THE DIVINE DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM THE GREAT GIVE A BENEFIT
FOR THE CANINE GARDENS AND PAY TRIBUTE TO THE PIGGERIES
~1~
The strike that I had feared would be the beginning of a bloody
revolution had ended with an actor shouting into a horn and the shadow
of an Emperor waving his arms. But meanwhile Capt. Grauble, on whom I
staked my hopes of escape from Berlin, had departed to the Arctic and
would not return for many months. That he would return I firmly
believed; statistically the chances were in his favour as this was his
fourth trip, and hope was backing the favourable odds of the law of
chance.
So I set myself to prepare for that event. My faith was strong that
Grauble could be won over to the cause of saving the Germans by
betraying Germany. I did not even consider searching for another man,
for Grauble was that one rare man in thousands who is rebellious and
fearless by nature, a type of which the world makes heroes when their
cause wins and traitors when it fails--a type that Germany had all but
eliminated from the breed of men.
But, if I were to escape to the outer world through Grauble's
connivance, there was still the problem of getting permission to board
the submarine, ostensibly to go to the Arctic mines. Even in my exalted
position as head of the protium works I could not learn where the
submarine docks or the passage to them was located. But I did learn
enough to know that the way was impenetrable without authoritative
permission, and that thoughts of escape as a stowaway were not worth
considering. I also learned that Admiral von Kufner had sole authority
to grant permission to make the Arctic trip.
The Admiral had promptly turned down my first proposal to go to the
Arctic ore fields, and had by his pompous manner rebuffed the attempts I
made to cultivate his friendship through official interviews. I
therefore decided to call on Marguerite and the Countess Luise to see
what chance there was to get a closer approach to the man through social
avenues. The Countess was very obliging in the matter, but she warned me
with lifted finger that the Admiral was a gay bachelor and a worshipper
of feminine charms, and that I might rue the day I suggested his being
invited into the admiring circle that revolved about Marguerite. But I
laughingly disclaimed any fears on that score and von Kufner was bidden
to the next ball given by the Countess.
Marguerite was particularly gracious to the Admiral and speedily led him
into the inner circle that gathered informally in the salon of the
Countess Luise. I made it a point to absent myself on some of these
occasions, for I did not want the Admiral to guess the purpose that lay
behind this ensnaring of him into our group.
And yet I saw much of Marguerite, for I spent most of my leisure in the
society of the Royal Level, where thought, if shallow, was comparatively
free. I took particular pleasure in watching the growth of Marguerite's
mind, as the purely intellectual conceptions she had acquired from Dr.
Zimmern and his collection of books adjusted itself to the absurd
realities of the celestial society of the descendants of William
the Great.
It may be that charity is instinctive in the heart of a good woman, or
perhaps it was because she had read the Christian Bible; but whatever
the origin of the impulse, Marguerite was charitably inclined and wished
to make personal sacrifice for the benefit of other beings less well
situated than herself. While she was still a resident of the Free Level
she had talked to me of this feeling and of her desire to help others.
But the giving of money or valuables by one woman to another was
strictly forbidden, and Marguerite had not at the time possessed more
than she needed for her own subsistence. But now that she was relatively
well off, this charitable feeling struggled to find expression. Hence
when she had learned of the Royal Charity Society she had straightway
begged the Countess to present her name for membership, without stopping
to examine into the detail of the Society's activities.
The Society was at that time preparing to hold a bazaar and sent out
calls for contributions of cast off clothing and ornaments. Marguerite
as yet possessed no clothes or jewelry of Royal quality except the
minimum which the demands of her position made necessary; and so she
timidly asked the Countess if her clothing which she had worn on the
Free Level would suffice as gifts of charity. The Countess had assured
her that it would do nicely as the destination of all the clothing
contributed was for the women of the Free Level. Thinking that an
opportunity had at last arisen for her to express her compassion for the
ill-favoured girls of her own former level, Marguerite hastened to
bundle up such presentable gowns as she had and sent them to the bazaar
by her maid.
Later she had attended the meeting of the society when the net results
of the collections were announced. To her dismay she found that the
clothing contributed had been sold for the best price it would bring to
the women of the Free Level and that the purpose of the sacrifices, of
that which was useless to the possessors but valuable to others, was the
defraying of the expense of extending the romping grounds for the dogs
of the charitably maintained canine garden.
Marguerite was vigorously debating the philosophy of charity with the
young Count Rudolph that evening when I called. She was maintaining that
human beings and not animals should be the recipients of charity and the
young Count was expounding to her the doctrine of the evil effects of
charity upon the recipient.
"Moreover," explained Count Rudolph, "there are no humans in Berlin that
need charity, since every class of our efficiently organized State
receives exactly what it should receive and hence is in need of nothing.
Charity is permissible only when poverty exists."
