[Illustration]
No man can tell the truth and survive--save through prestige. And no
child either. Aristocracy is license to tell the truth. And to hear it.
Witness the man William in Henry Fifth, the camp incident. Fear clutched
at his heart.
Agh-ha-ha! Shouted the _vaqueros_ plunging their spurs into the
bronchos' sides. Up with the heels. Buck, buck, buck. Agh-ha-ha!
_Fortissimo_. The wild and unexpected cry out of the Mexican Indian
country rang through the quiet house so that the pup leaped up and
rushed to the door.
Someone had taken the apple. Both denied they had had a hand in it. Each
accused the other. The truth did not appear. For an hour the man tried
his best to arrive at a just decision. Joseph Smith shook where he stood
and fell frothing at the mouth. He was of Vermont mountain stock. His
birth among the poor white trash there had not even been thought worth
recording. Yet a vision came to him of the marriage in Cana. Christ
drank the wine and Martha and Mary her sister became his wives--so to
speak. It is the truth. The world shall be saved anew, said Joseph Smith
in the mountains of Vermont--where the mushrooms are so plentiful among
the fir trees.
Who had given the boy the apple against the father's express orders? Had
he taken it himself--which he denied or had the girl gone into the store
room--as he asserted but which she denied--and selected it herself?
Where was the truth?
In Illinois Brigham Young was recruited. Off they set with fifty oxen
for the Promised Land away over the prairies and deserts--through the
Sioux country, in search of Zion. The whole world they would leave
behind and for the truth's sake they would live in that far country--to
be discovered, to which the Lord would lead them.
Go upstairs sir and take your clothes off. You shall go to bed for this
lie--I'll say I took the apple Daddy, said the boy sobbing violently,
but she gave it to me. In minute detail he repeated the story of how the
apple was picked out of the basket by the girl and handed to him to eat.
Lions of the Lord. The boy would not give up his bride to Brigham and
was _altered_, as a rebel. She went mad. In '49 a party of gold seekers
came by accident into the valley they had found. They were gently
received. A warning was given of hostile Indians and a special guard was
appointed to conduct them safely on their way. But Brigham had had a
dream. Men must not wander into the valley of Zion to disturb the ways
of God's holy ones. A blood sacrifice had been demanded of Brigham by
the Lord. John D. Lee was selected as he who must lend himself to the
Almighty will of God for the good of the church and state. Slowly the
party of gold seekers departed for California. At the narrow defile at
Mountain Meadow the treacherous business was performed. All but a child
were killed and Brigham and the Lord were revenged. Later John D. Lee
was convicted of murder by government authorities and shot. A poor
ignorant tool in the hands of that most mighty Lion of the Lord.
And you my girl. You have lied to me before this. Did you or did you not
take the apple? No one will be punished but I must have the truth.
Tomorrow is Sunday. You shall go to church, and up to the minister you
shall march, and he will ask you what I am asking you now. In the face
of God you shall say to him that you did not take that apple, then I
shall know. Did you or did you not take that apple? I will have the
truth. And you my young sir, I shall not punish you but I must have the
truth. You shall stay in bed all day tomorrow, all next week as long as
it takes for one of you to change your story. I will have the truth.
The mountains are savage about the valley. The lake is bitter, scalding
with the salt. They knew they had found the Dead Sea. At last the child
confessed, with bitter and hard tears that he had taken the fruit
himself. It was the truth.
Clear and cold the moon shone in the partly denuded poplars. It was
midnight and the little fellow to whom he had determined to teach the
meaning of the truth was snug in his bed. Years before that Utah had
been admitted to the Union as a state and polygamy had been more or less
abandoned. The young folk were beginning to be ashamed of the narrowness
of their cult and the bones of the fathers were rotten.
The glassy half moon in the dark leaves cast a dull light over the world
upon which a calm had descended. Suddenly the pleiades could be heard
talking together in Phœnician. Their words were clear as dropping
water: What things they do in this new world: they said. Let us from now
on swear to each other that we will give up every thought of wisdom and
seek no further for the truth--which is, after all a veritable moon.--At
this the moon was overcast for a moment by a falling leaf. The answer
that came from that clear but broken ball rose slowly toward the stars:
The child is asleep. Let us warn him of the folly of words. Let us bless
him only with words that change often and never stiffen nor remain to
form sentences of seven parts. To him I send a message of words like
running water.--At this the stars smiled for they were married to one--
_Elena, yo soy un_ wonder, she would say. _Vu par le jury_. And who is
the jury but myself. The boy had struck her with a stone. Come we shall
go and apologise, said Brigham Young. Into the neighbour's kitchen they
walked. An older sister was cleaning the gas range. Where is your
sister? But the truth is that all the while he had been hoping that just
what had happened would happen. His eye ran up and down the girl's form.
Secretly he was happy to have found her alone. I'm sorry, I will never
do it again, Never again. Never again. Oh never, never again.
And how can I, now that it is all over, and I am old? But at first I
tell you I cried my eyes out. I had just been admitted to the Beaux
Arts. All was as near perfect as could well be. I had the friendship of
La Baronne d'Orsay and then the stars withdrew their aid. I had to go
back to Porto Rico. I had to leave everything behind to go back to that
country where there was nothing.
There life ended. But it is over now. I was just beginning to do things.
I tell you I cried my eyes out. But I am old now. I wanted you to see
these drawings, to show you it was not a bluff.
The Indians are gone. It is late now. It is cold. September is over.
October is cold. Words should be--Words should be--I am tired to death.
But two enormous women, middle aged, dignified, with still broad backs
came down the street just as the very dirty little boy was crossing
over. The three arrived at the entrance to the path at the same moment.
The women looked hard at the filthy little boy whose face was stickily
from apple-juice and black, with a great circle of dirt around the
mouth. The women looked and the little boy hung his head and stumbled
off into the long grass, almost falling into the abandoned foundation.
And so the little company went on foot 20,000 miles along what later
became known as Emigration Trail, overcoming incredible obstacles,
eating the draught oxen, through savage mountains on, on to the Mountain
Meadow Massacre. For they would worship the Lord their God in peace and
in their own way. At last the Mayflower was in the harbor and the
pilgrims had landed and dispersed.
Yes, it was a New World.
But they have prospered and today the Mormon Church is all for goodness
and it is powerful and rich.
A favorite trick of the Mayo Indians is, if they meet a man with good
clothes, to take what they want and let him go on in his drawers.
So it was with infinite satisfaction that on looking up the little boy
saw those two terrible viragos suddenly as low as he. _Nuevo Mundo_.