【英文原著类】billy and the big stick(比利和粗棍子).pdf

BILLY AND THE BIG STICK
BILLY AND THE BIG
STICK
Richard Harding Davis
1
BILLY AND THE BIG STICK
Had the Wilmot Electric Light people remained content only to make
light, had they not, as a by-product, attempted to make money, they need
not have left Hayti.
When they flooded with radiance the unpaved streets of Port- au-
Prince no one, except the police, plained that the lights kept them
awake, made objection; but when for this illumination the Wilmot
Company demanded payment, every one up to President Hamilear
Poussevain was surprised and grieved. So grieved was President Ham, as
he was lovingly designated, that he withdrew the Wilmot concession,
surrounded the power-house with his barefooted army, and in a
proclamation announced that for the future the furnishing of electric light
would be a monopoly of the government.
In Hayti, as soon as it begins to make money, any industry, native or
foreign, es a monopoly of the government. The thing works
automatically. It is what in Hayti is understood as BAUTE FINANCE. The
Wilmot people should have known that. Because they did not as vice-
consul, law and order were as solidly established as the stone jetties, and
by contrast the eccentricities of the Black REPUBLIC baffled and
distressed him.
"It can't be that you blackmail the president," said the consul, "because
I understand he boasts he mitted all the known crimes.
"And several he invented," agreed Billy.
"And you can't do it with a gun, because they tell me the president isn't
afraid of anything except a voodoo priestess. What is your secret?" coaxed
the consul. "If you'll only sell it, I know several Powers that would give
you your price. Billy smiled modestly.
"It's very simple," he said. "The first time my wages were shy I went
to the palace and told him if he didn'e across I'd shut off the juice. I
think he was so stunned at anybody asking him for real money that while
he was still stunned he opened his safe and handed