The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-20
THE FUTURE STATE
BY B. LACK.
CHAPTER 1. PART I.

1t was a terrible picture that met the eye
of Simon Owen on the morning of July
the fourth, 1850, as he stood gazing from
the torch of the statue of the Goddess of
Liberty-that unprecedented satire on
American liberty in New York harbor. The
revolution so long prophesied and expected
by the different schools of reformers,
archiStS, socialists, the few devout minis
tiers that placed religion before creed or
personal gain, and taught the doctrines of
Christ, the equality of man, and those alb
jurng theism as beyond human compre-
hension, teaching in its place a love for
humanity, a progressive civilization, had
been realized. Every place where there
listed any trace of human progress, the
labor of man. bore the mark of desolation
and decay.
The revolution had been as widespread
complete and destructive as the most de-
spairing anarchist had predicted. Like
foul cancer in the human frame, it had
spread through the earth until now in
every place where a murmur of unheeded
discomfort had been heard destruction had
followed, until in every direction there was
the appearance of a dead world. The move
ments of commerce no more disturbed the
mighty ocean; once more birds and beasts
were beginning to lose their fear of man
and to multiply with their prestine freedom
and happiness. The remains of the COM
mercial navies of the world lay rotting at
the docks, and far out in the bay one of
its mornings, was fast drifting to it's old
home on the ocean, helpless and lifeless
like the remains of the civilization from
which 1t was drifting. Turning his eye to-
wards the city, what awful scene of
ruin met his gaze. Before it the ruins of
ancient cities and the remains of former
civilization dwindled into insgnificance.
The former homes of millions and bust
mart of tens of millions met his be-
wildered sight involved in one common
ruin. The costly mansions that represented
the unrequitted toll and suffering of thou
sands of people who constructed them and
the sensual pleasures of the selfish people
who had lived in them, who by the perver-
sion of the powers of government had in
the name of freedom taken possession of
the earth, and in the name of law by tech
nicallties and a shrewd perversion of Ian
guage, a cruel cunning worthy of the
devil, defrauded their brother man made in
the image Of God and in their debaSe-
ment worked out their own destruction
the mansion once the home of fashion, gilt
tering with diamonds, gold, silver and cut
glass, glorious with mosaics sculpture and
paintings, purified with flowers, ringing
with laughter and song, selfish merriment
and glee, was now the home of the pigeons
circlng above the walls, the sparrows now
no longer molested, filled the chimneys and
caves, the corners were the home of the in
dustrious spider, behind the wainscotting
the mice, and under the foundation in a
thousand holes among the damp and ruin
the rat, no longer moested, reigned in VEN
genace and triumph, a demon of destruc-
ton over the work of his former enemy,
man.
In the streets, nature no longer checked,
had seized on it's old domain and rank
grass interspersed with wild flowers almost
concealed the curbstone from view, while
now and then a wild rabbit might be seen
feeding in the street, no longer fearful of
the presence of man; among the ruins of
an immense warehouse that once contained
wealth from every corner of the earth a
she fox lay stretched on the huge fagstone
in front of the office door nourishing her lit
ter of cubs. Not a human being of all the
millions that once thronged that great city
was within the compass of his vision; he
alone seemed to be the last of mankind
and yet he knew there were human beings
yet alive still clinging to the wretched
state of society that were fast falling into
barbarism ignorance, savagery, and de-
spair.
AS the mind reviewed the past, the vision
of the relics of an earlier civilization in
Central America, which he in former and
happier times had visited, arose before him.
Mentally he asked himself, was 1t possible
that New York, the most wonderful city
of the most wonderful civilization known
to history, must share the same fate? that
he, "Simon Owen" must exist in barbar-
ism, degradation and misery for few
hopeless years, only to leave his bones a
stroyed civilization-to quarrel over? No!
Better a thousand times to end his misery
now, and be for moment a living satire
on American liberty, asserting as he whirled
through space in the very face of that
Sculptured lie, from the very edge of her
hollow, lightless torch, that the only liberty
left worth having was the liberty to die;
he made a move to jump headlong from the
very edge of the torch of the statue, when
he became conscious Of a presence, and
his shoulder. With a sudden start-for the
death in that solitude-he looked around
soothe his troubled mind
Before him stood a tall and venerable
man, having the appearance of truth and
least Six feet, straight as a northern pine;
his shoulders were broad and chest full and
rounded; his limbs strong and muscular,
as though modelled from Atlas himself; but
once having noticed his head, set easily
and firmly on the sinewy neck, all else was
forgotten. The full, rounded chin and
mouth, expressive of mild and gentle firm
ness, full eyes of steel gray, straight nose
and a forehead that seemed as though it
might be the very dome of intellect and
thought framed in irOngray locks of long
waving hair; his clothing composed OF the
skins of wild animals, he wore with all the
ease, grace and dignity Of a Greek philoso-
pher The makeup Of the whole man seemed
to impress Simon as being the very i'm
personification of strength, intellect, benev-