The New York herald., 1922-12-17
LENINE MAKES A SPEECH

some OF them journalists like myself
stood up on the outskirts of this
august assembly. and at the far end OF
the hall there were also some visitors,
but not very many.
Ny first glance was toward the plat
form, where I saw Trotzky, Zinoviev
and other Communist leaders seated at
the usual long table covered with
bright red cloth. and. to their right. a
red rostrum or desk about four feet
high. Behind this rostrum stood a
medium sized. square built. active man
of between forty and fifty, very Or
dinary in appearance and with very
ordinary manner of delivery. He was
talking German. rapidly. in CONVEX
sational tone. and with much gesticu-
lation. There was nothing at all i'm
pressive about his face, figure, clothes.
gestures or voice; and why should
there be? He was only the unknown
German comrade," and hardly
glanced at him as my eye swept the
platform where 1 expected to find
Lenine seated among his colleagues,
waiting for his turn to speak or. il he
had already spoken. waiting for the
Sltllll6 W dQJouTI lOT IulCn.
could not find Leninelon the plat
form.
do you think Lenine will speak at
all?' I asked Mr.. Weinstein of the
Foreign Office.
why, he is speaking" replied the
surprised Mr.. Weinstein, glancing at
me curiously.
Then / saw that it was indeed the
Red dictator and no other who occu-
pied the tribune. / had been misled
by hearing, ebefore coming ipto the
hall, that a German Communist was
speaking and by finding. when I en-
tered the hall. that the man in the
rostrum was talking German. To
complete my mistake, Lenine is not
quite so stout now as he was two years
ago. What also causes a slight change
in his appearance is the fact that his
hair is cut close. that his beard is
trimmed and that on this occasion he
wore a new suit of clothes, a grayish
suit, the coat being jacket huttoned
up to the neck and with a deep falling
cloth collar made of the same material.
No linen collar or shirt or tie was thus
visible.
During all the time he spoke Lenine
was in movement. and this continual
restlessness would have been more no.
tceable in an English or an American
assembly than in Russian assembly.
1t was not the reStlessness of a sick
man, however: 1t is really a rational
md temperamental characteristic.
The Russians have, curiously enough,
a n dY cf ~ ha,.
race, and Lenine comes from south
east Russia. Moreover. he passed a
good part of his life in parts of the
Continent of Europe, where the people
gesticulate q good deal while talking.
Lenine has great variety of gestures
and movements. Sometimes he moved
away from behind the shelter of the
red desk, exhibiting well cut pair of
trousers and a figure about feet 6
inches in height. 1t is the supple, ac-
tive figure of a man accustomed to
take exercise, and there is no tendency
toward an enlargement OF the waist
coat, as there was two years ago. Up
to 1917 Vladimir Ilyich was a great
pedestrian, and during his recent con-
valescence he has walked a great deal
about the spacious grounds of Arch
angelskoe villa and passed most of his
time in the open air. When a convict
in Siberia and an exile in Switzerland
and Galicia he was fond OF hunting.
To return to his gestures. Some
times he would bend forward over his
desk from the waist upward, but usu-
ally he held his head thrown well
back. His face is sallow, without a
trace of color, but the same thing may
be said OF most Russian faces; the
heated rooms wherein they are COM
PEELED to pass the winter ruin the COM
pleXion.
Sometimes he gave a reiterated
hammerlike motion to his right hand.
but he never hammered on his desk.
Sometimes he extended his left arm
at full length in front of him. the open