Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich (23 page)

“Leaving St. Osoph’s!” exclaimed Mr. Newberry in utter astonishment.

“To our great regret. He has had a call, – a most inviting field of work, he says, a splendid opportunity. They offered him ten thousand one hundred; we were only giving him ten thousand here, though of course that feature of the situation would not weigh at all with a man like Dumfarthing.”

“Oh no, of course not,” said Mr. Newberry.

“As soon as we heard of the call we offered him ten thousand three hundred, – not that that would make any difference to a man of his character. Indeed Dumfarthing was still waiting and looking for guidance when they offered him eleven thousand. We couldn’t meet it. It was beyond us, though we had the consolation of knowing that with such a man as Dumfarthing the money made no difference.”

“And he has accepted the call?”

“Yes. He accepted it to-day. He sent word to Mr. Dick Overend, our chairman, that he would remain in his manse, looking for light, until two thirty, after which, if we had not communicated with him by that hour, he would cease to look for it.”

“Dear me,” said Mr. Newberry, deep in reflection, “so that when your trustees came to the meeting –”

“Exactly,” said Dr. Boomer, – and something like a smile passed across his features for a moment, – “Dr. Dumfarthing had already sent away his telegram of acceptance.”

“Why, then,” said Mr. Newberry, “at the time of our discussion to-night, you were in the position of having no minister.”

“Not at all. We had already appointed a successor.”

“A successor?”

“Certainly. It will be in to-morrow morning’s papers. The fact is that we decided to ask Dr. McTeague to resume his charge.”

“Dr. McTeague!” repeated Mr. Newberry in amazement. “But surely his mind is understood to be –”

“Oh, not at all,” interrupted Dr. Boomer. “His mind appears, if anything, to be clearer and stronger than ever. Dr. Slyder tells us that paralysis of the brain very frequently has this effect; it soothes the brain, – clears it, as it were, so that very often intellectual problems which occasioned the greatest perplexity before present no difficulty whatever afterward. Dr. McTeague, I believe, finds no trouble now in reconciling St. Paul’s dialectic with Hegel as he used to. He says that as far as he can see they both mean the same thing.”

“Well, well,” said Mr. Newberry, “and will Dr. McTeague also resume his philosophical lectures at the university?”

“We think it wiser not,” said the president. “While we feel that Dr. McTeague’s mind is in admirable condition for clerical work we fear that professorial duties might strain it. In order to get the full value of his remarkable intelligence, we propose to elect him to the governing body of the university. There his brain will be safe from any shock. As a professor there would always be the fear that one of his students might raise a question in his class. This of course is not a
difficulty that arises in the pulpit or among the governors of the university.”

“Of course not,” said Mr. Newberry.

Thus was constituted the famous union or merger of the churches of St. Asaph and St. Osoph, viewed by many of those who made it as the beginning of a new era in the history of the modern church.

There is no doubt that it has been in every way an eminent success.

Rivalry, competition and controversies over points of dogma have become unknown on Plutoria Avenue. The parishioners of the two churches may now attend either of them just as they like. As the trustees are fond of explaining it doesn’t make the slightest difference. The entire receipts of the churches being now pooled are divided without reference to individual attendance. At each half year there is issued a printed statement which is addressed to the shareholders of the United Churches Limited and is hardly to be distinguished in style or material from the annual and semi-annual reports of the Tin Pot Amalgamation and the United Hardware and other quasi-religious bodies of the sort. “Your directors,” the last of these documents states, “are happy to inform you that in spite of the prevailing industrial depression the gross receipts of the corporation have shown such an increase as to justify the distribution of a stock dividend of special Offertory Stock Cumulative, which will be offered at par to all holders of common or preferred shares. You will also be gratified to learn that the directors have voted unanimously in favour of a special presentation to the Rev. Uttermust Dumfarthing on the occasion of his approaching marriage. It was earnestly debated whether this gift should take the form,
as at first suggested, of a cash presentation, or, as afterwards suggested, of a written testimonial in the form of an address. The latter course was finally adopted as being more fitting to the circumstances and the address has accordingly been prepared, setting forth to the Rev. Dr. Dumfarthing, in old English lettering and wording, the opinion which is held of him by his former parishioners.”

