Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-01-09
THE SCARLET PLAGUE
CONTINUED from page 3D.
CHAPTER n.
The Heulnnlnu Of the End.


The tale began.
There were very many people In
the world in those days. San Fran
cisco alone held four millions"
What Is millions?" Edwin inter-
rupted.
Granser looked at him kindly
1 know you cannot count beyond
ten, so l will tell you. Hold up your
two hands. On both of them you have
altogether ten fingers and thumbs.
Very WELL I now take this grain of
sand-you hold it, Hoo-Hoo" He
lads palm and went on Now that
grain of sand stands for the ten
fingers of Edwin. add another
grain. That's ten more fingers. And
l add another. another, and another,
until have added as many grains
as Edwin has fingers and thumbs.
That makes what | call one hundred
Remember that word-one hundred
Now / put this pebble In Hare-Lips
hand. 1t stands for ten grains of
hundred fingers. put this pebble in
Hare-Lip's hand. 1t stands for ten
grains. Take mussel shell, and it
stands for ten pebbles, or one hun
dred grains of sand, or one thousand
fingers.
And so on, laboriously, and with
much reiteration, he strove to build
up in their minds crude conception
of numbers. AS the quantities in
creased, he had the boys holding diff
ferent magnitudes 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, be-
ing compelled to use the teeth from
the skull for millions, and the crab
shells for billions. 1t 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 ascend
Ing series in the effort to grasp such
inconceivable numbers.
That was 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 another 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 l.
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 201O gave eight billion for
the whole world-eight crab shells,
yes, eight billions. It was not like to- |
day Mankind knew great deal more |
about getting food. And the more |
food there was, the more people there |
were. In the year 1900, there were |
of sand, Hoo-Hoo-one hundred and
seventy millions in Europe alone. One
hundred years later-a grain of sand,
Hoo-Hoo-one hundred years later, in |
1900 there were five hundred millions |
in Europe-five 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 bill
lion people were alive on the earth |
when the Scarlet Death began.
IT was young man when the
Plague came-twenty-seven years old;
and / lived on the other side of San
Francisco bay, in Berkeley You re-
member those stone houses, Edwin,
when we came down the hills from
Contra Costa? That was where
lived, in those stone houses. was a
professor of English literature"
Much of this was over the heads
of the boys, but they strove to COM
prehend dimly this tale Of the past.
What was them stone houses for?'
Hare-Iip queried
"You remember when your dad
taught you to swim?" The boy nod
ded. "Well, in the University of Cali
fornia-that is the name we had for
the houses-we taught young men
and women how to think, just as |
have taught you now, by sand and peb-
bles and shells, to know how many
people lived In those days. There
was very much to teach. The young
men and women we taught were called
students. We had large rooms in
which we taught. I talked to them,
forty or fifty at a time, Just as | am