The Iron Heel
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THE IRON HEEL
impracticable under the new regime. Outside the regular secret service of the Iron Heel, there was further established a secret service of the Mercenaries, this latter forming a connecting link between the police and the military.
104ItwasnotuntiltheSecondRevoltwascrushed,thatthe‘FriscoReds flourished again. And for two generations the Group flourished. Then an agent of the Iron Heel managed to become a member, penetrated all itssecrets,andbroughtaboutitstotalannihilation.Thisoccurredin2002 A.D. The members were executed one at a time, at intervals of three weeks, and their bodies exposed in the labor-ghetto of San Francisco.
105The Benton Harbor refuge was a catacomb, the entrance of which was cunningly contrived by way of a well. It has been maintained in a fair state of preservation, and the curious visitor may to-day tread its labyrinths to the assembl hall, where, without doubt, occurred the scene described by Avis Everhard. Farther on are the cells where the prisoners were confined, and the death chamber where the executions took place. Beyond is the cemetery – long, winding galleries hewn out of the solid rock, with recesses on either hand, wherein, tier above tier,lietherevolutionistsjustastheywerelaidawaybytheircomrades long years agone.
106At that time polygamy was still practised in Turkey.
107ThisisnotbraggadocioonthepartofAvisEverhard.Theflowerof the artistic and intellectual world were revolutionists. With the exception of a few of the musicians and singers, and of a few of the oligarchs, all the great creators of the period whose names have come down to us, were revolutionists.
108Even as late as that period, cream and butter were still crudely extracted from cow’s milk. The laboratory preparation of foods had not yet begun.
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109In all the extant literature and documents of that period, continual reference is made to the poems of Rudolph Mendenhall. By his comrades he was called “The Flame.” He was undoubtedly a great genius; yet, beyond weird and haunting fragments of his verse, quoted in the writings of others, nothing of his has come down to us. He was executed by the Iron Heel in 1928A.D.
110The case of this young man was not unusual. Many young men of theOligarchy,impelledbysenseofrightconduct,ortheirimaginations captured by the glory of the Revolution, ethically or romantically devoted their lives to it. In similar way, many sons of the Russian nobility played their parts in the earlier and protracted revolution in that country.
111 The Mercenaries, in the last days of the Iron Heel, played an important role. They constituted the balance of power in the struggles between the labor castes and the oligarchs, and now to one side and now to the other, threw their strength according to the play of intrigue and conspiracy.
112Out of the ethical incoherency and inconsistency of capitalism, the oligarchs emerged with a new ethics, coherent and definite, sharp and severe as steel, the most absurd and unscientific and at the same time the most potent ever possessed by any tyrant class.The oligarchs believed their ethics, in spite of the fact that biology and evolution gave them the lie; and, because of their faith, for three centuries they wereabletoholdbackthemightytideofhumanprogress–aspectacle, profound, tremendous, puzzling to the metaphysical moralist, and one thattothematerialististhecauseofmanydoubtsandreconsiderations.
113Ardis was completed in 1942 A.D., Asgard was not completed until 1984 A.D. It was fifty-two years in the building, during which time a permanent army of half a million serfs was employed.At times
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these numbers swelled to over a million – without any account being taken of the hundreds of thousands of the labor castes and the artists.
114Among the Revolutionists were many surgeons, and in vivisection they attained marvellous proficiency. In Avis Everhard’s words, they could literally make a man over. To them the elimination of scars and disfigurements was a trivial detail. They changed the features with such microscopic care that no traces were left of their handiwork. The nose was a favorite organ to work upon. Skin-grafting and hairtransplanting were among their commonest devices. The changes in expression they accomplished were wizard-like. Eyes and eyebrows, lips, mouths, and ears, were radically altered. By cunning operations ontongue,throat,larynx,andnasalcavitiesaman’swholeenunciation and manner of speech could be changed. Desperate times give need for desperate remedies, and the surgeons of the Revolution rose to the need.Among other things, they could increase an adult’s stature by as muchasfourorfiveinchesanddecreaseitbyoneortwoinches.What they did is to-day a lost art. We have no need for it.
115Chicago was the industrial inferno of the nineteenth century A.D. AcuriousanecdotehascomedowntousofJohnBurns,agreatEnglish labor leader and one time member of the British Cabinet. In Chicago, while on a visit to the United States, he was asked by a newspaper
reporter for his opinion of that city. “Chicago,” he answered, “is a pocket edition of hell.” Some time later, as he was going aboard his steamer to sail to England, he was approached by another reporter, who wanted to know if he had changed his opinion of Chicago. “Yes, I have,” was his reply. “My present opinion is that hell is a pocket edition of Chicago.”
116 This was reputed to be the fastest train in the world then. It was quite a famous train.
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117False.
118Alie.
119Food.
120In those days, so sparsely populated was the land that wild animals oftenbecamepests.InCaliforniathecustomofrabbit-drivingobtained. On a given day all the farmers in a locality would assemble andsweep across the country in converging lines, driving the rabbits by scores of thousands into a prepared enclosure, where they were clubbed to death by men and boys.
121It was long a question of debate, whether the burning of the South Sideghettowasaccidental,orwhetheritwasdonebytheMercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from their chiefs.
122Numbers of the buildings held out over a week, while one held out eleven days. Each building had to be stormed like a fort, and the Mercenaries fought their way upward floor by floor. It was deadly fighting. Quarter was neither given nor taken, and in the fighting the revolutionists had the advantage of being above. While the revolutionists were wiped out, the loss was not one-sided. The proud Chicago proletariat lived up to its ancient boast. For as many of itself as were killed, it killed that many of the enemy.
123The annals of this short-lived era of despair make bloody reading. Revenge was the ruling motive, and the members of the terroristic organizations were careless of their own lives and hopeless about the future.TheDanites,takingtheirnamefromtheavengingangelsofthe Mormonmythology,sprangupinthemountainsoftheGreatWestand spread over the Pacific Coast from Panama to Alaska. The Valkyries
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were women. They were the most terrible of all. No woman was eligibleformembershipwhohadnotlostnearrelativesatthehandsof the Oligarchy. They were guilty of torturing their prisoners to death. Another famous organization of women was The Widows of War. Acompanion organization to the Valkyries was the Berserkers. These men placed no value whatever upon their own lives, and it was they who totally destroyed the great Mercenary city of Bellona along with its population of over a hundred thousand souls. The Bedlamites and the Helldamites were twin slave organizations, while a new religious sect that did not flourish long was called The Wrath of God. Among others, to show the whimsicality of their deadly seriousness, may be mentioned the following: The Bleeding Hearts, Sons of the Morning, the Morning Stars, The Flamingoes, The Triple Triangles, The Three Bars, The Rubonics, The Vindicators, The Comanches, and the Erebusites.
124 This is the end of the Everhard Manuscript. It breaks o abruptlyinthemiddleofasentence.Shemusthavereceivedwarningof the coming of the Mercenaries, for she had time safely to hide the Manuscript before she fled or was captured. It is to be regretted that she did not live to complete her narrative, for then, undoubtedly, would have been cleared away the mystery that has shrouded for seven centuries the execution of Ernest Everhard.
Литературно-художественное издание
Jack London
The Iron Heel
Выпускающий редактор И. Краснова
Редактор П. Воронин
Корректор И. Иванова Компьютерная верстка: Т. Серёгина Художественное оформление: М. Кылосова
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