"But there is poverty on the Free Level," maintained Marguerite; "many
of the ill-favoured girls suffer from hunger and want better clothes
than they can buy."
"That may be," said the Count, "but to permit them gifts of charity
would be destructive of their pride; moreover, there are few women on
the Royal Level who would give for such a purpose."
"But surely," said Marguerite, "there must be somewhere in the city,
other women or children or even men to whom the proceeds of these gifts
would mean more than it does to dogs."
"If any group needed anything the state would provide it," repeated the
Count.
"Then why," protested Marguerite, "cannot the state provide also for the
dogs, or if food and space be lacking why are these dogs allowed to
breed and multiply?"
"Because it would be cruel to suppress their instincts."
Marguerite was puzzled by this answer, but with my more rational mind I
saw a flaw in the logic of this statement. "But that is absurd," I said,
"for if their number were not checked in some fashion, in a few decades
the dogs would overswarm the city."
It was now the Count's turn to look puzzled. "You have inferred an
embarrassing question," he stated, "one, in fact, that ought not to be
answered in the presence of a lady, but since the Princess Marguerite
does not seem to be a lover of dogs, I will risk the explanation. The
Medical Level requires dogs for purposes of scientific research. Since
the women are rarely good mathematicians, it is easily possible in this
manner to keep down the population of the Canine Garden."
"But the dogs required for research," I suggested, "could easily be bred
in kennels maintained for that purpose."
"So they could," said the Count, "but the present plan serves a double
purpose. It provides the doctors with scalpel practise and it also
amuses the women of the Royal House who are very much in need of
amusement since we men are all so dull."
"Woman's love," continued Rudolph, waxing eloquent, "should have full
freedom for unfoldment. If it be forcibly confined to her husband and
children it might burst its bounds and express too great an interest in
other humans. The dogs act as a sort of safety valve for this instinct
of charity."
The facetious young Count saw from Marguerite's horror-stricken face
that he was making a marked impression and he recklessly continued: "The
keepers at the Canine Gardens understand this perfectly. When funds
begin to run low they put the dogs in the outside pens on short rations,
and the brutes do their own begging; then we have another bazaar and
everybody is happy. It is a good system and I would advise you not to
criticize it since the institution is classic. Other schemes have been
tried; at one time women were permitted to knit socks for soldiers--we
always put that in historical pictures--but the socks had to be melted
up again as felted fibre is much more durable; and then, after the women
were forbidden to see the soldiers, they lost interest. But the dog
charity is a proven institution and we should never try to change
anything that women do not want changed since they are the conservative
bulwark of society and our best protection against the danger of
the untried."
~2~
Blocked in her effort to relieve human poverty by the discovery that its
existence was not recognized, Marguerite's next adventure in doing good
in the world was to take up the battle against ignorance by contributing
to the School for the Education of Servants.
The Servant problem in Berlin, and particularly on the Royal Level, had
been solved so far as male servants were concerned, for these were a
well recognized strain eugenically bred as a division of the
intellectual caste. I had once taken Dr. Zimmern to task on this
classification of the servant as an intellectual.
"The servant is not intellectual creatively," the Eugenist replied, "yet
it would never do to class him as Labour since he produces nothing.
Moreover, the servant's mind reveals the most specialized development of
the most highly prized of all German intellectual characteristics
--obedience.
"It might interest you to know," continued Zimmern, "that we use this
servant strain in outcrossing with other strains when they show a
tendency to decline in the virtue of obedience. If I had not chosen to
exempt you from paternity when your rebellious instincts were reported
to me, and the matter had been turned over to our Remating Board they
might have reassigned you to mothers of the servant class. This practice
of out-crossing, though rare, is occasionally essential in all
scientific breeding."
"Then do you mean," I asked in amazement, "that the highest intellectual
strains have servant blood in them?"
"Certainly. And why not, since obedience is the crowning glory of the
German mind? Even Royal blood has a dash of the servant strain."
"You mean, I suppose, from illegitimate children?"
"Not at all; that sort of illegitimacy is not recognized. I mean from
the admission of servants into Royal Society, just as you have been
admitted."
"Impossible!"
"And why impossible, since obedience is our supreme racial virtue? Go
consult your social register. The present Emperor, I believe, has
admitted none, but his father admitted several and gave them princely
incomes. They married well and their children are respected, though I
understand they are not very much invited out for the reason that they
are poor conversationalists. They only speak when spoken to and then
answer, 'Ja, Mein Herr.' I hear they are very miserable; since no one
commands them they must be very bored with life, as they are unable to
think of anything to do to amuse themselves. In time the trait will be
modified, of course, since the Royal blood will soon predominate, and
the strongest inherent trait of Royalty is to seek amusement."
This specialized class of men servants needed little education, for, as
I took more interest in observing after this talk with Zimmern, they
were the most perfectly fitted to their function of any class in Berlin.
