WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: "The Stolen Bacillus" by HG Wells 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:15.400 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:15.040 Book Club book Club book Club. Hello, and welcome to 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.400 cool Z Owned Media book Club, the only book club 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.400 where I do the reading for you. Maybe there's other 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.320 book clubs where other people do the reading for you, 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:23.720 but this is the only one where I'm going to 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.800 do it. The I in the aforementioned I is me 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.560 Marta Kiljoy. I am a fiction writer, and I also 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.080 read you fiction stories every Sunday. So we talk sometimes 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.280 on this show about how certain stories are of interest, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.159 in particular because of how they shine a light on 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.000 the past by showing how at least one author perceived 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.240 the world around them and various social issues all while 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.840 telling a good tale. Plot is the engine that drives 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.159 the story forward and keeps the reader engaged. Another thing 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.800 we talk about even more often on both It Could 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.360 Happen Here and Cool People Did Cool Stuff is the 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:00.440 history of the labor movement, and in particular the history 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.760 of the anarchist labor movement. We do that because we're 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.760 drawn to do so, but also because well, anarchism is 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.000 one of the most maligned political ideologies in history, which 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.400 is impressive because pretty much all the other major political 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:17.120 ideologies around in the twentieth century managed some rather impressive 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:21.120 feats of mass death, oppression, and general fuckery. Usually though 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.399 those ideologies killed mostly but not exclusively, poor people on 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.640 colonized subjects. The anarchists they killed a few kings and 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.160 politicians and cops, and suddenly everyone was freaked out. I 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.600 am fascinated by the Anarchists Scare. The first Red scare 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:38.240 in the US around the end of World War One 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:41.800 targeted anarchists, primarily because anarchism, before the Bolshevik victory in 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.600 the Russian Civil War was pretty much the biggest name 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.000 in town for the revolutionary left in a lot of countries, 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.160 not everywhere, but a lot of places. I make it 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.120 a hobby of reading anti anarchist fiction because there's an 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.160 awful lot of it from around the turn of the century, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.360 and I think it's fun, honestly. Sometimes it was written 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.840 by some of the best writers of the era. G. K. Chesterton, 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.080 Joseph Conrad, and H. G. Wells have all made boogeymen 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.960 of anarchists. We were pulp novel villains, wild eyed, crazy zealots, 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.560 and terrorists who sometimes had class politics and sometimes didn't. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.040 Probably the best modern comparison is how the Western media 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.079 often presents Muslims today, or especially did during the height 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.840 of the global War on Terror. Today's story is one 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.840 of these stories about anarchist boogeyman. It's by an author 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.680 I generally think rather highly of. HG. Wells. He's got 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:34.280 a ton of famous books. You might have heard of 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.000 The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.200 of the Worlds. He's known as the father of science fiction. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.040 He was a scientist trained in biology. He was also 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.880 quite openly a socialist. He was part of the Fabian Society, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.919 which one day I'll cover in more detail. Actually a 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:51.760 lot of the old science fiction writers were part of 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.480 the Fabian Society. It's kind of interesting to me. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:55.679 H G. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.440 Wells's book The Time Machine is a simple parable about 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.000 how have class divisions continue to deep and humanity will 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.119 become two separate species. It's also where the word time 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.520 machine comes from. Plus I think he coined the word 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.880 atomic bomb by prophesizing them in nineteen fourteen. He was 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.200 raised middle class in England and was apprenticed out as 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.120 a draper, which is a cloth merchant basically, and then 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.560 soon just became a wildly prolific writer. The story We're 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:22.640 going to Read is the title story of his first 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.640 book of short stories, and frankly it doesn't represent his 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.480 mature opinion on just about anything. This is very like 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.600 his first book, kind of energy, not just in terms 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.920 of fiction, but especially in terms of his political thought. 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.120 Which isn't to say that he becomes an anarchist, but 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.440 he later actually comes kind of close. While still working 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.200 with some of the major power players of the world. 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.080 He would go on to correspond with and influence both 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.240 Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. At one point he went 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.600 to the USSR to interview Stalin to try and convince him, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.640 basically to stop being such a dick, which obviously didn't work. H. G. