should ever
become aware of what had just transpired. Ere I had gone a block I
noticed that the sun had brightened perceptibly, the street become less
sordid, the gutter mud less filthy. In people's eyes the cabbage
question no longer brooded. And there was a spring to my body, an
elasticity of step as I covered the pavement. Within me coursed an
unwonted sap, and I felt as though I were about to burst out into leaves
and buds and green things. My brain was clear and refreshed. There was
a new strength to my arm. My nerves were tingling and I was a-pulse with
the times. All men were my brothers. Save one--yes, save one. I would
go back and wreck the establishment. I would disrupt that leather-bound
volume, violate that black skullcap, burn the accounts. But before fancy
could father the act, I recollected myself and all which had passed. Nor
did I marvel at my new-horn might, at my ancient dignity which had
returned. There was a tinkling chink as I ran the yellow pieces through
my fingers, and with the golden music rippling round me I caught a deeper
insight into the mystery of things.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.
_February_ 1900.

GOLIAH

In 1924--to be precise, on the morning of January 3--the city of San
Francisco awoke to read in one of its daily papers a curious letter,
which had been received by Walter Bassett and which had evidently been
written by some crank. Walter Bassett was the greatest captain of
industry west of the Rockies, and was one of the small group that
controlled the nation in everything but name. As such, he was the
recipient of lucubrations from countless cranks; but this particular
lucubration was so different from the average ruck of similar letters
that, instead of putting it into the waste-basket, he had turned it over
to a reporter. It was signed "Goliah," and the superscription gave his
address as "Palgrave Island." The letter was as follows:

"MR. WALTER BASSETT,
"DEAR SIR:

"I am inviting you, with nine of your fellow-captains of industry, to
visit me here on my island for the purpose of considering plans for
the reconstruction of society upon a more rational basis. Up to the
present, social evolution has been a blind and aimless, blundering
thing. The time has come for a change. Man has risen from the
vitalized slime of the primeval sea to the mastery of matter; but he
has not yet mastered society. Man is to-day as much t