“Always the taboo of silence hedged the Monster about and protected
him; and men secretly revolted against it, yet were restrained from
speech by the fear of public dishonor. So, in time, he came to have a
Scarlet Court of Shame, with his retinue of slaves, whose duty it was
to procure victims for his insatiate appetite. But this service availed
his servitors nothing in forbearance, for, sooner or later, his breath
of fiery venom blasted and withered them, one and all.
“One refuge only did the people seek against the Monster. At every
doorpost of the city stood a veiled statue of the supposed Goddess and
Protectress of the Household, worshiped under the name of _Modesty_,
and to her the people appealed for succor and protection. Also they
invoked her vengeance against such as spoke the name of the Monster,
and bitter were the penalties wrought upon these in her name.
Nevertheless there arose martyrs whose tongues could not be silenced by
any fear.
“One was a brave priest who stood in his pulpit unashamed and spoke the
terrible truth of the Monster, bidding his hearers arise and band
themselves together and strike a blow for their homes and their dear
ones. But the people hurried forth in dread, and sought refuge before
the Veiled Idol; and the priest’s words rang hollow in the empty
tabernacle; and his church was deserted and crumbled away in neglect,
so that the fearful said:—
“‘Behold the righteous wrath which follows the breaking of the
prescribed silence.’
“Again, a learned and pious physician and healer gathered the young men
about him in the marketplace to give them solemn warning against the
Monster and his scarlet slaves. But his words returned upon himself,
and he was branded with shame as one who worshiped not the Veiled
Goddess, and was presently driven forth from his own place into the
wilderness.
“Then there came into the hall of the City Fathers a woman with
disheveled hair and tear-worn cheeks, who beat upon her breast and
cried:—“‘Vengeance, O Wise and Great Ones! My son, my little son went
to the public baths, and the venom of the Monster was upon the waters,
and my son is blind forever. What will ye do, that others may not
suffer my grief?’
“And the Wise and Great Ones spoke together and said:—
“‘Surely this woman is mad, that she thus fouls her lips.’ And they
drove her out of their presence.
“From among their own number there came a terror and a portent. For
their Leader, who had been stricken in youth, but thought himself to
have thrown off the toils of the Monster, rose in his place and spoke
in a voice that piped and shook:—
“‘Because no man taught me in my unripe days, I strayed into the paths
of the Scarlet One. For the space of a generation I hoped; but now the
clutch is upon me again, and I die. See to it, O my Fellows, that our
youth no longer perish in their ignorance.’
“So he passed out from the place of honor; and the strength of his mind
and his body was loosened until he died. But, rather than violate the
taboo, the Wise and Great Ones gave a false name to his death, and he
was buried under a graven lie.
“Finally there came to the Council Hall one with the fire of martyrdom
in his eyes.
“‘Though I perish,’ he said, ‘I and mine, yet will I speak the truth
for once. My daughter I have given in marriage, and the Monster has
entered into the house of her marriage, and from henceforth she must
go, a maimed creature, sexless and childless, to the end of her days.
Shame upon this city, that it endures such shame; for my daughter is
but one of many.’
“‘The shame be yours,’ replied the Fathers, ‘that you bring scandal
upon your own. Go forth into exile, in the name of the Veiled Goddess,
_Modesty_, beneath whose statue we meet.’
“But the man strode forward, and with a violent hand plucked the veil
from the statue.
“‘Not the Protectress of Homes,’ he cried, ‘but the ally of the
Monster. Not the Goddess, _Modesty_, but her sham sister, _Prudery_.
Down with false gods!’
“So saying, he threw the idol to the ground, where it was shattered
into a thousand pieces. With those pieces the Fathers stoned him to
death.
“But in many households that night there was a baring of the Veiled
Idol. And ever, behind the folds, was revealed not the pure gaze of the
True Goddess, but the simper and leer of _Prudery_, mute accomplice of
_Shame_.
“Thus did the city awake. Fearfully it gathered its forces; tremblingly
it prepared its war upon the Monster. But the Monster is intrenched.
Its venom runs through the blood of the people, poisoning it from
generation to generation, so that neither the grandsons nor the
great-grandsons of those who stoned the martyr to the False Goddess
shall escape the curse. The Prophet has said it: ‘Even unto the third
and the fourth generations.’
“_De te fabula narratur_; of you is the fable narrated.
“The Land of Parables is your country.
“The stricken city is your city.
“The Monster coils at your doorway, lying in wait for your loved ones;
and no prudence, no precaution, no virtue can guard them safely against
his venom so long as the Silence of Prudery holds sway.”
Dr. Strong let the newspaper fall on his lap, and looked slowly from
face to face of the silent little group.
“Need I tell you the name of the destroyer?” he asked.
“Not me,” said Mrs. Clyde in a low tone. “It is a two-headed monster,
isn’t it?”
The Health Master nodded. “And because we all fear to utter the words
‘venereal disease,’ our children grow up in the peril of the Monster
whose two allies are Vice and Ignorance.”
“One editor in this town, at least, has some gumption,” commented
Grandma Sharpless, peering over her spectacles at the sheet which Dr.
Strong had let fall. “Which paper is it?”
“None, if you must know. The fact is, I read that allegory into the
newspaper, not out of it.”
“Then it was your own?” asked Mrs. Clyde. “Such as it is, mine own. But
the inspiration came from this headline.” He pointed to a legend in
heavy type:—