The Diamond World.
When one reads of the size and population of our world he is thrilled
with the idea of its greatness. But when he travels over land and sea,
visiting the many points of interest, he is impressed four-fold with the
magnitude of the Earth and the vast numbers that populate it.
It is infinitely more so in regard to the many suns and planets that
compose the universe. I had read of the distances of space and of the
number of celestial bodies that are scattered throughout these
measureless expanses, and I was profoundly impressed with the vastness
of created things and the eternal revolutions of the countless spheres.
But when I took my continued flight away from the solar system of Sirius
and was privileged to get a passing glimpse of many other solar systems,
I was overawed a thousand-fold at the myriad motions of the myriad
worlds, each serving its little part through the passing cycles to
carry out the plan of the Infinite Mind.
My next pause was at the glorious constellation of Orion on the star
Rigel. This brilliant orb is not inhabited, but more than one-half of
the worlds revolving around it sustain human life.
After I had taken a passing glimpse of a few worlds belonging to this
system, I proceeded to visit another world that revolves around Rigel at
a distance of sixteen hundred million miles. It is a trifle larger than
our world and is inhabited by only about one-tenth as many people.
This is the brightest planet I had ever seen, for it dazzled and
sparkled like pearls of ice in the sun, and yet it gave forth no light
of its own.
I soon learned the secret of all this scintillation. I had come to a
world that seemed to be covered with diamonds and precious stones. The
mountains were barren of all vegetation and glistened with all the glory
of a hundred rainbows.
I presumed that I had come to immense beds of quartz, but the rare
brilliancy of the whole scene set me to work to ascertain the value of
these stones. To my astonishment, I found that the shining mountains and
valleys were filled with genuine diamonds and precious stones, some of
which are very rare according to our classification. I was dazed at the
sight, first because of its brilliancy and beauty, and next because of
the fabulous fortunes that were lying at my feet.
Then I transported myself to another part of the planet that I might get
a view of its living fields of vegetation. Alas, I again met the shining
of countless gems, set by nature in ledges of rock and massed in
confused heaps all around me.
"What a rich world!" I inwardly murmured. "How can people live on
diamonds?"
As I was thus musing I sped onward to one of the soil centers of this
world. Here I found a small city built of diamonds and choice stones of
which the people thought no more than we do of the stones brought down
from our quarries.
The soil was almost worshiped. Only the wealthiest could afford to have
it in their homes for the growth of flowers. Fortunately, the soil is
very productive and, by reason of its scarcity, it has received such
careful attention that all worthless weeds have been actually choked out
several thousand years ago.
Thus, the soil being so desirable and staple an article, it was eagerly
sought after by all who lived on this shining world. Yea, some
sacrificed their all that they might obtain a goodly portion of the
soil. This desire was so great that it became the ruling passion of many
people to accumulate soil all the days of their life, and many died of
grief because they could not succeed in satisfying their ambitions.
Now when the speculators saw that the soil was so indispensable and much
desired by the people, and that out of it were the issues of life, the
wealthier and more crafty of them said among themselves:
"Come, let us buy all the soil, we and our brethren in all the soil
centers, and let us call ourselves a Trust, signifying that we will
trust one another to the secrets of our enterprise."
And behold this saying seemed good in the eyes of these wise men, and
they labored diligently until, in the passing of a few years, they had
secured unto themselves full possession of all the soil of the Diamond
World.
And it was so in the course of time that these corporations held a great
meeting and they said:
"Barns we will build to store products of the soil, and behold we will
sell from these storehouses to our workmen for the labor that they may
render unto us."
This scheme was pleasing to all the capitalists and they rejoiced in the
bright prospect of the future. So they built great barns and thus laid
away the products of the soil. Then they appointed agents to sell
whatsoever the people wished.
And it came to pass, as the seasons came and went, that these
capitalists gave the laborers less for their toil, and charged them more
for food at the supply stations. Thus the conditions became so severe
that a man could work from the rising of the Sun to the setting thereof,
and they earn scarcely enough to keep his family alive.
After this manner the land owners grew more and more wealthy, built
unto themselves handsome little villages, and lived in happiness and
refinement. They also erected for themselves select schools and reserved
beautiful plots for their luxury and amusement.
Then did the members of this Trust, in order to protect themselves from
all possible trouble, pass a civil law forbidding any laborer to own an
inch of soil. Thus it was very easy to convict a man of theft if soil
could be found upon his person or premises.
Now, behold, there were many little spots of vegetation scattered here
and there over this whole world. But the agents of the Trust sent out
numerous expeditions to gather up all the loose earth that could be
found and carry it to the soil centers. This work was so completely done
that every nook and corner yielded its accumulated dust to enlarge the
gardens at the soil centers and thereby increase the riches of the
Trust.
Now, as time passed on, the children of the laborers were also employed
to assist in earning bread, and in the course of a few hundred years
the school houses in the district of the laborers were torn down, as it
was impossible for these children to receive an education, since they
must needs work for their sustenance.
