Throne Of The Horde King Epub

[Niobe Hennigan]

Toward the end of the year 1920 the Government of the United States hadpractically completed the programme, adopted during the last months ofPresident Winthrop's administration. The country was apparentlytranquil. Everybody knows how the Tariff and Labour questions weresettled. The war with Germany, incident on that country's seizure of theSamoan Islands, had left no visible scars upon the republic, and thetemporary occupation of Norfolk by the invading army had been forgottenin the joy over repeated naval victories, and the subsequent ridiculousplight of General Von Gartenlaube's forces in the State of New Jersey.The Cuban and Hawaiian investments had paid one hundred per cent and theterritory of Samoa was well worth its cost as a coaling station. Thecountry was in a superb state of defence. Every coast city had been wellsupplied with land fortifications; the army under the parental eye ofthe General Staff, organized according to the Prussian system, had beenincreased to 300,000 men, with a territorial reserve of a million; andsix magnificent squadrons of cruisers and battle-ships patrolled the sixstations of the navigable seas, leaving a steam reserve amply fitted tocontrol home waters. The gentlemen from the West had at last beenconstrained to acknowledge that a college for the training of diplomatswas as necessary as law schools are for the training of barristers;consequently we were no longer represented abroad by incompetentpatriots. The nation was prosperous; Chicago, for a moment paralyzedafter a second great fire, had risen from its ruins, white and imperial,and more beautiful than the white city which had been built for itsplaything in 1893. Everywhere good architecture was replacing bad, andeven in New York, a sudden craving for decency had swept away a greatportion of the existing horrors. Streets had been widened, properlypaved and lighted, trees had been planted, squares laid out, elevatedstructures demolished and underground roads built to replace them. Thenew government buildings and barracks were fine bits of architecture,and the long system of stone quays which completely surrounded theisland had been turned into parks which proved a god-send to thepopulation. The subsidizing of the state theatre and state opera broughtits own reward. The United States National Academy of Design was muchlike European institutions of the same kind. Nobody envied the Secretaryof Fine Arts, either his cabinet position or his portfolio. TheSecretary of Forestry and Game Preservation had a much easier time,thanks to the new system of National Mounted Police. We had profitedwell by the latest treaties with France and England; the exclusion offoreign-born Jews as a measure of self-preservation, the settlement ofthe new independent negro state of Suanee, the checking of immigration,the new laws concerning naturalization, and the gradual centralizationof power in the executive all contributed to national calm andprosperity. When the Government solved the Indian problem and squadronsof Indian cavalry scouts in native costume were substituted for thepitiable organizations tacked on to the tail of skeletonized regimentsby a former Secretary of War, the nation drew a long sigh of relief.When, after the colossal Congress of Religions, bigotry and intolerancewere laid in their graves and kindness and charity began to draw warringsects together, many thought the millennium had arrived, at least in thenew world which after all is a world by itself.

But self-preservation is the first law, and the United States had tolook on in helpless sorrow as Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium writhedin the throes of Anarchy, while Russia, watching from the Caucasus,stooped and bound them one by one.

In the city of New York the summer of 1899 was signalized by thedismantling of the Elevated Railroads. The summer of 1900 will live inthe memories of New York people for many a cycle; the Dodge Statue wasremoved in that year. In the following winter began that agitation forthe repeal of the laws prohibiting suicide which bore its final fruit inthe month of April, 1920, when the first Government Lethal Chamber wasopened on Washington Square.

I had walked down that day from Dr. Archer's house on Madison Avenue,where I had been as a mere formality. Ever since that fall from myhorse, four years before, I had been troubled at times with pains in theback of my head and neck, but now for months they had been absent, andthe doctor sent me away that day saying there was nothing more to becured in me. It was hardly worth his fee to be told that; I knew itmyself. Still I did not grudge him the money. What I minded was themistake which he made at first. When they picked me up from the pavementwhere I lay unconscious, and somebody had mercifully sent a bulletthrough my horse's head, I was carried to Dr. Archer, and he,pronouncing my brain affected, placed me in his private asylum where Iwas obliged to endure treatment for insanity. At last he decided that Iwas well, and I, knowing that my mind had always been as sound as his,if not sounder, "paid my tuition" as he jokingly called it, and left. Itold him, smiling, that I would get even with him for his mistake, andhe laughed heartily, and asked me to call once in a while. I did so,hoping for a chance to even up accounts, but he gave me none, and I toldhim I would wait.

