Earth's Holocaust (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")

An unending prairie in the West becomes the stage for a wild, nation‑wide experiment: a massive bonfire intended to consume the accumulated detritus of civilization. The narrator arrives as the first torches flicker, watching wagons, women with aprons, and horsemen bring piles of yesterday’s newspapers, outdated magazines, withered leaves and, increasingly, the glittering trappings of a bygone hierarchy—heraldic coats, medals, noble patents, even Napoleon’s Legion of Honor.

Spectators cheer, thrilled by the sudden illumination that seems to promise a moral cleanse, while a solemn, gray‑haired gentleman watches the destruction of the very symbols that once marked humanity’s ascent. Through vivid description and quiet observation, the story explores how societies choose what to honor and what to discard, and what the act of burning reveals about collective pride and fragility. Listeners are invited to contemplate the fire’s glow as both a spectacle and a mirror, reflecting questions that feel unnervingly contemporary.