Produced by Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) THE LAST GENERATION _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ THE BRIDGE OF FIRE A BOOK OF POEMS CONTAINING THE BALLAD OF HAMPSTEAD HEATH AND THE TWIN SONNETS OF BATHROLAIRE Price 1s. net THE LAST GENERATION A STORY OF THE FUTURE BY JAMES ELROY FLECKER _El hombre es el rey de la creación_; _vive_ (he lives) _en la tierra y cree_ (he believes) _en el cielo_ DE ARTEAGA, _Spanish Grammar_ THE NEW AGE PRESS 140 FLEET STREET, LONDON 1908 Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh TO FRANK SAVERY WHO TAUGHT, ENCOURAGED, AND REVEALED CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 9 I. AT BIRMINGHAM TOWN HALL 13 II. THE PROCLAMATION 17 III. THE MUTUAL EXTERMINATION CLUB 23 IV. THE EPISODE OF THE BABY 29 V. THE FLORENTINE LEAGUE 34 VI. OUTSIDE 43 VII. THE LAST MEN 54 THE LAST GENERATION INTRODUCTION I had been awake for I know not how many hours that summer dawn while the sun came over the hills and coloured the beautiful roses in my mother's garden. As I lay drowsily gazing through the window, I thought I had never known a morning so sultry, and yet so pleasant. Outside not a leaf stirred; yet the air was fresh, and the madrigal notes of the birds came to me with a peculiar intensity and clearness. I listened intently to the curious sound of trilling, which drew nearer and nearer, until it seemed to merge into a whirring noise that filled the room and crowded at my ears. At first I could see nothing, and lay in deadly fear of the unknown; but soon I thought I saw rims and sparks of spectral fire floating through the pane. Then I heard some one say, "I am the Wind." But the voice was so like that of an old friend whom one sees again after many years that my terror departed, and I asked simply why the Wind had come.