The Accursed (70 page)
ALL THIS WAS TOLD TO ME ON THE VERY EVE OF MY ORDINATION. NEVER IN ALL THE INTERVENING YEARS HAVE I SWERVED FROM THIS FAITH.
MY FIRST WIFE ORIANA THOUGH GUILTLESS OF HER HUSBAND’S SIN SUFFERED ITS EFFECTS NONETHELESS AND SHRANK FROM ME IN APPREHENSION, HOW COLD YOUR HANDS, MY HUSBAND, YOUR BREATH, YOUR LIPS—YOUR SOUL! THOUGH I FELT NO TRUE DESIRE FOR HER OR FOR ANY WOMAN SINCE THE NIGHT OF MARCH 1855 WHEN OUT OF MY LOINS LEAPT A BURNING AND POISONOUS FLUID CONJURED FORTH BY THE MILL-GIRL WITH THE SINGED SKIN AND MANGLED HAND; AND OVER THE YEARS, YET IT HAPPENED THAT SONS WERE BORN TO ME, OUT OF MY WIFE’S BODY FOR ALWAYS IT WAS KNOWN BETWEEN THE LORD GOD AND ME THAT HE SENT SONS TO ME THAT THE SLADES BE PERPETUATED AND OUR LINEAGE NOT EXTINCT. THUS IT WAS, TWO BABY DAUGHTERS WERE STRICKEN WITH DIPHTHERIA AND DIED AS INFANTS AS NEGLIGIBLE TO GOD’S PLAN; THOUGH ORIANA WAS DEVASTATED BY SUCH LOSSES, AND DID NOT EVER RECOVER FULLY; AND HERSELF PASSED AWAY OF A LINGERING MALAISE, WHEN MY SONS WERE HUSKY YOUNG BOYS OF NINE AND THIRTEEN YEARS AND DID NOT ANY LONGER REQUIRE HER.
AND IN HER LOSS I GRIEVED, FOR I KNEW THAT I HAD DESTROYED HER LIFE, AS I HAD DESTROYED THE LIFE OF THE LITTLE MILL-GIRL.
YET THE LORD SENT ANOTHER WOMAN TO ME, THAT I WOULD NOT FALL INTO DESPAIR; FOR IT IS THE VERY AGENTS OF THE WRATHFUL GOD WHO ARE VULNERABLE TO DESPAIR, AND TO ENDING THEIR LIVES, TO END THE MASQUERADE OF THEIR VIRTUE IN A PLUMMETING STRAIGHT TO HELL.
THIS WOMAN, TABITHA, WAS ONE WHOM I HAD KNOWN LONGER THAN I HAD KNOWN ORIANA; WHO HAD NOT MARRIED, AND CONFESSED TO WINSLOW SLADE THAT SHE HAD LOVED HIM ALL THESE YEARS, AT A LITTLE DISTANCE. AN EAGER AND LOVING STEPMOTHER TABITHA WAS TO MY SONS, AND EAGER TO HAVE HER OWN BABIES; WHICH WAS NOT A WISH OF MINE YET ONE NIGHT THE HOT-FLESHED PEARL LAY BETWEEN US AND HER MOUTH WAS SUCKING AT MY MOUTH AND HER MANGLED FINGER-STUMPS TOUCHED ME LEWDLY AS MANY TIMES IN DREAMS SHE HAD TOUCHED ME; AND I WAS PROVOKED TO LUST AND TOOK MY AFFRIGHTED WIFE WHOSE NAME I COULD NOT HAVE RECALLED IN THE FRENZY OF THE MOMENT AND IN THIS SHAMEFUL WAY TABITHA BECAME PREGNANT IN THE SECOND YEAR OF OUR UNION AND HER LABOR WAS SO PROTRACTED AND EXCRUCIATING, MORE THAN TWO DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS, THE RESULT BEING AN INFANT GIRL WHO DIED WITHIN THE HOUR AND WAS NOT EVER BAPTIZED; AS TABITHA SCREAMED ALOUD IN PAIN AND DESPONDENCY AND MADNESS, AS I HAD NEVER HEARD HER UTTER SUCH PROFANE WORDS, CURSING ME, AND BEGGING THE LORD THAT MY BODY BE TORN IN TWO, AND MY BONES CRUSHED, AND MY FOUL HEART RIPPED FROM MY CHEST, THAT I SHOULD SUFFER AS I HAD CAUSED HER TO SUFFER; FOR HER DEATH WAS FAST UPON HER, AND SHE HAD LOST ALL QUALITIES OF THE PERSON KNOWN TO THE WORLD AS TABITHA PAIGE STRACHAN, SAVE SPEECH, THAT SHE MIGHT CURSE HER HUSBAND.