After many ages the members of the Trust had become so hardened that
they no longer regarded the wishes of the laboring people, but pushed
everything to increase their own selfish gain, insomuch that they
succeeded in securing the passage of certain laws making the burdens of
the laborers still more heavy.
And now, when the capitalists saw that the people did not rebel, they
again counseled among themselves on this wise:
"Why should there be so much labor lost in continually quarrying new
sepulchers in our diamond ridges, and why should there be so much dust
lying idle in the old graves? Come, let us have a law that the dust in
all graves over one hundred years old shall be sold at auction, unless
the graves are redeemed by a certain amount of soil. Then these empty
tombs can be again filled with the dead of our servants and their
children. Thus let it be continued throughout coming generations
forever. Each year this auction shall be held to dispose of the dust
remaining in one-hundred-year-old sepulchers."
These suggestions found favor in the eyes of the Trust who proceeded at
once to take the necessary steps to incorporate these regulations into
the laws of the commonwealth. The laborers stoutly opposed the adoption
of these partial measures, but they were powerless because the Trust
bribed enough of the legislators to carry their point.
All this happened many centuries ago, so that when I was there I saw the
full program of one of these spectral auctions and was chilled with
horror at the proceedings.
Every year this peculiar auction is held at each soil center. The
wealthy are able to redeem their sepulchers, but the poor, having no
soil, cannot satisfy the law; so the dust of their ancestors must be
sold. Laborers are sent out to open the one-hundred-year-old sepulchers
along the diamond ridges and carry the coffins to one place. Here they
are publicly opened and the bones and dust gathered into one
receptacle after which the weird auction begins. No one can compete with
the corporations and no one tries.
[Illustration: The Most Horrible Auction in Our Universe.]
The legal form of the auction is soon over and the half ton or ton of
dust is legally bought by the corporations whose officers order it to be
sprinkled over the gardens. It serves the same purpose as phosphate in
our fields. This awful process is repeated each year. The sepulchers,
emptied thus, are open for new burials. So you can see that with all the
gruesomeness of this whole business, there is an economic side to it,
and the people have come to view it all in a philosophical manner.
When this wretched custom was first inaugurated a bitter wail ascended
from the ranks of the laboring classes, for they well knew whose graves
would be opened. Never was there such a stir among the working classes
of people. They held mass meetings and grew loudly indignant until the
Trust became alarmed at the uprising.
Then did some of these rich sharpsters, who were best gifted in speech,
go out to meet their servants, addressing them thus:
"Let your hearts be at peace, my fellow creatures. This new law that we
have just passed is a boon to every toiler, for we seek to lighten your
burdens by utilizing the idle dust from the tombs. Hereafter we propose
to give, free of charge, a sepulcher to every toiler in which he may
take his rest for one hundred years. These graves shall be for you and
your children forever. Is it not a precious thought that one hundred
years after you are dead, your bodies shall again mingle with the soil
and, without voluntary effort or pain, help to support your kindred yet
unborn?
"If our present silly customs should prevail, the time will come when
half our soil will have been carried to the sepulchers, and therefore
your tasks would be more severe."
After this manner spake the glib-tongued fellows and, behold, their
speeches were as oil on the troubled waters. Under their sophistries the
laborers were content and peacefully went to their tasks again after
three months of unrest.
Then did the members of the corporations consult again and spake among
themselves in this fashion:
"For our protection let us gather, from the laborers, the youthful and
the strong, have them taught in tactics of war, and make it unlawful for
any to carry deadly weapons, except these trained men, whom we will call
our Soil Defenders, and if any of the laborers should ask: 'Wherefore
are we called to do this work?' we will say to them, 'For the defense of
the soil and the defense of our families are ye called, therefore quit
yourselves nobly.'
"And it shall come to pass that when the laborers commence a foolish
struggle for their own selfish gain, we can use these trained soldiers
to keep them in peace, and thus we need not spend so much of our breath
by way of persuasion."
Behold this thing seemed reasonable and seasonable in the eyes of the
Trust. They did according to these suggestions and gathered unto
themselves, in the name of the civil law, the strongest of the youth and
trained them in all the ways of war. Thus did these workmen lose all
their liberties by slow degrees, until they were no more troublesome,
but labored like slaves to get the wherewithal to live.
As I witnessed this sad picture resulting from the inhumanity of man to
man, I was at once reminded of what I had seen on Mars, and of the
struggle now pending in my own world. Once more I breathed a silent
prayer to the Ruler of all worlds in behalf of the crushed hands and
bleeding hearts that are bruised in order that certain men may make
their thousands in a day.
I studied the social life of the refined villagers and learned, with
much interest, that the word they use for soil, is used in the same
esteemed connection in which we use the word gold or diamond.
Preachers, teachers and orators make endless references to the soil.
Finally I approached, in a visible form, a few professors who were
engaged in a special discussion.
