“I sha’n’t come to see you again,” said Minnie, feeling her dignity offended, “and I sha’n’t let my doctor come, either. My Auntie Clara don’t send Minnie away.” And the child’s eyes filled, but she would not cry. The doctor tried to pet her, but she drew away pouting. The doctor looked out of the window as the little ones toddled down the street, and then turning to his wife, tried to waken kindly feelings for Dan’s child; but the seed fell on stony ground. While he was talking, a carriage drove up to the gate and left the Count von Frauenstein. Mrs. Forest was in a flutter. To be so honored by a rich and titled person was a great event. Finding the doctor free, the count stayed to lunch, and talked over great plans that were maturing in his mind. He had just returned from Guise, in France, where he had visited the grand social palace founded by a great French capitalist for his workmen. “I tell you, Dr. Forest,” he said, with enthusiasm, “the age is ripe for a grand spring toward social organization, and the sight of that palace of workers inspires me with new hope. There are over a thousand people, honest wealth-producers, surrounded by a sum of conveniences and luxuries to be found nowhere else on the planet, even among the rich.”
“Why, I never heard of it!” said Mrs. Forest, pouring the count a glass of wine, produced freely on this occasion in honor of the distinguished gentleman. “I am greatly interested. What are some of these luxuries? Do those workmen actually live in a palace?”
“Aye, madam. A magnificent structure it is, too, I assure you. It is surrounded by groves and gardens and rich fields, through which winds the River Oise. There are nurseries and schools on a magnificent scale, for the children. There are swimming and hot and cold baths for all, medical service of the best, a restaurant, a billiard saloon, a café, a charming theatre, a library and reading-room, societies for various objects, such as music and the drama, beside the board, composed of men and women, who manage the internal affairs of the palace. All the courts of the palace are covered with glass, and the various suites of apartments open on corridors in these courts.” The doctor inquired about the water supply, and the ventilation. The latter, the count said, was effected by gigantic underground galleries, opening into the courts, connected by tubes passing up through the walls and opening into each apartment, where they were used mostly in winter, as every suite of rooms was well supplied with windows on the courts, and also on the exterior of the building.
“I am sure it must be a wonderful charity,” said Mrs. Forest.
“No, madam,” said the count; “every one of the advantages I have named, and many more, are included in the rents, and Monsieur Godin, the founder, makes six per cent. on the capital invested. It has been in successful operation some twelve years.”
Further conversation developed the fact that the count was to leave the next day to look after business investments in the South and West, which might detain him some weeks, or even months, after which, he was determined to see what he could do by way of a social palace for workmen and their families. “Oakdale,” he said, “is not a bad field to commence in. Your industries are growing, the population rapidly increasing, it is a very healthy location, pure water, and a nice light soil. I don’t believe in heavy soils. Scientific culture finds more scope and success with a light one. The doctor was eager for the experiment. Before I die, Frauenstein,” he said, “I hope to see a few children, at least, surrounded by conditions for integral culture. Count on me for everything in my power to aid the work.” Mrs. Forest was a little shocked at the doctor’s addressing the count as simply, “Frauenstein.” “It would seem to me, count,” she said, in her suavest tone, “that you, with your wealth and social position, would find more pleasure in building yourself a palace, where you could surround yourself with all that wealth can procure.”
“My dear madam, what should I do for society?”
“Goodness gracious!” thought Mrs. Forest, “he is as crazy as the doctor;” but she asked him to please explain.
“I am very familiar, madam,” he replied, “with what is known as the best society, and of course there is much real refinement and much honorable sentiment among its various members; but real nobility of sentiment, by which I mean devotion to the broad interests of mankind, is very rarely met, and least of all at the courts of rulers. They are all cramped and degraded by petty aims, petty intrigues for personal advancement; and above all, they are lacking the first element of wisdom—a belief in the people. What is the aristocracy of birth, name, inherited wealth robbed from generations of wages-slaves, compared to the grander aristocracy of labor, which is as old as the evolution of man himself? My mother, Kendrick’s cousin, you know, was the granddaughter of a day-laborer. Kendrick wouldn’t mention it for his best span of horses, but I am proud of it. So far as I know he is the only ancestor I have, who had an honest right to the bread he ate. So you see, madam, I would do something to atone for the sins of all the robber crew to which I belong, and so shorten my prospective hours in purgatory. To be serious, there is no congenial society for me anywhere, as life is ordered at present. I must help to build up a society of men and women who can be honest and free, because sure of the present and of the future for themselves and their children. I found more intelligence, more faith in humanity, and more freedom of expression among those workingmen at Guise, than I ever met among any set of people in my life; and the children, madam! O, the children! I can give you no idea of their rosy health, their frank expression of advanced opinions, and their courteous manners.” Mrs. Forest said that what she understood as “advanced opinions” would be a very equivocal attraction in a child according to her way of seeing things.
“But, madam, your way of seeing things,” said the count, courteously, “would be different, if you had been trained to positive methods of thought. I assure you, in any case, you would be charmed by the ease, and grace of address of many of those children. Why it would make you regret that you were not the mother of the whole three hundred of them! There are prizes given them for politeness and grace of bearing.—Think of it! There is the commencement of stirpiculture, and yet the stupid, lunk-head scientists of the world, are giving all their attention to the fossils of a dead past. Depend upon it, madam, this world need not be the vale of tears we have been taught to think. Life is what we should study. Life is what we should love, and as a general rule, the present is the best time to live;” and the count, praising Mrs. Forest’s wine, and apologizing for making a monologue of what should have been a conversation, bade her good-bye and left, taking the doctor with him.