San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-15

umOfucu INC hOrhIHSS Vi tho SVm-
munists.
He was sclf-consicous and could scarce
ly eat. Finally he left the dining room
without finishing his meal.
On the second day out, when i
put Oh a tuxedo for dinner. he nearly
exploded. This was too much for him.
He scolded me for it. 1t vas not true
Communism. And when ordered wine
with the dinner he was ready to fight.
This sort Of life was "over his head"
was amused, because I began to
feel sure that il l got him used to
the luxurious mode he would be amen
able. On the third 'Lay he began to
see that the comfortable habits of
everyday people were not so bad. He
got accustomed to capitals" atmos-
where. He even regretted that, since
everybody else was wearing a tuxedo.
he didn't have one, so he wouldn't
be so conspicuous. Also he was induced
to drink some wine.
On the fourth day Fraina had pro-
crossed along the path of capitalism
so much that he got drunk. Later.
when he sobered up, he accused me Of
leading him astray, and j said that
while we were among the Romans we
might as well do as the Romans do. |
| told him that It wasn't necessary
to wear the wrong clothes to be good
Communist.
Next day Fraina had about made up
his mind to have tuxedo made when
we landed. His views were changing |
quickly. 1t would take very little to |
make him believe that Communism was
itself undesirable.
FRAINA LOSES HIS FIRE.
As We approached the English |
shore Fraina became uneasy. He was
afraid of being detected and arrested. |
immigration officers boarded the ship |
and / was surprised to find Colonel |
Carter among them. He planned it |
so that he questioned Fraina him |
self. l never could understand why |
he came unless that it was that he |
had gotten suspicious of me bring |
ing such an internationally known |
figure as Fraina with me and that |
he wanted n chance to see him and |
put detectives to watch us both. Scot
land Yard never trusts anybody too |
much.
tried to get a word with Carter,
secretly, but Fraina saw me talking !
to him and then ! had to do q lot |
Of explaining and introduced Carter |
under false name. Carter was |
London and put up at the Imperial |
hotel. He was beginning to accept |
things rs he found them. He wasn't |
even discussing Communism now.
Only once did he revert to it. After |
we got to the hotel in Russell Square,
he thought it was too fine a place |
for us, not because he felt it too fine |
for him. but because he feared the |
British Communists might criticise us.
However, L treasured him.
Promptly VIC went to see Sylvia |
Pankhurst. During this talk he was
very phlegmatic. There was none
of the fire of a Communist in him. |
Later we went to luncheon. and in. |
stead of taking him to a good rcstau-
rant 1 took him to an English type.
OF "beanery." / smiled when / saw
his face. He didn't like it at all. |
He had been living too well.
DESIRES NEW LUXURIEs.
Keep in mind that we were on our
way to one of the most important |
international Communist meetings.
There might be many persons there
that / could not get close to, COM
mittees whose work | could not get |
mt personally. Therefore, it was most |
important to have Fraina in a frame |
of mind where he would be very
friendly with me and whore he would |
not be looking at things through wild |
Communistic eyes. And that is why
L was trying to break down his Com
munistic morale.
We had learned that the third in
tornationnl meeting would not take
place for two weeks and that instead
OF Moscow it would be in Amsterdam,
Holland.
That night I took Fraina to one OF
the best restaurants in London, then
to show and still later to one of the
night clubs Of London. 1t was an
evening such as would be natural for
any one OF the so-called prosperous
capitalists class. But Fraina, not be-
ing used to II, went to extremes, He
was nothing il, not extreme in every
thing.
We did not reach our hotel until
D o'clock in the morning. / spent
more than S400 that night entertain
ing him. How he did love champagne.
That night practically ended him as a
Communist. He decided to get Tux
edo right away so he could be like
other people.
We slept until afternoon. We were
to meet some London Communist lead
crs by appointment. / smiled as /
observed Fraina. He was thinking
only Of London and more good times.
As soon as we got out / took him