Gerrit Smith

“ All of us, who are interested in vital reforms, must have been attracted to the career of Gerrit Smith, who gave thirty thousand dollars to destitute old maids and widows in the state of New York. No public subscription lacked his name, and he always gave away $50,000.00 and not seldom $100,000.00 each year. In his business life of fifty-six years he gave away $8,000,000.00 and left an estate of more than a million dollars. Such a recital, as in the case of Washington, makes us curious to find the sources of such philanthropy. ”

“ The next witness we call up, is Gerrit Smith, a man who has a national reputation as an orator, a philanthropist and a gentleman; who writes better than he speaks, and whose active charity and benevolence are only exceeded in the greatness of their amount by the grossness of their misapplication. He is a zealous Christian, yet edits, or did edit, the Progressive Christian, which proposed to abolish Christianity as now understood. ”

“ Anti-land-monopolist as he was, Gerrit Smith believed that the life of the small free farmer was calculated to develop thrift and self respect in the character of the colored freedmen that he saw crowded in sections of the large cities. ”

“ THE DEATH OF DU SANG WHISPERING SMITH, with his horse in a lather, rode slowly back twenty minutes later with Seagrue disarmed ahead of him. The deserted battle-ground was alive with men. Stormy Gorman, hot for blood, had come back, captured Karg, and begun swearing all over again, and Smith listened with amiable surprise while he explained that seeing Dancing killed, and not being able to tell from Whispering Smith’s peculiar tactics which side he was shooting at, Gorman and his companions had gone for help. ”

“ It never before had occurred to Smith that the world through which he had gone his tumultuous way was a beautiful place, or that there was joy in the simple fact of being strongly alive. When the sage-brush commenced to turn green and the many brilliant flowers of the desert bloomed, when the air was stimulating like wine and fragrant with the scents of spring, it had meant little to Smith beyond the facts that horse-feed would soon be plentiful and that he could lay aside his Mackinaw coat. ”

“ In the salon of the Lancaster, Farradyne smiled knowingly. "The plan was to let you investigate the ship while I dressed," he said. "But I gather that you've seen you share of spacers."
"I admit it," she replied. "For that I'm sorry, Charles."
"Well, park yourself somewhere while I get into whites."
She sat down and stretched. "A highball and a cigarette?" she asked.
"The cigarette is easy," he said, handing one to her and flipping his lighter. While she puffed, he went on, "But the highball may be more difficult. I've nothing but White Star Trail aboard." ”

“ Financially we are in good shape, and just as soon as the candidates can be picked out we’ll begin work in the cage. This week, if possible.
“Now, Mr. Green, Captain Graydon and myself will take your names if you will come forward.”
There was a moment’s hesitation, and then Cap Smith, with a look at his two brothers, arose and walked toward the platform. There was a murmur in the throng as Pete and Bill followed, and as Whistle-Breeches got up. ”

“ Somnus could be heard crawling into one of the bunks.
“If they come for me—you haven’t seen me, of course,” came his voice in muffled tones, indicating that his head was under the bed clothes.
“Of course not, my dear Tithy,” replied the professor. “And, in fact, so quick was your passage through, like a half back making a touchdown, to use a phrase doubtless familiar to my friend Bill Smith—to use that phrase, I have scarcely seen you. But what is the matter? Why this haste? There doesn’t seem to be any one following you—at least not at your heels.” ”

“ They all seem intelligent. No intelligent man would search the world over for something that did not exist. Or is my logic false?"
"Sounds reasonable. Yet you explain it. I know your type. I've dealt with people for ten kilodays. I've consulted the brainiest psychiatrists on Ertene, and they agree with me. Your type," said Jerimick, "is restless. You are quick of mind, and sure of yourselves save for this unrest. You can turn your hands to any trade, and prosper, yet no trade offers you the outlet you seek. ”

“ Then began a winter of more or less discontent, according as the lads liked or disliked study. Our heroes were about the average, neither better nor worse.
There was rather a more balmy feeling to the air than had been noticed in some time. The snow had gone, and the grass that had been brown and sear was beginning to take on a tinge of green. Cap Smith, mending a rip in his big catching mitt looked out of the window, yawned and stretched lazily.
“Too much study?” asked Bill.
“No, I think I’m getting the spring fever. How about you, Pete?” ”