But there was also a much more numerous class of women servants on the
Royal Level. These, as a matter of economy, were not specially bred to
the office, but were selected from the mothers who had been rejected for
further maternity after the birth of one or two children. Be it said to
the credit of the Germans that no women who had once borne a child was
ever permitted to take up the profession of Delilah--a statement which
unfortunately cannot be made of the rest of the world. These mothers
together with those who had passed the child bearing age more than
supplied the need for nurses on the maternity levels and teachers in
girls' schools.
As a result they swarmed the Royal Level in all capacities of service
for which women are fitted. Originally educated for maternity they had
to be re-educated for service. Not satisfied with the official education
provided by the masculine-ordered state, the women of the Royal Level
maintained a continuation school in the fine art of obedience and the
kindred virtues of the perfect servant.
So again it was that Marguerite became involved in a movement that in no
wise expressed the needs of her spirit, and from which she
speedily withdrew.
The next time she came to me for advice. "I want to do something," she
cried. "I want to be of some use in the world. You saved me from that
awful life--for you know what it would have been for me if Dr. Zimmern
had died or his disloyalty had been discovered--and you have brought me
here where I have riches and position but am useless. I tried to be
charitable, to relieve poverty, but they say there is no poverty to be
relieved. I tried to relieve ignorance, but they will not allow that
either. What else is there that needs to be relieved? Is there no good
I can do?"
"Your problem is not a new one," I replied, thinking of the world-old
experience of the good women yoked to idleness by wealth and position.
"You have tried to relieve poverty and ignorance and find your efforts
futile. There is one thing more I believe that is considered a classic
remedy for your trouble. You can devote yourself to the elimination of
ugliness, to the increase of beauty. Is there no organization devoted to
that work?"
"There is," returned Marguerite, "and I was about to join it, but I
thought this time I had better ask advice. There is the League to
Beautify Berlin."
"Then by all means join," I advised. "It is the safest of all such
efforts, for though poverty may not exist and ignorance may not be
relieved, yet surely Berlin can be more beautiful. But of course your
efforts must be confined to the Royal Level as you do not see the rest
of the city."
So Marguerite joined the League to Beautify Berlin and I became an
auxiliary member much appreciated because of my liberal contributions.
It proved an excellent source of amusement. The League met weekly and
discussed the impersonal aspects of the beauty of the level in open
meetings, while a secret complaint box was maintained into which all
were invited to deposit criticisms of more personal matters. It was
forbidden even in this manner to criticize irremedial ugliness such as
the matter of one's personal form or features, but dress and manners
came within the permitted range and the complaints were regularly mailed
to the offenders. This surprised me a little as I would have thought
that such a practice would have made the League unpopular, but on the
contrary, it was considered the mainstay of the organization, for the
recipient of the complaint, if a non-member, very often joined the
League immediately, hoping thereby to gain sweet revenge.
But aside from this safety valve for the desire to make personal
criticism, the League was a very creditable institution and it was there
that we met the great critics to whose untiring efforts the rare
development of German art was due.
Cut off from the opportunity to appropriate by purchase or capture the
works of other peoples, German art had suffered a severe decline in the
first few generations of the isolation, but in time they had developed
an art of their own. A great abundance of cast statues of white crystal
adorned the plazas and gardens and, being unexposed to dust or rain,
they preserved their pristine freshness so that it appeared they had all
been made the day before. Mural paintings also flourished abundantly and
in some sections the endless facade of the apartments was a
continuous pageant.
But it was in landscape gardening that German art had made its most
wonderful advancement. Having small opportunity for true architecture
because of the narrow engineering limitations of the city's
construction, talent for architecture had been turned to landscape
gardening. I use the term advisedly for the very absence of natural
landscape within a roofed-in city had resulted in greater development of
the artificial product.
The earlier efforts, few of which remained unaltered, were more inclined
toward imitation of Nature as it exists in the world of sun and rocks
and rain. But, as the original models were forgotten and new generations
of gardeners arose, new sorts of nature were created. Artificial rocks,
artificial soil, artificially bred and cultured plants, were combined in
new designs, unrealistic it is true, but still a very wonderful
development of what might be called synthetic or romantic nature. The
water alone was real and even in some cases that was altered as in the
beautifully dyed rivulets and in the truly remarkable "Fountain of
Blood," dedicated to one of the sons of William the Great--I have
forgotten his name--in honour of his attack upon Verdun in the First
World War.
In these wondrous gardens, with the Princess Marguerite strolling by my
side, I spent the happiest hours of my sojourn in Berlin. But my joy was
tangled with a thread of sadness for the more I gazed upon this
synthetic nature of German creation the more I hungered to tell her of,
and to take her to see, the real Nature of the outside world--upon
which, in my opinion, with all due respect to their achievements, the
Germans had not been able to improve.
