The San Francisco call., 1910-11-27

torch, a quack doctor. in top hat and
silk waistcoat, pompous and strident
voiced. pointed to his red anatomical
charts. gaping skull segments, dis
memhered limbs, gruesome. diseased
viscera. CHASTITY under the sinuous
light
But beyond these, the smaller groups
unattached and disintegrating about
the lesser orators. the disputative curb
philosophers, none lacking hearing.
Arnold's eye caught an unusual hgure.
over the packed throng, lit by a far
ing torch above the rostrum on which
she stood. was a woman In the black,
loose robe Of an academician. the
mortar board cap surmounting a face.
young. strong. Romanesque; a Diana
grace in the arms gesture. over the
ragged men, the homeless idlers, the
fools and shamblers, the filled and
complacent. the hungry and absorbed,
the street dreamers and idealists. the
banal and corrupt, she lowered as
vivid in the nights fare against the
dark as Rembrandt study.
The young man stopped before the
dominance of her voice. Above the
shuffle ofsthe street. clear, sonorous. It
leaped far over the yap and clamor:
IL held him as did the figure poised,
the face compelling imperiously AL
ways his secret love Of the theatric
moved him; now he staggered on and
a phrase came to him out a climatic
period
She was preaching OF mystic
Christ. a symbolic Interpretation of all
superimposition OF modern esthete on
the ancient prophecies. an oriental
concept OF the fervent faith that had
led the western races. The soul OF the
world slept. she said. because men
were engrossed with the earth, lacked
vision; they turned away from the
inner light, for within each was the
power to redeem. Society was evil, a
city corrupt, an era debased because
men sank the real beneath the appar-
ent There was no sin, suffering, death;
the soul was incorruptIble bat 1t slept
to pass complete. serene, unmoved
through all existences: and The Christ
she taught was a mystic teadher, high,
detached. Nirvanic, as a disk Of pale
gold against silver.
In the street they listened, they whose
Christ had been Man of Sorrows, gone
down to death hot with passion and
then failed for the common love OF the
fallen, who had passed along the dusty
roadside unbefriended; they listened to
this modern concept, this denial cf sin
and agonizing. of a god to aid, or the
need OF aid, to this symbolic Christ
beckoning them to await absorption
back to the eternal and the infinite;
before her astonishing appeal her
wondrous voice. they stood-but no
man came.
Arnold. the drunken wanderer.
elbowed through the throng until he
was by the platform. He lurched to
it until the torch iared higher. and
with shift of the black robe she
turned her face to him. For an In
stant he fought back the delirium to
look at her, her eyes widening, her
lips parting, startled as by an accusing
revelation. And it seemed to him that
she stood a meaningless symbol. high,
detached. with empty hands above the
outcasts, as though they waited for
some great message and she had none
nothing, fools talk, a scientific
formula as senseless as the gibber OF
any priest to their needs. And, staring
the press of faces to turn with cry:
Who cares? Who answers? You're
sleeping, too! You've failed"
She saw his glance at the sensuous
completeness OF her body as he made
way, the crowd cursing him in NUT
ters. to the curb. Then. with a curl
ously mechanical falter, as in a dream,
she saw him go again to the Oriental
saloon.
Arnold paused by the bar, steadying
himself against his sickness his dim
ming brain; then he groped to the rear
Of the establishment and staggered
into one Of the boxes a square apart
ment hung with heavy Turkish weaves
and gold threaded tapestries. Here
under the half shadows and uncertain
glows from a lantern OF perforated
bronze, which hung over the table. he
fell on the cushioned wall seat. A
mulatto attendant. in fez and jacket
of oriental figure, looked in at the man
leaning his head on the table, showed
his cleaning teeth in a familiar,
friendly smile and departed. The air
of the place was warm, voluptuous
with liquor and tobacco smells and the
drugging exhalatfons OF the voIumi-
nous. tawdry hangings. At this early
hour none was in the labyrinthine rear
establishment OF the Oriental From
the barroom a musical device with
a Ginning, fairy like tinkle. gave forth
a tremulous pianissimo movement from
the Song to the Evening Star"
The mulatto in the red fez was hold
ing whispered conference at the end
of the corridor; a woman's voice ques-
toned. and then she came along the
passage.
The man in the box heard the rustic