They were alarmed at my sudden appearance, not knowing whence I came nor
what sort of an animal I might be. I quickly calmed their troubled minds
by using language they easily understood, and explained that I was
neither a ghost nor a spirit, but a mere citizen of another world,
having, for a limited period, a free excursion ticket to a thousand
worlds, and that I chose their planet as one whereon to spend a fleeting
period.
Not having been accustomed to such visitants, they were at first
skeptical and thoroughly overawed at my presence.
I purposely became as familiar as possible and cautioned them to remain
in the selfsame room and spread no notice of my presence. To this
request they reluctantly consented.
After my nonplused auditors gained their senses somewhat they ventured
to reply to my coaxing questions; these finally led to the following
interrogations on their part:
"How large is your world?" came a question from one.
"Not quite so large as this one," I replied.
"Have you much soil there?"
"A million times more than you have here."
"What a wonderfully rich world! The people must be gloriously happy
with such fabulous wealth around them."
"The bulk of my fellow-men there are not happy," I sighed. "So many
spend their lives looking for diamonds and gold, the most of whom are
doomed to disappointment."
An incredulous smile crept over the faces of my newly-made friends, and
by it I read the doubt that was arising in their hearts as to the truth
of my utterance.
"My words are sincere," I insisted. "If you could take one bushel of
your diamonds to the world where I live, you could get more soil for
them than you have on your whole globe."
"That world is heaven," exclaimed a few of my hearers at once. "A world
of such abundant soil cannot be any other place." Then I learned that
their conception of Heaven is not a place of gold-paved streets, but a
place where soil is freely distributed even on the sides of the streets.
I continued speaking, telling them how diamonds were considered in our
world. These professors were astonished beyond measure at my
description, and each one seemed to crave for the knowledge to transport
a large consignment of their diamonds to our Earth and return with acres
of soil to the Diamond World.
I spent a felicitous period with these queer-shaped scholars of the
Diamond World. They prayed and begged that I should remain and appear
before the corporations. Their spirits drooped when I told them that if
I had any more time to spend visibly on their world I would prefer to
comfort the laborers and their suffering families who had been so long
deprived of the fair treatment they deserved.
My hearers became ashen with fear, now feeling doubly assured that I was
a forerunner of some terrible curse that was about to fall upon the
Trusts and corporations whom those professors were serving so
assiduously, without ever speaking a word of protest in favor of the
human slaves around them.
Once more I related my station. But I spoke in most convincing terms of
the eternal curse with which the Infinite would visit the guilty of all
worlds.
As I left them I saw that my last words brought no relief to their
faces and, after a long silence, they nervously discussed the whole
affair, not being able to account for the exceptional experience through
which they had just passed.
I visited, in a form invisible, the mansions of the rich and found that
the most choice ornaments on their parlor shelves consisted of vials of
soil or dirt, and in the homes of the most wealthy only I saw flowering
plants.
It chanced that I visited this world at the graduating period of the
greater schools. This gave me privilege to hear an oration on "The Soil
and the Diamond," a synopsis of which I will translate as correctly as I
can. It will be remembered that I must use terms and style suitable to
our language.
"O beautiful soil! Thou art but a type of thy maker invisible. Thou dost
give birth to countless forms and nursest them all from thy own bosom.
From the atom thou bringest the oak, and all its children fall back into
thy arms for succor. From thy own heart spring the infinite types of
vegetable beauty, all painted and frescoed by thy own exquisite
touches.
"O mysterious soil! Wrapped in thy bosom lie a thousand secrets which,
if I could but read, I might interpret and thus learn anew of my
Creator. Thou holdest the ashes of the millions slain, and the dust of
all our forefathers.
"O silent soil! How thou workest without the flying shuttle, or the hum
of the busy bees. Thou doest thy greatest deeds without the sounding of
a trumpet. Silently thy atoms take their places to serve in higher
forms. O teach me thy mute language that I may live and sacrifice for
others without my crying and my sighing.
"O humble soil! Thy elements, when formed into man, or fruit, or any
kind of food, return again without complaint when touched by death. May
I, like thee, take all my condescension in the spirit of humility.
"O modest soil! Thou are not gaudy like the diamond, sparkling and
dazzling in a brilliant show and living for nothing higher than display.
But thou dost lay aside thy feathery tips, leaving the sun of heaven do
the shining. Thou permittest water crystals to give the rainbow hues,
whilst thou in thy own modest way, continuest to yield sustenance for
man and bird and beast.
"O instructive soil! Wilt thou not, in thy own wise way, speak to the
thoughtless man who feels content to grovel with the miserable diamond,
who takes his lessons from the dead, dead rock, and feeds his soul upon
such flinty food. Open his ears to hear thy words of life and light, and
may he see in thee the brighter mirror reflecting the God of all."
This one oration condensed is a fair sample of the others. I listened to
the whole program and then proceeded once more to view the diamond
splendors before I left this world where I was well paid for my
tarrying.