~3~
While the women of the Royal House were not permitted of their own
volition to stray from the Royal Level, excursions were occasionally
arranged, with proper permits and guards. These were social events of
consequence and the invitations were highly prized. Noteworthy among
them was an excursion to the highest levels of the city and to the
roof itself.
The affair was planned by Admiral von Kufner in Marguerite's honour;
for, having spent her childhood elsewhere, she had never experienced the
wonder of this roof excursion so highly prized by Royalty, and for ever
forbidden to all other women and to all but a few men of the teeming
millions who swarmed like larvae in this vast concrete cheese.
The formal invitations set no hour for the excursion as it was
understood that the exact time depended upon weather conditions of which
we would later be notified. When this notice came the hour set was in
the conventional evening of the Royal Level, but corresponding to about
three A.M. by solar time. The party gathered at the suite of the
Countess Luise and numbered some forty people, for whom a half dozen
guides were provided in the form of officers of the Roof Guard. The
journey to our romantic destination took us up some hundred metres in an
elevator, a trip which required but two minutes, but would lead to a
world as different as Mount Olympus from Erebus.
But we did not go directly to the roof, for the hour preferred for that
visit had not yet arrived and our first stop was at the swine levels,
which had so aroused my curiosity and strained belief when I had first
discovered their existence from the chart of my atlas.
As the door of the elevator shaft slid open, a vast squealing and
grunting assaulted our ears. The hours of the swine, like those of their
masters, were not reckoned by either solar or sidereal time, but had
been altered, as experiment had demonstrated, to a more efficient cycle.
The time of our trip was chosen so that we might have this earthly music
of the feeding time as a fitting prelude to the visioning of the
silent heavens.
On the visitors' gangway we walked just above the reach of the jostling
bristly backs, and our own heads all but grazed the low ceiling of the
level. To economize power the lights were dim. Despite the masterful
achievement of German cleanliness and sanitation there was a permeating
odour, a mingling of natural and synthetic smells, which added to the
gloom of semi-darkness and the pandemonium of swinish sound produced a
totality of infernal effect that thwarts description.
But relief was on the way for the automatic feed conveyors were rapidly
moving across our section. First we heard a diminution of sound from one
direction, then a hasty scuffling and a happy grunting beneath us and,
as the conveyors moved swiftly on, the squealing receded into the
distance like the dying roar of a retreating storm.
The Chief Swineherd, immaculately dressed and wearing his full quota of
decorations and medals, honoured us with his personal presence. With the
excusable pride that every worthy man takes in his work, he expounded
the scientific achievements and economic efficiency of the swinish world
over which he reigned. The men of the party listened with respect to his
explanations of the accomplishments of sanitation and of the economy of
the cycle of chemical transformation by which these swine were
maintained without decreasing the capacity of the city for human
support. Lastly the Swineherd spoke of the protection that the swine
levels provided against the effects of an occasional penetrating bomb
that chanced to fall in the crater of its predecessor before the damage
could be repaired.
Pursuant to this fact the uppermost swine level housed those unfortunate
animals that were nearest the sausage stage. On the next lower level, to
which we now descended by a spiral stair through a ventilating opening,
were brutes of less advanced ages. On the lowest of the three levels
where special lights were available for our benefit even the women
ceased to shudder and gave expression to ecstatic cries of rapture, as
all the world has ever done when seeing baby beasts pawing contentedly
at maternal founts.
"Is it not all wonderful?" effused Admiral von Kufner, with a sweeping
gesture; "so efficient, so sanitary, so automatic, such a fine example
of obedience to system and order. This is what I call real science and
beauty; one might almost say Germanic beauty."
"But I do not like it," replied Marguerite with her usual candour. "I
wish they would abolish these horrid levels."
"But surely," said the Countess, "you would not wish to condemn us to a
diet of total mineralism?"
"But the Herr Chemist here could surely invent for us a synthetic
sausage," remarked Count Rudolph. "I have eaten vegetarian kraut made of
real cabbage from the Botanical Garden, but it was inferior to the
synthetic article."
"Do not make light, young people," spoke up the most venerable member of
our party, the eminent Herr Dr. von Brausmorganwetter, the historian
laureate of the House of Hohenzollern. "It is not as a producer of
sausages alone that we Germans are indebted to this worthy animal. I am
now engaged in writing a book upon the influence of the swine upon
German Kultur. In the first part I shall treat of the Semitic question.
The Jews were very troublesome among us in the days before the
isolation. They were a conceited race. As capitalists, they amassed
fortunes; as socialists they stirred up rebellion; they objected to war;
they would never have submitted to eugenics; they even insisted that we
Germans had stolen their God!
"We tried many schemes to be rid of these troublesome people, and all
failed. Therefore I say that Germany owes a great debt to the noble
animal who rid us of the disturbing presence of the Jews, for when pork
was made compulsory in the diet they fled the country of their
own accord.
