Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 111: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

< Bee. | Ape over them, te tee invelléct was. above hen average. a _ by-one man—John Jacob Ankatstrom—-who had felt the vindictive ii a hes ~ : ~ HISTORICAL NIGHTS" ENTERTAINMENT pe ee | the resentment of a more or less docile peasantry Whose-first stirrings | a : ~ =. 4 - pF fe ee ONT So2 ae és Jn 4 ty De eM ae PTT, aa ag Bae 5% ;? . > ; - e s : . ~ — Ms ae . oe ; . ‘ f : } fh ;. SRG ee pr are a Pre Oh TO ae com cbooks.c (ate) SR Ue a caer thoy aati S Pg ae Bae RGR oe ee . ’ ~ pe ht i. ees *. vei - -~ ~. . ae i Keen ” ea A ties se ae pais siete St Se oe eS! to ee Ai: Pe eo» (ee es Me, ee ee Be OS. Rt Pek tye bah me ~ as P : PA Ls coum Poe: ae ( Th are nae oP a Tyee = ‘ “7. 0 Di i ii ~~ iw... aS =A ge He had detected the first signs of the’ approach of that storm which the King himself had so heedlessly provoked. He knew, as much Be i by reason as by intuition, that, in these days when, the- neigh- Tae a Py bouring State of France writhed in the throes of a terrific revo- ae lution against monarchic and aristocratic tyranny, it was. not safe. Bear for a kins to persist in the abuse of his parasitic power.. New ideas of socialism were in the air. They were spreading through i Europe, and’it was not only in France that men accounted it an = | infamous anachronism that-the great mass of a community should — = toil and sweat and suffer for the benefit of an insolent minority, ~~~ Already had there been trouble with the peasantry in Sweden, © pase’ and Bjelke had endangered his position as a royal favourite by ~— presuming to warn his mastér. Gustavus III desired amusement, — not. wisdom, from those about him. He could not be- brought : to realize the responsibilities which kingship imposes upon a man. ae has been pretended that he was endowed with great gifts of ‘mind. He*. may have been, though the thing has been pretended. of so many — princes that one may be sceptical where evidence is lacking. If he pos-. sessed those gifts, he succeeded wonderfully in concealing them under a nature that was frivolously gay, dissolute, and extravagant. = ‘His extravagance forced him into monstrous extortions ones only - ~ “3 * a madman would have wasted in profligacy the wealth so ‘cruelly — wrung from long-suffering subjects. From extortion he was driven by — his desperate need of money into flagrant dishonesty. At-a stroke of. eg the pen he had reduced the value of the paper currency by one-third— - : : 4 a reduction so violent and sudden that, whilst it impoverished many, > 7m it involved some in absolute ruin—and this that he might gratify his~ appetite for magnificence and enrich the rapacious favourites who |. = shared his profligacy. : + ie eS e te" abe a, The unrest in the kingdom spread. It was no longer a question of . a oe ba eet. <4 Rae: a of revolt were easily quelled. The lesser nobility of Sweden were = angered by a measure—following upon so many others—that bore. =. peculiarly heavily upon themselves; and out of that anger, fanned —