He paused a moment in painful reverie.
“There lies his big yacht in the harbour now. She is just in from a cruise in the Orient. She cost half a million dollars, and carries a crew of fifty men. With them are beautiful girls hired at fancy wages connected with the stewardess’ department. She ships a new crew every trip. Not one of those young faces is ever lifted again among their friends.”
He paused again and a tear coursed down his face.
“I confess I am bitter. I loved one of those girls once when I was younger. She was a mere child of seventeen.” His voice broke. “Yes, she came back shattered in health and ruined. I am supporting her now at a quiet country place. She is dying.
“Think of the farce of it all!” he continued passionately.
“The picture of that brute with a whip in his hand beating a negro caused the most terrible war in the history of the world. Three millions of men flew at each other’s throats and for four years fought like demons. A million men and six billions of dollars worth of property were destroyed.
“He was a poor harmless fool there beating his own faithful slave to death. Compare that Legree with the one of to-day, and you compare a mere stupid man with a prince of hell. But does this fiend excite the wrath of the righteous? Far from it. His very name is whispered in admiring awe by millions. He boasts that dozens of proud mothers strip their daughters to the limit the police law will allow at every social function he honours with his presence, and offer to sell him their own flesh and blood for the paltry consideration of a life interest in one-third of his estate! And he laughs at them all. His name is magic!
“I know of one weak fool, a petty millionaire, whom Legree lured into a speculative trap and ruined. On his knees in his Fifth Avenue palace the whining coward kissed Legree’s feet and begged for mercy. He kicked him and sneered at his misery. At last when he had tortured him to the verge of madness he offered to spare him on one condition—that he should give him his daughter as a ransom. And he did it.
“No, the brute power of such a man to-day is beyond the grasp of the human mind. His chances for debauchery and cruelty are limitless. The brain of his hirelings is put to the test to invent new crime against nature to interest his appetites. The only limit to his power of evil is the capacity of the human mind to think, and his body to act and endure. When he is exhausted, he can command the knowledge and the skill of ages and the masters of all Science to restore his strength, while satellites lick his feet and sing his praises—
“Risk the whim of such a man with the lives of these poor people dependent on me? No, I’d sooner kill that negro you have brought here and take my chances of detection.”