{"product_id":"2940014607629","title":"THE KING IN YELLOW","description":"THE REPAIRER OF REPUTATIONS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \"Ne raillons pas les fous; leur folie dure plus longtemps que la\u003cbr\u003e     nôtre.... Voila toute la différence.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToward the end of the year 1920 the Government of the United States had\u003cbr\u003epractically completed the programme, adopted during the last months of\u003cbr\u003ePresident Winthrop's administration. The country was apparently\u003cbr\u003etranquil. Everybody knows how the Tariff and Labour questions were\u003cbr\u003esettled. The war with Germany, incident on that country's seizure of the\u003cbr\u003eSamoan Islands, had left no visible scars upon the republic, and the\u003cbr\u003etemporary occupation of Norfolk by the invading army had been forgotten\u003cbr\u003ein the joy over repeated naval victories, and the subsequent ridiculous\u003cbr\u003eplight of General Von Gartenlaube's forces in the State of New Jersey.\u003cbr\u003eThe Cuban and Hawaiian investments had paid one hundred per cent and the\u003cbr\u003eterritory of Samoa was well worth its cost as a coaling station. The\u003cbr\u003ecountry was in a superb state of defence. Every coast city had been well\u003cbr\u003esupplied with land fortifications; the army under the parental eye of\u003cbr\u003ethe General Staff, organized according to the Prussian system, had been\u003cbr\u003eincreased to 300,000 men, with a territorial reserve of a million; and\u003cbr\u003esix magnificent squadrons of cruisers and battle-ships patrolled the six\u003cbr\u003estations of the navigable seas, leaving a steam reserve amply fitted to\u003cbr\u003econtrol home waters. The gentlemen from the West had at last been\u003cbr\u003econstrained to acknowledge that a college for the training of diplomats\u003cbr\u003ewas as necessary as law schools are for the training of barristers;\u003cbr\u003econsequently we were no longer represented abroad by incompetent\u003cbr\u003epatriots. The nation was prosperous; Chicago, for a moment paralyzed\u003cbr\u003eafter a second great fire, had risen from its ruins, white and imperial,\u003cbr\u003eand more beautiful than the white city which had been built for its\u003cbr\u003eplaything in 1893. Everywhere good architecture was replacing bad, and\u003cbr\u003eeven in New York, a sudden craving for decency had swept away a great\u003cbr\u003eportion of the existing horrors. Streets had been widened, properly\u003cbr\u003epaved and lighted, trees had been planted, squares laid out, elevated\u003cbr\u003estructures demolished and underground roads built to replace them. The\u003cbr\u003enew government buildings and barracks were fine bits of architecture,\u003cbr\u003eand the long system of stone quays which completely surrounded the\u003cbr\u003eisland had been turned into parks which proved a god-send to the\u003cbr\u003epopulation. The subsidizing of the state theatre and state opera brought\u003cbr\u003eits own reward. The United States National Academy of Design was much\u003cbr\u003elike European institutions of the same kind. Nobody envied the Secretary\u003cbr\u003eof Fine Arts, either his cabinet position or his portfolio. The\u003cbr\u003eSecretary of Forestry and Game Preservation had a much easier time,\u003cbr\u003ethanks to the new system of National Mounted Police. We had profited\u003cbr\u003ewell by the latest treaties with France and England; the exclusion of\u003cbr\u003eforeign-born Jews as a measure of self-preservation, the settlement of\u003cbr\u003ethe new independent negro state of Suanee, the checking of immigration,\u003cbr\u003ethe new laws concerning naturalization, and the gradual centralization\u003cbr\u003eof power in the executive all contributed to national calm and\u003cbr\u003eprosperity. When the Government solved the Indian problem and squadrons\u003cbr\u003eof Indian cavalry scouts in native costume were substituted for the\u003cbr\u003epitiable organizations tacked on to the tail of skeletonized regiments\u003cbr\u003eby a former Secretary of War, the nation drew a long sigh of relief.\u003cbr\u003eWhen, after the colossal Congress of Religions, bigotry and intolerance\u003cbr\u003ewere laid in their graves and kindness and charity began to draw warring\u003cbr\u003esects together, many thought the millennium had arrived, at least in the\u003cbr\u003enew world which after all is a world by itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut self-preservation is the first law, and the United States had to\u003cbr\u003elook on in helpless sorrow as Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium writhed\u003cbr\u003ein the throes of Anarchy, while Russia, watching from the Caucasus,\u003cbr\u003estooped and bound them one by one.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070723113200,"sku":"2940014607629","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014607629","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}