HE following advertisement, even had it ever appeared in any of the great dailies, would probably have occasioned little comment or curiosity:—
Those who are weary of the laws and so-called “society restrictions” of the present day can find an immediate2 and complete relief by applying at once to JENIFER VASS, Lock Box 3265B.
Even in 1885, though the business had not then attained4 the gigantic proportions of the present day, the advertising5 genius was still at work; and any one chancing to read such a notice would no doubt have set it down as the bait thrown out by the vendor6 of some patent medicine, weight lift, or equally undesirable7 article.
The promoters of the scheme for the “Pursuance of Vice8,” as they facetiously9 called it among themselves, realized this, and did not attempt to reach the public by any such open means. To make known their project they resorted[140] to other methods which, though acting10 quietly and unnoticed, nevertheless produced sufficient effect, so that on the night of June 16, 1885, when the floating palace of Iniquity11, “Lawless,” left one of the North-river piers13, she had on board eight hundred souls. That is to say, there were eight hundred passengers; but, judging from the declared object with which the “Lawless” put to sea, it is more probable that the souls of those on board had been left behind.
This voyage of the “Lawless” was the result of much thought on the part of three individuals who, at one time or another, had figured prominently in the police courts of New York and Chicago. Jenifer Vass, in whose brain the plan had first found its inception14, was at one time proprietor15 of the Red Inn, a feeble imitation of the Moulin Rouge16 of Paris; while Jackson Elbers and Louis Hopeman had both been mixed up in various enterprises, all of which tended to cater17 to the animal rather than the intellectual passions of their patrons.
Three miles from land, as you may not happen to know, is the limit of distance to which the law of the neighboring country applies. When beyond that point on the high seas no law on earth is valid18 save the orders of the ship’s captain. Knowing this fact, and from the knowledge of human nature gained in their various former pursuits, the three men mentioned had gotten together a few thousand dollars and purchased[141] the Atlanta, once an ocean liner of the White Star line.
The Atlanta had been taken from the passenger service, being unable to compete with her faster rivals on the Cunard and Hamburg-Bremen lines; and it was planned to remodel19 and use her for a freight steamer.
Hearing of this, and as speed was no object in the excursions which the Palace of Sin was to make, Jenifer Vass and his two companions made an offer which was immediately accepted by the managers of the White Star line.
Then a work of transformation20 began. According to the scheme of Jenifer Vass, every vice which tempts21 men and women, every form of iniquity of the old and the new world, was to be introduced, cultivated, and pampered22 on board the “Lawless.” Ten staterooms were torn to pieces and made into one. The floors were covered with Turkish rugs; Bagdad curtains and Eastern ornaments23 were hung about the walls. The final appearance of the room was totally different from the little holes in the wall found in the Chinatown of nearly all the large cities, but its object was the same. Here men and women could smoke opium24 from morning till night, and with the additional advantage that no one would disturb them. There was no danger of the place being raided and their names appearing in the next morning’s police-court items. On one of the walls was arranged a[142] set of bunks25 on which the sleepers26 could be laid away when the drug was really on.
One-half the ship was converted into a gambling27 hall. Here every game of chance at Monte Carlo,—faro, roulette, poker28, pinquette, fantan, and every other game by which a man can win a fortune or lose his all in a single night—was to be put in operation.
There was to be a bar where every known strong drink could be bought, and each man was to be the judge of when he had had enough. No waiter could inform him that the management refused to serve him anything more, and he would have to go elsewhere. Here one could swill29 brandy, absinthe, bhang, or any other nerve-destroying drink until his brain reeled; and as long as he had the money to pay for more no one would stop him.
Every drug and narcotic30, whose sale is guarded by the laws of the United States and other civilized31 countries, was to be sold as freely as the chocolates of the confectioner. Cocaine32, opium, laudanum, and morphine were laid in in bulk for the use of the passengers of the “Lawless,” without limit or restriction1. In fact, there was wine for the drinker, women for him who wanted company, song for him who would sing, and each and every other evil thing ever devised by a wicked and lustful33 world was to be found somewhere between the two decks of this Palace of Sin.
