Part 9 (1/2)

”I exclude no man simply because he is a billionaire. I consider the way he made his money. The world must always have rich men. How could I have built the ark if I had been poor?”

”Philanthropists,” read Smith.

”I should have taken a hundred if I could have found them,” said Cosmo.

”There are plenty of candidates, but these five [naming them] are the only genuine ones, and I am doubtful about several of them. But I must run some chances, philanthropy being indispensable.”

For the fifteen representatives of art Cosmo confined his selection largely to architecture.

”The building instinct must be preserved,” he explained. ”One of the first things we shall need after the flood recedes is a variety of all kinds of structures. But it's a pretty bad lot at the best. I shall try to reform their ideas during the voyage. As to the other artists, they, too, will need some hints that I can give them, and that they can transmit to their children.”

Under the head of religious teachers, Cosmo remarked that he had tried to be fair to all forms of genuine faith that had a large following. The school-teachers represented the princ.i.p.al languages, and Cosmo selected the names from a volume on ”The Educational Systems of the World,”

remarking that he ran some risk here, but it could not easily be avoided.

”Doctors--they get a rather liberal allowance, don't they?” asked Smith.

”Not half as large as I'd like to have it,” was the response. ”The doctors are the salt of the earth. It breaks my heart to have to leave out so many whose worth I know.”

”And only one lawyer!” pursued Joseph. ”That's curious.”

”Not in the least curious. Do you think I want to scatter broadcast the seeds of litigation in a regenerated world? Put down the name of Chief Justice Good of the United States Supreme Court. He'll see that equity prevails.”

”And only six writers,” continued Smith.

”And that's probably too many,” said Cosmo. ”Set down under that head Peter Inkson, whom I will engage to record the last scenes on the drowning earth; James Henry Blackwitt, who will tell the story of the voyage; Jules Bourgeois, who can describe the personnel of the pa.s.sengers; Sergius Narishkoff, who will make a study of their psychology; and Nicolao Ludolfo, whose description of the ark will be an invaluable historic doc.u.ment a thousand years hence.”

”But you have included no poets,” remarked Smith.

”Not necessary,” responded Cosmo. ”Every human being is a poet at bottom.”

”And no novelists,” persisted the secretary.

”They will spring up thicker than weeds before the waters are half gone--at least, they would if I let one aboard the ark.”

”Editors--two?”

”That's right. And two too many, perhaps. I'll take Jinks of the _Thunderer_, and Bullock of the _Owl._”

”But both of them have persistently called you an idiot.”

”For that reason I want them. No world could get along without some real idiots.”

”I am rather surprised at the next entry, if you will permit me to speak of it,” said Joseph Smith. ”Here you have forty-two places reserved for players.”

”That means twenty-eight adults, and probably some youngsters who will be able to take parts,” returned Cosmo, rubbing his hands with a satisfied smile. ”I have taken as many players as I conscientiously could, not only because of their future value, but because they will do more than anything else to keep up the spirits of everybody in the ark.

I shall have a stage set in the largest saloon.”

Joseph Smith scowled, but held his peace. Then, glancing again at the paper, he remarked that there was but one philosopher to be provided for.