The Root of Evil

th Bivens on terms of intimate friendship. All feeling of resentment against him had gone. The little man had grown to be a great figure and he was happy in remembering thei

eautiful forehead, and the blood was trickling down the white drawn face. He was hurling himself against the mob in a vain effort to reach her side, a

ked about the room, bewildered. The tip of a swi

ndow quickly and

e!" he exclaimed

orror haunted h

flood of shopgirls and clerks passing across the street from the department stores. What an endless throng! Hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands, men and women, girls and boys, hurrying homeward. He had never noticed th

n beings who might have hopes and f

he faces of these children. They must be horribly overworked. What a pitiful, starved life for a child. H

rned to look again. It made him shiver. They ought to be at school, these children; why were they here, jostling, elbowing, and fighting their way through this crowd? A floor walker passed, holding a pretty girl's arm. His position was unmistakable. No other man strolls throug

ble Master without a soul-who asked always and without comment for efficiency and economy. They must

n. He had no idea how furious the pace until he suddenly noticed that he was an object of mild curiosity. He slacken

whole structure of Society at last thoroughly materialistic? Was not religion merely a tradition, honour and virtue merely the themes of song and story? Had not self

last, and take the woman he loved from him by the law of might. Deep within he felt throbbing forces of savage cruelty that in the centuries of the past had given his ancestors the leadership of men before

y

gh for the joy of those who pass. They were flames in the temple of the new god Mammon. They were the signs of hucksters who had goods to sell to the crowds at a profit. The profusion of light, the rush of eager throngs to the theatres,

hat p

could be but one answer. These flaming signs in the sky were the signals of the advanc

comedy. He knew to-night why musical comedy had such vogue in the money centres of the world. It had become the supreme expression of the utterly absurd-the reduction of life

cious of the fact that the real fight had scarcely begun. The philanthropist's feelings were hurt by his abrupt departure. He followed for half a block holding to Stuart's coat, protesting his affectionate and e

the ravenous eagerness of the man's face. Here s

awyer smile

other-I'm thinking o

ied back to his place, glancing over his shoulder

a brilliant young dramatist of the modern school of realism. In two minutes from the rising of the curtain the play had gripped him with relentless power. Slowly, remorseless as fate, he saw the purpose of the author unfold itself in a series of tense and t

o sells herself f

gy, with arms bared and gleaming scalpel firmly gripped in a hand that never quivered once, the author dissected her. Al

s here!" The knife flashed and the crowd laughed. The resu

figure said with a smile, "

and nerve and bone was laid bare and the white face loo

now the truth, however bitter, than to believe a lie. I do not dogma

lt. The dazed crowd waked from the spell and poured into the aisles, whi

to himself with

t-I refuse to believe it-she

his mind that was destined to change t