Free Hell Follows After (Monster of the Apocalypse Saga) by C. Henry Martens Page A

Edgar Rice Burroughs were particularly represented. Of the three wagons, all carried the books as trade goods. They also had copies of the book written by the three survivors who had settled in post-plague Carson City. Offered to the Sullivanites, many copies were accepted.
    The one issue of contention between the companies was marriage and by extension population. While the people from Reno made every effort to define procreation as a need to be careful in what man could once again bring about by breeding, the pacific coast people saw numbers of progeny as a right, an obligation to polygamy, and a way to establish power for their society.
    Of course, the way polygamy was being practiced since Cord Sullivan came to power over a hundred eighty years ago had made a huge difference in how it was perceived. While there were many systems for institutionalizing marriage, the type of polygamy that was used as a way to maintain power through loyalty was also prone to encourage hordes of offspring.
    The people from Reno practiced monogamy as a norm. The men from Roseburg had only one of multiple wives traveling with them. As this caravan was funded by money and power, those filling the wagons and hired by the Company were the upper crust in the Trade Guilds. There was not one of the Masters who did not have two to four wives. The Council of Elders averaged double that. And the hereditary Heir, picked from within the Council and living by the taxes levied against businesses and the population, could have as many as he wished. Of course many of the Heir’s wives were widows, and the practice was seen as politically expedient, providing for the less fortunate. Each step up in class presented more opportunity to have children and future power.
    So the two communities had many interesting conversations on the trail, and the only one that seemed to rankle between them was the issue of polygamy and the numbers of children produced. They saw the issue entirely differently, one as limiting birth in order to protect mankind from another terrible future and the other as a justified strategy to increase power and maintain position.
    The Master Smith, Occam Stone, had four wives. Within his family, he proposed to his first wife the idea of a second, asking her favor. She agreed, knowing the girl who would be added to the family and approving. When it was time for a third, he approached both of the former wives and asked their consent. His was a house in harmony, and his seventeen children lived happily in the bosom of a loving relationship.
    The boys in the family proved their worthiness as they rose or fell by their own achievement. Those who impressed the powerful were allowed to apprentice, and if their term was successfully completed, they were allowed to marry. Occam had three of his eleven sons in apprenticeship.
    Girls had few options. They were raised to be married at sixteen. Usually they would have a child in their first two years and others averaging every four years after that. Were the present fertility as healthy as before the turn of the twentieth century, the birth rate would have been greater. It was improving as barren women were weeded out. The big Smithy’s female children had produced eight grandchildren already.
    There were dysfunctional families in Sullivan Territory. Arc had four wives as well. He had twenty two children, and he knew they were not all his own. By his being on the road as an ox man, his wives had opportunity to wander, and he certainly did not instill loyalty in them. The small man really cared little. As long as they were loyal whenever he was in town and caused him no embarrassment, Arc tolerated infidelities he had no control over. Besides, any children, any at all, would be good for his future retirement, in fact, maybe more so because of their true parentage. Those men genetically linked to his family must surely understand he was raising their children. Eventually he was sure that would pay off. Arc