The “approaching marriage” referred of course to Dr. Dumfarthing’s betrothal to Juliana Furlong. It was not known that he had ever exactly proposed to her. But it was understood that before giving up his charge he drew her attention, in very severe terms, to the fact that, as his daughter was now leaving him, he must either have someone else to look after his manse or else be compelled to incur the expense of a paid housekeeper. This latter alternative, he said, was not one that he cared to contemplate. He also reminded her that she was now at a time of life when she could hardly expect to pick and choose and that her spiritual condition was one of at least great uncertainty. These combined statements are held, under the law of Scotland at any rate, to be equivalent to an offer of marriage.

Catherine Dumfarthing did not join her father in his new manse. She first remained behind him, as the guest of Philippa Overend for a few weeks while she was occupied in packing up her things. After that she stayed for another two or three weeks to unpack them. This had been rendered necessary by a conversation held with the Reverend Edward Fareforth Furlong, in a shaded corner of the Overend’s garden. After which, in due course of time, Catherine and Edward were married, the ceremony being performed by the Reverend Dr. McTeague, whose eyes filled with philosophical tears as he gave them his blessing.

So the two churches of St. Asaph and St. Osoph stand side by side united and at peace. Their bells call softly back and forward to one another on Sunday mornings and such is the harmony between them that even the episcopal rooks in the elm trees of St. Asaph’s and the presbyterian crows in the spruce trees of St. Osoph’s are known to exchange perches on alternate Sundays.

“A
s to the government of this city,” said Mr. Newberry, leaning back in a leather arm-chair at the Mausoleum Club and lighting a second cigar, “it’s rotten, that’s all.”

“Absolutely rotten,” assented Mr. Dick Overend, ringing the bell for a second whiskey and soda.

“Corrupt,” said Mr. Newberry, between two puffs of his cigar.

“Full of graft,” said Mr. Overend, flicking his ashes into the grate.

“Crooked aldermen,” said Mr. Newberry.

“A bum city solicitor,” said Mr. Overend, “and an infernal grafter for treasurer.”

“Yes,” assented Mr. Newberry, and then, leaning forward in his chair and looking carefully about the corridors of the club, he spoke behind his hand and said, “And the mayor’s the biggest grafter of the lot. And what’s more,” he added, sinking his voice to a whisper, “the time has come to speak out about it fearlessly.”

They had been sitting in a quiet corner of the club – it was on a Sunday evening – and had fallen into talking, first of all of the present rottenness of the federal politics of the United States, – not argumentatively or with any heat, but with the reflective sadness that steals over an elderly man when he sits in the leather arm-chair of a comfortable club smoking a good cigar and musing on the decadence of the present day. The rottenness of the federal government didn’t anger them. It merely grieved them.

They could remember, – both of them, – how different everything was when they were young men just entering on life. When Mr. Newberry and Mr. Dick Overend were young, men went into congress from pure patriotism; there was no such thing as graft or crookedness, as they both admitted, in those days; and as for the United States Senate – here their voices were almost hushed in awe – why, when they were young, the United States Senate, –

But no, neither of them could find a phrase big enough for their meaning.

They merely repeated “as for the United States Senate” – and then shook their heads and took long drinks of whiskey and soda.

Then, naturally, speaking of the rottenness of the federal government had led them to talk of the rottenness of the state legislature. How different from the state legislatures that they remembered as young men! Not merely different in the matter of graft, but different, so Mr. Newberry said, in the calibre of the men. He recalled how he had been taken as a boy of twelve by his father to hear a debate. He would never
forget it. Giants! he said, that was what they were. In fact, the thing was more like a Witenagemot than a legislature. He said he distinctly recalled a man, whose name he didn’t recollect, speaking on a question, he didn’t just remember what, either for or against he couldn’t just recall which; it thrilled him. He would never forget it. It stayed in his memory as if it were yesterday.

