Chapter Vii. The Bishop's Vision : CHAPTER VII THE BISHOP'S VISION "The Bishop is out of hand," Ernest wrote me. "He is clear up in the air. Tonight he is going to begin putting to rights this very miserable world of ours. He is going to deliver his message. He has told me so, and I cannot dissuade him. To-night he is chairm...
Chapter Ix. The Mathematics Of A Dream : CHAPTER IX THE MATHEMATICS OF A DREAM In the midst of the consternation his revelation had produced, Ernest began again to speak. "You have said, a dozen of you to-night, that socialism is impossible. You have asserted the impossible, now let me demonstrate the inevitable. Not only is it inevitable...
Chapter Xvii. The Scarlet Livery : CHAPTER XVII THE SCARLET LIVERY With the destruction of the Granger states, the Grangers in Congress disappeared. They were being tried for high treason, and their places were taken by the creatures of the Iron Heel. The socialists were in a pitiful minority, and they knew that their end was near...
Chapter X. The Vortex : CHAPTER X THE VORTEX Following like thunder claps upon the Business Men's dinner, occurred event after event of terrifying moment; and I, little I, who had lived so placidly all my days in the quiet university town, found myself and my personal affairs drawn into the vortex of the gre...
Chapter Viii. The Machine Breakers : CHAPTER VIII THE MACHINE BREAKERS It was just before Ernest ran for Congress, on the socialist ticket, that father gave what he privately called his "Profit and Loss" dinner. Ernest called it the dinner of the Machine Breakers. In point of fact, it was merely a dinner for business men--small...
Chapter Xi. The Great Adventure : CHAPTER XI THE GREAT ADVENTURE Mr. Wickson did not send for father. They met by chance on the ferry-boat to San Francisco, so that the warning he gave father was not premeditated. Had they not met accidentally, there would not have been any warning. Not that the outcome would have been different...
Chapter Xiv. The Beginning Of The End : CHAPTER XIV THE BEGINNING OF THE END As early as January, 1913, Ernest saw the true trend of affairs, but he could not get his brother leaders to see the vision of the Iron Heel that had arisen in his brain. They were too confident. Events were rushing too rapidly to culmination. A crisis had come...
Chapter Xiii. The General Strike : CHAPTER XIII THE GENERAL STRIKE Of course Ernest was elected to Congress in the great socialist landslide that took place in the fall of 1912. One great factor that helped to swell the socialist vote was the destruction of Hearst. 1 This the Plutocracy found an easy task. It cost Hearst eighteen...
Chapter Iv. Slaves Of The Machine : CHAPTER IV SLAVES OF THE MACHINE The more I thought of Jackson's arm, the more shaken I was. I was confronted by the concrete. For the first time I was seeing life. My university life, and study and culture, had not been real. I had learned nothing but theories of life and society that looked all...
Chapter Vi. Adumbrations : CHAPTER VI ADUMBRATIONS It was about this time that the warnings of coming events began to fall about us thick and fast. Ernest had already questioned father's policy of having socialists and labor leaders at his house, and of openly attending socialist meetings; and father had only laughed at him...
Chapter I. My Eagle : THE IRON HEEL CHAPTER I MY EAGLE The soft summer wind stirs the redwoods, and Wild-Water ripples sweet cadences over its mossy stones. There are butterflies in the sunshine, and from everywhere arises the drowsy hum of bees. It is so quiet and peaceful, and I sit here, and ponder, and am restless...
Chapter Xix. Transformation : CHAPTER XIX TRANSFORMATION "You must make yourself over again," Ernest wrote to me. "You must cease to be. You must become another woman--and not merely in the clothes you wear, but inside your skin under the clothes. You must make yourself over again so that even I would not know you--your voice...
Chapter Xv. Last Days : CHAPTER XV LAST DAYS It was near the end of January, 1913, that the changed attitude of the Oligarchy toward the favored unions was made public. The newspapers published information of an unprecedented rise in wages and shortening of hours for the railroad employees, the iron and steel workers...
