An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Clyde would find him a helpful and a strong support in

these, his dark and weary hours when she could no longer

be with him herself.

For while Mrs. Griffiths was first canvassing the churches

and ministers of this section for aid for her son, and getting

very little from any quarter, she had met the Rev. Duncan

McMillan in Syracuse, where he was conducting an

independent, non-sectarian church. He was a young, and

like herself or Asa, unordained minister or evangelist of,

however, far stronger and more effective temperament

religiously. At the time Mrs. Griffiths appeared on the scene,

he had already read much concerning Clyde and Roberta—

and was fairly well satisfied that, by the verdict arrived at,

justice had probably been done. However, because of her

great sorrow and troubled search for aid he was greatly

moved.

He, himself, was a devoted son. And possessing a highly

poetic and emotional though so far repressed or sublimated

sex nature, he was one who, out of many in this northern

region, had been touched and stirred by the crime of which

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Clyde was presumed to be guilty. Those highly emotional

and tortured letters of Roberta’s! Her seemingly sad life at

Lycurgus and Biltz! How often he had thought of those

before ever he had encountered Mrs. Griffiths. The simple

and worthy virtues which Roberta and her family had

seemingly represented in that romantic, pretty country world

from which they had derived. Unquestionably Clyde was

guilty. And yet here, suddenly, Mrs. Griffiths, very lorn and

miserable and maintaining her son’s innocence. At the

same time there was Clyde in his cell doomed to die. Was it

possible that by any strange freak or circumstance—a legal

mistake had been made and Clyde was not as guilty as he

appeared?

The temperament of McMillan was exceptional—tense,

exotic. A present hour St. Bernard, Savonarola, St. Simeon,

Peter the Hermit. Thinking of life, thought, all forms and

social structures as the word, the expression, the breath of

God. No less. Yet room for the Devil and his anger—the

expelled Lucifer—going to and fro in the earth. Yet, thinking

on the Beatitudes, on the Sermon on the Mount, on St.

John and his direct seeing and interpretation of Christ and

God. “He that is not with me is against me; and he that

gathereth not with me, scattereth.” A strange, strong, tense,

confused, merciful and too, after his fashion beautiful soul;

sorrowing with misery yearning toward an impossible justice.

Mrs. Griffiths in her talks with him had maintained that he

was to remember that Roberta was not wholly guiltless.

Had she not sinned with her son? And how was he to

exculpate her entirely? A great legal mistake. Her son was

being most unjustly executed—and by the pitiful but none-

the-less romantic and poetic letters of this girl which should

never have been poured forth upon a jury of men at all.

They were, as she now maintained, incapable of judging

justly or fairly where anything sad in connection with a

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romantic and pretty girl was concerned. She had found that

to be true in her mission work.

And this idea now appealed to the Rev. Duncan as

important and very likely true. And perhaps, as she now

contended, if only some powerful and righteous emissary of

God would visit Clyde and through the force of his faith and

God’s word make him see—which she was sure he did not

yet, and which she in her troubled state, and because she

was his mother, could not make him,—the blackness and

terror of his sin with Robertar as it related to his immortal

soul here and hereafter,—then in gratitude to, reverence

and faith in God, would be washed away, all his iniquity,

would it not? For irrespective of whether he had committed

the crime now charged against him or not—and she was

convinced that he had not—was he not, nevertheless, in

the shadow of the electric chair—in danger at any time

through death (even before a decision should be reached)

of being called before his maker—and with the deadly sin of

adultery, to say nothing of all his lies and false conduct, not

only in connection with Roberta but that other girl there in

Lycurgus, upon him? And by conversion and contrition

should he not be purged of this? If only his soul were saved

—she and he too would be at peace in this world.

And after a first and later a second pleading letter from Mrs.

Griffiths, in which, after she had arrived at Denver, she set

forth Clyde’s loneliness and need of counsel and aid, the

Rev. Duncan setting forth for Auburn. And once there—

having made it clear to the warden what his true purpose

was—the spiritual salvation of Clyde’s soul, for his own, as

well as his mother and God’s sake, he was at once

admitted to the death house and to Clyde’s presence—the

very door of his cell, where he paused and looked through,

observing Clyde lying most wretchedly on his cot trying to

read. And then McMillan outlining his tall, thin figure against

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the bars and without introduction of any kind, beginning, his

head bowed in prayer:

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-

kindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender

mercies, blot out my transgressions.”

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from

my sin.”

“For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever

before me.”

“Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil

in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou

speakest and be clear when Thou judgest.”

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother

conceive me.”

“Behold, Thou desireth truth in the inward parts; and in the

hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and

I shall be whiter than snow.”

“Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which

Thou hast broken may rejoice.”

“Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.”

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit

within me.”

“Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy

holy spirit away from me.”

“Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me

with Thy free spirit.”

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“Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners will

be converted unto Thee.”

“Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my

salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy

righteousness.”

“O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth

Thy praise.”

“For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou

delightest not in burnt offering.”

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a

contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

He paused—but only after he had intoned, and in a most

sonorous and really beautiful voice the entire 51st Psalm.

And then looking up, because Clyde, much astonished, had

first sat up and then risen—and curiously enticed by the

clean and youthful and vigorous if pale figure had

approached nearer the cell door, he now added:

“I bring you, Clyde, the mercy and the salvation of your

God. He has called on me and I have come. He has sent

me that I may say unto you though your sins be as scarlet,

they shall be white—like snow. Though they be red, like

crimson, they shall be as wool. Come now, let us reason

together with the Lord.”

He paused and stared at Clyde tenderly. A warm, youthful,

half smile, half romantic, played about his lips. He liked the

youth and refinement of Clyde, who, on his part was plainly

taken by this exceptional figure. Another religionist, of

course. But the Protestant chaplain who was here was

nothing like this man—neither so arresting nor attractive.

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“Duncan McMillan is my name,” he said, “and I come from

the work of the Lord in Syracuse. He has sent me—just as

he sent your mother to me. She has told me all that she

believes. I have read all that you have said. And I know why

you are here. But it is to bring you spiritual joy and gladness

that I am here.”

And he suddenly quoted from Psalms 13:2, “‘How shall I

take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart, daily.’

That is from Psalms 13:2. And here is another thing that

now comes to me as something that I should say to you. It

is from the Bible, too—the Tenth Psalm: ‘He hath said in his

heart, I shall not he moved, for I shall never be in adversity.’

But you are in adversity, you see. We all are, who live in

sin. And here is another thing that comes to me, just now to