Well, a day or two after that Josiah and I wuz takin' a walk, meetin'
occasionally Turks all dressed Turkey fashion, and Japans, and Yankees
and men and wimmen and children, when who should we meet face to face
but Cousin John Richard, that blessed man. As I said, we had writ and
writ and tried to find him, but didn't know but we should have to hunt
round considerable, but wuz bound to not leave the islands till we'd
seen him. But lo and behold! here he wuz, lookin' just as good and
heavenly minded as ever. He wuz santerin' along apparently lost in
deep thought or nearly lost.
But when he see us he grasped our hands with a welcome that made us
know that no matter to what a extent a man's soul may live in the
heavens, his heart is tied with deathless ties to the relations on his
own side and to their pardners if they be congenial.
We stopped stun still and talked quite a spell about different things,
our health, the relations and so forth.
Anon I sez, "Cousin John Richard, you look wan and pale, but it is a
blessed work you are doin'."
He had opened a midnight mission, helpin' the weak and tempted and
overcome of both sects, preachin' the love of Christ and follerin' his
teachin' up by good works.
He told us all about it as we santered on and said he wuz not weary or
discouraged. And I could see that though his linement looked pale and
worn a deathless light shone in his deep kind eyes and I knew he wuz
endurin' as seein' Him who wuz invisible.
As we walked on he said, sadly pintin' to a barren lookin' spot sown
thick with graves, "In this deadly climate the Drink Demon has little
to do to assist his brother, Death. Our poor northern boys fall like
rotten leaves before a hurricane."
Sez I, lookin' up to the blue sky, "Why don't the heavens fall when
such things affront the light of day!"
"The patience of God," sez Cousin John Richard, "is one of the things
we cannot measure."
"Nor his pity nuther," sez I in heart-broken axents, for as I looked
at them thickly sown graves and thought of the mothers and wives and
sweethearts fur, fur away mournin' for them that wuz not, my tears
fell and I wiped 'em off with my snowy linen handkerchief.
Well, Cousin John Richard had an appointment in another part of the
city and we parted away from each other, he promisin' to come and see
us at our tarven before we left the city.
Well, we didn't make a long stay in Manila. But Arvilly beset me to go
with her to see General Grant, who was here on a tour of inspection,
on this subject so near to her heart, and which she had made her
lifework. She said that it wuz my duty to go.
But I sez, "Arvilly, you talk so hash; I can't bear to have the son of
the man who saved his country talked to as I am afraid you will if you
git to goin'."
Sez she, "I won't open my head. You know the subject from A to izzard.
I'll jest stand by and listen, but somebody ort to talk to him.
Hundreds and hundreds of American saloons in this one city! Forced
onto these islands by our country. Sunthin' has got to be done about
it. If you don't go and talk to him about it I shall certainly go
alone, and if I do go," sez she, "he will hear talk that he never
hearn before."
"I'll go, Arvilly," sez I hurriedly, "I'll go and do the best I can,
but if you put in and talk so hash it will jest throw me off the
track."
"A promise is a promise," sez she; "I never did break my word yet."
Well, havin' made the necessary preliminary moves, we met General
Grant by appointment in his own quarters. Before we got inside the
lines we had to advance and give the countersign, which wuz Whiskey.
Arvilly planted herself right there like a balky mule and said she
would die in her tracks before she said it. But I, knowin' that it
wouldn't make nor break the traffick, sez, "Whiskey," and I added,
"May the Lord destroy it!" Arvilly sez, "Amen!" and we walked in past
the astounded sentry with out heads up. (General Grant hadn't nothin'
to do with that countersign; it wuz some officer's doin's.) Well,
General Grant seemed quite pleased to see us. He's a real good-lookin'
man, and if he hadn't any properties of his own he would be beloved
for his pa's sake, but he has properties of his own. He is a good man
and a smart one. Well, the first compliments bein' passed, I lanched
out into my bizness.
Sez I, "Brigadier General Grant, I have come to you on the most
important mission any ambassador ever travelled on."
