et
that the multitude stopped their chattering with a start. The Herald
proceeded to bawl a proclamation through his megaphone. I heard him
distinctly, but should never have been able to reproduce his exact
words had not the Wind very kindly handed to me one of the printed
copies for free distribution which it had wafted from a chair. The
proclamation ran thus:--

"I, Joshua Harris, by right of conquest and in virtue of my
intelligence, King of Britain, Emperor of the two Americas,
and Lord High Suzerain of the World, to the Princes,
Presidents, and Peoples of the said world,--Greeting. Ye
know that in days past an old man now dead showed me how
man's dolorous and fruitless sojourn on this globe might
cease by his own act and wisdom; how pain and death and the
black Power that made us might be frustrated of their
accustomed prey. Then I swore an oath to fulfil that old
man's scheme, and I gathered my followers, who were the
miserable men, and the hungry men, and we have conquered all
there is to conquer by our cannon and by our skill. Already
last year I gave public notice, in the proclamation of
Vienna, in the proclamation of Cairo, in the proclamation of
Pekin, and in the proclamation of Rio Janeiro, that all
bearing of children must cease, and that all women should be
permanently sterilised according to the prescription of
Doctor Smith. Therefore to-day, since there is no remote
African plain, no island far away in the deep South Seas
where our forces are not supreme and our agents not
vigilant, I make my final proclamation to you, my army, and
to you, Princes, Presidents, and Peoples of this world, that
from this hour forth there be no child born of any woman,
or, if born, that it be slain with its father and its mother
(_a fainting woman had here to be carried out_), and to you,
my terrestrial forces, I entrust the execution of my
commands.

"Joy then be with you, my people, for the granaries are full
of corn and wine that I have laid up, sufficient for many
years to come; joy be with you, since you are the last and
noblest generation of mankind, and since Doctor Smith by his
invention, and I by my wise prevision, have enabled you to
live not only without payment and without work (_loud cheers
from the galleries_), but also with luxury and spl