Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls - Rilegato

Hall, Oakley

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0670032700 ISBN 13: 9780670032709

Casa editrice: Viking Pr, 2004

Riassunto

The arrival in San Francisco of three beautiful young suffragists could be linked to the murder of Reverend Divine, a famed advocate of spiritualism, the female vote, and temperance, and Ambrose Bierce and Tom Redmond join forces to investigate a possible dark side to the three girls--free love, a harem, and some of San Francisco's leading citizens with dark pasts to hide.

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L'autore

Oakley Hall is the author of more than twenty other works of fiction, including Warlock, The Downhill Racers, The Bad Lands, and Separations. He was for twenty years professor of English and director of writing programs at the University of California, Irvine, and in 1998 received a PEN Center USA West Award of Honor for lifetime literary achievement.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.

CHAPTER ONE

SUFFRAGE, n. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another manís choice, and is highly prized.... By female suffrage is meant the right of a woman to vote as some man tells her to. It is based on female responsibility, which is somewhat limited. The woman most eager to jump out of her petticoat to assert her rights is first to jump back into it when threatened with a switching for misusing them.
óThe Devilís Dictionary

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1892
The very essence of pearldom, in her complicated and gleaming white dress with its black belt that demonstrated the narrowness of her waist, sat across from me in my rooms with a mischievous expression on her pretty face. She claimed to be twenty-one years old this week, and I had opened a bottle of champagne in her honor.

ìThank you, Cuz,î she said when I poured the bubbly into her glass.

ìI am honored by the presence of the Anna Dickenson of the West.î

She laughed delightedly.

Her announcement of herself as an advocate of Free Love was on my mind. She was a powerful speaker for the Suffragist cause, and very attractive, with her slim figure, the lock of fair hair falling across her forehead, the speckle of golden freckles on her cheeks, her brown eyes, and her mouth that looked made for kisses.

ìThe doctrine of Free Love has not made much progress on the West Coast,î I said. ìWould you inform me how you intend to bring us its blessings?î

ìSee how you are?î Amanda said, sobering. ìYou men make a joke of our every effort to achieve equality. Free Love is only an equality, you see, Cuz. Men attend prostitutes, they celebrate ladies of the night, they make every effort to seduce members of the weaker sex. Why should women not have similar advantages?î

ìWhy, then they would not be the kind of women men love and marry!î

ìYes, Cuz, love and marry and get with child one after another until the poor lady is quite worn out with her pregnancies and becomes a neurasthenic case to be locked away, oró more convenientlyódies; at which time the free-loving man may choose him another bride from the current crop of us.î

ìI see,î I said.

ìNo, I donít believe you do see, but I hope to see that you see before I leave this city!î

That sounded delightful. She was in fact in residence in San Francisco for the Suffrage Parade on March 3, after which, with its mentor, Mrs. Quinan of the Womenís Suffrage Association, the Trey was off to England to speechify for the Cause. These young female Suffragist orators had been coming to the fore of late.

Amanda perched on a footstool facing me where I sat in my easy chair, champagne glass in hand.

ìBierce and I had a run-in with the Noble Grand Humbug of E Clampus Vitas, who is determined to ruffianize the parade.î

She wrinkled her pretty nose. ìOh, those brutes,î she said. ìThey come to my ladiesí talks to raise a ruckus. But after awhile they cannot help but listen a little, and a little more, and they quiet down.î

ìI am sure you are adept at calming the savage breast,î I said.

ìWell, I am, Cuz!î

ìYou preach the shocking doctrine of Free Love, as well as suffragism, and they listen?î

ìThey do.î

ìBut they are looking at you as you speak, and you are very pretty, and very shapely, and they must be wondering if you are available to them because of Free Love.î

ìIs that what is troubling your mind, Cuz? For you see, I am only available to those to whom I might wish to be available, and my standards are very high!î

ìI cannot help but wonder if those standards might include cousins.î

ìI have nothing against cousins, dear Cuz!î She wrinkled her delightful nose at me again.

ìAnd I do have the intuition that you have not had a great deal of experience exercising your standards.î

ìI am very new at Free Love. It is only a month or so that I have embraced it.î

ìPractice makes perfect, as we know.î

ìOh, I am not perfect yet!î

ìClose to it,î I said, with a thickened voice.

She jumped to her feet and came to me. Her brown eyes enlarged as she bent her face close to mine. Her skin was certainly perfect. ìThatís very nice!î she said. She shaped her lips to kiss me, and the champagne-tasting kiss and its duration did not seem to me to be entirely cousinly.

However, she claimed she must hurry off to meet Mrs. Quinan at the Cyrus Hotel, to plan the speechifying at Pierce Hall this Sunday. There Mrs. Quinan would be introduced by the Reverend Henry Devine of the God Is Love Church on Clay Street. At the meeting Mrs. Q. would speak, followed by another of the Trey of Pearls, Emmiline Prout, followed by Amanda. The third of the Pearls, Gloria Robinson of the birdlike voice, would deliver her bird calls and sing ìThe Battle Hymn of the Republic.î

Amanda did not like it when I made disparaging remarks about the Reverend Devine.

