The Last American | Page 9

were paid to wandering nobles
from other lands. Even distant relatives of titled people were greeted
with the warmest enthusiasm."
Then I said to him, "But explain to me, O Nofuhl, how it was possible
for so shallow a nation to become so great."
"They were great only in numbers and too weak to endure success. At
the beginning of the twentieth century--as they counted time--huge
fortunes were amassed in a day, and the Mehrikans became drunk with
money."
Whereupon I exclaimed, "O Land of Delight! For much money is
cheering."
But the old man shook his head. "Very true, O Prince; but the effect
was woful. These vast fortunes soon dominated all things, even the seat
of government and the courts of Justice. Tricks of finance brought
fabulous gains. Young men became demoralized. For sober industry
with its moderate profits was ridiculed."
"Verily, that would be natural!" I said. "But in a land where all were
rich who was found to cook and scrub, to fetch and carry and to till the
soil? For none will shovel earth when his pockets are stuffed with
gold."
"All were not rich. And when the poor also became greedy they
became hostile. Then began social upheavals with bloodshed and
havoc."

20th May

An icy wind from the northeast with a violent rain. Yesterday we
gasped with the hot air. To-day we are shivering in winter clothing.

2lst May

The same as yesterday. Most of us are ill. My teeth chatter and my
body is both hot and cold. A storm more wicked never wailed about a
ship. Lev-el-Hedyd calls it the shrieking voices of the hundred millions
of Mehrikans who must have perished in similar weather.

16th June
It is many days since I have touched this journal. A hateful sickness has
been upon me, destroying all energy and courage. A sort of fever, and
yet my limbs were cold. I could not describe it if I would.
Nofuhl came into the cabin this evening with some of his metal plates
and discoursed upon them. He has no respect for the intellects of the
early Mehrikans. I thought for a moment I had caught him in a
contradiction, but he was right as usual. It was thus:
Nofuhl. They were great readers.
Khan-li. You have told us they had no literature. Were they great
readers of nothing?
Nofuhl. Verily, thou hast said it! Vast sheets of paper were published
daily in which all crimes were recorded in detail. The more revolting
the deed, the more minute the description. Horrors were their chief
delight. Scandals were drunk in with thirstful eyes. These chronicles of
crime and filth were issued by hundreds of thousands. There was hardly
a family in the land but had one.
Khan-li. And did this take the place of literature?
Nofuhl. Even so.

20th June

Once more we are on the sea; two days from Nhu-Yok. Our decision
was a sudden one. Nofuhl, in an evil moment, found among those
accursed plates a map of the country, and thereupon was seized with an
unreasoning desire to visit a town called "Washington." I wavered and
at last consented, foolishly I believe, for the crew are loud for Persia.
And this town is inland on a river. He says it was their finest city, the
seat of Government, the capital of the country. Grip-til-lah swears he
can find it if the map is truthful. Ja-khaz still eats by himself.
This afternoon we reclined upon the deck, the Zlotuhb drifting gently in
a southerly direction. Land could be seen on the starboard bow, a faint

strip along the western horizon.
It was about the middle of the afternoon, while passing the ruins of a
gigantic tower--perhaps a lighthouse--that Nofuhl, of a sudden,
clambered hastily to his feet and looked about him. Then he called to
Grip-til-lah, asking how many leagues we were from the harbor of
Nhu-Yok. Grip-til-lah's reply I forget, but it filled the old man with a
gentle excitement. I observed an unwonted sparkle in his eyes, also a
quivering of the fingers as he pointed to the ocean around about, and
exclaimed--
"Beneath us, the bottom of the sea is covered with iron ships--the
wrecks of stupendous navies--the mightiest of all human history!"
At once we all became interested.
"What navies?" I inquired. "And what compassed their destruction?
Was it a battle?"
Nofuhl. A battle of whose magnitude no Persian has conception; a
conflict in which the sea was tossed and the heavens rent by
thunderings of iron monsters. Any one of them would have blown to
atoms a fleet of Zlotuhbs.
Ad-el-pate. Verily! A tale easier told than believed. But I would readily
venture my head in the Zlotuhb against any of these nursery-tale
wonders.