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.440 Wells's nineteen forty The Rights of Man was the inspiration 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.360 for the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.360 adopted in nineteen forty eight after Welles's death. Like all 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:12.080 actual socialists, H. G. Wells agreed with the anarchist vision 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.800 for the future, stateless and cooperative. He just disagreed with 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.000 the methods by which to reach it. In his book 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.640 New Worlds for Old, he wrote, the anarchist world, I 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.039 admit is our dream. Socialism is the preparation for that 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:30.600 higher anarchism. Painfully, laboriously, we mean to destroy false ideas 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.000 of property and self, eliminate unjust laws and poisonous and 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:38.719 hateful suggestions and prejudices, create a system of social right 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.479 dealing and a tradition of right feeling and action. Socialism 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.840 is the school room of true and noble anarchism, wherein 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.599 by training and restraint, we shall make free men. That was, 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:52.960 of course, fifteen or so years after he wrote this 0:04:53.200 --> 0:05:01.880 anarchist terrorist boogeyman's story, which i'll read to you now, 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:08.080 The Stolen Bacillus by H. G. Wells. This again, said 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:12.200 the bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope is 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:17.400 a preparation of the celebrated bacillis of cholera, the cholera germ. 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.919 The pale faced man peered down the microscope. He was 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.000 evidently not accustomed to that kind of thing, and held 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.400 a limp white hand over his disengaged eye. I see 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.800 very little, he said, Touch this screw, said the bacteriologist. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.960 Perhaps the microscope is out of focus for you eyes 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.520 very so much. Just a fraction of a turn this 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.000 way or that. Ah, Now I see, said the visitor, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.520 not so very much to see, after all, little streaks 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.560 and shreds of pink. Yet those little particles, those mere autonomies, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:54.000 might multiply and devastate a city. Wonderful. He stood up, and, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.039 releasing the glass slip from the microscope, held it in 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.240 his hands towards the window. Scarcely visible, he said, Scrutinizing 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:07.599 the preparation, he hesitated, are these alive? Are they dangerous? Now? 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.880 Those have been stained and killed, said the bacteriologist. I wish, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.840 for my own part, we could kill and stain every 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.200 one of them in the universe. I suppose. The pale 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.880 man said, with a slight smile, that you scarcely care 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.200 to have such things about you in the living, in 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.000 the active state. On the contrary, we are obliged to, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.320 said the bacteriologist. Here, for instance, he walked across the 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.279 room and took up one of several sealed tubes. Here 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.240 is the living thing. This is the cultivation of the 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:44.360 actual living disease bacteria, he hesitated, bottled cholera, so to speak. 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.000 Also obliged is me? I am obliged to cut to 0:06:49.120 --> 0:07:08.039 ads and we're back. A slight gleam of satisfaction appeared 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.120 momentarily in the face of the pale man. It's a 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.920 deadly thing to have in your possession, he said, devouring 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.240 the little tube with his eyes. The bacteriologist watched the 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:22.000 morbid pleasure in his visitor's expression. This man, who had 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.640 visited him that afternoon with a note of introduction from 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.680 an old friend, interested him from the very contrast of 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:32.000 their dispositions. The lank black hair and deep gray eyes, 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.360 the haggard expression and nervous manner, the fitful yet keen 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.720 interest of his visitor. Where a novel change from the 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.680 phlegmatic deliberations of the ordinary scientific worker with whom the 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.360 bacteriologists chiefly associated. It was perhaps natural with a hearer 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.200 evidently so impressionable to the lethal nature of his topic, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:56.080 to take the most effective aspect of the matter. He 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.880 held the tube in his hand thoughtfully, Yes, here is 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.680 the pestilence imprisoned. Only break such a little tube as 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.480 this into a supply of drinking water. Say to these 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.880 minute particles of life that one must needs stain and 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.720 examine with the highest powers of the microscope even to see, 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.800 and that one can neither smell nor taste, Say to them. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:25.480 Go forth, increase and multiply and replenish the cisterns, and death, mysterious, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:30.360 untraceable death, death, swift and terrible death, full of pain 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.800 and indignity, would be released upon this city, and go 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.800 hither and thither seeking his victims. Here he would take 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.120 the husband from his wife, hear the child from its mother, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.880 hear the statesman from his duty, and hear the toiler 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.760 from his trouble. He would follow the water mains, creeping 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.280 along streets, picking out and punishing a house here and 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.679 a house there where they did not boil their drinking water, 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.960 Creeping into the wells of the mineral water makers, getting 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.400 washed into salad and line dormant in ices. He would wait, 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.840 ready to be drunk in horse troughs and by unwary 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.440 children in the public fountains. He would soak into the 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.960 soil to reappear in springs and wells at a thousand 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.320 unexpected places. Once start him at the water supply, and 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.720 before we could ring him in and catch him again, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:27.520 he would have decimated the metropolis. He stopped abruptly. He 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.960 had been told rhetoric was his weakness. But he is 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:36.720 quite safe here, you know. Quite safe. The pale faced 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:41.480 man nodded, his eyes shone. He cleared his throat. These 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:47.079 anarchist rascals, said, he are fools, blind, fools to use 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.880 bombs when this kind of thing is attainable. I think 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.040 a gentle rap. A mere light of the touch of 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:58.120 fingernails was heard at the door. The bacteriologist opened it 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.000 just a minute, dear, whispered his wife. When he re 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.040 entered the laboratory, his visitor was looking at his watch. 