SATAN’S LAW DEPARTMENTS
(_Underground._)
1. An allegorical representation of Satan’s underhanded methods in law
and politics. All seen during a thrilling journey with Blackana through
this underground regions (level below level) where the laws of Hell
are hatched.
2. A realistic climax,--ultimate triumph of right in the civil realm.
I now saw two mountains so high that their shadows perpetually darkened
the Broad Highway which covered the wide valley between them.
In this Shadowy Vale many held permanent residence, until the whole
region swarmed with teeming millions of every tongue and tribe on the
face of the globe.
At the base of the mountains, on each side of the way, there were
numerous large openings through which imps of darkness were constantly
passing. Most of them were habited as angels of light.
“Tell me the mystery of those dismal openings,” I asked as I turned
to Blackana. “Words are inadequate to tell of the places to which they
lead. To know aright one must see,” he answered with marked
indifference.
For a moment I silently looked upon Blackana whose evasive answer had
so greatly aroused my curiosity.
“Beyond those ominous portals I can discern nothing,” I murmured. “How
can I be privileged to see what is there hidden?”
“Come with me,” coldly invited Blackana, “I will guide you to the
nethermost realms now unseen by you. This I do not willingly, but I
am thus commanded.”
Not wishing to receive my orders from the mouth of a demon, I talked
to my better Friend who bade me go and be assured that _a body-guard
of ten thousand would ever be at my side, though I saw them not._
On wings, swifter than the wind, Blackana and I covered the intervening
space. We stood in the dark valley at one of the openings, now appearing
ten-fold larger than before, and the mountains reared their imposing
crests as if to an endless height.
“Follow me,” grimly spoke Blackana as he advanced through the monstrous
arcade into the deepening darkness.
I remembered the ten thousand, and feared not as I followed. Downward
and inward we went, with no light but a horrid glare casting its
uncertain rays athwart our path.
“Is this the passage-way to Destruction?” I cried, as I saw how spectral
all things were, for more than a thousand grimy faces had already added
their fitful glances to the glimmering scene.
“The passage-way to Hell is not so smooth; we go to a better place,”
he answered, without so much as turning his head.
We finally stopped at a line of massive elevators, ever in busy motion,
carrying the throngs upward or downward.
As we paused, Blackana regarded me silently. I was then able, for the
first time, to see his face clearly. No light reveals the countenance
of a demon so well as the light of his own region.
I stood as if paralyzed under his awful eyes. Oh! thought I, can two
orbs picture such infinite depth of remorse; such absence of tenderness;
such barrenness of sympathy, far beyond the most care-worn look of
earth? Then, pervading all these lineaments of despair were the positive
characteristics of his nature--malice, envy, and hatred. These lent
their repulsive fires to his eye, already overcharged with insidious
gleamings. I suddenly thought of my ten thousand, and my fears subsided.
“It were better for you to remain a stranger to the greater depth and
go no farther,” were the words that finally came from Blackana’s
scarcely moving lips.
“Fulfill your mission, Blackana! I fear not the deepest depth when I
am thus equipped.”
“Where is your sword and where is your armor?” he tauntingly asked.
“My steel is hid until I find a foe worthy of its mettle.”
Blackana quivered and resumed his task. He told me that above us, deep
in the bowels of these mountains, were the more refined legislative
halls of Satan; while below us, at varying and terrible depths, lay
scattered many a brooding station where the lowest laws of Hell are
hatched.
“Let us go downward,” I said, and scarcely had the words escaped my
lips ere Blackana had ushered me into an elevator, holding me as we
dropped down and down with increasing velocity, while a cold chill was
freezing my heart, and my body playing the part of an aspen leaf.
Never before had I been touched by so dreadful a hand, but I thought
again of the ten thousand, and that lent warmth to my heart and calmness
to my nerves. “To what great depth are we falling?” I soon ventured
to ask, as I perceived that we were dashing downward at terrific speed.
“We fall to no great depth; we go only a thousand furlongs to reach
the first grand level, not stopping at these lesser places of which
you get a glimpse in passing.”
