The Bottom of the Well

New York: Dillingham, 1906. First printing. Hardcover. Very Good. Pictorial cloth, very good, 1909 inscription on pastedown, 1906 pencil signature on flyleaf. A novel by a social reformer and political activist. Adams was one of the principle organizers of a short-lived political organization called The Majority Rule League of the United States. Part of the platform of this organization was that majority rule of the people should prevail and that corporate entities and especially monopolies should be taken out of national politics. Too bad his reforms didn't take place. This is his second novel and also has elements of reform, anarchism and radical politics, mixed with a fairly operatic love story plot. Here is the plot of the movie version from 1917 as given at IMDB and which follows the plot of the book: A boy called "Mascot," presumably the son of smuggler Captain Stark, is raised by Mr. Deane, the British military governor of Kingston after the boy's ship is captured. Years later in London, Mascot, now known as Stanley Deane, is the lawyer for the radical organization of mill employees called "The Well." Stanley falls in love with mill owner Amos Buckingham's daughter Alice, whom he knew when they were children. But Buckingham hates Stanley for his aid to the workmen and turns Alice against him by telling of his mysterious parentage. The workmen plan to blow up the Buckingham mansion and kill its master who, unknown to anyone, has disguised himself and gained admittance to The Well to study the real condition of the men. Stanley saves Alice, but after the explosion, a charred body supposed to be that of Buckingham is found and Stanley and all in The Well are arrested for murder. When Buckingham, still in disguise as a member of The Well is convicted, he discloses that the explosion was accidental and that the body was one he had used in his experiments. After Buckingham takes the blame for the bitterness of his workmen, everyone is acquitted. Stanley then discovers that his father is really a Boston banker and, freed of the aspersions cast upon his name, is welcomed by Buckingham as his son-in-law.