Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-02-27
D7o
SCARLET PLAGUE
q JACK LONDON
CHAPTER ~.
rhe Survival Of the Eittest.

The Survival Of the Fittest.
New York city and Chicago were
in chaos. And what happened with
them was happening in all large cities.
A third of the New York police were
dead. Their chief was also dead. ike
wise the mayor. All law and order had
ceased. The bodies were lying in the
streets unburied. All railroads and
vessels carrying food and such things
into the great city had ceased run
ming, and mobs OF the hungry poor
were pillaging the stores and ware
houses. Murder and robbery and
drunkenness we're everywhere. Al
ready the people had ned from the
city by millions-at irst the rich. in
their private motor cars and dirigibles,
and then the great mass OF the popu-
lation. on foot. carrying the plague
with them, themselves starving and
pillaging the farmers and all the
towns on the way.
The man who sent this news, the
wireless operator, was alone with his
instruments on the top OF lofty build
ing. The people remaining in the city
he estimated them at several hun.
dred thousand-had gone mad from
fear and drink. and on all sides OF
him great fres were raging. He was
a hero, that man who staid by his
post-an obscure newspaper man,
most likely.
For Sienty-four hours, he said. no
transatlantic airships had arrived, and
no more messages we're coming from
England He did state, though, that a
message from Berlin-thats in Ger
many-announced that Hoffmeyer,
bacteriologist OF the Metchnikon
school. had discovered the serum for
the plague That was the last word,
to this day, that We of America ever
received from Europe II Hoffmeyer
discovered the serum, it was too late,
Or. otherwise, long ere this, explorers
from Europe would have come looking
for us. We can only conclude that
what happened in America happened
In Europe, and that, at the best. some
several score may have survived the
Scarlet Death on that whole continent.
For one day longer the dispatches
continued to come from New York.
Then they. too, ceased. The man who
had sent them, perched In his lofty
building, had either died of the plague
or been consumed in the great con-
flagration he had described as raging
around him. And what had occurred
In New York had been duplicated in
all,the other cities. 1t was the same
In San Francisco. and Oakland. and
Berkeley. BY Thursday the people
were dying SO rapidly that Their
corpses could not be handled. and
dead bodies lay everywhere. Thurs.
day night the panic outrush for the
country began. Imagine, my grand
SONS. people, thicker than the salmon
run you have seen on the Sacramento
river, pouring out Of the cities BY
millions, madly over the country.
In vain attempt to escape the
ubiquitous death. You see, they car
ried the germs with them. Even the
airships of the rich, fleeing for noun
tain and desert Businesses. carried the
germs.
II was telling about the airships Of
the rich. They carried the plague
with them, and no matter where they
fed. they died. l never encountered
but one survivor of any of them-Mun.
gerson. He was afterward at Santa
Rosa, and he married my eldest daugh
ter. He came into the tribe eight
years after the plague. He was then
nineteen years old, and he was com,
PEELED to wait twelve years more be
fore he could marry. You see, there
were no unmarried women, and some
OF the older daughters Of the Santa
Rosans we're already bespoken. So he
was forced to wait until my Mary had
grown to sixteen years. It was HE
son, Gimp-Leg. who was killed last
year by the mountain lion.
.Mungerson was eleven years old at
the time of the plague. His father was
one OF the Industrial Magnates. very
wealthy, powerful man. 1t was on his
airship the Condor, that they were
fleeing. with al the family, for the
wilds OF British Columbia, which IL fal
to the north Of here. But there waf
some accident, and they we're wrecked
near Mt. Shasta. You have heard OF
that mountain. 1t is far to the north
The plague broke out among them
and this boy Of eleven was the only
survivor. For eight years he wa
alone, wandering over deserted LAND
ana looking vainly for his own kind
And at last. travelling south. he picked
up with us, the Santa Rosans.
aBut / am ahead Of my story. WheE
the great exodus from the cities AROUND
San Francisco bay began, and while
the telephones we're still working.
talked with my brother. I told him
this fight from tho cities was insan-
ity, that there were no symptoms Of
the plague In me. and that the thing
for MS to do was to isolate ourselves
and our relatives in some safe place.
We decided on the Chemistry build
ing. at the university. and we planned
20 lay In supply Of provisions. and
BY force OF arms 10 prevent any other
persons from forcing their presence
upon us after we had retired to our
refuge.
...All this being arranged, my broth
Or begged me to stay in my own
house for at least twenty.four hours
more, on the chance Of the plague de-
vAlOpinE in me, To this / agreed, and