CHAPTER XVII

In the company of my two Amazon guides, I passed through the buzzing crowd to a sort of official Black Maria which in this case was nothing more or less than an aerial taxi. On our journey I attempted to extract some information of my destination and probable length of stay. Despite the usual bureaucratic lack of information, I did gather that the Club to which I was being taken was a junior organization where the young males on their first introduction into society were segregated and carefully instructed in the arts and graces of conduct. My first uneasiness gave place to a growing curiosity. Knowing that crimes of violence were outlawed I ceased to fear my reception among my own sex, confident that in a short contact I could dissipate the first unfavorable impression. I had not, in fact, any carefully matured plan but I was determined now that the opportunity had presented itself, to awake in my decadent and helpless brothers a sentiment of the glory that had been stripped from them. I set it down to my credit that, strong as was the fascination that Dianne exercised over me, the feeling of sex solidarity in me was so imperious that I was determined to stop before neither threats nor reprisals.

We alighted before a massive iron gate, fully forty feet in height, that broke the grim monotony of the towering walls. Evidently apprised of my intended arrival, a venerable proctor (in appearance sixty years of age though undoubtedly much older) was waiting to greet me. Once beyond the walls we entered a little two-seated scooter which traversed the grounds with astonishing lightness and speed and arrived at the home of my Nestorian companion, who evidently was a sort of super head master.

“It is better for you to pass the first night under my roof,” he said when we had alighted, “until the feeling against you shall have abated somewhat.”

“Really? I should think that the only sentiment would be curiosity. How have I offended?”

“This year’s debutants are a vain and silly lot and they have been made unruly by this talk of social equality that is in the air.”

“Then I gather you do not believe in male suffrage,” I said, gazing at him in surprise.

“This is a woman’s world,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “Man’s place is in the Club.”

I broke out laughing with the same result. Men too in this advanced age were totally deprived of humor. Suddenly I stopped struck by an inspiration. To begin the revolt of the males, I must teach them to laugh!

The young debutants began to return in a state of great excitement. Within half an hour, there were fully two hundred gathered in a clamoring group outside. What they wanted was, of course, a view of me. Nestor, with a caution to remain within, stepped outside the door and was addressing the ring leaders in a peremptory tone, when, moved by an impulse of disdain for these effeminate slender striplings, I sprang out boldly, and raising my hand aloft in the best oratorical manner cried:

“Hello, Twenty-Second Century!”

This salutation delivered with perfect good humor and confidence caught that animal curiosity which is instinct in the crowd. The first ranks stopped and stared. Profiting by the moment, I put Nestor behind me with a commanding gesture and advancing boldly among them, said:

“You are not a bit more curious to know what men were in my day than I am to know you and your ways. Gentlemen, I am delighted to be with you. And if anyone here thinks that it was with any pleasure that I have suffered myself to be dragged about and exhibited like a tamed animal, let him undeceive himself. Or if you think I am sent here by any complaints of yours, you are wrong again. I am here because the female powers that be, regard me as a menace to the society they have imposed on you. As I shall probably be deported within forty-eight hours to another century, make the most of this opportunity to find out how and why men ruled the world when men were giants!”

This speech which I personally thought rather bombastic, had a triumphant result. My appeal to the curiosity of the male (which women have always insisted on) turned the irritation of the crowd into one of the friendliest eagerness. By nightfall I can truly say that I was the most popular man in the Club. I wisely postponed any attempt to stir my fellow men to revolt until I had taken time to acquaint myself with their point of view, their habits and their inhibitions.

At first I admit to a certain discouragement as I realized the full strength of the inertia that ease and idleness had developed in them.

The young males had been rendered so pampered and indolent that at first I found it impossible to arouse them to any shame of the life of luxury and indulgence in which they were steeped. Outside of the gladiators (who were like a sex apart) the young male of the twenty-second century was a vain and slothful creature of the harem. Due, no doubt, to the multiplication of automatic machinery and the use of the aeroplane, I doubt if any of them could have walked a brisk five miles without needing resuscitation. On the other hand, all their physical education was directed towards the terpsichorean arts, in which they excelled for grace of movement and lightness of poise.

Their mental education I discovered went scarcely between the three R’s, reading, writing and arithmetic and their reading consisted in as feverish an application to detective literature as would have distinguished a statesman in my time. They rose late in the morning and spent a greater part of the day in the bath with solicitous applications for the softening of their skins, which were of an extraordinary velvety texture. The oiling, perfuming and curling of their hair occupied another two hours, after which they trained themselves in the intricate choreographic steps which they would later display to delight the eyes of the stronger sex. The habit of gambling was a mania with them and even in their baths which were of a Roman splendor, they were continually throwing dice in a dozen different and extremely intricate games. At night they remained until the small hours engrossed in their cards in a game which was a strange development of poker and contract bridge.

When I attempted to arouse them from their torpor of indulgence by recitals of the exploits of the male heroes of other days, citing the explorers who with adventurous courage had braved the Arctic colds, dared the terrors of the deep, or first laid their perilous courses across the uncharted sky, I found that the very idea of such dangers appalled their imaginations. The invariable response was that it was a woman’s world and some frankly proclaimed that the revolt I was urging, meant nothing but exchanging a pleasant life of sheltered ease for tasks of effort and responsibility.