"In the second part of my book I shall tell the story of the founding of
the New Berlin, for our noble city was modelled on the fortified
piggeries of the private estates of William III. In those days of the
open war the enemy bombed the stock farms. Synthetic foods were as yet
imperfectly developed. Protein was at a premium; the emperor did not
like fish, so he built a vast concrete structure with a roof heavily
armoured with sand that he might preserve his swine from the murderous
attacks of the enemy planes.
"It was during the retreat from Peking. The German armies were being
crowded back on every side. The Ray had been invented, but William the
III knew that it could not be used to protect so vast a domain and that
Germany would be penned into narrow borders and be in danger of
extermination by aërial bombardment. In those days he went for rest and
consolation to his estates, for he took great pleasure in his
thoroughbred swine. Some traitorous spy reported his move to the enemy
and a bombing squadron attacked the estates. The Emperor took refuge in
his fortified piggery. And so the great vision came to him.
"I have read the exact words of this thoughts as recorded in his diary
which is preserved in the archives of the Royal Palace: 'As are these
happy brutes, so shall my people be. In safety from the terrors of the
sky--protected from the vicissitudes of nature and the enmity of men, so
shall I preserve them.'
"That was the conception of the armoured city of Berlin. But that was
not all. For the bombardment kept up for days and the Emperor could not
escape. On the fourth day came the second idea--two new ideas in less
than a week! William III was a great thinker.
"Thus he recorded the second inspiration: 'And even as I have bred these
swine, some for bacon and some for lard, so shall the German Blond
Brutes be bred the super-men, some specialized for labour and some
for brains.'
"These two ideas are the foundation of the kultur of our Imperial
Socialism, the one idea to preserve us and the other to re-create us as
the super-race. And both of these ideas we owe to this noble animal. The
swine should be emblazoned with the eagle upon our flag."
As the Historian finished his eulogy, I glanced surreptitiously at the
faces of his listeners, and caught a twinkle in Marguerite's eyes; but
the faces of the others were as serious as graven images.
Finally the Countess spoke: "Do I understand, then, that you consider
the swine the model of the German race?"
"Only of the lower classes," said the aged historian, "but not the House
of Hohenzollern. We are exalted above the necessities of breeding, for
we are divine."
Eyes were now turned upon me, for I was the only one of the company not
of Hohenzollern blood. Unrelieved by laughter the situation was painful.
"But," said Count Rudolph, coming to my rescue, "we also seek safety in
the fortified piggeries."
"Exactly," said the Historian; "so did our noble ancestor."
~4~
From the piggeries, we went to the green level where, growing beneath
eye-paining lights, was a matted mass of solid vegetation from which
came those rare sprigs of green which garnished our synthetic dishes.
But this was too monotonous to be interesting and we soon went above to
the Defence Level where were housed vast military and rebuilding
mechanisms and stores. After our guides had shown us briefly about among
these paraphernalia, we were conducted to one of the sloping ramps which
led through a heavily arched tunnel to the roof above.
Marguerite clung close to my arm, quivering with expectancy and
excitement, as we climbed up the sloping passage-way and felt on our
faces the breath of the crisp air of the May night.
The sky came into vision with startling suddenness as we walked out upon
the soft sand blanket of the roof. The night was absolutely clear and my
first impression was that every star of the heavens had miraculously
waxed in brilliancy. The moon, in the last quarter, hung midway between
the zenith and the western horizon. The milky way seemed a floating band
of whitish flame. About us, in the form of a wide crescent, for we were
near the eastern edge of the city, swung the encircling band of
searchlights, but the air was so clear that this stockade of artificial
light beams was too pale to dim the points of light in the
blue-black vault.
In anticipating this visit to the roof I had supposed it would seem
commonplace to me, and had discussed it very little with Marguerite,
lest I might reveal an undue lack of wonder. But now as I thrilled once
more beneath their holy light, the miracle of unnumbered far-flung
flaming suns stifled again the vanity of human conceit and I stood with
soul unbared and worshipful beneath the vista of incommensurate space
wherein the birth and death of worlds marks the unending roll of time.
And at my side a silent gazing woman stood, contrite and humble and the
thrill and quiver of her body filled me with a joy of wordless delight.
A blundering guide began lecturing on astronomy and pointing out with
pompous gestures the constellations and planets. But Marguerite led me
beyond the sound of his voice. "It is not the time for listening to
talk," she said. "I only want to see."
When the astronomer had finished his speech-making, our party moved
slowly toward the East, where we could just discern the first faint
light of the coming dawn. When we reached the parapet of the eastern
edge of the city's roof, the stars had faded and pale pink streaked the
eastern sky. The guides brought folding chairs from a nearby tunnel way
and most of the party sat down on a hillock of sand, very much as men
might seat themselves in the grandstand of a race course. But I was so
interested in what the dawn would reveal beneath the changing colours of
the sky, that I led Marguerite to the rail of the parapet where we could
look down into the yawning depths upon the surface of German soil.