“A thousand furlongs,” I repeated, “down into the earth! Who ever heard
of such a descent before?” But I still thought of my ten thousand,
even though I could not conceive how they could follow me in such
places.
“At what rate do we now travel?” I nervously asked, for I felt the
hand of Blackana still pressing me down lest the great elevator would
fall faster than my body.
“According to earthly reckoning we are falling twenty furlongs a second
and our speed is still increasing with the descent,” was the startling
answer.
I spoke no more, but found myself clutching the raised bars of the
floor. I saw the glimmering light of many a region as we darted by at
our lightning speed.
In an incredibly short time we reached the first grand level. Blackana
led me forth from the elevator into an immense cavern whose dimensions
were apparently as limitless as the space between the earth and sky.
It was illuminated by infernal lights and all astir with moving
thousands in fabled dress and shape.
Never before had I imagined or beheld such a scene. Pure gold was as
plentiful as the water of the earth, and was abundantly used in the
construction of vast halls whose overarching vaults were encrusted
with priceless gems that dazzled like jets of crystallized light.
“What weird world is this?” I asked in an awed tone.
“This is one of my master’s legislative centers, devoted to each
separate government on earth. The many legislators of this whole region
are ever busily engaged in determining upon their policy and methods
of operation, and in endeavoring to influence the law-making body of
each government to create and modify laws in harmony with the
underground legislation here enacted.”
“Ah!” said I, “but this place is far from the surface where man dwells.
How can there be such close connection?”
Blackana smiled as he made a wonderful revelation to me. “This strange
empire is in close touch with the whole human family, for there are
thousands of wires leading from this dark realm to each government
centre of earth. Satan thus communicates his wishes to each lawmaker,
of every land, who will lend a listening ear to his schemes.”
Blackana then conducted me to an immense building divided into many
sections. “Here is the electric centre of this level,” he said.
As I gazed I learned the secret of Satan’s power in law. Thousands
were here engaged in conversing with legislators on earth.
I could understand no word of all these communications, for the section
where I stood was devoted to Asiatic countries and the islands of the
Pacific Ocean.
“Take me, O Blackana, to the section connecting with the Western world
that I may see the very wires that run to the United States of America.”
I soon stood in the interior of another large building, and with great
interest listened to the operators communicating with some who were
in authority at Washington, and with persons elsewhere who were
interested in the formulation of laws for the whole country.
“Does this never cease?” I questioned.
“It continues through the days and nights of earth forever,” came the
reply.
I was looking at the intricate system of wires and the stupendous
proportions of the place, when suddenly I heard some one mention a
name with which I was familiar. I was attracted close to the side of
the operator that I might hear at least the one side of the
conversation.
“That bill should never become a law,” said the operator, but I could
not hear the reply.
“Fight hard to defeat it. You will get heaps of gold if you succeed,”
were the next words I heard at the lower ’phone.
“Never mind them. I’ll take care of that crowd. I will try once more
to get their ear. I failed the last time, but I hope to succeed at my
next endeavor.” These words were spoken very plainly, but still I could
hear no reply.
“Suppose the other element has chances to win. Get ready at once and
meet the situation. Go and speak to the chairman of the committee and
early influence his mind in our favor. Offer any bribe you wish, for
we have unlimited resources at our command.”
“If only I could hear the answer,” thought I.
Then the operator listened a long time, and I almost envied his
privilege, wishing that I might also hear the human voice from the
earth’s surface.
Blackana conducted me to other parts of the building, and I saw the
fiendish program carried out at each point. Thousands of demons were
in league with the law-makers of the world!
“Oh! that I could cut these wires and restrict Satan’s laws to these
underground dominions,” I said with rising boldness.
“Silence, puny mortal! Know you not that others can hear you speak?
Would you here be crushed to death so far from the light of day?”
Superhuman strength moved me to answer thus: “Though all these hosts
should hear me, I fear nothing. I am invincible, and should you take
me to the deepest depths, amidst foul crawling imps, not one can harm
me. Neither can you, Blackana.
