Surviving as a Writer in the British Empire - Surviving as a Writer in the British Empire chapter 66

＜ Keeping Little Kevin’s House (1) ＞

“You little boy! If I get caught, I will kill you!!”

From noble mtl dot com

“Oh, I’m scared!”

Kevin shouted and ran away through the window on the second floor. The thief brothers couldn’t even dare to follow Kevin’s quick mouse-like movements. But the thief brother’s older brother grinned.

‘This guy, there’s nowhere to run, right? Now it’s a rat in the dock!’

My brother thought so and stepped down the stairs. But at that moment, my brother slipped and fell. The steps were oiled!

(Illustration of brother thieves falling down the stairs on the second floor)

“Brother, this is it!! He’s climbing the wall to the third floor!”

“You go up there! I’ll take care of this!”

My brother brought flour from the kitchen and sprinkled it on top of the oil. On top of the flour that had absorbed all the oil, the older brother managed to climb the stairs carefully.

“hehehe, this guy!! If you hold it on both sides, how dare you…!”

It was then.

As he stepped onto the last floor, he saw a large hammer with Kevin’s face on it filling his eyes.

(Hammer drawing installed on the 2nd floor)

“Oops.”

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding!!

The older brother of the thief brothers, who was hit by a sledgehammer, eventually had to climb the oil-covered stairs from the first floor all over again…

***

About 70 million people.

This was the population of the United States of America in 1895.

It’s not even a declining population. The 1880 census took 50 million, and in 1890 63 million were counted. At this rate, the most conservative opinion of sociologists was that it would take only one generation to reach 100 million.

After the Civil War that burned the 1860s. As the country expanded its territory and accepted more immigrants from other European countries, the weight class of the country itself was growing too easily.

The 1% politicians and entrepreneurs were naturally full of themselves due to the increasing number of workers and taxes that were being raised day by day even if they just stayed still.

99%. The middle class, citizens, laborers, and other people who make up the vast majority of them were very anxious about this population growth and increased territory.

-I came from the west and became a self-employed farmer, but… isn’t it too rare even if there are no people? What if I leave the house and an animal takes my baby?”

─Irish, Kraut, Tony (an American derogatory term for Italians)… Aren’t all of them criminals, pope puppets? How do you raise kids with this?!

─I can’t even pay the rent even though I earn all day, so I have to work both ways to live on my own. How can I leave my kids behind in this gray jungle?

I don’t know if the public security is reliable at least, but in the US, the police have not yet evolved into fat donut lovers because there is no franchise yet.

Rather than trust them, I’d rather trust the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything in the palm of my hand—a hotshotgun and lead bullets.

This perception was already natural selection for American citizens. Those who didn’t have long since been bitten by ferocious grizzly bears and even more ferocious capitalists.

Every day like that, Mark Twain, the father of American literature, suddenly gave a book to citizens who couldn’t even think of raising a child.

＜Kid Kevin’s housekeeping＞.

At first, this fairy tale featuring the main character of Hanslo Jin’s strong insistence received a response that was no different from ＜Tom Sawyer＞ or ＜Huckleberry Finn＞.

“what is this?”

“Is it a fairy tale? Aira makes a secret base in her house… What, is it normal?”

“Uh… but did a thief get in here?”

“Ahhh, I knew it, and Kevin set the trap… hoohhh!”

and.

The reaction exploded.

“Crossbow was so easy to make!!”

“Oh, yes! If you sprinkle powder in an enclosed space and set it on fire, it will explode?!”

“Electricity goes better when water is on it…! Right! You should try it!”

Kevin is the son of a scientist professor at Eastern Regional University and a mother from the western mountains.

Parents with different temperaments do not stay at home for long, and Kevin, who was often alone, converts the house into his secret base.

The materials were father’s scientific tools and mother’s hunting items at home.

Assembling these to make booby traps, and one day at Kevin’s house where he was doing various experiments, a thief brother who was looking for money appears.

Kevin, who accidentally found out about their housebreaking plan, uses his wits to install all the booby traps he had made, and defeats the thief brothers on his own in the middle of the night when his parents are away.

The next day, at dawn, the thief brothers are taken away by the police, and Kevin’s parents realize they have neglected him. In the end, the two reconcile, clean the house together with Kevin, and restore peace to the family.

It’s an obvious fairy tale, but the author of this fairy tale is Mark Twain. A national writer who is already acclaimed for redefining American literature through ＜The Adventures of Tom Sawyer＞ and ＜The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn＞.

