PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF JACK LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1907, Page 9

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF JACK LONDON.

(Contributed by "OLD SALT.")

My readers may feel interested in the experiences which were encountered by Jack London while delivering his wide-ly-published and well-known lectures in the principal cities of the United States of America. The matter was forwarded to mc by a friend from Oakland (Cal.), and I have merely sub-edited it in order to make a consecutive narrative: —

Late in last year I left California and went out on a lecture trip; I tried to work in as many socialist lectures as possible outside the regular programme for which I was engaged, arid, one of the first I gave them was at Oberlin College (Ohio), the one I selected being "Revolution." I was nearly giving that same lecture to the students at Madison University, Wisconsin, where I found a band of eighteen socialist scholars, which had been organised for some six years. Even they said I had better not give that lecture, since the State Legislature met in the same town, and they feared that their annual appropriation might be cut down by way of reprisal. A firm belief of mine, and one founded on experience, is that a socialist may indict the morality of the class; he may call them perjurers or thieves; may tell them that their luxury and extravagance are paid for with; money tainted Avith the blood of-women and Tittle children, and 'they" remain smiling and. polite; but menace their money-bags, and they become as wild wolves. '/_ Down in Pennsylvania I had an experience at a certain high-toned academy, where the sons of the rich go through training before entering the universities. The man who ran the place showed mc ; With pride the great

dining-room, the work of Tiffany, _of New York, and the proud owner claimed, the most magnificent in tho United States. He sat at one end of the table, I at the other, on the right hand of his wife. She was the most amazingly beautiful, brilliant, aristocratic woman one could wish to see. I could hardly keep my eyes off her, I could not help regarding her artistically: there were several other ladies at the table, but from this one seemed to shine the whole spirit of aristocracy. Well, we talked upon various subjects and everything was going happily until the lady at whose right hand I sat started to dig and delve into my socialism, and would not be denied. j I said, "Just leave that alone, you will I only get angry!" She said I had a mes- ! sage for the world, and she wanted to j hear it at first hand. I referred her to lour literature; but no, that would not do: she wanted it from my own lips, and i —well, then the fun began.

I have knocked around the world; I have eaten with all sorts of people; but never in my life have I been treated with so much discourtesy as I was at that board. Husband and wife seemed to be trying which could be the more impolite to mc. until the woman took up the aristocratic position mc. Some two months later, meeting a student from the place, I was soothed and consoled to learn that that wonder. | fully aristocratic woman was one of us I(I don't mean a socialist) ; that her childhood had been spent in poverty, her : girlhood, or rather- young womanhood, jas a waitress in a little ohe-horse Kentucky mountain town. Iwas T proud to think that the working-class could proi duce that kind of woman, proud tc jknow that she was not born of genera■tions of aristocrats; but was a true flower of the working-class. - Talking with an editor in New j York_ we had a laugh over labour-leader John Burns' opinion of Chicago. "What do you think of Chicago, . Mr. Burns ..?.: in-

quired a reporter. "I think," was the reply, "that it is a pocket-edition of Hell!" Before leaving he was approached by another reporter. ''Have you reconsidered your opinion, Mr. Burns?" "Yes." "What is it now?" Then with much emphasis: "I think that Hell is a pocket-edition of Chicago." Now, can you imagine me—Jack London—on a platform at one end of a long drawing-room, so filled that the first row of the audience started right jat my feet? There I was, however, and j the only man in all the crowd who was mot in evening dress; but where it hapipened I must-not tell you, save that it was a New York club, and so select that not a Pressman was -allowed to get in nor a Press report to get out.. Although I did not meet with much courtesy at the hands of the members I feel in honour bound not to disclose the name of the club. All I want to say is that tho secretary told mc that all the members were wealthy mcn —Wall-street speculators, I guess—While the block of carriages on the roadway showed that the members' wives and', sisters and other feminine attachments wanted- to hear about Socialism. I have a dim idea that the way they put it was:: " Let. us go down and hear.this freak speak!"

Before starting into what " the freak " had to say, let mc tell you that a dapper little man", one_ of New York's greatest lawyers, whose name I must unfortunately withhold, .was appointed chairman, and he introduced mc to the audience. He began to talk about the fact that they understood there was a difference of "opinion between'themselves and myself; but that fact would not disturb rhy contentions, and they would listen politely. Now, I would not have minded that, if it. had been said only "once; but after about half-a-dozen repetitions, he -started ringing the changes on the phrase. I scented tronhie, and reckoned

there was X going to be a fight. I started in, and gave that audience my lecture upon Revolution. As soon as the last words'were pronounced—(l forgot to tell you that my chairman, or perhaps I ought to say the chairman for the audi-. ence, vacated his position every how and then to make interruptions)—as I , was saying, as soon as I was through, j the lawyer jumped up and insulted ma 'in seventeen different ways in less than seventeen different words. Everybody at the end was talking at once, and why? Because I had menaced their money-bags, or the aggregation of future money bags, by explaining that the Revolution —the bloodless and peaceful revo- : lution of Socialism —meant the taking over by the elect of the people, for the benefit of the people, of the means of production and of the means of disposal of that produced. They became like a pack of wolves, hungry wolves such as I have .seen in Alaska, and while the pack strove to. keep their growlings deep in ! their throats, one asked me—l suppose, j seeing the-iff such a minority— .. Are not you afraid? " j It was intuitively—the old Adam,'peri bably—that made mc square my shouljders.as I asked him, did I look afraid? jAt the finish I stated—and by arguj merit demonstrated—that the intellect I exhibited "by the capitalist class, in defence of its position, was just about one .and a-half Centuries behind the times. I. Soon Jack London will be here to speak.for himself, although I doubt if the Red Hot Revolutionary, would admit that expression: he would declare himself here to speak for the Cause of Revolution, and would claim that it was the rising tide of the movement which had borne him here.

j The "Snark" is afloat; this is one ,of her ports of call, and, whether or no |we agree with his views, I believe few j will refuse -to give a welcome, if only on account of his earnestness, to-her intre,pid skiDiJer—-Jack London. ".0.5."