SUCH MADNESS IN CHILDBIRTH WAS HORRIFIC TO ALL WHO BEHELD AND TO THOSE TO WHOM IT WAS RECOUNTED FOR TABITHA HAD BEEN A GENTLE CHRISTIAN WOMAN WHO HAD NOT BEEN OBSERVED TO HAVE EVEN RAISED HER VOICE; YET THE GUILTY HUSBAND UNDERSTOOD, TABITHA HAD GAZED INTO HIS HEART, AND HAD KNOWN HIM AS NO OTHER LIVING PERSON KNEW HIM.
NUMBERLESS SERMONS THE REVEREND WINSLOW SLADE PREACHED IN HIS OWN CHURCH IN PRINCETON AND THROUGHOUT NEW JERSEY AND PHILADELPHIA; AND IN NEW YORK CITY WHERE HIS PATRICIAN MANNER, HIS STUDIED EASE AND CHRISTIAN PIETY HELD HIM IN GOOD STEAD WITH HIS ELDERS AND THE MOST CONSERVATIVE OF CHURCH MEMBERS. AND THOSE WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS ENEMIES WERE SO WON BY HIS MANNER AND HIS MAGNANIMITY, THEY DID NOT KNOW TO LOOK BEHIND THE MASK, AND SO WERE DISARMED. YET IN THE VERY MIDST OF AUSTERE PRESBYTERY THE REVEREND SLADE SLYLY SOWED SCHISM; FOR THIS WAS THE ERA OF HERESY TRIALS IN WHICH THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH BROUGHT CERTAIN OVERLY LIBERAL MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY TO HEEL.
AND THE PROTESTANT PREACHERS INCLINING TOWARD THE EVANGELICAL AND THE ENTHUSIASTIC WERE CENSURED.
AND THE IMMIGRANT MASSES OF IRELAND AND SOUTHERN EUROPE, HOTBEDS OF POPERY, ILLITERACY AND SUPERSTITION—THESE WERE DENOUNCED FROM THE PULPIT IN THE MOST JUDICIOUS VOCABULARY.
AND THE JEWS—MURDERERS OF JESUS AND SOWERS OF THE ANTI-CHRIST.
AND BRUTE NEGROES, ONLY A GENERATION BEFORE FREED OF THEIR WHITE MASTERS.
AND HYSTERICAL FEMALES DEMANDING “RIGHTS.”
AND THOSE WHO TAUGHT HERETICAL EVOLUTIONISM, AND THOSE WHO TAUGHT ATHEISTICAL SOCIALISM.
ALL THESE THE LORD GOD SORELY DETESTED, AND WISHED TO HARM; AND THE REVEREND SLADE FROM HIS PULPIT SPOKE IN GENTLE AND INSIDIOUS CONDEMNATION OF THESE; AND OF THE GRIEVOUS ILLS THAT BEFELL THE LUCKLESS, PRIMARY AMONG THEM THE DARK-SKINNED DESCENDANTS OF OUR SLAVES LIKE THE MILL-GIRL PEARL, THE REVEREND DID NOT SPEAK EXCEPT IN THE MOST RESIGNED OF WAYS; FOR THE REVEREND TAUGHT THE “PEACE THAT PASSETH UNDERSTANDING” AND NOT THE CLENCHED FIST OF THE LABOR UNIONS AND THE IRON HAMMER HELD ALOFT. ALL OF WHICH PUT HIM IN GOOD STEAD WITH HIS ADMIRING CONGREGATION, AND WITH HIS MASTER THE LORD GOD ON HIGH.
IN THIS WAY THE OUTWARD MAN PROSPERED: WINSLOW SLADE WAS INAUGURATED PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND GOVERNOR OF THE STATE EVEN AS THE INWARD MAN KNEW HIMSELF JOYLESS AND WITHERED FOR THE LORD GOD FASTENED UPON HIM EACH HOUR AND MADE OF HIM A SHADOW AND A PHANTOM OF THE NIGHT, THAT HAS NO TRUE SUBSTANCE BY DAY YET IS MISTAKEN BY OTHERS AS A LIVING CREATURE.