The literary value of the work itself was recognized for its criticism of the American society and the collapsed family that left the child alone, the meticulous depiction of the central region, and the character of Kevin, the main character.

Is that all? In the book, the principle of the trap drawn by Nikola Tesla sincerely and with the illustrator attached by the publisher (mainly in the way the illustrator’s head explodes) was drawn in an easy-to-understand illustration.

Even if you don’t know the handwriting, you can roughly read and understand the scientific principles drawn there.

With this, there was no ingenuity not to explode in popularity.

“Here, give me a ＜Little Kevin＞!”

“Give me two copies! I decided to send it to my cousin who lives in the Rockies!!”

“So, are these traps really good enough for the military to use?”

“Yes, General! In particular, I am sure that learning how to start a fire in the wild, make booby traps, and connect phone lines will be invaluable knowledge that will save a soldier’s life in distress!”

“Take one and see. I was thinking of buying one to show my kid.”

Of course, there was a lot of backlash.

There were also criticisms that the content was excessively violent, and that electric shocks, explosions, and burn accidents became frequent while copying.

But this country is America, which loves freedom and private property.

According to the ‘Castle Doctrine’, a customary criminal law, a Horo child who invades a private space is innocent even if he blows his head. That was the general perception of Americans.

Rather, Kevin was touted as a symbol of the American frontier created by Mark Twain, and the US Congress half-jokingly suggested that an amendment to self-defense should be introduced under the name of ‘Kid Kevin’s law’. It was said that it was not.

And this was by no means what the authors, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla, hoped for.

“Why did things turn out this way?”

“I know. grunt.”

A prominent American novelist and scientist, two people grabbed their heads at the same time.

No, of course, they are not ignorant of the propensity of the American public at all. It’s true that Kevin’s setting was made that way with the frontier spirit in mind to some extent, so the public’s reaction isn’t very wrong either.

But their main purpose is “It’s dangerous to do such-and-such” or “Such a scientific principle is hidden in such a trap!” It was about the extent, but I didn’t mean to follow this as it is.

Why did Kevin’s parents be a scientist husband from the east and a mountain keeper’s wife from the west in the first place? The former was a setting containing Nikola Tesla’s Enlightenment on science, and the latter on Mark Twain’s Enlightenment on women’s rights.

So why are readers unimpressed with these settings, only turning their eyes to Kevin and the ‘easy’ violence of science?

“Look at this.”

Nikola Tesla pulled out a certain box with a voice bursting with fire. Mark Twain sighed.

‘Booby Trap Set, makes it easy for our child’.

What is this grotesque object?

“Do you think this is the only one? Chemistry experiment sets and electric device experiment sets are coming out!! Damn it, we took it too lightly!”

“Where the hell do you make stuff like this? We never allowed this!”

“Who is it, damn it!!”

While Nikola Tesla burst into anger, Mark Twain turned over the box of the experiment set to see the logo of the company responsible for production and sales distribution.

The proudly stamped logo of Edison General Electric Company. It was none other than Thomas Alba Edison’s company.

Mark Twain looked at the box with trembling eyes.

“Huh, that man. They don’t even pay us royalties.”

“Is that what you want to say now?!”

“Calm down.”

Mark Twain briefly saw Nikola Tesla. I wondered if Edison was more angry, but in fact, I knew that the rivalry between Tesla and Edison was quite exaggerated.

To be precise, it is an image marketing that was ahead of its time, deliberately promoted by Westinghouse Electric and General Electric, who decided that rumors of competition between genius inventors of alternating current and direct current would be beneficial.

So, the reason why Tesla is bursting with anger right now was nothing else.

“We need to retrieve those damn fairy tales right now! A book written to enlighten citizens is actually killing them!!”

There are so many people who have been seriously injured while copying the book they provided their knowledge.

Nikola Tesla’s delicate personality could not stand this chaos of chaos.

However, Mark Twain had no choice but to accept the words of such a friend.

“Um, um… Nick. It’s kind of embarrassing for me to say that.”

“Then don’t do it!”

“No, I have to. That is impossible.”

“why!!”

“That’s all.”

Mark Twain said with an expression that he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“How do you retrieve a book that has already sold close to 1 million copies?”

“…”

Nikola Tesla kept his mouth shut.

1 million copies.

It’s for enlightenment anyway, so I set the price lower, about 50 cents, but… 1 million copies.

In terms of amount, even if you take it purely, it is 500,000 dollars.

Not even that notorious Manhattan financier, JP Morgan. It was too large and a beautiful amount for a single scientist, Nikola Tesla, to ask.