“What has that to do with it? We always have had them, from which it is only fair to infer that we always shall have them. It seems hard, I know, but the wisdom of Providence is inscrutable, and since He has so decreed we can only do our best to pity the afflictions of the poor and ease their lot.”
“But is not that attempting to thwart the very decree of Providence to which you counsel submission?”
“My young friend,” said the other corpuscle sternly, “no good ever came of carping criticism. It disturbs faith in fixed institutions, and in humanity. It leads to doubt, anarchy and misrule. It should never be permitted. It is what has brought this organism to its present sad pass. We may sorrow to see the sufferings of the poor, and it is kind, humane and therefore right to attempt to lighten their lot, but to criticise the wisdom of Established Order is to fly in the face of Providence, and I cannot countenance such impiety by remaining to listen to it.”
Much abashed, the little corpuscle continued his way. Meekly he paid tribute to the large leucocytes living in affluence in the liver. These had control of all the great natural monopolies of the organism, and let no corpuscle escape due payment of his quota into their coffers. Sometimes these great ones attacked each other. Then would come a panic, and one or more would be absorbed by the survivors, along with a few score of the lesser corpuscles, who had endeavored to get “in it,” and instead were squeezed dry.
Thus things went on from bad to worse. The red corpuscles became fewer and less able to do the work required of them. The little white corpuscles became feebler and fewer in number, the great monopolists increased in size and power, waxing all the time more and more unwilling to do the work of the organism, until, finally, outraged nature could endure the strain no longer, and The Man died.
“Fatty degeneration of the liver,” the doctors said at the post mortem. “That organ had diverted to itself the living of the entire organism, and death was inevitable.”
THE DISCONTENTED MACHINE.
AN ECONOMIC STUDY.
It was a magnificent piece of machinery, and had been put into the great manufactory at an enormous expense. Other manufacturers had shaken their heads, doubtfully, when they heard that Hyde & Horne were about to put in a mammoth cutter and shaper that would enable them to dispense with nearly twenty-five per cent. of the men whom they had heretofore employed.
“It is a hazardous experiment,” they all said, putting in new and untried machinery. “Why, if half that is claimed for this new machine is true, it will revolutionize the boot and shoe trade, and enable Hyde & Horne to have their own way with us, unless we put in the same machinery; while, if it fails, they’ll never see their money back, and the firm will be ruined. It’s risky business, very risky business, indeed. The chances are a thousand to one against its success.”
Nevertheless, their intense anxiety lest Hyde & Horne should be forced into bankruptcy by their experiments with the new and costly machinery, did not prevent their taking a lively interest in the same. They watched it closely, from month to month, and were presently forced to confess that it was an unqualified success. No firm in the trade turned out such quantities of shoes of uniform quality, finish, style, and cheapness, as Hyde & Horne. The new machine produced them so much more cheaply than other firms, with their older and less complete methods, were able to do, that the more enterprising concern virtually controlled the market. Hyde & Horne disposed, in advance, of their entire output, early in the season, and were beginning to talk of putting in another of the new machines, when, at last, their competitors were fully alive to the fact that they, too, must bestir themselves, or find the market completely blocked to their goods.