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:08.920 I had no idea. I wasted an hour of your time, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.920 he said, twelve minutes to four. I ought to have 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.360 left here at half past three, but your things were 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.680 really too interesting. No, positively, I cannot stop a moment longer. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.840 I have an engagement. At four. He passed out of 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.240 the room, reiterating his thanks, and the bacteriologist accompanied him 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.680 to the door. Then returned thoughtfully along the passage to 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:35.640 his laboratory. He was musing on the ethnology of his visitor. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.320 Certainly the man was not a Teutonic type, nor a 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.680 common Latin one. A morbid product. Anyhow, I'm afraid, said 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.640 the bacteriologist to himself. How he gloated on those cultivations 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.920 of diseased germs. A disturbing thought struck him. He turned 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.640 to the bench by the vapor bath, and then very 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.640 quickly to his writing table. Then he felt hastily in 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.640 his pockets. Then he rushed to the door. I may 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.040 have put it down on the hall table, he said, Minnie. 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.280 He shouted hoarsely in the hall. Yes, dear, came a 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.320 remote voice. Had I anything in my hand when I 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:15.160 spoke to you, dear? Just now pause? Nothing, dear, because 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.960 I remember blue ruin, cried the bacteriologist, and incontinently ran 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.160 to the front door and down the steps of his 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.640 house to the street. Minnie, hearing the door slam, violently, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.000 ran in alarm to the window. Down the street, a 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.199 slender man was getting into a cab. The bacteriologist, hatless 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.200 and in his carpet slippers, was running and gesticulating wildly 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.040 towards this group. One slipper came off, but he did 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.440 not wait for it. He has gone mad, said Minnie. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.880 It's that horrid science of his, and opening the window 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.520 would have called after him. The slender man, suddenly glancing around, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.600 seemed struck with the same idea of mental disorder. He 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.440 pointed to the bacteriologist said something to the case cabman. 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.960 The apron of the cab slammed, the whip swished, the 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.160 horse's feet clattered, and in a moment the cab bacteriologist, 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.360 hotly in pursuit, had receded up the vista of the 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:17.520 roadway and disappeared round the corner. Minnie remained straining out 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.000 the window for a minute. Then she drew her head 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.840 back into the room again. She was dumbfounded. Of course, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.520 he is eccentric, she meditated. But running about London in 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.040 the height of the season too in his socks. A 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.120 happy thought struck her. She hastily put her bonnet on, 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.800 seized her shoes, went into the hall, took down his 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.479 hat and light overcoat from the pegs, emerged upon the doorstep, 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.840 and hailed a cab that opportunely crawled by. Drive me 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.880 up the road and round Havelock Crescent, and see if 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.360 we can find a gentleman running around in a velveteen 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:56.160 coat and no hat. Velveteen coat, ma'am. And no, at 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.440 very good, ma'am. And the cabman whipped up at once, 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.599 in the most matter of fact way, as if he 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.200 drove to this address every day of his life, much 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.280 like you can every day of your life participate in 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:23.480 buying stuff from ads. Here they are, and we're back. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.800 Some few minutes later, the little group of cabmen and 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.400 loafers that collects around the cabman's shelter at Haverstock Hill 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:34.800 were startled by the passing of a cab with a 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:40.000 ginger colored screw of a horse driven furiously. They were 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.679 silent as it went by, then as it receded, that's 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.360 Airy X. What's he got? The writing is written out 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.760 like that, said the stout gentleman known as Old Toodles. 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.120 He's a using his whip. He is to rights, said 0:13:55.160 --> 0:14:00.160 the ostler boy. Hello, said poor old Tommy Biles. There's 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:05.120 another blooming lunatic blowed. If there ain't it's Old George, 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.080 said Old Toodles. And he's driving a lunatic as you say, 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.880 Ain't he a clawing out the keb Wonder if he's 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.120 after Airy IX. The group round the cabman's shelter became 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:22.600 animated chorus, Go it, George, it's a race. You'll catch him. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.040 Whip up. She's a goer, she is, said the ostler boy. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:32.720 Strike me giddy, cry on Toodles. Sorry, I fucking can't. 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.400 It's written this way, and I can't do a British accent, 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.320 so I'm just trying to read it the way it's written. Here, 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.080 I'm a going to begin in a minute. Here's another coming. 