The Witness - Grace Livingston Hill Lutz (top 5 books to read txt) 📗
- Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
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Out, "Lord, If Thou Hadst Been Here!"
It Was The Old Question That Used To Come Up In The Class-Room, Yet Now,
Strangely Enough, He Began To Feel There Was An Answer To It Somewhere;
An Answer Wherewith He Would Be Satisfied When He Found It.
It Seemed An Eternity Of Thought Through Which He Passed As He Crossed
And Recrossed The Street And Was Back In The Tiny Room Where Life Waited
On Death. It Was Another Eternity While The Doctor Worked Again Over Th
Chapter 5 Pg 33The Government Based Its Action Upon The Following Allegations, Which
Appear To Have Been Substantially Correct: In October Arrangements Were
Made To Convoke A Secret Conference Of Delegates Of The Social Democratic
Organization To Plan For A Revolutionary Uprising. The Police Learned Of
The Plan, And When At Last, On November 17th, The Conference Was Held At
Viborg, Eight Miles From Petrograd--As The National Capital Was Now
Called--A Detachment Of Police Found Eleven Persons Assembled, Including
Five Members Of The Imperial Duma, Messrs. Petrovsky, Badavev, Mouranov,
Samoelov, And Chagov. The Police Arrested Six Persons, But Did Not Arrest
The Duma Members, On Account Of Their Parliamentary Position. An Examining
Magistrate, However, Indicted The Whole Eleven Who Attended The Conference,
Under Article No. 102 Of The Penal Code, And Issued Warrants For Their
Arrest. Among Those Arrested Was Kamanev, One Of Lenine's Closest Friends,
Who Behaved So Badly At His Trial, Manifesting So Much Cowardice, That He
Was Censured By His Party.
At This Conference, According To The Government, Arrangements Were Made To
Circulate Among The Masses A Manifesto Which Declared That "From The
Viewpoint Of The Working Class And Of The Laboring Masses Of All The
Nations Of Russia, The Defeat Of The Monarchy Of The Czar And Of Its Armies
Would Be Of Extremely Little Consequence." The Manifesto Urged The
Imperative Necessity Of _Carrying On On All Sides The Propaganda Of The
Social Revolution Among The Army And At The Theater Of The War, And That
Weapons Should Be Directed Not Against Their Brothers, The Hired Slaves Of
Other Countries, But Against The Reactionary Bourgeois Governments_. The
Manifesto Went On, According To The Government, To Favor The Organization
Of A Similar Propaganda In All Languages, Among All The Armies, With The
Aim Of Creating Republics In Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria, And All
Other European Countries, These To Be Federated Into A Republican United
Stares Of Europe.
The Declaration That The Defeat Of The Russian Armies Would Be "Of
Extremely Little Consequence" To The Workers Became The Key-Note Of The
Anti-War Agitation Of The Bolsheviki. Lenine And Zinoviev, Still In Exile,
Adopted The View That The Defeat Of Russia Was _Actually Desirable_ From
The Point Of View Of The Russian Working Class. "We Are Russians, And For
That Very Reason We Want Czarism To Be Defeated," Was The Cry.[3] In His
Paper, The _Social Democrat_, Published In Switzerland, Lenine Advocated
Russian Defeat, To Be Brought About Through Treachery And Revolt In The
Army, As The Best Means Of Furthering Revolutionary Progress. The Majority
Chapter 5 Pg 34Of The Bolshevik Faction Made Common Cause With The Extreme Left-Wing
Socialists Of The Socialist-Revolutionary Party, Who Shared Their Views And
Became Known As "Porazhentsi"--That Is, Advocates Of Defeat. Naturally, The
Charge Was Made That They Were Pro-German, And It Was Even Charged That
They Were In The Pay Of Germany. Possibly Some Of Them Were, But It By No
Means Follows That Because They Desired Russia's Defeat They Were Therefore
Consciously Pro-German. They Were Not Pro-German, But Anti-Czarists. They
Believed Quite Honestly, Most Of Them, That Russia's Defeat Was The Surest
And Quickest Way Of Bringing About The Revolution In Russia Which Would
Overthrow Czarism. In Many Respects Their Position Was Quite Like That Of
Those Irish Rebels Who Desired To See England Defeated, Even Though It
Meant Germany's Triumph, Not Because Of Any Love For Germany, But Because
They Hated England And Believed That Her Defeat Would Be Ireland's
Opportunity. However Short-Sighted And Stupid Such A Policy May Be Judged
To Be, It Is Quite Comprehensible And Should Not Be Misrepresented. It Is A
Remarkable Fact That The Bolsheviki, While Claiming To Be The Most Radical
And Extreme Internationalists, Were In Practice The Most Narrow
Nationalists. They Were Exactly As Narrow In Their Nationalism As The
Sinn-Feiners Of Ireland. They Wery Of Looking At The Matter; A Possibility That The
Wicked Old Reprobate Had Yet Something More To Learn Of Life Before He
Went Beyond Its Choices And Opportunities; A Conviction That If He Were
Called To Go He Had Rather Be The Little Child In His Purity Than The
Old Man In His Deviltry.
