The Washington herald., 1914-04-26

young men and women we taught were
called students. We had large rooms
in which we taught. talked to them
forty or fifty at a time, just as l am
talking to you now. | told them about
the books other men had written before
their time, and even, sometimes, in their
time"
WAS that all you did?-just talk
talk, talk" Hoo-Hoo demanded. Who
hunted your meat for you? and MIXED
the goats? and caught the fish,"
"A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, SEN
sible question. AS | have told you, in
those days food getting was easy. We
were very wise. A few men GOT the
food for many men. The other men did
other things. AS you say, | talked. |
talked all the time, and for this food was
given me-much food. fine food, beauti-
full food; food that | have not tasted in
sixty years and shall never taste again.
L lllC lhOSl
achievement of our tremendous civiliza-
ton was food-its inconceivable abun-
dance, its infinite variety, its marvellous
delicacy. Oh, my grandsons, life was
life in those days, when we had such
wonderful things to eat"
This was beyond the boys, and they
let it slip by. words and thoughts, as a
mere senile wandering in the narrative.
Our food getters were called free
men. This was Joke. We of the rul-
ing classes owned all the land, all the
machines These food get
tiers were our slaves. We took almost
all the food they got, and left them a
little so that they might eat, and work,
and get US more food"
I'D have gone into the forest and got
food for myself" Hare-Lip announced !;
"and if any man tried to take it away
from me I'd have killed him"
The old man laughed.
did l not tell you that we of the rul-
ing class owned all the land, all the
forest, everything? Any food getter
who would not get food for us, him we
punished or compelled to starve to death.
And very few did that. They preferred
to get food for US, and make clothes for
us, and prepare and administer to US a
Thousands mussel shell, Hoo-Hoo-a
thousand satisfactions and delights. And
l was Prof. Smith in those days-Prof.
James Howard Smith. And my lecture
courses were very popular-that is, very
many of the young men and women
liked to hear me talk about the books
other men had written.
And l was very happy, and had
beautiful things to eat, and my hands
were soft, because l did not work with
them. and my body was clean all over
and dressed in the softest garment"
He surveyed his NANCY goatskin with
disgust. I'VE did not wear such things
in those days. Even the slaves had bet
ter garments. And we were most clean.
We washed our faces and hands often
every day. You boys never wash unless
you fall into the water or go in swim
ming"
Neither do you, Granser," Hoo-Hoo
retorted.
81 know, know. am a filthy old
man. But times have changed. Nobody
washes these days, and there are no con-
veniences. 1t is sixty years since have
seen a piece of soap. You do not know
what soap is, and l shall not tell you,
for ! am telling the story of the Scarlet
Death. You know what sickness is. We
called it a disease. Very many of the
diseases came from what we called
germs. Remember that word-germs.
A germ is a very small thing. 1t is like
a woodtick, such as you find on the dogs
in the spring of the year when they run
in the forest. Only the germ is very
small 1t is so small that you cannot see
it.
Hoo-Hoo began to laugh.
You're a queer I'm, Granser, talking
about things you can't see If you can't
see EN-, how do you know they are?
That's what l want to know. How do
you know anything you can't seer"
"A good question, very good ques-
ton, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see-some
of them. We had what we called micro
scopes and ultramicroscopes, and we put
them to our eyes and looked through |
them, so that we saw things larger than
they really were, and many things we
could not see without the microscopes |
at all Our best ultramicroscopes could |
make a germ look forty thousand times |
larger A mussel shell is thousand |
fingers like Edwin's. Take forty mussel
shells. and by as many times larger was
the germ when we looked at it through |
a microscope And after that, We had
other ways, by using what we called
moving pictures, of making the forty
germ many, many thou
sand times larger still. And thus we
saw all these things which our eyes of
themselves could not see. Take a grain
Of sand Break it into ten pieces Take