Quotation from: The Strength of the Strong

Written by: Jack London


It was a frightful catastrophe, and a shiver of horror passed
through the land. But it was nothing to what was to follow. In
the late fall of that year Emil Gluck made a clean sweep of the
Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Florida. Nothing escaped. Forts,
mines, coast defences of all sorts, torpedo stations, magazines--
everything went up. Three months afterward, in midwinter, he smote
the north shore of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Greece in
the same stupefying manner. A wail went up from the nations. It
was clear that human agency was behind all this destruction, and it
was equally clear, through Emil Gluck's impartiality, that the
destruction was not the work of any particular nation. One thing
was patent, namely, that whoever was the human behind it all, that
human was a menace to the world. No nation was safe. There was no
defence against this unknown and all-powerful foe. Warfare was
futile--nay, not merely futile but itself the very essence of the
peril. For a twelve-month the manufacture of powder ceased, and
all soldiers and sailors were withdrawn from all fortifications and
war vessels. And even a world-disarmament was seriously considered
at the Convention of the Powers, held at The Hague at that time.

PREVIOUS GROUP HOME SITE HOME NEXT
Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
Change Tag: ~~ 0 ~~
Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.