may cry out: "There shall be no night!" But the feet of the hours
march unrelentingly toward the darkness.

Some may think that, even if all this be true, "Caesar's Column"
should not have been published. Will it arrest the moving evil to
ignore its presence? What would be thought of the surgeon who, seeing
upon his patient's lip the first nodule of the cancer, tells him
there is no danger, and laughs him into security while the roots of
the monster eat their way toward the great arteries? If my message be
true it should be spoken; and the world should hear it. The cancer
should be cut out while there is yet time. Any other course

"Will but skin and film the ulcerous place, While rank corruption,
mining all beneath, infects unseen."

Believing, as I do, that I read the future aright, it would be
criminal in me to remain silent. I plead for higher and nobler
thoughts in the souls of men; for wider love and ampler charity in
their hearts; for a renewal of the bond of brotherhood between the
classes; for a reign of justice on earth that shall obliterate the
cruel hates and passions which now divide the world.

If God notices anything so insignificant as this poor book, I pray
that he may use it as an instrumentality of good for mankind; for he
knows I love his human creatures, and would help them if I had the
power.

CHAPTER I

THE GREAT CITY