Gunnison news-champion., 1921-05-06
U2o
Scarlet PLAGUE
y JACK LONDON


the Iu~-naEo in heat and heart.
beat. aad the first they knew
WAS EAel the SCARLET rash came out.
Usually. they had conyulslons at the
time o. the appearance Of the rash But
these conyuls.0Hs did not last long and
were not very severe II one lived
through them. he became perfectly
quiet and only did he feel a numbness
swiftly creeping up his body from the
feet The heels became numb first.
then the legs and hips. and ghsu the
uumbn'ss reached as high as his hear;
he died They DID not rave or sleep
Their minds always remained cool and
calm up to the moment their hearts
numbed and stopped Ard another
strange thing was the rapIdity Of de
composition. No sooner was n person
dead than the body seemed TO fall to
pieces. 10 ~ apart. TO mel away even
us you looked at Il That was one of
the reasons the plague spread so rap
!fly All the billions Of germs in a
corpse we're 50 Immediately released
And Il was because Of all this that
the bartcrioloEists had so little chance
In fighting the germs They were
killed in their laboratories even as
they studied the germs OF the scarle,
Death. They were heroes As fast as
they perished. others stepped forth
and took their places II vas In Lon.
don that they first Isolated IL The
news was teIoEraphed everywhere
Trask vas the name OF the man who
succeeded In this. but within thirty
hours he was dead Then came the
struggle in all the laboratories TO find
something that would kill the plague
germs All drugs failed You see. the
problem aas 10 get drug, or serum,
hat would XIII the germ In the body
and not XIII the body They tried TO
4EAt Il with other germs. 20 put into
we're the enemies Of the plague
germs"
And you can't sec these germ
hiuzs Granscr,' Hare-LIp objected.
and here you Eabble. gnbbls gabhle
about them as Il they vas anything
when they're nothing al all Anything
sou can't see ain't-,hats what Fight.
ing things that amt with things that
amt They muat have been all fools
IN them days That's Why they
croakrd aint goIu to believe in
such rot tell you that
Granscr promptly began to weep.
Will" Edwin ho,Iy took up his defense.
Look here. HareLp. you believe in
tots OF things sou can't see"
HareLip shook his head
You believe In dead men walking
about You never seen one dead man
walk about"
I toll you see en-. last winter.
when was wolf huating with dad"
Well you always spit when you
cross running water" Edwin chal-
lenged
That's to keep OF bad luck" was
HareLip's defense
You believe in bad luck7"
Sure"
An you amt never seen bad luck"
Edwin concluded triumphantly. You're
Just as bad as Granser and his germs.
You believe In what you don't see Go
on. Granser."
Hare-Bip. crushed by this metaphysi-
, cal defeat. remained silent. and the old
/ man went on. Often and often. though
/ this narrative must not be clogged by
! the details, was Granser's tale inter.
I rupted while the boys sIuabbled
among themselves Also. among them
selves they kept up a constant. low
voiced explanation and conjecture, as
they strove to follow the old man into
his unknown and vanished world.
The Scarlet Death broke out in San
Francisco. The first death came on a
Monday morning. By Thursday they
were dying like flies in Oakland and
San Francisco, They died everywhere
in their beds. at their work. walking
along the street II was on Tuesday
bran, one of my students, sitting right
there before my eyes. in my lecture
room. | noticed her face while | was
talking. It had suddenly turned scar.
let ceased speaking and could only
look at her, for the first fear Of the
/ plague was already on all OF US and we
/ knew that 1t had come The young
women screamed and ran out Of the
room. So did the young men run out.
all but two. Miss Collbran's convul-
sions were very mild and lasted less
than minute. One Of the young men
/ fetched her a glass of water. She
drank only little of It, and cried
out:
III feet. All sensation has left
them
After minute she said. have NO
feet. l am unaware that have any
feet And my knees are cold. l can
! scarcely feel that have knees
She lay on the floor. bundle of
notebooks under her head And we
could do nothing. The coldness and
the numbness crept up past her hips
to her heart. and when it reached her
! heart she was dead In 6ftaon vr3r