The Sudden Cutting Down Of This Lovely Child Had Startled And Shocked
Him. The Bereavement Of The Girl Cut Him To The Heart As If She Had
Belonged To Him. It Brought The Other World So Close. It Made What Had
Hitherto Seemed The Big Worth-While Things Of Life Look So Small And
Petty, So Ephemeral! Had He Always Been Giving Himself Utterly To Things
That Did Not Count, Or Was This A Perspective All Out Of Proportion, A
Distorted Brain Again, Through Nervous Strain And Over-Exertion?
He Came Presently To A Well-Known Undertaker's, And, Stepping In, Felt
More Than Ever The Borderland-Sense. In This Silent House Of Sadness Men
Stepped Quietly, Gravely, Decorously, And Served You With Courteous
Sympathy. What Was The Name Of The Man Who Rowed His Boat On The River
Styx? Yes! Charon! These Wise-Eyed Grave Men Who Continually Plied Their
Oars Between Two Worlds! How Did They Look On Life? Were They Hardened
To Their Task? Was Their Gentle Gravity All Acting? Did Earthly Things
Appeal To Them? How Could They Bear It All, This Continual Settled
Sadness About The Place! The Awful Hush! The Tear-Stained Faces! The
Heavy Breath Of Flowers! Not All The Lofty Marble Arches, And Beauty Of
Surroundings, Not All The Soft Music Of Hidden Choirs And Distant Organ
Up In One Of The Halls Above Where A Service Was Even Then In Progress,
Could Take Away The Fact Of Death; The Settled, Final Fact Of Death! One
Moment Here Upon The Curbstone, Golden Hair Afloat, Eyes Alight With
Chapter 5 Pg 35Joyous Greeting, Voice Of Laughter; The Next Gone, Irrevocably Gone,
"And The Place Thereof Shall Know It No More," Where Had He Heard Those
Words? Strange, Sad House Of Death! Strange, Uncertain Life To Live.
Resurrection! Where Had He Caught That Word In Carven Letters Twined
Among Lilies Above The Marble Staircase? Resurrection! Yes, There Would
Need To Be If There Was To Be Any Hope Ever In This World!
It Was A Strange Duty He Had To Perform, Strange Indeed For A College
Boy To Whom Death Had Never Come Very Close Since He Had Been Old Enough
To Understand. It Came To Him To Wonder What The Fellows Would Say If
They Could See Him Here. He Felt Half A Grudge Toward Wittemore For
Having Let Him In For All This. Poor Wittemore! By This Time To-Morrow
Night Wittemore Might Be Doing This Same Service For His Own Mother!
Death! Death! Death! Everywhere! It Seemed As If Everybody Was Dying!
He Made Selections With A Memory Of The Girl's Beautiful, Refined Face.
He Chose Simple Things And Everything All White. He Asked About Details
And Gave Directions So That Everything Would Move In An Orderly Manner,
With Nothing To Annoy. He Even Thought To Order Flowers, Valley-Lilies,
And Some Bright Rosebuds, Not Too Many To Make Her Feel Under
Obligation. He Took Out His Check-Book And Paid For The Whole Thing,
Arranging That The Girl Should Not Know How Much It All Really Cost, And
That A Small Sum Might Be Paid By Her As She Was Able, To Be Forwarded
By The Firm To Him; This To Make Her Feel Entirely Comfortable About It
All.
As He Went Out Into The Street Again A Great Sense Of Weariness Came
Over Him. He Had Lived--How Many Years Had He Lived!--In Experience
Since He Left The University At Half Past Five O'clock? How Little His
Past Life Looked To Him As He Surveyed It From The Height He Had Just
Climbed. Life! Life Was Not All Basket-Ball, And Football, And Dances,
And Fellowships, And Frats. And Honors! Life Was Full Of Sorrow, And
Bounded On Every Hand By Death! The Walk From Where He Was Up To The
University Looked Like An Impossibility. There Was A Store Up In The
Next Block Where He Was Known. He Could Get A Check Cashed And Ride.
He Found Himself Studying The Faces Of The People In The Car In A New
Light. Were They All Acquainted With Sorrow? Yes, There Were More Or
Less Lines Of Hardship, Or Anxiety, Or Disappointment On All The Older
Faces. And The Younger Ones! Did All Their Bright Smiles And Eagerness
Have To Be Frozen On Their Lips By Grief Some Day? When You Came To
Think Of It Life Was A Terrible Thing! Take That Girl Now, Miss
Brentwood--Miss R.B. Brentwood The Address Had Been. The Name Her
Brother Had Called Her Fitted Better, "Bonnie." What Would Life Mean To
Her Now?
It Occurred To Him To Wonder If There Would Be Any Such Sorrow And
Emptiness Of Life For Any One If He Were Gone. The Fellows Would Feel
Badly, Of Course. There Would Be Speeches And Resolutions, A Lot Of
Black Drapery, And All That Sort Of Thing In College, But What Did That
Amount To? His Father? Oh Yes, Of Course He Would Feel It Some, But He
Had Been Separated From His Father For Years, Except For Brief Visits In
Vacations. His Father Had Married A Young Wife And There Were Three
Chapter 5 Pg 36
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