ìYou must admit his name is redundant, at least,î I said.

ìHe is our good friend!î she said, frowning, and departed.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1892
ìIt seems that our Maker has provided gullible women for the express benefit of the Reverend Devine,î Bierce had written in ìPrattle,î and more besides.

And there was disparagement of the Reverend Devine this morning in Bierceís office at the Examiner.

ìThey say whenever he gives a sermon it is attended by at least fifteen of his mistresses,î said Sam Chamberlain, the editor.

ìIs he to be criticized because that figure is high, or low?î Gertrude Atherton asked. She was seated on one side of Bierceís desk wearing a tight jacket and a neckerchief clasped with a diamond pin. Her fine head of hair, her fine profile, were somehow always on display. She wrote a column for women on Sundays, ìWoman in Her Variety,î based on Bierceís ìPrattle,î but her jibes at the foibles of her fellow women always seemed a little shrill. She was a handsome woman, however, and a great favorite of Willie Hearstís as well as Bierceís. I saw that, like many ladies before her, she couldnít keep her hands off the skull that Bierce kept on his desk, staring outward.

ìHe has tempered old Calvin to his own uses,î Bierce said. ìThe ladies who are his parishioners cannot bear the thought that a stillborn child is transported to the realms of hell as Calvin dictated. The Reverend Devine pronounces them bound for heaven! All is love and reassurance in his theology.î

ìFree Love is in the air,î I said.

ìAh, Free Love!î Mrs. Atherton said. ìI have attended to that foolishness this Sunday, you will see.î

ìMerely foolishness, is it?î Sam Chamberlain asked. He wore a monocle and a gardenia in his lapel. He was a newspaperman from New York, who had worked for the Herald there, and in Paris before establishing Le Matin. Willie had hired him as managing editor, where his great pleasure was thinking up Gee Whiz stunts for young reporters like me to perform.

ìIt is foolish because of the Material Necessity,î Mrs. Atherton replied. ìWomen must win their bread by marriage, or by prostitution. Or wealthy admirers. Or rich fathers.î

ìVictoria Woodhull and Tenny C. Claflin had Commodore Vanderbilt for an admirer,î Sam said. ìThus they won considerably more than bread. But I ask if you consider Free Love merely foolish, Mrs. Atherton. The fabric of societyóî

ìPlease spare us the fabrics that protect the male and leave the female quite bare, sir!î

ìBut wifehood and motherhood, Mrs. Atherton!î

Bierce was grinning, finger to his chin. ìWifehood without motherhood, Mrs. Atherton? And vice versa?î

ìThere are remedies of which every prostitute is aware for foiling natureís demand for multitudes, Mr. Bierce.î

ìI believe I remember you writing of those remedies, Mrs. Atherton,î Sam said. ìWhich column quite shocked Mr. Hearst, as well as the majority of the proper ladies of San Francisco, considering the volume of mail.î

ìDoes that variety of information shock you gentlemen? You had better become used to that shock, for you will be hearing more of it. Women are beginning to revolt against the multiple motherhood obligations of wifehood. Please mark my words.î

ìIt is shocking to men that women require education on the mysteries of their own physiques,î Bierce said.

ìThey have been kept ignorant by their masters!î Mrs. Atherton flared.

ìCalm yourself, my dear Mrs. Atherton.î

ìI am the calmest of women,î Mrs. Atherton said, raising her imperious profile. ìThese quarrels and queries we are having right here are those the Suffrage League and its peripheral forces wish us to be having. For they demand to change the fabric of society, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Bierce, and you also, Mr. Redmond.î

ìLet the heavens pour out their portents!î Bierce said.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1892
At Amandaís urging I crossed myself and agreed to accompany her to services at the Reverend Devineís God Is Love Church. We took one of the prettily painted cable cars up the Clay Street line.

As a Roman Catholic I had not entered many Protestant churches. It was a not- unpleasant experience with my pretty cousin dressed in blue linen on my arm, her face like a flower encased in a pleated bonnet. The church was a vast low structure, already crowded, though the parishioners were hospitable about making room for us. There was not much ecclesiastical decorationóa simple cross on the far wall and a broad platform jutting into the audience, no doubt the stage for Reverend Devineís performance.

The service was a plain affair, and I emulated my Protestant cousin in the few kneelings and standings called for. Obviously all of this was only preparation for the great preacherís sermon, and I glanced around at the predominantly female audience, wondering about the fifteen or so mistresses he was alleged always to preach to.

With an icewater shock it came to me that my newly Free Love cousin might be one, a...

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Viking Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0670032700
• ISBN 13: 9780670032709
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 216