The old man--the name by which he had introduced himself in Bidwell was
that of Judge Horace Hanby--believed in the manliness and honesty of
purpose of the men he had for a time governed and who had fought a
long grim war with the North, with the New Englanders and sons of New
Englanders from the West and Northwest. “They're all right,” he said
with a grin. “I cheated them and made some money, but I liked them. Once
a crowd of them came to my house and threatened to kill me and I told
them that I did not blame them very much, so they let me alone.” The
judge, an ex-politician from the city of New York who had been involved
in some affair that made it uncomfortable for him to return to live
in that city, grew prophetic and philosophic after he came to live in
Bidwell. In spite of the doubt every one felt concerning his past, he
was something of a scholar and a reader of books, and won respect by his
apparent wisdom. “Well, there's going to be a new war here,” he said.
“It won't be like the Civil War, just shooting off guns and killing
peoples' bodies. At first it's going to be a war between individuals
to see to what class a man must belong; then it is going to be a long,
silent war between classes, between those who have and those who can't
get. It'll be the worst war of all.”
The talk of Judge Hanby, carried along and elaborated almost every
evening before a silent, attentive group in the drug store, began to
have an influence on the minds of Bidwell young men. At his suggestion
several of the town boys, Cliff Bacon, Albert Small, Ed Prawl, and two
or three others, began to save money for the purpose of going east to
college. Also at his suggestion Tom Butterworth the rich farmer sent
his daughter away to school. The old man made many prophecies concerning
what would happen in America. “I tell you, the country isn't going to
stay as it is,” he said earnestly. “In eastern towns the change has
already come. Factories are being built and every one is going to work
in the factories. It takes an old man like me to see how that changes
their lives. Some of the men stand at one bench and do one thing not
only for hours but for days and years. There are signs hung up saying
they mustn't talk. Some of them make more money than they did before the
factories came, but I tell you it's like being in prison. What would
you say if I told you all America, all you fellows who talk so big about
freedom, are going to be put in a prison, eh?
“And there's something else. In New York there are already a dozen
men who are worth a million dollars. Yes, sir, I tell you it's true, a
million dollars. What do you think of that, eh?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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