In the company of my two Amazon guides, I passed through the buzzing
crowd to a sort of official Black Maria which in this case was nothing
more or less than an aerial taxi. On our journey I attempted to extract
some information of my destination and probable length of stay. Despite
the usual bureaucratic lack of information, I did gather that the
Club to which I was being taken was a junior organization where the
young males on their first introduction into society were segregated
and carefully instructed in the arts and graces of conduct. My first
uneasiness gave place to a growing curiosity. Knowing that crimes of
violence were outlawed I ceased to fear my reception among my own
sex, confident that in a short contact I could dissipate the first
unfavorable impression. I had not, in fact, any carefully matured plan
but I was determined now that the opportunity had presented itself, to
awake in my decadent and helpless brothers a sentiment of the glory
that had been stripped from them. I set it down to my credit that,
strong as was the fascination that Dianne exercised over me, the
feeling of sex solidarity in me was so imperious that I was determined
to stop before neither threats nor reprisals.
We alighted before a massive iron gate, fully forty feet in height,
that broke the grim monotony of the towering walls. Evidently apprised
of my intended arrival, a venerable proctor (in appearance sixty years
of age though undoubtedly much older) was waiting to greet me. Once
beyond the walls we entered a little two-seated scooter which traversed
the grounds with astonishing lightness and speed and arrived at the
home of my Nestorian companion, who evidently was a sort of super head
master.
“It is better for you to pass the first night under my roof,” he said
when we had alighted, “until the feeling against you shall have abated
somewhat.”
“Really? I should think that the only sentiment would be curiosity. How
have I offended?”
“This year’s debutants are a vain and silly lot and they have been made
unruly by this talk of social equality that is in the air.”
“Then I gather you do not believe in male suffrage,” I said, gazing at
him in surprise.
“This is a woman’s world,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “Man’s
place is in the Club.”
I broke out laughing with the same result. Men too in this advanced
age were totally deprived of humor. Suddenly I stopped struck by an
inspiration. To begin the revolt of the males, I must teach them to
laugh!
The young debutants began to return in a state of great excitement.
Within half an hour, there were fully two hundred gathered in a
clamoring group outside. What they wanted was, of course, a view of me.
Nestor, with a caution to remain within, stepped outside the door and
was addressing the ring leaders in a peremptory tone, when, moved by an
impulse of disdain for these effeminate slender striplings, I sprang
out boldly, and raising my hand aloft in the best oratorical manner
cried:
“Hello, Twenty-Second Century!”
This salutation delivered with perfect good humor and confidence caught
that animal curiosity which is instinct in the crowd. The first ranks
stopped and stared. Profiting by the moment, I put Nestor behind me
with a commanding gesture and advancing boldly among them, said:
“You are not a bit more curious to know what men were in my day than I
am to know you and your ways. Gentlemen, I am delighted to be with you.
And if anyone here thinks that it was with any pleasure that I have
suffered myself to be dragged about and exhibited like a tamed animal,
let him undeceive himself. Or if you think I am sent here by any
complaints of yours, you are wrong again. I am here because the female
powers that be, regard me as a menace to the society they have imposed
on you. As I shall probably be deported within forty-eight hours to
another century, make the most of this opportunity to find out how and
why men ruled the world when men were giants!”
This speech which I personally thought rather bombastic, had a
triumphant result. My appeal to the curiosity of the male (which women
have always insisted on) turned the irritation of the crowd into one of
the friendliest eagerness. By nightfall I can truly say that I was the
most popular man in the Club. I wisely postponed any attempt to stir
my fellow men to revolt until I had taken time to acquaint myself with
their point of view, their habits and their inhibitions.
At first I admit to a certain discouragement as I realized the full
strength of the inertia that ease and idleness had developed in them.
The young males had been rendered so pampered and indolent that at
first I found it impossible to arouse them to any shame of the life
of luxury and indulgence in which they were steeped. Outside of
the gladiators (who were like a sex apart) the young male of the
twenty-second century was a vain and slothful creature of the harem.
Due, no doubt, to the multiplication of automatic machinery and the
use of the aeroplane, I doubt if any of them could have walked a brisk
five miles without needing resuscitation. On the other hand, all their
physical education was directed towards the terpsichorean arts, in
which they excelled for grace of movement and lightness of poise.
Their mental education I discovered went scarcely between the three
R’s, reading, writing and arithmetic and their reading consisted in
as feverish an application to detective literature as would have
distinguished a statesman in my time. They rose late in the morning
and spent a greater part of the day in the bath with solicitous
applications for the softening of their skins, which were of an
extraordinary velvety texture. The oiling, perfuming and curling
of their hair occupied another two hours, after which they trained
themselves in the intricate choreographic steps which they would later
display to delight the eyes of the stronger sex. The habit of gambling
was a mania with them and even in their baths which were of a Roman
splendor, they were continually throwing dice in a dozen different and
extremely intricate games. At night they remained until the small hours
engrossed in their cards in a game which was a strange development of
poker and contract bridge.
When I attempted to arouse them from their torpor of indulgence by
recitals of the exploits of the male heroes of other days, citing the
explorers who with adventurous courage had braved the Arctic colds,
dared the terrors of the deep, or first laid their perilous courses
across the uncharted sky, I found that the very idea of such dangers
appalled their imaginations. The invariable response was that it was a
woman’s world and some frankly proclaimed that the revolt I was urging,
meant nothing but exchanging a pleasant life of sheltered ease for
tasks of effort and responsibility.
