THE DECADENT: BEING THE GOSPELOF INACTION: WHEREIN ARESET FORTH IN ROMANCE FORMCERTAIN REFLECTIONS TOUCHINGTHE CURIOUS CHARACTERISTICSOF THESE ULTIMATE YEARS, ANDTHE DIVERS CAUSES THEREOF.
PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR
THE AUTHOR MDCCCXCIII
TIBI · MEO · CARO · B · G · G ·
CVIVS · LABORIBVS · PRETIVM · NON · PROPRIVM · EI · FIEBAT·
OPERA · TVA · EXARCHO · FRATRIBVSQVE ·
EIVS · ORDINIS · QVAE · SVMNIA · SIBI · FINGIT ·
DENIQVE · OMNIBVS · DELECTIS · PER · ORBEM · TERRARVM ·
HVNC · LIBRVM · GRATE · DICO ·
THE DECADENT.
CONTENTS
I.
HE 3.20 train from Bostonslowed up as it drew into away station, and Malcolm McCann,grim and sullen from hisweary ride in the dirt and cinders,the coal-smoke and thefœtid air, the fretting babiesand hot, worrying men, thatcharacterise a railway journeyin August, hurried out with a grunt of relief.
It was not a pretty station where he found himself,and he glared ill-naturedly around with restless, aggressiveeyes. The brick walls, the cheaply grained doorsbearing their tarnished legends, "Gents," "Ladies,""Refreshment Saloon," the rough raftered roof overthe tracks,—everything was black and grimy withyears of smoke, belching even now from the big locomotive,and gathering like an ill-conditioned thunder-cloudover the mob of scurrying, pushing men andwomen, a mob that swelled and scattered constantlyin fretful confusion. A hustling business-man witha fat, pink face and long sandy whiskers, his silk hatcocked on one side in grotesque assumption of jauntiness,tripped over the clay-covered pick of a surlylabourer, red of face and sweaty, blue of overalls andmud-coloured of shirt, and as he stumbled over the[Pg 2]annoying implement scowled coarsely, and swore, withhis cigar between his teeth.
Ragged and grimy children, hardly old enough towalk, sprawled and scrambled on the dirty platform,and as McCann hurried by, a five-year old cursedshrilly a still more youthful little tough, who answeredin kind. Vulgar theatre-bills in rank reds and yellowsflaunted on the cindery walls; discarded newspapers,banana-skins, cigar-butts, and saliva were groundtogether vilely under foot by the scuffling mob. Dirt,meanness, ugliness everywhere,—in the unhappypeople no less than in their surroundings.
McCann strode scornfully to the rear of the stationand looked