But as for the present legislature, – here Mr. Dick Overend sadly nodded assent in advance to what he knew was coming – as for the present legislature – well, – Mr. Newberry had had, he said, occasion to visit the state capital a week before in connection with a railway bill that he was trying to, – that is, that he was anxious to, – in short in connection with a railway bill, and when he looked about him at the men in the legislature, – positively he felt ashamed; he could put it no other way than that, – ashamed.

After which, from speaking of the crookedness of the state government Mr. Newberry and Mr. Dick Overend were led to talk of the crookedness of the city government! And they both agreed, as above, that things were worse than in Russia. What secretly irritated them both most was that they had lived and done business under this infernal corruption for thirty or forty years and hadn’t noticed it. They had been too busy.

The fact was that their conversation reflected not so much their own original ideas as a general wave of feeling that was passing over the whole community.

There had come a moment, – quite suddenly it seemed, – when it occurred to everybody at the same time that the whole government of the city was rotten. The word is a strong one. But it is the one that was used. Look at the aldermen, they said, – rotten! Look at the city solicitor, rotten! And as for the mayor himself, – phew!

The thing came like a wave. Everybody felt it at once. People wondered how any sane, intelligent community could tolerate the presence of a set of corrupt scoundrels like the twenty aldermen of the city. Their names, it was said, were simply a byword throughout the United States for rank criminal corruption. This was said so widely that everybody started hunting through the daily papers to try to find out who in blazes
were
aldermen, anyhow. Twenty names are hard to remember, and as a matter of fact, at the moment when this wave of feeling struck the city, nobody knew or cared who were aldermen, anyway.

To tell the truth, the aldermen had been much the same persons for about fifteen or twenty years. Some were in the produce business, others were butchers, two were grocers, and all of them wore blue checkered waistcoats and red ties and got up at seven in the morning to attend the vegetable and other markets. Nobody had ever really thought about them, – that is to say, nobody on Plutoria Avenue. Sometimes one saw a picture in the paper and wondered for a moment who the person was; but on looking more closely and noticing what was written under it, one said, “Oh, I see, an alderman,” and turned to something else.

“Whose funeral is that?” a man would sometimes ask on Plutoria Avenue. “Oh, just one of the city aldermen,” a passer-by would answer hurriedly. “Oh I see, I beg your pardon, I thought it might be somebody important.”

At which both laughed.

It was not just clear how and where this movement of indignation had started. People said that it was part of a new wave of public morality that was sweeping over the entire United States. Certainly it was being remarked in almost every section
of the country. Chicago newspapers were attributing its origin to the new vigour and the fresh ideals of the middle west. In Boston it was said to be due to a revival of the grand old New England spirit. In Philadelphia they called it the spirit of William Penn. In the south it was said to be the reassertion of southern chivalry making itself felt against the greed and selfishness of the north, while in the north they recognised it at once as a protest against the sluggishness and ignorance of the south. In the west they spoke of it as a revolt against the spirit of the east and in the east they called it a reaction against the lawlessness of the west. But everywhere they hailed it as a new sign of the glorious unity of the country.

If therefore Mr. Newberry and Mr. Overend were found to be discussing the corrupt state of their city they only shared in the national sentiments of the moment. In fact in the same city hundreds of other citizens, as disinterested as themselves, were waking up to the realisation of what was going on. As soon as people began to look into the condition of things in the city they were horrified at what they found. It was discovered, for example, that Alderman Schwefeldampf was an undertaker! Think of it! In a city with a hundred and fifty deaths a week, and sometimes even better, an undertaker sat on the council! A city that was about to expropriate land and to spend four hundred thousand dollars for a new cemetery, had an undertaker on the expropriation committee itself! And worse than that! Alderman Undercutt was a butcher! In a city that consumed a thousand tons of meat every week! And Alderman O’Hooligan – it leaked out – was an Irishman! Imagine it! An Irishman sitting on the police committee of the council in a city where thirty-eight and a half out of every hundred policemen were Irish, either by birth or parentage! The thing was monstrous.