The Washington herald., 1914-04-26
(CopriRht, lelll

which appeared in this paper last sun
day, introduced the reader to an aged
survivor of the Scarlet Plague which had
almost depopulated the world half a cen
tury earlier. The scene of the story is
the California seacoast and the time 2073.
The old man-who was a college profess
scr when the terrible blow fell-still re-
tains the memory of his former life and
of the sudden and devastating ruin
which had reduced the few survivors to
a state OF primitiveness His savage
grandsons. who are with him. regard
his constant references to his former life
as evidence of senility. and with more
contempt for his weakness than respect
for his age they call on him for an &C
count of the Scarlet Plague. of which
they have heard so much and know 50
little. The grandfather is only too will
ing to respond to the request and at once
begins the amazing recitaD
THE tale began
There were very many people
the world in those days. San
Francisco alone held four millions"
What is millions" Edwin inter-
rupted.
Granser looked at him kindly.
Il know you cannot count beyond ten,
so l will tell you. Hold up your two
hands. On both of them you have alto
gether ten fingers and thumbs. Very
well l now take this grain of sand
you hold it, Hoo-Hoo." He dropped
the grain of sand into the lads palm and
went on. Now that grain of sand
stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. l
add another grain, That's ten more fin
gers. And l add another, another, and
another, until l have added as many
grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs.
That makes what l call one hundred.
Remember that word-one hundred.
Now l put this pebble in Hare-Lip's
hand. 1t stands for ten grains of sand,
or ten tens of fingers, or one hundred
fingers. l put this pebble in Hare-Lip's
hand. 1t stands for ten grains. Take
a n1ussel shell, and it stands for ten
pebbles. or one hundred grains of sand,
or one thousand fingers. -
And SO on, laboriously, and with much
reiteration, he strove to build up in their
minds a crude conception of numbers.
As the quantities increased, he had the
boys holding different nagnitudes in
each of their hands. For still higher
sums, he laid the symbols on the log
of driftwood; and for symbols he was
hard put, being compelled to use the
teeth from the skulls for millions, and
the crab shells for billions. II was here
that he stopped, for the boys were show
ing signs of becoming tired.
There were four million people in
San Francisco-four teeth"
The boys eyes ranged along from the
teeth and from hand to hand, down
through the pebbles and sand grains to
Edwin's fingers. And back again they
ranged along the ascending series in the
effort to grasp such inconceivable num-
berS
That was a lot of folks, Granser,"
Edwin at last hazarded.
Like sand on the beach here, like
sand on the beach, each grain of sand
a man, or woman, or child. Yes, my
boy. all those people lived right here in
San Francisco. And at one time or an
other all those people came out on this
very beach-more people than there are
grains Of sand More-more-more.
And San Francisco was a noble city.
And across the bay-where we camped
last year. even more people lived, clear
from Point Richmond, on the level
ground and on the hills, all the way
around to San Leandro-one great city
OF seven million people. Seven teeth
= there, that's it, seven millions"
Again the boys eyes ranged up and
down from Edwin's fingers to the teeth
on the log.
The world was full OF people. The
census of eoIo gave eight billion for the
whole world-eight crab shells, yes,
eight billions. 1t was not like today.
Mankind knew a great deal more about
getting food. And the more food there
was, the more people there were. In
the year 1900, there were one hundred
and seventy millions in Europe alone. One
hundred years later-a grain of sand,
Hoo-Hoo-one hundred years later, in
1000 there were FIVE hundred millions
in Europe-hve grains of sand, Hoo
Hoo, and this one tooth. This shows
how easy was the getting of food, and
how men increased. And in the year
1000, there were fifteen hundred millions
in Europe And it was the same all over
the rest of the world. Eight crab shells
there. yes, eight billion people were alive
on the earth when the Scarlet Death
began.
Il was a Young man when the Plague
came-twenty-seven years old; and |
lived on the other side of San Francisco
Bay. in Berkeley. You remember those
stone houses. Edwin. when we came
down the hills from Contra Costa? That
was where lived, in those stone houses. |
was professor of English literature"
Much of this was over the heads of
the boys, but they strove to comprehend
dimly this tale of the past
What was them stone houses for?'
Hare-Lip queried.
"You remember when YOUR dad taught |