My first vision over the parapet revealed but a mottled grey. But as the
light brightened the grey land took form, and I discerned a few scraggly
patches of green between the torn masses of distorted soil.
The stars had faded now and only the pale moon remained in the bluing
sky, while below the land disclosed a sad monotony of ruin and waste,
utterly devoid of any constructive work of man.
Marguerite, her gaze fixed on the dawn, was beginning to complain of the
light paining her eyes, when one of the guides hurried by with an open
satchel swung from his shoulders. "Here are your glasses," he said; "put
them on at once. You must be very careful now, or you will injure
your eyes."
We accepted the darkened protecting lenses, but I found I did not need
mine until the sun itself had appeared above the horizon.
"Did you see it so in your vision?" questioned Marguerite, as the first
beams glistened on the surface of the sanded roof.
"This," I replied, "is a very ordinary sunrise with a perfectly
cloudless sky. Some day, perhaps, when the gates of this prison of
Berlin are opened, we will be able to see all the sunrises of my
visions, and even more wonderful ones."
"Karl," she whispered, "how do you know of all these things? Sometimes I
believe you are something more than human, that you of a truth possess
the blood of divinity which the House of Hohenzollern claims."
"No," I answered; "not divinity,--just a little larger humanity, and
some day very soon I am going to tell you more of the source of
my visions."
She looked at me through her darkened glasses. "I only know," she said,
"that you are wonderful, and very different from other men."
Had we been alone on the roof of Berlin, I could not have resisted the
temptation to tell her then that stars and sun were familiar friends to
me and that the devastated soil that stretched beneath us was but the
wasted skeleton of a fairer earth I knew and loved. But we were
surrounded by a host of babbling sightseers and so the moment passed and
I remained to Marguerite a man of mystery and a seer of visions.
The sun fully risen now, we were led to a protruding observation
platform that permitted us to view the wall of the city below. It was
merely one vast grey wall without interruption or opening in the
monotonous surface.
Amid the more troubled chaos of the ground immediately below we could
see fragments of concrete blown from the parapet of the roof. The wall
beneath us, we were told, was only of sufficient thickness to withstand
fire of the aircraft guns. The havoc that might be wrought, should the
defence mines ever be forced back and permit the walls of Berlin to come
within range of larger field pieces, was easily imagined. But so long as
the Ray defence held, the massive fort of Berlin was quite impervious to
attacks of the world forces of land and air and the stalemate of war
might continue for other centuries.
With the coming of daylight we had heard the rumbling of trucks as the
roof repairing force emerged to their task. Now that our party had
become tired of gazing through their goggles at the sun, our guides led
us in the direction where this work was in progress. On the way we
passed a single unfilled crater, a deep pit in the flinty quartz sand
that spread a protecting blanket over the solid structure of the roof.
These craters in the sand proved quite harmless except for the labour
involved in their refilling. Further on we came to another, now
half-filled from a spouting pipe with ground quartz blown from some
remote subterranean mine, so to keep up the wastage from wind
and bombing.
Again we approached the edge of the city and this time found more of
interest, for here an addition to the city was under construction. It
was but a single prism, not a hundred metres across, which when
completed would add but another block to the city's area. Already the
outer pillars reached the full height and supported the temporary roof
that offered at least a partial protection to the work in progress
beneath. Though I watched but a few minutes I was awed with the evident
rapidity of the building. Dimly I could see the forms below being swung
into place with a clock-like regularity and from numerous spouts great
streams of concrete poured like flowing lava.
It is at these building sections that the bombs were aimed and here
alone that any effectual damage could be done, but the target was a
small one for a plane flying above the reach of the German guns. The
officer who guided our group explained this to us: these bombing raids
were conducted only at times of particular cloud formations, when the
veil of mist hung thick and low in an even stratum above which the air
was clear. When such formation threatened, the roof of Berlin was
cleared and the expected bombs fell and spent their fury blowing up the
sand. It had been a futile warfare, for the means of defence were equal
to the means of offence.
Our visit to the roof of Berlin was cut short as the sun rose higher,
because the women, though they had donned gloves and veils, were fearful
of sunburn. So we were led back to the covered ramp into the endless
night of the city.
"Have we seen it all?" sighed Marguerite, as she removed her veil and
glasses and gazed back blinkingly into the last light of day.
"Hardly," I said; "we have not seen a cloud, nor a drop of rain nor a
flake of snow, nor a flash of lightning, nor heard a peal of thunder."
Again she looked at me with worshipful adoration. "I forget," she
whispered; "and can you vision those things also?"
But I only smiled and did not answer, for I saw Admiral von Kufner
glaring at me. I had monopolized Marguerite's company for the entire
occasion, and I was well aware that his only reason for arranging this,
to him a meaningless excursion, had been in the hopes of being with her.
