Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-04
CHAPTER XIV.
An Aftermath.

lSleT eNSul OIllOI SQudIC.
A mass meeting of the unemployed
had been called to protest against
| their wrongs and particularly to de-
nounce the men who had advanced the
price of bread by creating a corner in
| wheat.
On his way down town Stuart read
with astonishment that DR.. Woodman
would preside over this gathering. He
determined to go. AS he hurried
through the routine work of his office,
giving his orders for the day, he re-
ceived a telephone call from Nan, ask
ing him to accompany her to this meet
ing.
Il don't think you ought to CO." he
answered emphatically.
"Why?"
We'll, there might be a riot for one
thing"
I'm not afraid"
And you might hear some very
plain talk about your husband"
That's exactly why l wish to go!"
II don't think it wise," Stuart pro-
tested.
I'm going, anyhow. Won't you ac-
company me?"
If you will go-yes."
That's a good boy. I'll send one of
my cars to the office for you immedi-
ately"
An hour later when Stuart, seated by
Mans side, reached Union Square, the
automobile was stopped by the police
and turned into Seventeenth street.
Every inch of space in the Square
seemed blocked by solid mass Of mo-
tionless humanity. Stuart left the car
in Seventeenth street and succeeded
finally in forcing a way through the
crowd to a position within hundred
feet of the rude platform that had been
erected for the orators. The scene
about the stand bristled with police
men, most Of them apparently picked
men, their new uniforms glittering in
the sun and their polished clubs fash
ing defiance as they twirled them in
the faces of the people with deliberate
provocation.
Besides the special detail of picked
men who moved about the stand, occa-
sionally clubbing an inoffensive man,
battalion of three hundred reserves
was drawn up in serried lines about a
hundred yards to the north on the
edge of Fourth avenue. Between these
reserves and the crowd about the stand
an open space was kept clear for their
possible assault in case Of any dis
turbance.
Near these reserves stood the big
red automobile of Hamburger, the po-
lice captain of the district. He was
reputed to be a millionaire. though his
salary had never been more than
enough to support his wife and chill
dren The sight of his fat insolent
face as the representative Of Law and
Orden gave Stuart the impression of
farce so irresstibly that he laughed.
Surely some of Bivens's sinister phil
osophy to which he had listened yes
terday had a pretty solid basis in the
facts of our everyday life.
When the speaking began Stuart
pressed his way as close as possible,
drawing Nan with him.
He was astonished at the genuine
eloquence and power with which the
first speaker, evidently of anarchistic
leanings, developed his theme, a pas
sionate plea for freedom and the high
est development Of the individual man.
He sketched the growth of the Amer
lean Republic from it's crude begin
ming i'm the unbroken forests, and
showed with clear historic grasp how
all the thinking and creative deeds
| which had added anything to the sum
of human progress belonged to this
period of anarchistic liberties. He
traced the growth of tyranny in the
development of our system Of laws un-
| til today we were less free than the
people of England, who lived under
the hereditary king against whom our
fathers had rebelled. A tyranny Of
corrupt and ignorant politicians he de-
nounced as the lowest and vilest yet
evolved in history
His concluding sentences reused his
crowd to a pitch of wild enthusiasm.
In the Old World, from which your
| fathers and mothers fled in search of
| freedom, men enslaved their fellow
| men by becoming lords, dukes or kings,
numbering or poisoning their way to
castle or a throne. The methods Of
| 10
and successful. You vote to make them
your masters, and still imagine that
you are free.
Freedom belongs to him who would
be free. And at last the masses Of
the people are becoming restless, not
so much because they lack leisure and
luxury, but because they have nothing
| to live for.
Millions ask the question: Is life
worth living?
Because they have begun to ask
it, they will never cease until they
| have made it worth living.
"A deep, half f-confused consciousness
of the injustice of life has begun to
clutch our throats. We begin to curse
| both church and state, thank God, at
| last! Statesmen must hear or die.
| Property must respond or strengthen
it's bolts and bars and there's no room
on the door for another bolt. The
church that has no answer to this cry
| is dead already"
A cheer like the roar of an angry
sea swept the crowd. Again and
again it rose and fell, increasing in
volume as its contagious spirit set fire
to the restless minds of the thousands
who had packed the Square but could
not hear the man who was vocing
their faith.
| In the deep roar of their cheers there
was no sodden despair. AS Stuart
| looked into the faces of the crowd he
saw no trace of the degeneracy and
loss of elemental manhood which makes
the sight of an European mob loath-