“ I care nothing for sterility. I only hope to become as intelligent as you are."
"If that were all," smiled Gerd, "I would look the other way. But again—I could not. For I am responsible for every Terran in the eyes of my superiors. I must try to protect even those who attempt mental suicide. Along that line lies oblivion, Wanniston."
"You do all right," snapped the financier.
"I," smiled Gerd Lel Rayne, "was ... born to this. I used nothing to enhance my ... native intellect."
"What's wrong with it, though? I can do without progeny."
"Civilization can not." ”

“ Smith looked at Dicksie. “You are as brave and as game as a girl can be, I know, or you couldn’t have done this. Sacks full of sand, with the boys at the ranch to handle them, would do no more good to-morrow at the bend than bladders. The river is flowing into Squaw Lake above there now. A hundred men that know the game might check things yet if they’re there by daylight. Nobody else, and nothing else on God’s earth, can.”
There was silence before the fire. McCloud broke it: “I can put the hundred men there at daylight, Gordon, if Miss Dunning and her cousin want them,” said McCloud. ”

“ Where could I put my new doll to sleep when bedtime came? And where were all the rest of us going to sleep? Mama had said before all my big brothers and sisters came home that we didn't have but seven beds, counting the narrow cot in the side room.
"Where're we all gonna sleep?" I asked Mama as soon as she came over to bring the stack of corn bread.
Gertie heard me. "Oh, you don't have to worry, Bandershanks. We can slip you down in a tow sack and hang you in the corner!" ”

“ Tempalloy softens. Seventeen will scratch hard tempalloy, which will scratch the tempalloy softened by Seventeen."
He tried the bench beneath the samples. It scratched. Even with the end of a pick, it scratched. Then like a geologist marking a contour map, Jim Greene started to plot the spread of softening. Like a widening pool, it spread; out across the bench it went, spread to the legs, started across the floor.
"Out of here!" he yelled suddenly.
"But why?" asked Leona.
"Because the ground around the yard is filled with tiny metal scrap," he said. "And I'm still worried about that A-bomb!" ”

“ Some people say that Captain Smith, like many sailors, was so fond of spinning yarns that he did not always tell the exact truth. He cannot have been a bad man, however, for when he died, those who had gone out to Jamestown with him said that he hated baseness, laziness, pride, and falsehood; that he never sent any one into a danger he was not ready to share ”

“ But be careful now.”
“Yes,” they promised in a chorus, as they hurried out to meet Bat-Eye. And they really meant to do as they had said, but they were full of life and energy, and—well, [Pg 23] you know how it is yourselves. Things don’t always turn out as you think they will.
A little later six figures might have been seen hurrying away across lots in the rear of the Smith homestead. There had been some earnest whispering before their departure, and from the manner in which they hastened away it might have been argued, by anyone who knew the lads, that something was going to happen. ”

“ When the Indians were asked for corn they refused with a doggedness that withstood even the potent fascination of blue glass beads. Smith fully comprehended the seriousness of the situation. "No persuasion," he says, "could persuade him to starve." If the Indians would not trade of their own free will they must be made to trade. The Powhatan asked for some men who could aid him in building a house, and Smith sent to Werowocomoco fourteen men, including four of the newly arrived Germans. Smith followed with twenty-seven men in the pinnace and barge. ”

“ Seagrue, you and Karg walk ahead. Don’t duck or run, either of you. Go on.”
Just over the brow of the hill near which the fight had taken place, a man lay below a ledge of granite. The horse from which he had fallen was grazing close by, but the man had dragged himself out of the blinding sun to the shade of the sagebrush above the rock––the trail of it all lay very plain on the hard ground. Watching him narrowly, Smith, with his prisoners ahead and the cowboys riding in a circle behind, approached. ”

“ I’ve looked round, and the only piano in the island is in Smith’s big concrete house, where he never lives, and that piano was there ages before. Pianos? Guns, my boy. Smith’s keeping the natives in check for all he’s worth. It’s his best policy. But if it does come to an outbreak, you’ll find [38] the natives armed and Smith leading them. You can tell Mast that. If Smith gets into a position where he finds his hand forced, and it’s a question of the white man or the native, he’ll throw over his trade and his ambitions, wipe out the white men, and chance it. ”