~5~
But Admiral von Kufner, contending fairly for that share of Marguerite's
time which she deigned to grant him, seemed to bear me no malice; and,
as the months slipped by, I was gratified to find him becoming more
cordial toward me. We frequently met at the informal gatherings in the
salon of the Countess Luise. More rarely Dr. Zimmern came there also,
for by virtue of his office he was permitted the social rights of the
Royal Level. I surmised, however, that this privilege, in his case, had
not included the right to marry on the level, for though the head of the
Eugenic Staff, he had, so far as I could learn, neither wife
nor children.
But Dr. Zimmern did not seem to relish royal society, for when he
chanced to be caught with me among the members of the Royal House the
flow of his brilliant conversations was checked like a spring in a
drought, and he usually took his departure as soon as it was seemly.
On one of these occasions Admiral von Kufner came in as Zimmern sat
chatting over cups and incense with Marguerite and me, and the Countess
and her son. The doctor dropped quietly out of the conversation, and for
a time the youthful Count Ulrich entertained us with a technical
elaboration of the importance of the love passion as the dominant appeal
of the picture. Then the Countess broke in with a spirited exposition of
the relation of soul harmony to ardent passion.
Admiral von Kufner listened with ill-disguised impatience. "But all this
erotic passion," he interrupted, "will soon again be swept away by the
revival of the greater race passion for world rule."
"My dear Admiral," said the Countess Luise, "your ideas of race passion
are quite proper for the classes who must be denied the free play of the
love element in their psychic life, but your notion of introducing these
ideas into the life of the Royal Level is wholly antiquated."
"It is you who are antiquated," returned the Admiral, "for now the day
is at hand when we shall again taste of danger. His Majesty has--"
"Of course His Majesty has told us that the day is at hand," interrupted
the Countess. "Has not His Majesty always preserved this allegorical
fable? It is part of the formal kultur."
"But His Majesty now speaks the truth," replied the Admiral gravely,
"and I say to you who are so absorbed with the light passions of art and
love that we shall not only taste of danger but will fight again in the
sea and air and on the ground in the outer world. We shall conquer and
rule the world."
"And do you think, Admiral," inquired Marguerite, "that the German
people will then be free in the outer world?"
"They will be free to rule the outer world," replied the Admiral.
"But I mean," said Marguerite calmly, "to ask if they will be free again
to love and marry and rear their own children."
At this naïve question the others exchanged significant glances.
"My dear child," said the Countess, blushing with embarrassment, "your
defective training makes it extremely difficult for you to understand
these things."
"Of course it is all forbidden," spoke up the young Count, "but now, if
it were not, the Princess Marguerite's unique idea would certainly make
capital picture material."
"How clever!" cried the Countess, beaming on her intellectual son.
"Nothing is forbidden for plot material for the Royal Level. You shall
make a picture showing those great beasts of labour again liberated for
unrestricted love."
"There is one difficulty," Count Rudolph considered. "How could we get
actors for the parts? Our thoroughbred actors are all too light of bone,
too delicate of motion, and our actresses bred for dainty beauty would
hardly caste well for those great hulking round-faced labour mothers."
"Then," remarked the Admiral, "if you must make picture plays why not
one of the mating of German soldiers with the women of the
inferior races?"
"Wonderful!" exclaimed the plot maker; "and practical also. Our
actresses are the exact counterpart of those passionate French beauties.
I often study their portraits in the old galleries. They have had no
Eugenics, hence they would be unchanged. Is it not so, Doctor?"
"Without Eugenics, a race changes with exceeding slowness," answered
Zimmern in a voice devoid of expression. "I should say that the French
women of today would much resemble their ancestral types."
"But picturing such matings of military necessity would be very
disgusting," reprimanded the Countess.
"It will be a very necessary part of the coming day of German dominion,"
stated the Admiral. "How else can we expect to rule the world? It is,
indeed, part of the ordained plan."
"But how," I questioned, "is such a plan to be executed? Would the men
of the World State tolerate it?"
"We will oblige them to tolerate it; the children of the next generation
of the inferior races must be born of German sires."
"But the Germans are outnumbered ten to one," I replied.
"Polygamy will take care of that, among the white races; the coloured
races must be eliminated. All breeding of the coloured races must cease.
That, also, is part of the ordained plan."
The conversation was getting on rather dangerous ground for me as I
realized that I dare not show too great surprise at this talk, which of
all things I had heard in Germany was the most preposterous.
But Marguerite made no effort to disguise her astonishment. "I thought,"
she said, "that the German rule of the world was only a plan for
military victory and the conquering of the World Government. I supposed
the people would be left free to live their personal lives as
they desired."
"That was the old idea," replied the Admiral, "in the days of open war,
before the possibilities of eugenic science were fully realized. But the
ordained plan revealed to His Majesty requires not only the military and
political rule by the Germans, but the biologic conquest of the inferior
races by German blood."
