The New York herald., 1921-12-04

when l confided to him what a wonderful
woman Emma Goldman was. inquired
pleasantly:
do you stan for her programmed"
And when I replied from secure Olym.
OF view and respect it," considered him
marked amusedly:
Look out that you're not on the road
to anarchism yourself, If you tolerate it,"
Another time heard his telling some
body with laugh that his proper sister
was consorting with the latest thing in
fashions-the anarchists-and that every
time he heard of one of the gentry being
arrested he trembled for fear a sympa-
thetic letter from me should be found in
the bosom of the bomber! But I would
not be swerved by ridicule or even scorn;
for one of the things which the Graefsky-
Braun school emphasized was that truly
tree spirit would courageously continue in
rhe search for truth in spite of family OPP
position or even adverse public opinion.
One must be brave!
THE two men took me about every
where that year, sometimes singly,
sometimes together, and still again
with one of the hybrid parties-to all of
the Goldman series OF lectures, to see Mimi
Agulia, the wild Sicilian actress; to the
Liberal Club and finally to the Harvey
salon. Hal Harvey, well to do American
painter who had married a Russian and
turned Socialist, lived that year in
charming Old house near Washington
Square; and he kept the latchstring out
for his comrades in practical way. For
we all knew that the big brass key to the
front door was always in the depths of
the mail box when Hal and Manya Harvey
were out. We were at liberty to go into
the beautiful library, stretch out on the
couch to smoke, or read any one of the
many books on the shelves. ct was only
when some of the most valuable of these
began to disappear that the key was no
longer put into the box).
The evening parties which the Harveys
gave, though small and select, were very
charming, indeed. There in front of the
log fire one was likely to meet radicals,
near radicals and even radically inclined
conservatives-plain Socialists, guild So
cialists, Anarchists and Syndicalists, with
their following Of little literary persons,
art students and the inevitable fashion
ables. At Harvey's the talk was good, the
fun moderate and the propaganda with
held-at least 1t didn't stick out in the
least. But think perhaps more converts
were made afterward through acquaint-
ances made here than through any more
deliberate attempt at conversion.
time went on though | was taken
~ about by others of the Harvey set,
it got to be generally understood
that Graefsky and Braun considered me
their special protegee, and there was some
good natured bantering as to which of the
two was the favored one. | really liked
them both, but my main feeling was an in
tense desire to learn everything they might
teach me, or-as one or the other put it
I was like big, insistent question mark" ("
1t was this way: If what | had always
considered black was white. and white
black, well then l had to understand pre-
cisely why. And when those new friends
were unable to explain satisfactorily / re-
mained unconvinced. AS l remember.
Graefsky made love to me little, in
sort of a philandering, uninspired way;
and Braun (always by far the keener of
the two) made his appeal through my ideal
ISM Once when I inquired why they were
so nice to little old maid who wasn't a bit
pretty, Braun chuckled and answered with
characteristic frankness that they wanted
to make me one of them principally be-
cause had a convincing way with me and
had big following. "If we succeed in get
ting you well probably get all your friends
and family"
On the whole my immediate family, fol-
lowing the example of my brother, were
rerfectly good natured about my radical
friends, inviting them to dinner now and
then and listening absent mindedly to their
views. But they (the family made me
furious by refusing laughingly to accom-
pany me to the meetings Of the radicals
or to read their books, maintaining that
their olfactory nerves were too sensitive
for both Many of my old friends, how
ever, not being so finicky attended the
meetings, read the books. made friends
with the radicals and, in some instances,
caused me no little uneasiness-at the
time and since especially since)-by ac-
tually joining the ranks of the Socialist
PARTY.
For let II be said at once that I myself
was never converted wholly to what un-
derstood Socialism to be. Though /
learned many beguiling things about that
philosophy in the course Of time-that
socialism meant square deal to every
body, especially the poor workingman; that
the super.rich we're to be less rich and the
poor less Door. that the only true socialism