[143]The trips were to last one month, the “Lawless” merely getting into mid34 ocean and steaming slowly down to the Gulf35 of Mexico, remaining there until the month was up, when the passengers, saturated36 with vice and steeped in corruption37, were to be returned to the place of starting. The crew was cut down to as small a number as possible, and consisted mostly of the riffraff to be found about the wharves38 of any large seaport39 city.
There was nothing about the scheme which could be punished by the laws of any country, nevertheless the arrangements were kept as quiet as possible, and nothing found its way into the papers.
On the night of June 16, 1885, the “Lawless,” as the boat was very appropriately rechristened, steamed away from New York. The passengers had begun to arrive in the evening as soon as it became dark, and at 12.30 every one who had engaged passage was on board. There was no one down to the pier12 to speed the departing voyager, or to wish him good luck. The sinister40 expedition set out without as much as the wave of a handkerchief from shore. She was a little longer in getting under way than had been anticipated, but at two o’clock in the morning of the seventeenth, the “Lawless” was well out to sea, and the great hull41, which up till then, save for a few lights about deck, had been kept dark, burst suddenly into light. Down in the[144] hold a big Westinghouse generator43 was whirling away, and, at a word from the captain, fifteen hundred electric lights were suddenly switched into circuit and the “Lawless” was on full blast. The limit was reached, and the ship had come to her own.
There was one flaw, however, in the scheme of the Palace of Sin. That flaw was Pierre Planchette, first assistant engineer. Like most of the lower officers, he had been hired without knowing the object of the voyage, thinking that the “Lawless” was merely bound on a pleasure cruise in southern waters. He had just come from the Bellevue hospital, where he had been dangerously sick with brain fever, and he was still far from recovered, but hearing of the position and the high pay that went with it, he had left the hospital against the orders of the house physician. The man who had been originally hired for assistant having disappointed Jenifer Vass, the patient, with traces of the fever still upon him, was engaged on the very day of departure.
When, therefore, the three-mile limit was passed, and the hell up on deck broke out, Pierre Planchette turned to his chief for explanation of the sounds of revelry floating down below decks. “You don’t mean to say you don’t know the object of this ship?” asked the chief. “Why, the ‘Lawless’ is a floating hell. For the next thirty days every form of vice known to the[145] civilized world will be going on up above there. There’s five hundred men and three hundred women in this gilded44 shell whose only object in life for one month will be to commit acts which on shore would be punished by fines and imprisonment45.”
Without a word the assistant left the chief engineer, and seeking out the captain, demanded to be put on shore.
“You’ve signed with us for one month, and, by G—d, you’ll have to stay,” was all the answer he got from Jenifer Vass, to whom the captain sent him.
Then a strange thing happened. Into the disordered brain of the man, a short time before racked by fever, there came the thought that he had been chosen by God to be the instrument to punish the iniquity which had come to his knowledge.
He returned to the captain, and demanded a raise of fifteen dollars a month in his pay, claiming he did not know the kind of a job he was undertaking46 when he had signed. O, he was cunning, this fever stricken assistant engineer. He knew how to allay47 suspicion.
The raise of pay was granted, for Jenifer Vass did not like the look in the man’s eyes. Planchette went about his work, however, for the next few days quietly and apparently48 satisfied. And when by chance his duties took him up to where the painted women sang and gamed, and[146] the drunken men made ribald jests, he only smiled strangely to himself and went on with his work. But he was busy all this time doing many things for which an assistant engineer is not usually paid to perform.
One evening he came to Vass, the man who was really in command of the “Lawless,” and asked to be shown about the ship. It was a strange request for an under officer to make to the owner of a ship, but Vass, as usual somewhat in his cups, and feeling particularly good-natured, for the money was coming in faster than he had dared to hope, consented.
Together they went into the gaming room, and the young engineer saw crowds of men and women standing49 about the whirling wheels, or sitting about the tables with the light of greed in their eyes. Here a woman laughed shrilly50 as the croupier pushed toward her a pile of money, while beside her a man cursed his luck in language which would have shamed a demon51.
They went to the opium den42 and saw men and women, some safely tucked away on the little shelves, others sitting on low divans52, while half a dozen grinning Chinamen cooked the little brown beads53 and brought to them. They went into other rooms, seeing sights which I will not describe, and everywhere suggestive songs and oaths met their ears.