AND IT WAS KNOWN TO HIM ALWAYS: THE GIRL PEARL DIED THAT YOU MIGHT LIVE, AND PROSPER; EACH DAY AT CROSSWICKS, YOU WALK UPON HER BONES MOLDERING IN THE SOIL; AND THE CRIES OF BIRDS FROM THE EAVES OF THE GREAT HOUSE ARE THE CRIES OF THE STRICKEN GIRL—YET YOU WILL BE CAST DOWN INTO HELL.
IT WAS NOT KNOWN TO THE UNENLIGHTENED HOW THE NEW GOVERNOR WINSLOW SLADE WAS ELECTED BY SHAMELESS BALLOT-STUFFING THROUGH THE STATE AND PARTICULARLY IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF TRENTON. IT WAS NOT KNOWN HOW THE GOVERNOR SO REVERED FOR HAVING BEEN A MINISTER AND A FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE GREAT UNIVERSITY WAS BUT A PUPPET OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS AS THE PARTY LEADERS WERE BUT PUPPETS OF THE TRUST. “BOLTERS” OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND NEW JERSEY HIRELINGS AND EX-GOVERNOR BEDEL AND HIS CRONIES AND OLD SENATOR SMITH OF BURLINGTON AND ANTI-ABBETT MEN AND PRO-ABBETT MEN AND RUFUS BLODGETT AND HIS HIRELINGS AND PASSAIC LABOR MEN AND COLONEL DICKINSON AND REPUBLICAN MALCONTENTS OUT OF NEWARK AND TEMPERANCE MEN AND LOCAL OPTION HIGH LICENSE ACT MEN AND LONG-ENTRENCHED “RUM POWER” MEN AND GENERAL FISK AND HIS MEN AND ANTI-RAILROAD TAX ACT MEN AND STANDARD OIL MEN AND THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD AND THE ATLANTIC CITY–CAPE MAY RACE TRACKS—OUT OF THIS COALITION A GREAT STINKING STEW WAS BREWED, WITH MANY A RAT’S EXCREMENT TOSSED IN, AND THE CORPSES OF BODIES FLOATING IN THE DELAWARE ROTTED AND SWARMING WITH MAGGOTS THAT GOVERNOR SLADE WAS REQUIRED TO TAKE INTO HIS MOUTH AND CHEW AND SWALLOW WITH NO PROTEST.
SO IT WAS, A SPECTER HAD ASCENDED TO THE HIGHEST OF STATE OFFICES AND WHETHER HIS ELECTION OF 1887 WAS THE RESULT OF BALLOT-STUFFING OR NO, THE MAN WAS ELECTED TO THE GOVERNORSHIP OF NEW JERSEY WHICH COULD NOT HAVE FAILED TO PLEASE THE LORD GOD.
FOR WHY WAS ZACHARIAS SLAIN IN THE TEMPLE BUT THAT HE HAD SUFFERED A VISION AND WHEN THE UNHAPPY MAN WISHED TO PROCLAIM HIS VISION TO THE MULTITUDES THE LORD GOD STOPPED HIS MOUTH AND HIS LIFE WAS TAKEN FROM HIM.
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!
SOON THEN THE GOVERNOR WAS BELIEVED TO HAVE MISCALCULATED, IN MEANING TO IMPOSE A NECESSARY PEACE UPON THE STRIKING WORKERS OF JERSEY CITY BY BRINGING IN THE STATE MILITIA WHICH THEN DID MARCH AND FIRE UPON THEM IN A PANDEMONIUM OF HORROR IN WHICH WAY AS IF UNWITTINGLY THE GOVERNOR PROVOKED DAYS OF BLOODSHED; AND WHEN A SIMILAR UPRISING OCCURRED IN PATERSON, AND THE GOVERNOR FORBORE TO CALL IN TROOPS, YET MORE BLOODSHED ERUPTED, FOR THE FACTORY OWNERS, ACTING WITH DISPATCH, HAD HIRED THEIR OWN PRIVATE MILITIA TO DEAL WITH THE EMERGENCY.