I was, I admit, in despair of any success, when fortunately I
discovered a small group whose racial characteristics marked them as
descendants of the Irish Isles. Knowing the strong instinct of that
rebellious race to any and all existing forms of government, I worked
upon this strain and found to my delight a responsive enthusiasm.
It was then that my first inspiration returned to my memory. I
determined to begin at the beginning of all revolts, by teaching
these supernaturally sober-faced descendants the art of laughing.
Applying the same physical methods I had used in the home of Acquilla,
I succeeded in a few days in completely changing the character of
the community. No sooner had they been instructed into the manly art
of laughter than they began to seek by all manner of practical jokes
a means for giving vent to these new emotions. From morning to night
the Club was filled with boisterous outbursts and I became at last an
acknowledged leader.
I now developed their newly discovered sense of humor by holding up
to ridicule their feminine despots until, when the time was ripe, I
brought forward triumphantly my scheme for a successful rebellion. I
recited to them the story of Lysistrata and the woman’s revolt and
having carefully demonstrated to them that they were set apart for one
particular purpose alone, I pictured the consternation that would ensue
if they steadfastly refused to venture from their walls, assuring them
that in a short time they would be able to dictate their own terms.
This idea appealed so strongly to their rapidly developing sense of
the ridiculous that the proposition was greeted with cheers and shouts
of laughter and by unanimous acclaim I was appointed general in chief,
with power to issue the ultimatum and enforce all needed discipline
over the weaker minded elements.
For three days not a male stirred from the walls that by inviolable
tradition protected their seclusion. On the fourth, the entire body of
the Histriones gathered outside the gates led by Dianne, and demanded a
conference.
Restraining my forces, with some difficulty I admit, I advanced
outside the gates. While the young males in a fever of curiosity lined
the walls, the lovely Dianne approaching me with dimmed eyes and
outstretched arms enfolded me in her trembling embrace.
“Oh, Jack,” she exclaimed reproachfully, “you do not love me!”
It was the first time I had heard that peculiar feminine complaint
since my arrival and its evidence that the primitive instincts could be
counted upon, heartened me greatly.
“On the contrary,” I replied with unfeigned emotion. “It is because I
am more in love with you than ever, that I have done what I have done
to free us from Acquilla’s tyranny.”
“But what is happening? We hear the strangest noises as though the
debutants had gone mad. And what is this new strange costume I see you
in,” she added drawing back in surprise and staring at the shorts and
polo shirt I had introduced.
“We have adopted the costume that was already being debated at the time
of my departure. Do you like them?”
“What beautiful legs you have, Jack dear, so straight and strong and
wooly!”
Her enthusiasm pleased but abashed me. I said hastily:
“As for the disturbances you have heard, reassure your fellow women.
The men are in revolt, but we shall not proceed to acts of violence.
Ours is what was called the rebellion of non-resistance.”
“What do you mean?” continued Dianne, still contemplating my legs.
“Have you read ‘Lysistrata’? Since the sexes are reversed, we have
determined to revert to woman’s weapons!”
“Bogardus, how cruel!” Dianne exclaimed suddenly enlightened. “But
then--no, you do not love me as I love you! You are thinking only of
your pride of sex and I think of nothing but my longing for you!”
“_I could not love thee half so well
Loved I not honor more_,”
I quoted triumphantly.
“But explain. Yes, I remember ‘Lysistrata’ dimly. What is your plan and
how long are you going to hold to it?”
“Do not reproach me, adorable Dianne, but set your wits to help me and
I assure you, in a short, a very short time we shall be triumphantly
united! Take back our ultimatum to the Minervenes and Manfreda and
the Supreme Council;--complete equality for men, political, social and
educational or we refuse to leave our walls!”
“It is ingenious if cruel,” said Dianne meditating. “Yet I’m afraid,
terribly afraid for you! For what can mere man do against this woman’s
civilization?”
“What can we do? We can do what any horse can do if a horse knew his
strength. Lie down and refuse to get up. The decision is up to you. If
you need us in your lives, you must restore our dignity and our rights.
This is our last word!”
Dianne shook her head mournfully, oppressed by, alas, too well founded
premonitions.
“I shall do my best--if it were in the power of the Histriones, you
would win, dear. We are already, as you know, your advocates. But
Manfreda and the Minervenes--I am afraid, my beloved, afraid!”
She kissed me sadly and returned to her companions who thronged about
her with questioning lips while I entered the gates to report.
The audacity of my defiance seemed to appall my adherents. Whereas,
before, they had been imbued with the gaiety of a child’s rebellion, I
found now a general feeling of depression, shaking heads and ominous
glances. Their forebodings were only too well justified. For two
days we were cut off from all knowledge of what was transpiring in
the outer world, radiophone and television abruptly interrupted. Then
suddenly over our heads a squadron of aerial cruisers, armed with the
devastating electronoid rays appeared. The answer of Manfreda was short
and uncompromising. I was to be delivered up for judgment immediately.
At the end of one hour a failure to comply would mean the instant
blotting out of the whole community!