The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1915-02-13
IheScarlet
Plague
BY JACK LONDON


II was fooling, Granser. They amt
no crabs. never found one."
The boys were overwhelmed with o.
Hight at sight of the tears of senile dis
appointment that dribbled down the
Iold mans cheeks. Then, unnoticed,
Hoo Hoo replaced the empty shell with
In fresh cooked crab. Already dismem-
bered from the cracked legs the white
meat sent forth small cloud of saw
DRY steam. This attracted the old
mans nostrils. and he looked down In
amazement- The change II his mood
to one Of Joy was immediate. He
Isnufiied and muttered and mumbled,
making almost {. Groom Of delight, MS
The began to cat OF this the boys took
little notice, for It was an accustomed
spectacle. Nor did they notice his &C.
lcasi0nal EXPLANATIONS and utterances
Iof phrases which meant nothing to
them, as. for instance, when he
smacked his lips and champed his
gums while muttering: "Mayonnaise!
Just think-mayonnaise! And it's sixty
years since the last was ever made!
Two generations and never n smell of
it! Why, In those days it was served
in every restaurant with crab"
When he could eat no more. the old
man sighed, wiped his hands on his
naked legs, and gazed out over the sea.
With the content of q full stomach, he
waxed reminiscent.
ITO think Of TIT I've seen this beach
alive with men, women and CHILDREN
on q pleasant Sunday. And there
weren't any bears to eat them up.
either. And right up there on the cliff
was big restaurant where you could
get anything you wanted to eat Four
million people lived In San Francisco
then. And now, In the whole city and
county there aren't forty all told. And
out there on the seq were ships anS
ships always to be seen. going IN foi
the Golden Gate or coming ont And
airships in the air dirigibles and fly.
Ing machines. They could travel two
hundred miles an hour. Mail contracts
with the New York and San Francisco
Limited demanded that for the mimi
mum. There was q chap. q French
man. forget his name. who succeeded
in making three hundred; but the thing
was too risky for conservative per
sons. But he was on the right clue.
and he would have managed Il II It
hadn't been for the great plague.
When was boy there were men who
remembered the coming Of TIE FIRST
laeroplanes. and now / have lived to
See the last of them, and that sixty
years ago."
But there weren't many crabs n
those days." the old man wandered on.
sThey were fished out, and they were
great delicacies. The open season was
only month long. too. And now
crabs are accessible the whole year
around. Thi-k of it-catching all the
crabs you want, any time you want. In
the surf Of thu CHI house beach,"
A sudden commotion among the
goats brought the boys to their feet
The dogs about the IRE rushed TO toin
their snarling fellow who guarded the
goats. while the goats themselves
stampeded In the direction OF. their
human protectors. A half dozen forms.
lean and gray. giided about on tho
sand hillocks or faced the bristling
dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that
fell short. But HareIip, with a sling.
such az David carried into battle
against Goliath. hurled q stone throush
the air that whistled from the speed of
its flight II TELL sQuarely amoag the
wolves and caused them to stink away
toward the dark depths at the eucalyp-
tus forest
The boys laughed and lay down
again In the sand, while Granser
sighed ponderously. He had eaten too
much, and with hands clasped on his
paunch, the fingers interiaced. he re-
sumed his maunderings.
THE neeung systems lapse like
foam,'" he mumbled what was evi-
IDENTIFY . quotation. That's ft--foam.
and fieeting. All mans toll upon the
planet was Just 80 much foam. He
domesticated the seryiceable animals.
destroyed the hostile ones. and cleared
the land Of its wild vegetation. And
then he passed. the flood Of primordiaI
life rolled back again, sweeping HE
handiwork away-the weeds and the
forest inundated his fields, the beasts
of prey swept over his locks, and now
there are wolves on the CliR house
beach" He was appalled, By The
thought Where four million peopIs
diaportad fhemaalvaa tha Wild Wo1vaa