IN THIS WAY NOT ONLY STRIKERS WERE KILLED BUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN AS WELL.
THUS, MY SERVANT WINSLOW SLADE, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.
SOON THEN THE GOVERNOR RETIRED FROM PUBLIC OFFICE, SICKENED IN HIS GUTS. FOR THE STINKING STEW OF POLITICS HE COULD NOT STOMACH, EVEN HE WHO DWELT IN SIN. RETIRING FROM PUBLIC LIFE WITH A CLAIM OF WISHING TO RETURN TO THE MINISTRY AND TO THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE; TAKING REFUGE AT THE MANSE, AND ATTEMPTING SOME HUMAN ALIGNMENT AT LAST, WITH HIS GRANDCHILDREN.
FOR THERE WERE FOUR GRANDCHILDREN, WHOM HE LOVED MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF, AND FAR MORE THAN HE LOVED HIS OWN TAINTED BEING.
JOSIAH, AND ANNABEL, AND TODD, AND ORIANA—THESE BLESSINGS THE LORD GOD HAD GIVEN ME, I KNEW NOT WHY; BUT KNEW THAT I DID NOT DESERVE.
KNOW THEN, MY BRETHREN, MY COMPANIONS IN CHRIST, THAT THE CHILDREN OF MAN ARE MOST CHERISHED BY GOD WHEN THEY GROVEL IN DESPAIR—WHEN THEY TAKE NO SOLACE IN HUMAN LOVE, NEITHER LOVING NOR RECEIVING LOVE; BUT ARE IN MORTAL TERROR OF THE BEAST WHO SETS HIS CLOVEN HOOF UPON THEM, TO TRAMPLE THEM INTO DUST.
KNOW YE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, THAT THE CHILDREN OF MAN ARE MOST RESENTED BY GOD, WHEN THEY BASK IN THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH, AND PARTAKE OF THE FRUITS AND SPLENDORS OF THE EARTH, OFFERING NO SACRIFICE TO THE LORD, AND TURNING FROM HIM ENTIRELY. THEY ARE IN MOST DANGER OF HIS WRATH WHEN THEY REGARD NAUGHT BUT THE EARTHLY PARADISE, AND ONE ANOTHER, IN MORTAL LOVE.
SO AT LAST THERE CAME THE HOUR WHEN THE LORD GOD PEERED INTO MY HEART AND PERCEIVED THE SEED OF LOVE THEREIN; AND SAW THAT I HAD LONG DECEIVED HIM, IN MY CRAVEN REVERENCE FOR HIM, AND WOULD HAVE REVOLTED IF I’D HAD THE COURAGE.
AND THE LORD GOD COULD NOT FORGIVE ME, THAT I LOVED MY GRANDCHILDREN BEYOND HIM; BEYOND EVEN MY SONS, AND MY DEAR MISUSED WIVES; AND HOW THUNDEROUS HIS WRATH, WITH SUCH KNOWLEDGE.
AND HE SAW TOO THAT FIFTY YEARS HAD PASSED; AND HIS SERVANT WINSLOW SLADE WAS NOW AN OLD MAN GIVEN TO SOLITUDE, AND TO MELANCHOLY BEHIND THE HABITUAL SMILE ETCHED INTO HIS FACE; AND NO LONGER HAD THE POWER TO PERPETUATE EVIL, SHOULD HE HAVE WISHED TO DO SO. AND IN HIS HEART THERE BUDDED THE MODEST WISH THAT HE BE ALLOWED THE BLISS OF THE COMMONPLACE, AND HUMAN LOVE, AND OBLIVION ITSELF—WHICH IS TO SAY, THE ERASURE OF HIS SIN.
SO THE LORD GOD TIRED OF HIS SERVANT, AND JUDGED THAT THE CHALICE BE TAKEN FROM WINSLOW SLADE. AND THE FURIES OF HEAVEN, THE AVENGING ARCHANGELS, WERE RELEASED AT LAST FOR THE ANGRY CREATURES HAD HUNGERED FOR MY BLOOD THESE MANY DECADES BUT HAD BEEN HELD IN CHECK BY THE COVENANT OF OLD.
