The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-09-14
THE CONVERSION
OF M'GOGGIN.

OF M'GOGGIN.
l This Is not tale exactly. It is q tract;
l md am Immensely proud OF it Making
stract 10 feat
Every man is entitled to his own relig.
/ M opinions; but no man--.east of all a
/ nniof-has o right to thrust these down
I aher mems throats. The government
l rnds out weird civilians now and again;
/ 1t NcGoggin was the queerest expo- ted
/ r ! long time. He was overwhelmingly
deyer, but his cieverness worked the
wong way. Instead of keeping to the
| INDY Of the vernacuiars, he had read
me books written by q man called
0umte, think, and . man called Spen-
=, and = Professor Clifford. You will
! fnd these books in the librsry.j They deal
MA peoples insides from the point of
Nm Of men who have no stomachs. There
NJ no ORDER against his reading them, but
u mamma should have smacked him.
Nor fermented in his head, and he came
et 70 India with rarefied religion over
nd above his work. 1t was not much Of
md. II only proved that men had no
nais, and there was no God and no here
Efef, and that you must worry along some
how for the good of humanity.
One OF its minor lenets seemed to be
| hat the one thing more sinful than giving
u order was obeying it. At least, that
M what McGoggin said; but suspect he
bad misread his primers.
4 do not say word against this creed.
4 was made up in town where there Is
nothing but machinery and asphalt and
tuilding-aIl shut in by the fog. Nekurally,
I man grows to think that there il no one
higher than himself. and that the metro
oiitan board of works made everythi ng.
Bat in this country. where you really see
humanity-raw. brown, naked humanity
With nothing between it and the blazing
Ky. and only the used-up, over-handled
enfth underfoot, The notion somehow dies
axay. and most folk come back to simpler
theories. Life. in India, is not long
nough to waste IN proving that there is
20 one in particular at the head of affairs.
Icg this reason, the deputy, the lieuten-
mi governor abuve the commissioner.
md the viceroy, above ali four, under the
orders OF The secretary OF state, who is re-
Ipuns1bie to the empress. If the empress
hnot responsible TO her Maker-if there
hno Maker for her to be responsible to-
he entire system OF our administration
must b wrong. Which is nanifestly i'm
possible. At home men are to be excused.
They are stalled mp good deal and get in.
ellsctuaily '.beany." When you take q
ross, "beany" horse to exercise, he slavers
and slobbers over the bit till you can't see
tie horns. But the bit Is there Just the
lame. Men do not get "beany" in India.
The climate and the work are against
Paving tricks with words.
II McGoegin had kept his creed, with the
capital letters and the endings in .isms,"
70 himself, no one would have cared; but
bis grandfathers On both sides had been
Wesleyan preachers, and the preaching
strain came out in his mind. He wanted
every one al the club to see that they had
no souls, too. and ~ help him to eliminate
bis Creator. As good many men told
him, be undoubtedly had no soul,
because g.: be was SO young. but 1t
equaliy undeveloped; and, whether there
was another world or not q man still
wanted to read his papers in this. "But
that is not the point-that is not the
point!" Aurelian used to say. Then men
Threw sofa cushions at him and told him
% 90 to any particular place he might be-
leve In. They christened him the BLAST
oderm, he SAID he came from a family
Of that name somewhere in the pre-
historic ages-and. by Insult and laughter,
ssorvc 10 choke him dumb for he was an
. enmitisa.eh nuisance at the club; besides
oe'ng an onsnse 10 the older men, His
Deputy conlmi sioner. who was working on
NC frontier when Aureiian was rolling on
eocd-quilt, told him that, for clever boy,
1urelian was Q very big idiot. And, you
NOW, 1t he had gone on with his work he
would have been caught up to secretariat
flew years. He was just the type that
eoes there-ail head. no physique and q
hundred theories. Not a soul was inter-
ssted in McGoggin's soul. He might have
nsd tTo. or none, or somebody else's. His
BUSINESS was 10 obey orders and keep
abreast OF his files instead OF devastating
tne club with ''isms"
ne worked brilliantly; but he could not
accept any order without trying to better
mat was the fault of his creed. 1t
uaoe men too responsible and left too
much to their honor. You can sometimes
uoe an old horse with a halter, but never
scolt McGoggin took more trouble over
1 ~ cases than any of The men of his years.
ne may have fancied that thirty page
laugments on fifty rupee cases-both Sues
Eilured TO the guiiet-advanced the cause
humanity. At any rate he worked too
a"cn, and worried ard fretted over the
nnoukes he received, and lectured away on
ss ridiculous creed out of Office, Till the
eoesor had 10 warn him tina, he was over
soing II. No mar can toll Is annas
~ me ruree In June without suffering for
" But McGoggin was still intellectually
s.ssiy ana proud Of himself anu his
IoSers. and he would take no hint. He
so,neo hine hours day steadily.
Very well" said the doctor, you'll
- WA GOWN because you are over-engined
chap.
One day the collapse came-as dramat.
esiy Is II it had been meant to embellish
Attract
u was Just before the rams. We were
sstng IN the verandah in the dead, hot,
Sose ar, gaspiDg and praying that the
1scK'oiue clouds would let down and
"'hg TIE cool. Very, very Ear away there
- iaint whisper. which was the roar OF
- rains breaking over the river. One of
.ue inen heard it, cot out of his chair, lis
Godr
Ihen the Blastoderm turned in his place
sha said: why. assure you It's only
s's resui. OF perfectly natural caEses-at-
N, lheric phenomena OF the simplest kind.
!, my you >hould. therefore, return thanks
oring who never did ex,st--who as only
alignment"
Hsstodrrm." grunted the man in the
- enair, ''dry up anu throw Mo over the
, ~aesr We know all about your hg-
,sNs The B.astoderm reached ont 10
~ sssoie, took up one paper and jumped
something had stung him. Then he
landed the paper over.
.ns As was saying" he went on slowly
q