The New World

: The Doomsman

Again we make acknowledgment to the "Laudable" Vigilas and quote at

large from the luminous pages of The Later Cosmos. Now the reader,

scenting more learned discourse, may meditate upon skipping this

chapter; nay, will probably do so. Yet, to my thinking, he will act more

wisely in buckling down to it, seeing that it contains matter of moment

for the perfect understanding of the narrative proper. The studying of

guide-
osts is not an amusing occupation, but it is infinitely less

tedious than to wander around all day in a fog and perhaps miss one's

destination altogether.



* * * * *



"It is, indeed, a small world as we know it to-day. Our philosophers,

reconstructing, as best they may, the science of the ancients from the

treatises, few and sadly incomplete, that have come down to us, affirm

that the earth is an orb and that another continent (perhaps more than

one) lies beyond the rim of the eastern horizon. It may be so, but the

issue is not of practical importance, seeing that there are none who

care to make adventure of the great salty gulf that lies between. And so

the sea keeps its mysteries.



"On the other hand, we count it inadvisable to wander far afield. To

the north, to the west, and to the south stretches the unbroken forest,

and in a few hours a man's legs may easily carry him out of hailing of

the voice of his kind. The waterways form the only regular channels for

social and commercial intercourse, and the busybody and gad-about are

not regarded with favor by honest people.



"It appears highly probable that the human race was virtually

annihilated over the general area of the ancient United States of

America; it persisted only in a few particularly favored localities and

through accidental circumstances of which we know nothing definite. In

our own day, the northern, central, and southern group of colonies

maintain a system of infrequent intercommunication, and beyond that

certain knowledge does not extend. It is possible that mankind may exist

in a degraded state, in many inaccessible corners of this vast continent

of ours, but this is only a possibility, concerning which the theories

of the learned are no more susceptible of proof than are the idle

speculations of the vulgar.



"For convenience, we will accept the popular classification of the human

race as it exists to-day--the Painted Men, the House People, and the

Doomsmen. To take them up in that order.



"The Painted Men, otherwise the Wood Folk, are the descendants of the

Indians of old, but the strain is largely mingled with that of the negro

race, and, with hardly an exception, it is the weaker qualities both of

body and of mind that have been emphasized in the hybrid. From their

Indian forebears they have preserved the custom of painting their face

with crude and hideous pigments upon all occasions of ceremony; hence

their popular designation--the 'Painted Men.'



"The House People are conveniently subdivided into two classes--the

townsmen, or House People proper, and the stockade dwellers,

colloquially, the Stockaders.



"The House People of the walled towns represent as nearly as may be the

middle classes of the ancient civilization. Originally, the family was

the political and social unit, just as with the patriarchs of Holy Writ,

but within the last generation the community idea has been growing

rapidly, and there are perhaps a score of towns and villages scattered

along the banks of the Greater and Lesser rivers.



"The Stockaders, reversing the procedure of their kinsmen of the towns,

live apart from one another, each proprietor depending wholly upon his

own resources for sustenance and defence. Some of the larger estates

contain several hundred acres enclosed by a strong timber stockade and

otherwise defended against the assaults of enemies. The head of the

family, or clan, as it might more properly be termed, is lord paramount

within his own borders, even possessing the rights of life and death.

But this last authority is rarely called in exercise, since these folk

of the free country-side are naturally wholesome, honest,

generous-hearted men, content to lead a simple life and coveting no

man's honor or goods. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the

stockade dweller is both provincial of habit and prejudiced of mind. He

looks down upon the townsman as a huckster in private and a shuffler in

public life, and this feeling of contemptuous enmity is fully returned

by the cit, who regards the free proprietor in the light of a boor and a

bully. Moreover, it rankles in the Houseman's breast that no Stockader

pays a farthing of head-money to the treasure-chest of the Doomsmen. Now

and then some well-to-do proprietor may suffer loss from cattle thieving

and rick burning, but as often as not the marauders pay full price for

all they get. And this leads us to a consideration of the Doomsman

himself, that foul excrescence upon our modern body politic.

Fortunately, history here speaks clearly, and we have only to listen to

her voice.



"It was a natural procedure, upon the coming of the Terror, to throw

open the doors of the jails and other punitive institutions, thereby

giving the wretched inmates an equal chance for life. The great mass of

these degraded beings gravitated inevitably towards the cities, seeking

plunder and opportunities for bestial dissipation that even the dread

presence of the Terror could not restrain. Without hope and without

fear, they rushed to the vulture's feast; here was wine and gold and

soft raiment; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.



"It was the ancient city of New York that received the vast bulk of this

army of human rats; naturally so, since it was the supreme

treasure-house of the western world. In such overwhelming numbers did

these vermin come that the civil and military administrations were

literally swarmed over. Between two days the outlaws were in complete

possession, and the small remnant of the decent residents retired

precipitately, preferring to meet death under the open sky rather than

in company with their new masters.



"The years went on, but the changes that they brought were few. The

descendants of the ancient criminals remained in the ruined city, at

first of necessity, afterwards by choice, finding there fuel and shelter

in abundance besides large stores of non-perishable food supplies. When,

in the next generation, these provisions became exhausted it was

inevitable that the refugees should fix covetous eyes upon the

threshing-floors and herd-stalls of their rural neighbors. But although

the outlaws had continued to gain in numbers, their natural increase was

not proportionate to the growing power of their adversaries. Little by

little the Doomsmen began to lose ground; already they had been defeated

several times in pitched battle, and it looked as though the

hornet's-nest would soon be smoked out.



"It was at this critical juncture that the infamous personality of Dom

Gillian made itself of commanding account, and thenceforth the balance

began to incline the other way. It was but the weight of one man's hand

in the scale-pan, yet there are still many of us who remember how heavy

that hand could be.



"Infamous is the adjective deliberately applied, and with reason.

Dominus Gillian, to give him his full name, was a renegade, the unworthy

son of a distinguished Stockader family. Admittedly a man of fine

intellect and force, it is equally unquestionable that he was entirely

devoid of moral sense. He possessed a genius for organization, and he

succeeded in consolidating the unruly Doomsmen into a compact and

disciplined body of outlaws. Murder and rapine were quickly reduced to

exact sciences, and, unfortunately, the House People could not be made

to see the necessity of united action; the townsman and the stockade

dweller preferred to contend with each other rather than against the

common enemy. As a consequence, the freebooters had a clear road before

them, and so was established that intolerable tyranny under which the

land still groans. All this occurred upward of sixty years ago.



"It only remains to add that Dominus, or, more colloquially, Dom

Gillian, still lives, albeit he must be verging upon ninety years of

age. For many years he has not been seen in the field, and it is even

asserted that he no longer takes active part in the councils of the

Doomsmen. Be that as it may, his will still remains dominant to animate

and direct the malign powers created by his wicked genius. And the evil

that men do, doth it not live after them?



"Such is the world, or, rather, one infinitesimal portion of the cosmos,

in the year 2015, according to the ancient calendar, or 90 since the

Terror."



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