“Come on,” he sneered, “cease your senseless sentences and follow me.”
I saw that Blackana endeavored to conceal the counter-currents of his
heart, but nevertheless his agitation did not escape my notice.
Back to the elevators we went, and with a throng of evil spirits we
entered the central car and fell another thousand furlongs into the
depth of the earth.
We stopped at the second grand level into which I was ushered. I looked
out over what seemed to be a new world with more light and more
animation than was manifest on the first level.
Boisterous demonstrations were heard on every hand, all made more
hideous by the variety of evil spirits who added their din to the
general bedlam. “What furious world is this?” I shouted.
“This is Satan’s political headquarters, and the place where his state
laws are made. We are here connected with every state or divisional
government in the world, and with every political movement that can
be influenced by these underground voices.”
My indignation leaped over all bounds as the vileness of these
iniquitous schemes pressed upon me. I heard the bands of music from
those who had prostituted their talent to the second level.
Blackana pushed me on through all the demonstrations, and then led me
into a great structure more secluded than the electrical stations.
Here the state laws are hatched, but, thanks to a higher sanctum, not
all the brood see daylight.
The plotters of Hell sat in this underground legislative centre, and
I saw, to my horror, some state legislators occupying seats in this
infamous quarter.
Then said I to Blackana: “It is no more a mystery to me how so much
of Hell is incorporated into the laws of the states in the country
where I hold residence, as well as in all other parts of the world.
How long have these things been?”
“Since the beginning of law,” was his indifferent reply.
“It will not be so forever,” I prophesied under a sudden spell of
inspiration. “The time must come when the power of this level will be
blasted forever. The owner of the tree will burn the worms and their
nests from every branch.”
Then said Blackana tauntingly: “Neither flood, poison, fire, nor knife
can ever destroy this section.” Just as he spoke these words the whole
edifice shook, and I heard a noise as if a shower of great stones had
crashed into the roof and sides of the building. The legislators quaked
with fear and all looked toward the ceiling. All of this instantly
reminded me of the thousand lords who looked at the ominous handwriting
on the wall at the feast of Belshazzar.
“Explain it to me,” I asked as I looked wonderingly at Blackana.
“Urge it not, urge it not! Be content to dwell in ignorance!”
“I am here to learn, and I would know what force or power can so
well-nigh destroy this wretched center. Tell me the truth. I demand
it.”
Then did Blackana move himself in his startling attitudes, as if loath
to speak. He rolled his heavy eyes as his discordant voice yielded the
unwilling explanation.
“These are the votes that just fell in favor of reform in a campaign
on earth. Such votes, under the panoply of prayer, strike more terror
to these kingdoms than all else combined, and the most disastrous
feature is that they go bounding from the buildings of this level ever
downward and work their ruin from kingdom to kingdom, until they have
wrought their havoc even to the lowest level. If we only knew the way
to break the power of these votes, our comrades would not then dwell
in constant dread of what might happen.”
“May you never learn that power, and may the votes of good citizenship
ever increase in number until these legislative halls shall be broken
to rise no more, and their inmates driven from their secret machinations
to the abode prepared for the Devil and his angels.”
Blackana sprang at me in great rage.
“Silence, you contemptible mortal! You have not such liberty of speech
here! Why fling insults into the face of one more powerful than
yourself?”
“_Ho, ye ten thousand!_” I shouted with all my power, and Blackana
fell backward at my very words. Sullen, but cowed, he arose to his
feet and took me to the elevators.
“Where next?” he gruffly asked.
“What is on the next level below?” I inquired.
“Greater proceedings than on this one. It is devoted to the government
of counties, cities, boroughs, and villages, and their political work.”
“Pass it by and take me to the lowest level.”
“You do not know what you ask. The lowest level is very, very deep,
and takes us where things have no weight. It is the lowest haunt outside
of Hell, inhabited by the vilest imps. How can you live or move in
such a realm?”
“Not by the futile force of human power, but by the strength of Him
who bids me go. I fear not, O Blackana; conduct me thither.”