"I think our German system of scientific breeding is very brutal," spoke
up Marguerite with an intensity of feeling quite out of keeping with the
calloused manner in which the older members of the Royal House discussed
the subject.
The Admiral turned to her with a gracious air. "My lovely maiden," he
said, "your youth quite excuses your idealistic sentiments. You need
only to remember that you are a daughter of the House of Hohenzollern.
The women of this House are privileged always to cultivate and cherish
the beautiful sentiments of romantic love and individual maternity. The
protected seclusion of the Royal Level exists that such love may bloom
untarnished by the grosser affairs of world necessity. It was so
ordained."
"It was so ordained by men," replied Marguerite defiantly, "and what are
these privileges while the German women are prostituted on the Free
Level or forced to bear children only to lose them--and while you plan
to enforce other women of the world into polygamous union with a
conquering race?"
"My dear child," said the Countess, "you must not speak in this wild
fashion. We women of the Royal House must fully realize our
privileges--and as for the Admiral's wonderful tale of world
conquest--that is only his latest hobby. It is talked, of course, in
military circles, but the defensive war is so dull, you know, especially
for the Royal officers, that they must have something to occupy
their minds."
"When the day arrives," snapped the Admiral, "you will find the Royal
officers leading the Germans to victory like Atilla and William the
Great himself."
"Then why," twitted the Countess, "do you not board one of your
submarines and go forth to battle in the sea?"
"I am not courting unnecessary danger," retorted the Admiral; "but I am
not dead to the realities of war. My apartments are directly connected
with the roof."
"So you can hear the bomb explosions," suggested the Countess.
"And why not?" snapped the Admiral; "we must prepare for danger."
"But you have not been bred for danger," scoffed the Countess. "Perhaps
you would do well to have your reactions to fear tested out in the
psychic laboratories; if you should pass the test you might be elected
as a father of soldiers; it would surely set a good example to our
impecunious Hohenzollern bachelors for whom there are no wives."
The young Count evidently did not comprehend his mother's spirit of
raillery. "Has that not been tried?" he asked, turning toward
Dr. Zimmern.
"It has," stated the Eugenist, "more than a hundred years ago. There was
once an entire regiment of such Hohenzollern soldiers in the
Bavarian mines."
"And how did they turn out?" I asked, my curiosity tempting me into
indiscretion.
"They mutinied and murdered their officers and then held an election--"
Zimmern paused and I caught his eye which seemed to say, "We have gone
too far with this."
"Yes, and what happened?" queried the Countess.
"They all voted for themselves as Colonel," replied the Doctor drily.
At this I looked for an outburst of indignation from the orthodox
Admiral, but instead he seemed greatly elated. "Of course," he enthused;
"the blood breeds true. It verily has the quality of true divinity. No
wonder we super-men repudiated that spineless conception of the soft
Christian God and the servile Jewish Jesus."
"But Jesus was not a coward," spoke up Marguerite. "I have read the
story of his life; it is very wonderful; he was a brave man, who met his
death unflinchingly."
"But where did you read it?" asked the Countess. "It must be very new. I
try to keep up on the late novels but I never heard of this 'Story
of Jesus.'"
"What you say is true," said the Admiral, turning to Marguerite, "but
since you like to read so well, you should get Prof. Ohlenslagger's book
and learn the explanation of the fact that you have just stated. We have
long known that all those great men whom the inferior races claim as
their geniuses are of truth of German blood, and that the fighting
quality of the outer races is due to the German blood that was scattered
by our early emigrations.
"But the distinctive contribution that Prof. Ohlenslagger makes to these
long established facts is in regard to the parentage of this man Jesus.
In the Jewish accounts, which the Christians accepted, the truth was
crudely covered up with a most unscientific fable, which credited the
paternity of Jesus to miraculous interference with the laws of nature.
"But now the truth comes out by Prof. Ohlenslagger's erudite reasoning.
This unknown father of Jesus was an adventurer from Central Asia, a man
of Teutonic blood. On no other conception can the mixed elements in the
character of Jesus be explained. His was the case of a dual personality
of conflicting inheritance. One day he would say: 'Lay up for yourself
treasures'--that was the Jewish blood speaking. The next day he would
say: 'I come to bring a sword'--that was the noble German blood of a
Teutonic ancestor. It is logical, it must be true, for it was reasoned
out by one of our most rational professors."
The Countess yawned; Marguerite sat silent with troubled brows; Dr.
Ludwig Zimmern gazed abstractedly toward the cold electric imitation of
a fire, above which on a mantle stood two casts, diminutive
reproductions of the figures beside the door of the Emperor's palace,
the one the likeness of William the Great, the other the Statue of the
German God. But I was thinking of the news I had heard that afternoon
from my Ore Chief--that Captain Grauble's vessel had returned to Berlin.