



Produced by Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)









                         THE LAST GENERATION




                         _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

                          THE BRIDGE OF FIRE

               A BOOK OF POEMS CONTAINING THE BALLAD OF
         HAMPSTEAD HEATH AND THE TWIN SONNETS OF BATHROLAIRE

                            Price 1s. net




                         THE LAST GENERATION

                        A STORY OF THE FUTURE

                                  BY
                         JAMES ELROY FLECKER

           _El hombre es el rey de la creacion_; _vive_ (he
       lives) _en la tierra y cree_ (he believes) _en el cielo_

                                       DE ARTEAGA, _Spanish Grammar_


                           THE NEW AGE PRESS
                       140 FLEET STREET, LONDON
                                 1908



                  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
                  At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh



                                  TO

                             FRANK SAVERY

                 WHO TAUGHT, ENCOURAGED, AND REVEALED




CONTENTS


                                        PAGE
       INTRODUCTION                        9
    I. AT BIRMINGHAM TOWN HALL            13
   II. THE PROCLAMATION                   17
  III. THE MUTUAL EXTERMINATION CLUB      23
   IV. THE EPISODE OF THE BABY            29
    V. THE FLORENTINE LEAGUE              34
   VI. OUTSIDE                            43
  VII. THE LAST MEN                       54




THE LAST GENERATION

INTRODUCTION


I had been awake for I know not how many hours that