I was, I admit, in despair of any success, when fortunately I discovered a small group whose racial characteristics marked them as descendants of the Irish Isles. Knowing the strong instinct of that rebellious race to any and all existing forms of government, I worked upon this strain and found to my delight a responsive enthusiasm.

It was then that my first inspiration returned to my memory. I determined to begin at the beginning of all revolts, by teaching these supernaturally sober-faced descendants the art of laughing. Applying the same physical methods I had used in the home of Acquilla, I succeeded in a few days in completely changing the character of the community. No sooner had they been instructed into the manly art of laughter than they began to seek by all manner of practical jokes a means for giving vent to these new emotions. From morning to night the Club was filled with boisterous outbursts and I became at last an acknowledged leader.

I now developed their newly discovered sense of humor by holding up to ridicule their feminine despots until, when the time was ripe, I brought forward triumphantly my scheme for a successful rebellion. I recited to them the story of Lysistrata and the woman’s revolt and having carefully demonstrated to them that they were set apart for one particular purpose alone, I pictured the consternation that would ensue if they steadfastly refused to venture from their walls, assuring them that in a short time they would be able to dictate their own terms.

This idea appealed so strongly to their rapidly developing sense of the ridiculous that the proposition was greeted with cheers and shouts of laughter and by unanimous acclaim I was appointed general in chief, with power to issue the ultimatum and enforce all needed discipline over the weaker minded elements.

For three days not a male stirred from the walls that by inviolable tradition protected their seclusion. On the fourth, the entire body of the Histriones gathered outside the gates led by Dianne, and demanded a conference.

Restraining my forces, with some difficulty I admit, I advanced outside the gates. While the young males in a fever of curiosity lined the walls, the lovely Dianne approaching me with dimmed eyes and outstretched arms enfolded me in her trembling embrace.

“Oh, Jack,” she exclaimed reproachfully, “you do not love me!”

It was the first time I had heard that peculiar feminine complaint since my arrival and its evidence that the primitive instincts could be counted upon, heartened me greatly.

“On the contrary,” I replied with unfeigned emotion. “It is because I am more in love with you than ever, that I have done what I have done to free us from Acquilla’s tyranny.”

“But what is happening? We hear the strangest noises as though the debutants had gone mad. And what is this new strange costume I see you in,” she added drawing back in surprise and staring at the shorts and polo shirt I had introduced.

“We have adopted the costume that was already being debated at the time of my departure. Do you like them?”

“What beautiful legs you have, Jack dear, so straight and strong and wooly!”

Her enthusiasm pleased but abashed me. I said hastily:

“As for the disturbances you have heard, reassure your fellow women. The men are in revolt, but we shall not proceed to acts of violence. Ours is what was called the rebellion of non-resistance.”

“What do you mean?” continued Dianne, still contemplating my legs.

“Have you read ‘Lysistrata’? Since the sexes are reversed, we have determined to revert to woman’s weapons!”

“Bogardus, how cruel!” Dianne exclaimed suddenly enlightened. “But then--no, you do not love me as I love you! You are thinking only of your pride of sex and I think of nothing but my longing for you!”

“_I could not love thee half so well Loved I not honor more_,”

I quoted triumphantly.

“But explain. Yes, I remember ‘Lysistrata’ dimly. What is your plan and how long are you going to hold to it?”

“Do not reproach me, adorable Dianne, but set your wits to help me and I assure you, in a short, a very short time we shall be triumphantly united! Take back our ultimatum to the Minervenes and Manfreda and the Supreme Council;--complete equality for men, political, social and educational or we refuse to leave our walls!”

“It is ingenious if cruel,” said Dianne meditating. “Yet I’m afraid, terribly afraid for you! For what can mere man do against this woman’s civilization?”

“What can we do? We can do what any horse can do if a horse knew his strength. Lie down and refuse to get up. The decision is up to you. If you need us in your lives, you must restore our dignity and our rights. This is our last word!”

Dianne shook her head mournfully, oppressed by, alas, too well founded premonitions.

“I shall do my best--if it were in the power of the Histriones, you would win, dear. We are already, as you know, your advocates. But Manfreda and the Minervenes--I am afraid, my beloved, afraid!”

She kissed me sadly and returned to her companions who thronged about her with questioning lips while I entered the gates to report.

The audacity of my defiance seemed to appall my adherents. Whereas, before, they had been imbued with the gaiety of a child’s rebellion, I found now a general feeling of depression, shaking heads and ominous glances. Their forebodings were only too well justified. For two days we were cut off from all knowledge of what was transpiring in the outer world, radiophone and television abruptly interrupted. Then suddenly over our heads a squadron of aerial cruisers, armed with the devastating electronoid rays appeared. The answer of Manfreda was short and uncompromising. I was to be delivered up for judgment immediately. At the end of one hour a failure to comply would mean the instant blotting out of the whole community!