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.320 If all the kebs in Hampston ain't gone mad this morning. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.400 It's a field male this time, said the ostler boy. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.680 She's a following him, said Old Toodles. Usually the other 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.920 way around. What she got in her hand looks like 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:04.120 I at fuck, what a bloomin lark. It is three 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.320 to one on Old George, said the ostler boy. Next 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.720 many went by in a perfect roar of applause. She 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:13.600 did not like it, but she felt that she was 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.400 doing her duty, and whirled on down Haverstock Hill and 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.640 Camden Town High Street, with her eyes ever intent on 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.640 the animated back of Old George, who was driving her 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:28.960 vagrant husband so incomprehensively away from her. The man in 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.920 the foremost cab sat crouched in the corner, his arms 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.680 tightly folded and the little tube that contained such vast 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.480 possibilities of destruction gripped in his hand. His mood was 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.200 a singular mixture of fear and exultation. Chiefly he was 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:44.720 afraid of being caught before he could accomplish his purpose. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.080 But behind this was a vaguer but larger fear of 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.040 the awfulness of his crime. But his exultation far exceeded 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.320 his fear. No anarchist before him had ever approached this 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.280 conception of his ravat show valiant. All those distinguished persons 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.320 whose fame he had envied dwindled into significance beside him. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.800 He had only to make sure of the water supply 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.640 and break the little tube into a reservoir. How brilliantly 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.040 he had planned it, forged the letter of introduction, and 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:18.120 gotten into the laboratory. How brilliantly he had seized his opportunity. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.240 The world should hear of him at last. All these 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.080 people had sneered at him, neglected him, preferred other people 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.920 to him, found his company undesirable, should consider him at 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.880 last death, death, death. They had always treated him as 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.000 a man of no importance. All the world had been 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.840 in a conspiracy to keep him under. He would teach them. Yet, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.080 what it is to isolate a man? What was this 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.200 familiar street, Great Saint Andrew's Street? Of course, how fared 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.960 the chase, he craned out the cab. The bacteriologist was 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.520 scarcely fifty yards behind. That was bad, he would be 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.040 caught and stopped. Yet he felt in his pocket for 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.080 money and found half a sovereign. This he thrust up 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.320 through the trap and the top of the cab into 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:07.080 the man's face. More, he shouted, if only we get away. 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.440 The money was snatched out of his hand. Right you are, 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.639 said the cabman, and the trap slammed, and the lash 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.440 lay along the glistening side of the horse. The cab swayed, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.480 and the anarchist, half standing under the trap, with the 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.200 hand containing the little glass tube upon the apron to 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.560 preserve his balance. He felt the brittle thing crack, and 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.879 the broken half of it rang upon the floor of 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.080 the cab. He fell back into the seat with a curse, 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.000 and stared dismally at the two or three drops of 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:42.399 moisture on the apron. He shuddered, Well, I suppose I 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.080 shall be the first phew. Anyhow, I shall be a martyr. 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.480 That's something. But it is a filthy death. Nevertheless, I 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.919 wonder if it hurts as much as they say. Presently, 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.720 a thought occurred to him He groped between his feet. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.160 A little drop was still in the broken end the tube, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.119 and he drank that to make sure. It was better 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.240 to make sure, at any rate he would not fail. 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.080 Then it dawned upon him that there was no further 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.800 need to escape the bacteriologist in Wellington Street. He told 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.879 the cabman to stop and got out. He slipped on 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.760 the step. His head felt queer. It was rapid stuff, 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.720 this cholera poison. He waved his cabman out of existence, 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.199 so to speak, and stood on the pavement with his 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.440 arm folded upon his breast, awaiting the arrival of the bacteriologist. 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.280 There was something tragic in his pose. The sense of 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.719 imminent death gave him a certain dignity. He greeted his 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.240 pursuer with a defiant laugh. Vive la anarchy. You are 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.680 too late, my friend. I have drunk it. The cholera 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.679 is abroad. The bacteriologist from his cab beamed curiously at 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.560 him through his spectacles. You have drunk it, an anarchist, 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.800 I see now. He was about to say something more, 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.080 and then checked himself. A smile hung in the corner 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.800 of his mouth. He opened the apron of his cab 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.919 as if to descend, at which the anarchist waved him 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:15.560 a dramatic farewell and strode off towards Waterloo Bridge, carefully 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.160 jostling his infected body against as many people as possible. 