That night about 12 o’clock a man slipped about the decks of the “Lawless,” making little[147] noise but working busily. He went to the ship’s boats and removed from all save the one in the stern small sections of the bottom which had been cunningly sawed out. He went down in the hold to each of the pumps, and smiled to himself as he noted54 the cylinders55 from which the plungers had been removed. Then he drew a few more cans of oil and carried them down to where the coal was stored, and when he returned the cans were empty. From there he went to his cabin and carried a few more things to the one boat in the stern which had not been tampered56 with.
Then, although everything was completed, he paused irresolutely57. He went to some of the rooms into which Jenifer Vass had taken him earlier in the evening. He did not go into them, but stood and listened to the sounds which came out through transoms and half-opened doors, and, as he listened, the former look of determination began to come back to his face.
He paused for a minute outside the drinking room, listening to the chorus of a vulgar song. The door opened and a couple of men staggering out started for the part of the ship given over to the women. As they lurched past him Planchette heard a remark one of them made to the other. He turned and walked swiftly to the hold, and lighting58 a match, held it over the spot on the coal where nearly a barrel of oil had[148] soaked in. Then he stole back to the upper deck, slipped the ship’s boat carefully over the side and dropped into the sea.
He remained perfectly59 motionless, watching the great form of the “Lawless” as she steamed slowly past him. Taking up his oars60 he pulled along for a little way, and the distance between him and the ship did not increase greatly, for, as has been observed, speed of traveling was not one of the pleasures promised to the passengers of the “Lawless.” In a little while he saw a number of lights flash out on deck, and the black forms of many men hurrying to and fro were silhouetted61 against the sky. Then, suddenly, above the roar of the water he heard the piercing shriek62 of a woman. He shivered slightly and ceased rowing.
The ship’s engines had stopped, and the boat was rolling heavily on the swell63. Great clouds of black smoke began to pour from the hatchways, and across the water he heard the sound of men trying to get out the boats, an undertaking followed immediately by an angry cursing in which he heard his own name mingled64. But he only smiled again, that same strange smile that had been on his face for the last week when as he worked down in the bowels65 of the ship, he heard the sounds of riot above.
“They’ll be after the pumps now,” muttered the instrument of God to himself, and he laughed mirthlessly.
[149]He took up his oars and began rowing again. He knew it was many miles to the nearest land, but he must get away from that great flaming eye, which seemed to be winking66 at him. The cries and shrieks67 of despair from those on board the burning ship were awful to hear, so he sang loudly and drowned out the noise.
He rowed furiously till nearly daybreak, when, sinking to the bottom of the boat, he slept from sheer exhaustion68. When he opened his eyes again the sun was high in the heavens. He looked around him for some trace of his last night’s work, but only the great green expanse of water met his eye. There was not a speck69 on the waters. Of the eight hundred passengers who had set out a week before in pursuit of sin not one remained.
Five days later the BORUS, a merchantman plying3 between Savannah and New York, picked up a man off Hatteras, drifting about in a boat. He had neither oars nor provisions, and was raving70 with delirium71. He was carried back to New York and taken to Bellevue hospital, where he was identified by the house physician as the man who had left there against orders two weeks before scarcely recovered from brain fever. He had a lucid72 interval73 three days later, during which the nurse learned much of the foregoing.
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1
restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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vendor
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| n.卖主；小贩 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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facetiously
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| adv.爱开玩笑地；滑稽地，爱开玩笑地 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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inception
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| n.开端，开始，取得学位 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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cater
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| vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务 | |
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valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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remodel
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| v.改造，改型，改变 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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tempts
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| v.引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 )；使想要 | |
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pampered
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| adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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swill
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| v.冲洗；痛饮；n.泔脚饲料；猪食；（谈话或写作中的）无意义的话 | |
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narcotic
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| n.麻醉药，镇静剂；adj.麻醉的，催眠的 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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cocaine
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| n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂） | |
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lustful
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| a.贪婪的；渴望的 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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seaport
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| n.海港，港口，港市 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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45
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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46
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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47
allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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48
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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49
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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50
shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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51
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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52
divans
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| n.（可作床用的）矮沙发( divan的名词复数 )；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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53
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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54
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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56
tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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57
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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58
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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59
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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60
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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61
silhouetted
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| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
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62
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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63
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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64
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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66
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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67
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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68
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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69
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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70
raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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71
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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