Sez he, "What sovereign, madam, do you represent, and from what
country do you come?" Sez I, "Brigadier General Grant, my mission is
from the Lord of Hosts, and the country I come to plead for is your
own native land--the United States--the land your own illustrious pa
saved with the Lord's help."
He wuz deeply affected I see and invited us to set down, consequently
we sot. And I sez, plungin' to once into my bizness as my way is in
Jonesville or the Antipathies: "Brigadier General, everybody knows
that you are a brave man and a good man." He thanked me and looked
pleased, as well he might from such an enconium from one of the first
wimmen of the ages, and I resoomed: "General Grant," sez I, "are you
brave enough and good enough to tackle the worst foe America ever
had?"
Sez he, "What foe do you allude to, mam?"
Sez I, "The foe that slays one hundred thousand a year, and causes ten
thousand murders every year, steals the vittles and clothes from
starvin' wimmen and children, has its deadly grip on Church and State,
and makes our civilization and Christianity a mock and byword amongst
them that think."
"You allude to Intemperance, I presume," sez he. He's dretful smart;
he knew it in a minute from my description.
"Yes," sez I, "a foe a million times as dangerous as any your army
ever faced, and a million times as hard to chase out of its
ambuscade."
Sez I, "Frederic (I thought mebby it would sound more convincin' and
friendly if I called him Frederic, and I wanted to convince him; I
wanted to like a dog), I don't believe in war, but when your men died
in battle they didn't moulder out a livin' death, chained to tender
hearts, dragged along the putrid death path with 'em. Their country
honored 'em; they wuzn't thrust into dishonored graves, some as
paupers, some as criminals swingin' from scaffolds. Their country
mourns for 'em and honors 'em. It wuzn't glad to cover their faces
away from the light, brutish faces to hant 'em with reproach, I should
think, knowin' how they died. Try to think of that, Frederic; try to
take it to heart."
I hearn Arvilly behind me breathin' hard and kinder chokin' seemin'ly,
and I knew she wuz holdin' herself in as tight as if she had a rope
round her emotions and indignations to keep her from breakin' in and
jinin' our talk, but she wuz as true as steel to her word and didn't
say nothin' and I resoomed:
"You've got to take such things to hum to realize 'em," sez I. "Owin'
to a sweet mother and a good father your boy mebby is safe. But
spozein' he wuzn't, spozein' you and his sweet ma had to look on as
millions of other pas and mas have to and see his handsome, manly
young face growin' red, dissipated, brutal; his light, gay young heart
changed to a demon's, and from bein' your chief pride you had to hide
him out of sight like the foul and loathsome leper he had become.
Millions of other pas and mas that love their boys as well as you love
yours have to do this. And if it wuz your boy what would you say of
the legalized crime that made him so? Wouldn't you turn the might of
your great strength aginst it?"
He didn't speak out loud, but I see from his looks that he would.
"Then," sez I, "do, do think of other pas and mas and sisters and
sweethearts and wives weepin' and wailin' for husbands, sons and
brothers slain by this enemy! I spoze," sez I reasonably, "that you
think it is an old story and monotonous, but Love is an old story and
Grief and Death, but they are jest as true as at the creation and jest
as solemn." I thought he looked a good deal convinced, but he looked
as if he wuz thinkin' of the extreme difficulty of reachin' and
vanquishin' this foe intrenched as it is in the lowest passions of
men, hidin' behind the highest legal barriers and barricaded behind
meetin' house doors, guarded by the ballots of saint and sinner; I
read these thoughts on his forehead, and answered 'em jest as if he'd
spoke.