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.440 The bacteriologist was so preoccupied with the vision of him 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.600 that he scarcely manifested the slightest surprise at the appearance 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.639 of many upon the pavement with his hat and shoes 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.359 and overcoat. Very good of you to bring my things, 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.679 he said, and then remained lost in contemplation of the 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.800 receding figure of the anarchist. You had better get in, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.639 he said, still staring. Minnie felt absolutely convinced now that 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.320 he was mad, and directed the cabman home on her 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:52.320 own responsibility. Put on my shoes, certainly, dear, said he, 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.440 as the cab began to turn and hid the strutting 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.639 black figure, now small in the distance, from his eyes. 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.440 Then suddenly something grotesque struck him, and he laughed. Then 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.399 he remarked, it is really very serious, though. You see 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.000 that man came to my house to see me, and 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.240 he is an anarchist. No, don't faint, or I cannot 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.760 possibly tell you the rest. And I wanted to astonish him, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.679 not knowing he was an anarchist, and I took up 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.439 a cultivation of that new species of bacterium. I was 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.760 telling you of that infest and that I think cause 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.160 the blue patches upon various monkeys, And like a fool, 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.040 I said it was asiatic cholera. And he ran away 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.600 with it to poison the water of London. And he 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.520 certainly might have made things look blue for this civilized city. 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:43.480 And now he has swallowed it. Of course I cannot 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.679 say what will happen, but you know it turned that 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.119 kitten blue, and the three puppies and patches and the 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:53.040 sparrow bright blue. But the bother is I shall have 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.320 all the trouble and expense of preparing some more. Put 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.719 on my coat on this hot day? Why because we 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.159 might meet Missus Jabber. My dear Missus Jabber is not 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:06.639 a draft. But why should I wear a coat on 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:15.240 a hot day because of missus? Oh? Very well? The end? Okay, 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.639 I like this story because it's so trashy. It's like, 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.879 ahhe Wells is the father of science fiction, and this 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:26.440 is just like a vaguely racist, shitty, anti anarchist book. 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:28.199 Like you know, He's like going on to try and 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.919 be like that man who came in. He was like 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.520 the wrong kind of white. You know, he wasn't too tonic, 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:37.639 he wasn't you know, like he's like trying to play 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.359 what ethnicity is this man, because he's like weird and 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.200 can't be trusted, and he's like tall and lanky and evil, 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.640 and he's also like a total insult right the anarchist 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:53.040 in this story, he's like everyone treated me wrong and 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.400 I'm going to show them all. And that is not 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.320 that's not the anarchist vibe. I don't believe it was 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:03.119 the anarchist vibe back then either at all. But you know, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.840 I mean, the story was written before HG. Wells's serious 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.480 involvement in socialist politics. It was, like I've written, I think, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.119 right before he joined the Fabian Society, and certainly you know, 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.679 fifteen years before he was talking about how anarchism is 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.359 the goal of every socialist in very explicit terms. I 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.920 wasn't able to find him like reflecting on this story. 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.800 And I'd be really interested if anyone out there knows 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.720 what he thought about this story later, because it's so 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.560 bad it's entertaining. I hope you found it entertaining and 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.040 the little like trick ending at the end like oh, 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:42.080 just he's gonna turn blue. Well done, well done, HG Wells, 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.159 You weird fucker. Men hate their wives. That is just 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.120 like a thing throughout history. And that is why here 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.159 on this podcast we stand wife guys. And this is 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.520 not a wife guy story. This is all like I'm 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.240 thinking about saving all of London or whatever, and my 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:03.800 wife is only thinking about me looking weird in front 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.800 of the neighbors, because that's all women think about, even 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:10.560 though she's like on call for him at all times. 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:13.919 Ith She Wells did not go on to treat women 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:18.560 with a He was not known for his fidelity in 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:22.800 his marriages. Marriage I don't remember. He was with a 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:24.640 lot of people. I don't remember how many of them 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.359 married him. I reached the point where I'm out of 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:31.119 things to say. I'll see you next week on another 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.359 episode of Cool Zone Media book Club. And if you 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:36.800 want more from me about history, you can check out 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.080 cool People who Did Cool stuff. And if you want 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:43.640 more from not me about dot history, you can check 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:46.320 out it could happen here. Talk to you all soon. 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:50.320 It could happen here as a production of Cool Zone Media. 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.080 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:55.359 cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:59.000 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.919 you can find for it could happen here, Updated monthly 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.600 at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.