IT CAME ABOUT THEN, THESE ANGELS OF THE LORD WERE GIVEN THEIR FREEDOM TO APPEAR ON EARTH, IN OUR MIDST, AND WREAK SUCH HAVOC AS THEY WOULD, TO PROPAGATE TERROR, REVULSION, AND DESPAIR—THESE ANGELS YOU MAY HAVE MISTAKEN FOR DEMONS, MY TOWNSPEOPLE.
THAT THE FIRST VICTIM TO BE BORNE AWAY WAS MY BELOVED GRANDDAUGHTER ANNABEL COULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SURPRISE TO ME THOUGH IN TRUTH HER ABDUCTION CUT ME TO THE BONE AND I DIED THAT MORNING IN THIS VERY CHURCH BUT A YEAR AGO THIS MORNING.
YES, WINSLOW SLADE DIED THAT MORNING. BUT SUCH IS THE CRUELTY OF THE LORD GOD, ANNABEL’S WAS BUT THE FIRST OF NUMEROUS INNOCENT DEATHS, AND A LAPSING OF OUR COMMUNITY INTO SUCH DESPAIR THAT LANGUAGE CANNOT EXPRESS.
NOW I TAKE LEAVE OF YOU, MY DEAR TOWNSPEOPLE. I CONFESS THAT I AM GUILTY NOT ONLY OF THAT DESPICABLE SIN AND CRIME COMMITTED A HALF-CENTURY AGO BUT I, WINSLOW SLADE, AM GUILTY AS WELL OF ALL OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CROSSWICKS CURSE, AS IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO YOU. FOR THE ANGEL-DEMONS WERE BY WAY OF ME AND COULD NOT HAVE UNLEASHED SUCH MISERY UPON YOU SAVE BY WAY OF ME,
WHICH IS TO SAY, I AM MYSELF THE CROSSWICKS CURSE.
WHICH IS TO SAY, I AM GUILTY OF ALL THE CRIMES, DISORDER, RAMPANT MISCHIEF AND HORROR THE DEMONS HAVE COMMITTED THIS TWELVE-MONTH, AND MORE—AS IF THIS VALE OF TEARS WERE BUT A CRAZED DREAM THAT MIGHT ERUPT IN LAUGHTER AS READILY AS IN TERROR AND THE ANGUISH OF SUFFERING MANKIND OF NO MORE SIGNIFICANCE THAN THE ELUSIVE FLIGHT OF A BUTTERFLY.
AND THOUGH I MIGHT BEG FORGIVENESS OF YOU, AS FROM THE MURDERED PEARL, I MUST NOT BE FORGIVEN. IT IS MY FATE TO BE UNMASKED AND STRIPPED AND EXPOSED AND CAST FROM YOUR MIDST FOREVERMORE.
FOR MY SIN BEING AGAINST MANKIND, AND NOT AGAINST GOD, IT IS ONLY MANKIND THAT CAN FORGIVE ME; AND MANKIND, THAT MUST NOT FORGIVE ME.
AMEN.
SO BY THIS AGED HAND, ON THE SABBATH MORNING OF 4 JUNE 1906 I HEREBY DESIGNATE:
THE END
T
he truths of Fiction reside in metaphor; but metaphor is here generated by History.
Among the books consulted in the composition of this novel are:
Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters,
volumes I and II, by Ray Stannard Baker, 1927.
Woodrow Wilson, The Academic Years
by Henry Wilkinson Bragdon, 1967.
My Aunt Louisa and Woodrow Wilson
by Margaret Axson Elliott, 1944.
Woodrow Wilson of Princeton
by McMillan Lewis, 1952.
Woodrow Wilson: A Brief Biography
by Arthur S. Link, 1963.
The Priceless Gift: The Love Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson,
edited by Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, 1962.
When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson
by Gene Smith, 1964.
Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography
by Edwin A. Weinstein, 1981.
Modern Battles of Trenton: Being a History of New Jersey’s Politics and Legislation from the Year 1868 to the Year 1894
by William Edgar Sackett, 1895.
Jack London
by Richard O’Connor, 1964.
Scott of the Antarctic
by Elspeth Huxley, 1978.
The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
by Upton Sinclair, 1962.
Stories of New Jersey
by Frank Stockton, 1961.
The Cross and the Lynching Tree
by James Cone, 2011.
JOYCE CAROL OATES
is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Chicago Tribune Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers
We Were the Mulvaneys
,
Blonde
, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and the
New York Times
bestseller
The Falls
, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
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