“ Bill Dancing jumped in his saddle, swayed, and toppled to the ground. Stormy Gorman gave a single whoop at the spectacle and, with his two cowboys at his heels, fled for life.
More serious than all, Smith found himself among three fast revolvers, working from an unmanageable horse. The beast tried to follow the fleeing cowboys, and when faced sharply about showed temper. The trained horses of the outlaws stood like statues, but Smith had to fight with
Wheeling at arm's length, shot again. ”

“ Holt shook his head. "Not after training to do without for six months. Save it until I come back."
Doctor Walsch nodded. "That's good sense, Gordon. We'll be waiting for you. How do you feel?"
"Fine. Just a bit jumpy."
"You ought to feel as fit as a Guarnerius. You've been trained and you're trim and fit. I doubt that you'll ever feel any better in your life than you do right now."
General Towne nodded. "Don't forget the honor, either," he said. "The excitement should give your high feelings another lift. Imagine being the first man to ever set foot on the soil of another world." ”

“ A moment later, she looked up again, her face completely composed. "What do you suppose Garrard has on his mind?" she asked.
He told her, completely.
The scanning room was dark when they returned. Out through the viewport the actinic glow of the buildings cast a greenish light over the landscape, creating an eerie impression of the scene. The small buildings, widely scattered, were a far cry from Old London of the nineteen hundreds, with its teeming millions and its houses, cheek by jowl.
"Where's Ed?" asked Jenna, fumbling in the dark scanning room with the coffee tray. ”

“ Smith said to himself. “They’re like ducks: no two fly alike.”
He felt secure, yet from force of habit his hand frequently sought his cartridge-belt, his rifle in its scabbard, his six-shooter in the holster under his arm. And while he serenely hummed the songs of the dance-halls and round-up camps, two silent figures, so close that they heard the clacking of the cattle’s split hoofs, Tubbs’s vacuous oaths, Smith’s contented voice, were following with the business-like persistency of the law. ”

“ Well, he is an ass! But that's always the way. We try to understand feelings, instead of trying to know facts. However, we shall be ready for the opening, never fear. Smith expects his C. S. I. over it, he says, and that's enough guarantee. You know Smith, don't you, Dering? Walsall Smith--I think his wife said she knew you."
"Yes," he interrupted, with rather unnecessary decision, "Mrs. Walsall Smith is a great friend of mine, a very great friend."
"Jolly for you, having friends in Eshwara," assented Lance, in uneasy haste. "I suppose they are about the only people here, eh, doctor?" ”

“ It certainly was not Mr Smith, for he was out at his work; nor was it the doctor, our only other visitor, for he always came up two steps at a time, and his boots always squeaked. Who could our visitor be?
“Come in,” called Smith, as a knock sounded on the door.
To my utter astonishment and concern, Hawkesbury, with his sweetest smile, entered the room.
How had he found out my retreat? What did he want here? What would Jack Smith say? These were the questions which rushed through my mind as he closed the door behind him and walked into the room. ”

“ And shoving Smith violently away he galloped after the cherry-colored car, caught it, swung himself aboard, and sank triumphant and breathless into the transverse seat behind that occupied by a wicker basket, a filmy summer frock, a big, white straw hat, and--a girl--the most amazingly pretty girl he had ever laid eyes on. After him, headlong, like a distracted chicken, rushed Smith and alighted beside him, panting, menacing. ”

“ You were sent forth to do a job. Anything you wanted we'd furnish. But you went out with a brass band and a challenge, and you were taken up and beaten. Not only that, but we lost a small fortune in radiosodium."
"I'd hoped to—"
"Look, Jeffries, a mistake is a mistake. You laid a trap, and you also got some sort of evidence, I presume. That's fine. But you also laid yourself wide open to criticism. It's the people who are howling—the people and the officials of the space lines."
"But I—"
"You didn't catch Black Morgan," grunted Edwards sourly. "And what do you know about him?" ”