Sez I, "When your illustrious father come up face to face with a foe
no other general could manage, did he flinch and draw back because it
had been called onmanageable by everybody else? No, he drawed a line
between good and evil, black and white, and says, 'I'll fight it right
out on this line.' And he did, and before his courage and bravery and
persistence the foe fell. Now, Frederic, here is the biggest foe that
the American people are facin' to-day; here are weak generals and
incompetent ones. Nobody can manage it; them high in authority wink at
it and dassent tackle it, and so on down through all the grades of
society--Church and State--they dassent touch it. And what is the
burnin'est shame, them that ort to fight it support it with all the
political and moral help they can give it. Here is a chance, Frederic,
for you to do tenfold more for your country's good than ever your
revered father did, and you know and I know that if it wasn't for this
great evil and a few others, such as the big Trusts and a few other
things, our country is the greatest and best that the sun ever shone
on. If we loved our country as we ort to we would try to make her do
away with these evils and stand up perfect under the heavens. It is
the ma that loves her child that spanks her into doin' right if she
can't coax her, and now do lay hold and help your country up onto the
highest pedestal that a country ever stood on, and I'll help boost all
I can." I hearn behind me a loud "amen," turned into a cough. Arvilly
wuzn't to blame; it spoke itself onbeknown to her.
Sez I, "This is a hard job I am askin' you to tackle. The foe your
father fit was in front of him, but this foe is within and without,
and has for allies, powers and principalities and the Prince of
Darkness. And now will you, bearin' the name you do, of General Grant,
will you flinch before this black-hearted foe that aims at the heart
and souls of your countrymen and countrywomen, or will you lead the
Forlorn Hope? I believe that if you would raise the White Banner and
lead on this army of the Cross, Church and State would rally to your
battle-cry, angels would swarm round your standard and the Lord of
Hosts go forward before you."
He didn't say he would, I spoze he wuz too agitated. But he sez
sunthin' in a real polite way about what a good Ambassador his country
had in me.
But I sez sadly, "I can't do much, Frederic. I am a woman, and the
only weepon that is able to slay this demon is hung up there in
Washington, D. C. Wimmen can't reach up to it, they can't vote. But
you can; your arm is longer, and with that you can slay this demon as
St. George slew the dragon. And heaven itself would drop down heavenly
immortelles to mix with our laurel leaves to crown your forehead.
Think on it, Frederic, no war wuz ever so holy, no war on earth wuz
ever so full of immortal consequences."
And here I riz up, for I felt that I must leave the Presence, not
wantin' to make the Presence twice glad. I reached out my right hand
and sez, "Good-by, and God bless you, for your own sake and for the
sake of your noble pa."
He looked earnest and thoughtful, that allusion to the boy he loved
so, named after his illustrious grandpa, had touched his very soul. I
felt that I had not lost my breath or the eloquence I had lavished. I
felt that he would help save other bright young boys from the demon
that sought their lives--the bloody demon that stalks up and down our
country wrapped in a shelterin' mantilly made of the Stars and
Stripes--oh, for shame! for shame that it is so! But I felt that
General Grant would come up to the help of the Lord aginst the mighty,
I felt it in my bones. But I wuz brung down a good deal in my feelin's
as Arvilly advanced to the front. She had kep' her word as to talkin',
though the indignant sniffs and sithes behind me showed how hard it
had been for her to keep her word, but now she advanced and sez, as
she drew out her two books from her work bag: "General Grant, I have
two books here I would like to show you, one is the 'Twin Crimes of
America: Intemperance and Greed,' that subject so ably presented to
you by Samantha; the other is 'The Wild, Wicked and Warlike Deeds of
Men.'"
Sez General Grant, risin' up: "I haven't time, madam, to examine them,
but put me down as a subscriber to both." Arvilly wuz in high sperits
all the way back. As we wended our way to the tarven agin who should
we find but Waitstill Webb, and we wuz dretful glad on't, for we wuz
layin' out to leave Manila in a few days, and this would be our last
meetin' for some time, if not forever. Though I wuz glad to see when
questioned by me about her return that she didn't act so determined as
she had acted about devotin' her hull life to nursin' the sick.
She told Arvilly confidential that she had had a letter from Ernest
White since we had seen her. Arvilly knew that he had wanted to make
her his bride before she left Jonesville. But the two ghosts, her
murdered love and her duty, stalked between 'em then, and I spozed
wuz stalkin' some now. But as I said more previous, the sun will melt
the snow, and no knowin' what will take place. I even fancied that the
cold snow wuz a little more soft and slushy than it had been, but
couldn't tell for certain.