were absolutely landless.
“It is amusing, my children, to hear these sturdy British boast about ‘my country,’ when a few families own so much of all the land on which all must live—if they remain at home. But observing the enormous power enjoyed by the holders of vast estates in the old world, too many sought by cornering the lands, to acquire like advantages in the new, and in the correction of this ancient error, the best statesmanship of the age is still required.”
Mr. Oseba proceeded to explain that as from many seemingly indefensible situations beneficent results often arise, it could hardly be doubted that the inherited curse of British landlordism has, in a most imposing “disguise,” been a “blessing” to civilisation.
It impressed the thoughtful “subject” with the incomparable importance of the land to life itself, especially when population began to crowd; and it forced upon the attention, even of the thoughtless, the enormous influenceand real power wielded by the possessors of large estates. The class inequalities that arose through the inheritance by the few of the source from which all must live, drove hosts of the most intelligent, sturdy, and self-reliant of the people to distant countries, and determined them to provide in the new home against the evils that had expelled them from the old.
From loathsome slime we clutch the glittering prize,And grand results from hard conditions rise.
From loathsome slime we clutch the glittering prize,And grand results from hard conditions rise.
Waterfall, WaikaremoanaWaterfall, Waikaremoana.
Waterfall, Waikaremoana.
As these emigrants loved the Motherland, they desired to remain loyal; as they had learned the advantages of land holdings, each desired to secure his own home; but remembering the past, they sought to provide that the limits of each to live from another’s toil should be narrowed. Not by violating the rights of property “owners,” but by securing the rights of property “creators,” were new ideas popularised.
“But these inheriting world-owners,” said the orator, “as a rule, have a pretty good time, though none of them have been permitted to remain long enough on their particular slice of Oliffa for it to get stale.”
Reluctant to leave Britain, but anxious to pick up some of her wandering children, he closes our mother’s case with this fond caress:—
“While these people of Britain are the salt of the earth, it is the offspring, and not the land-owner, who is to lead in the future social contests.
“Come to think of it, it is not ‘Britain,’ but the ‘Briton,’ that, like Atlas, carries the worldon his shoulders; and ’tis the ‘Briton’ who is the ‘salt of the earth,’ while ‘Britain’ is the salt mine.”
Oseba then turned his instruments on Africa. He told his audience that while along the fringe of this half-mythical land there were glimpses of a very ancient movement, the vast interior, until almost yesterday, was a veritableterra incognito, and to-day it is not easy to separate the grain of truth concerning its history from the cartload of fiction.
But Britain was now rolling up the sombre curtain, and opening the doors of her fabulous treasure-house that the “grateful” (?) nations might enter and take rooms.
Africa, the sage told his audience, covered one-fifth of the land surface of the outer globe, and had a population of 150,000,000 souls, or more than live in all the Americas and their islands. It has a doubtful history, thousands of years old. It was once so “civilised” that it housed three-hundred Christian Bishops, yet, to-day there is but a small portion—the Cape—that can claim more than a mere introduction to modern civilisation.
The orator informed the people, as he threw a series of pictures on the canvas, that many of the European nations were striving to extend their borders in Africa, and to the sorrow of the natives, they were now being pretty generally “discovered.”