Chapter Xii. The Bishop : CHAPTER XII THE BISHOP It was after my marriage that I chanced upon Bishop Morehouse. But I must give the events in their proper sequence. After his outbreak at the I. P. H. Convention, the Bishop, being a gentle soul, had yielded to the friendly pressure brought to bear upon him, and had gone away...
Chapter Iii. Jackson's Arm : CHAPTER III JACKSON'S ARM. Little did I dream the fateful part Jackson's arm was to play in my life. Jackson himself did not impress me when I hunted him out. I found him in a crazy, ramshackle 1 house down near the bay on the edge of the marsh. Pools of stagnant water stood around the house, their...
Chapter Xxi. The Roaring Abysmal Beast : CHAPTER XXI THE ROARING ABYSMAL BEAST During the long period of our stay in the refuge, we were kept closely in touch with what was happening in the world without, and we were learning thoroughly the strength of the Oligarchy with which we were at war. Out of the flux of transition the new...
Chapter Xxv. The Terrorists : CHAPTER XXV THE TERRORISTS It was not until Ernest and I were back in New York, and after weeks had elapsed, that we were able to comprehend thoroughly the full sweep of the disaster that had befallen the Cause. The situation was bitter and bloody. In many places, scattered over the country, slave...
Chapter Ii. Challenges : CHAPTER II CHALLENGES. After the guests had gone, father threw himself into a chair and gave vent to roars of Gargantuan laughter. Not since the death of my mother had I known him to laugh so heartily. I'll wager Dr. Hammerfield was never up against anything like it in his life," he laughed. "'...
Chapter Xxiii. The People Of The Abyss : CHAPTER XXIII THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS Suddenly a change came over the face of things. A tingle of excitement ran along the air. Automobiles fled past, two, three, a dozen, and from them warnings were shouted to us. One of the machines swerved wildly at high speed half a block down, and the next...
Chapter Xx. A Lost Oligarch : CHAPTER XX A LOST OLIGARCH But in remembering the old life I have run ahead of my story into the new life. The wholesale jail delivery did not occur until well along into 1915. Complicated as it was, it was carried through without a hitch, and as a very creditable achievement it cheered us...
Chapter Xxii. The Chicago Commune : CHAPTER XXII THE CHICAGO COMMUNE As agents-provocateurs, not alone were we able to travel a great deal, but our very work threw us in contact with the proletariat and with our comrades, the revolutionists. Thus we were in both camps at the same time, ostensibly serving the Iron Heel and secretly...
Foreword : THE IRON HEEL FOREWORD It cannot be said that the Everhard Manuscript is an important historical document. To the historian it bristles with errors--not errors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back across the seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her...
Chapter Xxiv. Nightmare : CHAPTER XXIV NIGHTMARE I had not closed my eyes the night before on the Twentieth Century, and what of that and of my exhaustion I slept soundly. When I first awoke, it was night. Garthwaite had not returned. I had lost my watch and had no idea of the time. As I lay with my eyes closed, I heard...
Chapter Xviii. In The Shadow Of Sonoma : CHAPTER XVIII IN THE SHADOW OF SONOMA Of myself, during this period, there is not much to say. For six months I was kept in prison, though charged with no crime. I was a suspect--a word of fear that all revolutionists were soon to come to know. But our own nascent secret service was beginning...
Title Page : THE IRON HEEL BY JACK LONDON New York, Grosset & Dunlap [1907] This Etext Was Prepared By Donald Lainson, [email protected]. HTML Markup , May 1, 2002 "At first, this Earth, a stage so gloomed with woe You almost sicken at the shifting of the scenes. And yet be patient. Our Playwright may show...
Chapter Xvi. The End : CHAPTER XVI THE END When it came time for Ernest and me to go to Washington, father did not accompany us. He had become enamoured of proletarian life. He looked upon our slum neighborhood as a great sociological laboratory, and he had embarked upon an apparently endless orgy of investigation. He...
Chapter V. The Philomaths : CHAPTER V THE PHILOMATHS Ernest was often at the house. Nor was it my father, merely, nor the controversial dinners, that drew him there. Even at that time I flattered myself that I played some part in causing his visits, and it was not long before I learned the correctness of my surmise. For never...