The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-11-01
LUNA'S:M
CDESTRUgTqON.
An Occurrence Of the
Future, Written For
this PAPER:
By 6daar fawcetf.
Bp Edgar Fawcett.
CHAPTER ].

CHAPTER
You ask me, my dear nephew, to mar
rate the story Of that fateful and ghast'
ly catastrophe which brought US, in the
year 4739, A. D., so peculiar and won
derful deliverance. will heed your
request, old and feeble man that am.
50 the fullest Of my powers. Well, then.
let me begin at the autumn OF the yeal
4738. At this time, as the history Of
your land will readily tell you, q last
terrible political change had possessed
the entire earth. Here in America an
archy had for nearly three centuries
rioted. Nothing but the splendid ma.
terial advantages of the country hac
saved it from the most piteous bank.
ruptcy and degradation. The whole
radical movement, as you doubtless
know, began with a certain system OF
mild and rather sane socialism. But
society was not prepared for ever
these comparatively gentle measures.
The single tax idea might have sue
ceeded if the executive, both in the
States and at the general capital, had
not proved fatally corrupt. Naturally
good and honest citizens revolted
against the gross maladministration ol
affairs, and finally came that short but
bloody civil war in which honor and de.
cency were defeated Afterward almost
utter lawlessness reigned. I am thank.
full, Notwithstanding all the miseries
and misfortunes it has been my lot tc
witness during my own lifetime, that !
did not exist during those wild and
hideous times. License replaced liberty;
bands Of insolent robbers ruled in al!
public places; the family was travestied
in it's most sacred domestic relations by
the sanction OF q new libidinous mar.
riage code.
Meanwhile, through successive dec.
AIDES, a spirit OF stern revolt had been
slowly gaining strength. BY this time
the electric steamships easily accom-.
plished trips across the ocean IN six anc
occasionally in four hours. Europe has
thus become close to our very doors, and
everything which happened there was tc
US very much as the occurrences in Con.
necticut were known in Massachusetts
during previous times. Our house, my
dear nephew, had inherited traditions OF
conservatism through many generations.
We were called aristocrats by our ene-
mics, but we belonged, as you are aware,
politically as Caution:sts. Who first
coined the name 1 cannot tell you; it
had become applied, however to great
throng Of dissenters in Europe, in Asia,
and in many parts Of Africa. My
father, my uncles, and numerous other
kindred besides, were in constant
Communication with foreign friends
and sympathizers. The one uni.
versal language which for 300 years
past had replaced all those various
and inconveniencing tongues previously
spoken on earth, Of course rendered
such intercourse in every way facile.
At this time Europe and Asia had been,
as one might say. overswept by a very
deluge OF blood Not trace Of the
great European dynasties now survived.
The anarchists Aor indomitables, as
they had grown everywhere to be
cailed) had set price upon the heads
of all who bo within their veins the
least drop of royal blood. I think il
highly probable that by the year 472s
not single person lived on our planet
who could claim the remotest relation.
ship to the Guelphs, Hapsburgs, Hohen.
zollerns, or any Of those races which
had once so lowered in sovereignty
above their kind. At first the slaughter
of royalty had been wholesale and
brutal. History will tell you how the
man who insisted on calling himself Vic.
torian Kill, King OF England and En-
peror of India, had been hanged in Lon
don before a shrieking and sneering
mob of Indomitables; how Rudolph
XVIII, eelf-styled Emperor Of Austria,
had, with his entire family and body
OF devoted retainers, first received the
most hiieous indignities in square Of
Vienna, and then teen literally tor
tured to death; how a certain individual,
who had persisted in proclaiminG his
right 20 the German throne under the
title Of Frederick Wilhelm XIV, had
been frs. stripped naked before furious
thousands in Berlin, and then belaboreG
with mcrciless lash strokes until he
sank dead at the very portals Of what
was once his ancestors imperial pal.
ace. These and manv other fri1htful
trageules, my dear nephew, must surely
have formed part Of your education.
And need not tell you that We Cau-
tionists had always deplored them,
while at the same time realizing the
folly OF all kingly claims and the fu.
tilty of seeking 70 base government on
anything which dealt with ancient "di.
vine rights" of rulership.
We called ourselves, and indeed We
were, philanthropists Of the truest and
purest type. The indomitables (thougf