It was, I remember, the 13th day of April, 1920, that the firstGovernment Lethal Chamber was established on the south side ofWashington Square, between Wooster Street and South Fifth Avenue. Theblock which had formerly consisted of a lot of shabby old buildings,used as cafs and restaurants for foreigners, had been acquired by theGovernment in the winter of 1898. The French and Italian cafs andrestaurants were torn down; the whole block was enclosed by a gildediron railing, and converted into a lovely garden with lawns, flowers andfountains. In the centre of the garden stood a small, white building,severely classical in architecture, and surrounded by thickets offlowers. Six Ionic columns supported the roof, and the single door wasof bronze. A splendid marble group of the "Fates" stood before the door,the work of a young American sculptor, Boris Yvain, who had died inParis when only twenty-three years old.

The inauguration ceremonies were in progress as I crossed UniversityPlace and entered the square. I threaded my way through the silentthrong of spectators, but was stopped at Fourth Street by a cordon ofpolice. A regiment of United States lancers were drawn up in a hollowsquare round the Lethal Chamber. On a raised tribune facing WashingtonPark stood the Governor of New York, and behind him were grouped theMayor of New York and Brooklyn, the Inspector-General of Police, theCommandant of the state troops, Colonel Livingston, military aid to thePresident of the United States, General Blount, commanding at Governor'sIsland, Major-General Hamilton, commanding the garrison of New York andBrooklyn, Admiral Buffby of the fleet in the North River,Surgeon-General Lanceford, the staff of the National Free Hospital,Senators Wyse and Franklin of New York, and the Commissioner of PublicWorks. The tribune was surrounded by a squadron of hussars of theNational Guard.

The Governor was finishing his reply to the short speech of theSurgeon-General. I heard him say: "The laws prohibiting suicide andproviding punishment for any attempt at self-destruction have beenrepealed. The Government has seen fit to acknowledge the right of man toend an existence which may have become intolerable to him, throughphysical suffering or mental despair. It is believed that the communitywill be benefited by the removal of such people from their midst. Sincethe passage of this law, the number of suicides in the United States hasnot increased. Now the Government has determined to establish a LethalChamber in every city, town and village in the country, it remains to beseen whether or not that class of human creatures from whose despondingranks new victims of self-destruction fall daily will accept the reliefthus provided." He paused, and turned to the white Lethal Chamber. Thesilence in the street was absolute. "There a painless death awaits himwho can no longer bear the sorrows of this life. If death is welcome lethim seek it there." Then quickly turning to the military aid of thePresident's household, he said, "I declare the Lethal Chamber open," andagain facing the vast crowd he cried in a clear voice: "Citizens of NewYork and of the United States of America, through me the Governmentdeclares the Lethal Chamber to be open."

The solemn hush was broken by a sharp cry of command, the squadron ofhussars filed after the Governor's carriage, the lancers wheeled andformed along Fifth Avenue to wait for the commandant of the garrison,and the mounted police followed them. I left the crowd to gape and stareat the white marble Death Chamber, and, crossing South Fifth Avenue,walked along the western side of that thoroughfare to Bleecker Street.Then I turned to the right and stopped before a dingy shop which borethe sign:

I glanced in at the doorway and saw Hawberk busy in his little shop atthe end of the hall. He looked up, and catching sight of me cried in hisdeep, hearty voice, "Come in, Mr. Castaigne!" Constance, his daughter,rose to meet me as I crossed the threshold, and held out her prettyhand, but I saw the blush of disappointment on her cheeks, and knew thatit was another Castaigne she had expected, my cousin Louis. I smiled ather confusion and complimented her on the banner she was embroideringfrom a coloured plate. Old Hawberk sat riveting the worn greaves of someancient suit of armour, and the ting! ting! ting! of his little hammersounded pleasantly in the quaint shop. Presently he dropped his hammer,and fussed about for a moment with a tiny wrench. The soft clash of themail sent a thrill of pleasure through me. I loved to hear the music ofsteel brushing against steel, the mellow shock of the mallet on thighpieces, and the jingle of chain armour. That was the only reason I wentto see Hawberk. He had never interested me personally, nor didConstance, except for the fact of her being in love with Louis. This didoccupy my attention, and sometimes even kept me awake at night. But Iknew in my heart that all would come right, and that I should arrangetheir future as I expected to arrange that of my kind doctor, JohnArcher. However, I should never have troubled myself about visiting themjust then, had it not been, as I say, that the music of the tinklinghammer had for me this strong fascination. I would sit for hours,listening and listening, and when a stray sunbeam struck the inlaidsteel, the sensation it gave me was almost too keen to endure. My eyeswould become fixed, dilating with a pleasure that stretched every nervealmost to breaking, until some movement of the old armourer cut off theray of sunlight, then, still thrilling secretly, I leaned back andlistened again to the sound of the polishing rag, swish! swish! rubbingrust from the rivets.

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