What an awful experience followed! I was taken down at an amazing
speed, held under the great hand of Blackana. We passed region after
region of infernal lights, each one existing for the purpose of carrying
out its part of Satan’s fiendish plan.
At length we stopped in the red glare of an awful burning amidst a
company of hobgoblins out of harmony with all human shape or symmetry.
“This must be the bed of Hell, indeed,” I said, after I had conquered
my rising fears. “Far from it, far from it!” answered Blackana. “We
are now in the lowest legislative center _where foul fiends invent the
horrible laws of personal pollution in the mortal body, and political
bribery in the civil body._”
Blackana held me by the hand. I seemed not to walk but rather to move
along without effort, seeing the pictures of lowest life and ill-shaped
spirits, some of monster size.
Into an immense auditorium I was wafted, a building without foundations
or floor. Here, amidst uncanny noises, hovered a vast throng of Satan’s
lowest legislators.
The dreadful suggestions here given, and the terrible debates that
followed, beggar human description. From all parts of the great hall
the busy wires were communicating with every section of the earth’s
surface.
Blackana, still holding me by the hand, spoke! thus in a derisive
strain:
“O mortal, now comes my glorious revenge I have tasted your insults
until their galling bitterness grinds me still. I have craved for this
hour when I might leave you to the mercy of the lowest, and bring you
under my feet for ever.”
Then, turning to the chairman of the great assemblage, Blackana
attracted his attention, and at once the attention of all the spectral
monsters of the place.
“Here,” commenced he, “is a piece of mortal flesh, fresh from the
surface. I have been forced, by some strange power, to conduct this
mortal man through these nether levels until he has seen the workings
of our underground plans and schemes. He must never see the light of
day, lest the world above may know the true inwardness and source of
such laws as are called cursed, and rise in hosts against our surface
operations.”
At this Blackana thrust me forward, and I went straightway to the
chairman who seized me by the back and held me aloft in his right hand,
while a deafening roar of strident voices was measuring my doom.
“_Ho, ye ten thousand!_” I cried aloud, at which the horrid chairman
fell backward, and I dropped unharmed to his own chair as the whole
host were rushing at me en masse.
The chairman sprang to his feet and waved a wand. “Silence and order!”
he commanded.
Thousands of brandishing weapons were brought to a stand, and quietness
reigned in a moment.
“Why say you ‘ten thousand’? What power lives in those words?” asked
the chairman with a show of boldness, but in secret quaking. “Power
unlimited, even over death, hell, and the grave. My flesh is not food
for such as these.”
“Who can you be to talk thus boldly to your superiors?”
“I am one who is sealed by the blood of Jesus, and have no superiors
outside the gates of Heaven.”
“Why came you here?” he impatiently and furiously demanded. “Tell me
while yet you have opportunity to speak.”
Then, fully confiding in my unseen Guard, I stood erect and said with
boldness of speech: “I have come to learn the secrets of this
underground legislation which is sending its blighting curse throughout
the world. Having witnessed the wide extent of these secret operations,
I will now return to the brotherhood of man and sound the alarm of a
coming reformation. O, beware ye multitudes that now rise against me!
I am not alone, nor forsaken. By faith I see armies of the living God.
I declare, at this moment, that earth will not forever receive her
laws from such a depth. The hour must come when these million wires
will be broken beyond repair, and all you fiends go groveling under
penal chains in darkness eternal.”
[Illustration: The armies of righteousness will some day triumph over
the black hordes of civil iniquity.]
No more could I speak, for the air was thickening all around me with
a rush of wild demons whose threatening weapons thirsted for my blood.
I stood motionless, glorying in the power of the Unseen, for I saw,
shining far above me, a beautiful star of hope with peace and purity
in its rays.
In the same instant I again shouted, “_Ho, ye ten thousand!_” Oh, what
a transformation took place! Regiment upon regiment of Heaven’s military
hosts, converging as from infinite depth of space, burst into sudden
view, revealed by a dazzling light which filled the whole region and
dazed the infernal hosts as with blindness, while their weapons broke
and fell beneath them in futile fragments.