Through the Eye of the Needle: A Romance

by William Dean Howells

  X

  Well, my dear Dorothea, I had been hoping to go more into detail about mymother and about our life in the Maritime Capital, which is to be ourhome for a year, but I had hardly got down the last words when Aristidescame in with a despatch from the Seventh Regionic, summoning us there onimportant public business: I haven't got over the feeling yet of beingespecially distinguished and flattered at sharing in public business; butthe Altrurian women are so used to it that they do not think anything ofit. The despatch was signed by an old friend of my husband's, CyrilChrysostom, who had once been Emissary in England, and to whom my husbandwrote his letters when he was in America. I hated to leave my mother sosoon, but it could not be helped, and we took the first electric expressfor the Seventh Regionic, where we arrived in about an hour and fortyminutes, making the three hundred miles in that time easily. I couldn'thelp regretting our comfortable van, but there was evidently haste in thesummons, and I confess that I was curious to know what the matter was,though I had made a shrewd guess the first instant, and it turned outthat I was not mistaken.

  The long and the short of it was that there was trouble with the peoplewho had come ashore in that yacht, and were destined never to go to seain her. She was hopelessly bedded in the sand, and the waves that werebreaking over her were burying her deeper and deeper. The owners wereliving in their tent as we had left them, and her crew were camped insmaller tents and any shelter they could get, along the beach. They hadbrought her stores away, but many of the provisions had been damaged, andit had become a pressing question what should be done about the people.We had been asked to consult with Cyril and his wife, and the otherRegionic chiefs and their wives, and we threshed the question out nearlythe whole night.

  I am afraid it will appear rather comical in some aspects to you and Mr.Makely, but I can assure you that it was a very serious matter with theAltrurian authorities. If there had been any hope of a vessel from thecapitalistic world touching at Altruria within a definite time, theycould have managed, for they would have gladly kept the yacht's peopleand owners till they could embark them for Australia or New Zealand, andwould have made as little of the trouble they were giving as they could.But until the trader that brought us should return with the crew, as thecaptain had promised, there was no ship expected, and any other wreck inthe mean time would only add to their difficulty. You may be surprised,though I was not, that the difficulty was mostly with the yacht-owners,and above all with Mrs. Thrall, who had baffled every effort of theauthorities to reduce what they considered the disorder of their life.

  With the crew it was a different matter. As soon as they had got drunk onthe wines and spirits they had brought from the wreck, and then had gotsober because they had drunk all the liquors up, they began to be moremanageable; when their provisions ran short, and they were made tounderstand that they would not be allowed to plunder the fields andwoods, or loot the villages for something to eat, they became almostexemplarily docile. At first they were disposed to show fight, andthe principles of the Altrurians did not allow them to use violence inbringing them to subjection; but the men had counted without their hostsin supposing that they could therefore do as they pleased, unless theypleased to do right. After they had made their first foray they werewarned by Cyril, who came from the capital to speak English with them,that another raid would not be suffered. They therefore attempted itby night, but the Altrurians were prepared for them with the flexiblesteel nets which are their only means of defence, and half a dozensailors were taken in one. When they attempted to break out, and theirshipmates attempted to break in to free them, a light current ofelectricity was sent through the wires and the thing was done. Thosewho were rescued--the Altrurians will not say captured--had hoes put intotheir hands the next morning, and were led into the fields and set towork, after a generous breakfast of coffee, bread, and mushrooms. Thechickens they had killed in their midnight expedition were buried, andthose which they had not killed lost no time in beginning to lay eggs forthe sustenance of the reformed castaways. As an extra precaution with the"rescued," when they were put to work, each of them with a kind of shirtof mail, worn over his coat, which could easily be electrized by ametallic filament connecting with the communal dynamo, and under theseconditions they each did a full day's work during the Obligatories.

  As the short commons grew shorter and shorter, both meat and drink, atCamp Famine, and the campers found it was useless to attempt thievingfrom the Altrurians, they had tried begging from the owners in theirlarge tent, but they were told that the provisions were giving out there,too, and there was nothing for them. When they insisted the servants ofthe owners had threatened them with revolvers, and the sailors, who hadnothing but their knives, preferred to attempt living on the country.Within a week the whole crew had been put to work in the woods and fieldsand quarries, or wherever they could make themselves useful. They were,on the whole, so well fed and sheltered that they were perfectlysatisfied, and went down with the Altrurians on the beach during theVoluntaries and helped secure the yacht's boats and pieces of wreckagethat came ashore. Until they became accustomed or resigned to theAltrurian diet, they were allowed to catch shell-fish and the crabs thatswarmed along the sand and cook them, but on condition that they builttheir fires on the beach, and cooked only during an offshore wind, sothat the fumes of the roasting should not offend the villagers.

  Cyril acknowledged, therefore, that the question of the crew was for thepresent practically settled, but Mr. and Mrs. Thrall, and their daughterand son-in-law, with their servants, still presented a formidableproblem. As yet, their provisions had not run out, and they were livingin their marquee as we had seen them three weeks earlier, just aftertheir yacht went ashore. It could not be said that they were molestive inthe same sense as the sailors, but they were even more demoralizing inthe spectacle they offered the neighborhood of people dependent on hiredservice, and in their endeavors to supply themselves in perishableprovisions, like milk and eggs, by means of money. Cyril had held severalinterviews with them, in which he had at first delicately intimated, andthen explicitly declared, that the situation could not be prolonged.The two men had been able to get the Altrurian point of view in somemeasure, and so had Lady Moors, but Mrs. Thrall had remained stifflyobtuse and obstinate, and it was in despair of bringing her to termswithout resorting to rescue that he had summoned us to help him.

  It was not a pleasant job, but of course we could not refuse, and weagreed that as soon as we had caught a nap, and had a bite of breakfastwe would go over to their camp with Cyril and his wife, and see what wecould do with the obnoxious woman. I confess that I had some littleconsolation in the hope that I should see her properly humbled.