1358. THE SCARLET PLAGUE. +Macmillan; New York,

1914. Mills and Boon; London, 1915. These are the

trade first editions. A "copyright edition" of perhaps

a dozen or so copies was published by Paul R.

Reynolds in 1912. It has not been seen.

(London Magazine, May-June 1912; serially in various

Hearst newspapers in early 1913) A cautionary

tale of the future. * California, 2073 A.D. * Shortly

after the national Board of Magnates installed

Morgan the Fifth as President of the United States

in 2012, the Scarlet Death struck, almost exterminating

mankind. At story time (2073 A.D.) there are

probably not more than a couple of score people surviving

in the former United States. Civilization

has been lost, and the survivors have relapsed to

food-gathering primitivism, but without the social

stability or effective culture that most primitive

peoples used to enjoy. An octogenarian tells the

story of the fall of civilization to his grandsons,

who are vicious young animals. * In the world of

2010 or so capitalism was unrestrained, and the nation

was owned by a few wealthy families who treated

the lower classes very badly. Science and technology

had made great advances, with inoculations for

most diseases, rapid trains, good dirigibles, and

efficient automobiles. * Then the Scarlet Death

struck. It killed its victims in a few hours; there

was no defense against it, and it was highly contagious.

* The old man describes the exodus from the

San Francisco Bay area as the staff of the University

of California tried to escape together. All

died of the plague except the old narrator, who was

one of the very few to have natural immunity. * After

the plague passed, with mankind nearly extinct,

the survivors formed very small groups. The old man

tells of his wife, who used to be a hash-slinger,

and also of Vesta Van Warden, the daughter of one of

the magnates. She became the woman of her former

chauffeur, who beat her and abused her savagely, refusing

to sell her because he enjoyed the reversal

of social roles. * The population has gradually increased

since then, but it is spread out in small

tribe-like groups. * Unfortunately, all the evils

and abuses of the former dead civilization are arising

again. Greed, lust, desire for power, brutality,

anti-intellectualism are omnipresent among the

young. * The old man has stored books in a cave,

together with a system for reading them, for the

younger generation is not only illiterate but will

not even believe in the possibility of writing. *

Everything is cyclical, the old man realizes, and

the new civilization will be just as wretched as the

old was. * Undoubtedly London's best fantastic story,

told with considerable artistry and with