The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-02-24

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NOVEL
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front; it was one of those warm
nights that come now and then in
Southern California; there was a
moon on the sea, and a long pier
with cleaning lights, and the sound
Of an orchestra drawing the lovers.
At the entrance to the pier was a
big bare hall, owned by the city,
whore very proper dancing was
chaperoned by religious city gov
eminent. Bunny and his bride
danced-oh, surely it was all right
to dance little bit, in this well
chaperoned place on what ought to
have been their honeymoon!
But in between the dances, while
the orchestra was still, something
shook the hall, dull, sombre blow,
like distant thunder, making the
windows rattle, and Earring your
feet. whats that?" exclaimed
Rachel. can earthquake 2"
"The guns" answered Bunny.
"Guns ?" And he had to explain
the fleet was practicing. There
were a score or so of battleships
stationed at the harbor, facing
some unnamed enemy; and now
they were at night target-practice.
You heard them now and then, day
and night, if you lived near the
coast.
So Rachel couldn't dance any
more then. Each time she heard
that dull boom, she saw the bodies
Of young men blown into frag-
ments. The capitalists were getting
ready for their next war; what
business had the socialists to be
dancing?
They drove along the boulevard
which follows the harbor-front. It
is fifteen or twenty miles, and
there are towns and docks and
bridges and railroad tracks and
factories, and inland the "subdivi-
sions" for the homes of working
people. 1t is one of the worlds
great ports in the swift making;
and those who have charge of the
job, the masters of credit, see rear
ing before them that monstrous
spectre known as direct action"
or criminal syndicalism." The ON
dustrial Workers of the World' had
had a headquarters, where they
met to discuss this program; and
the masters made incessant war
upon them.
The address which Ruth had
given to Bunny was an obscure
street ina working class quarter.
There was fair-sized hall, with
lights in the window, and the sound
of piano and child's voice sing
ing. Among the cars parked along
the curb Bunny found a vacant
space, and backed into it, and was
just about to step from his car,
when Rachel caught him by the
arm. "Wait!" There came rush
ing down the street squadron of
motor-cars, two abreast and block
ing the way entirely; and from
them leaped a crowd of some fifty
men, carrying weapons of various
sorts, clubs, .hatchets, pieces of iron
pipe. They made rush. for the
entrance, and a moment later the
music ceased, and there came the
sound of shfieks, and the crash of
glass and battering of heavy blows.
They're raiding themw cried
Bunny, and would have run to the
scene; but Rachel's arms were
flung about him, pinning him to his
seat. mo! No! Sit still! What
can you do?"
"My God! We must do some
thing!"
you're not armed, and you can't
stop a mob! You can only get kill
ed! Keep stilH''
The sounds from within had risen
to a bedlam; the hall must have
been crowded, and everyone inside
yelling at the top of his lungs. And
that horrible drumming of blows
you couldn't tell whether they were
falling on furniture or on human
bodies. Bunny swas almost beside
himself, struggling to get loose,
and Rachel fighting like a mad
thing-he had never dreamed that
she had such strength. "No, Bunny!
No! For Gods sakel For my sake!
oh, please, pleased" She knew in
those dreadful minutes the terror
that was to haunt the rest of her
life-that some day in this hideous
class war there would come the
moment when it was her husbands
duty to get himself killed. But not
yet, not yet! Not on their honey
moon!
1t was like the passing Of a tor
nado, that is gone before you have
time to realize it. The attacking
party emerged from the hall, as
quickly as they had entered. They
were dragging half a dozen prison.
ers, and threw these into the cars,
Of which the engines were still go
ing; then down the street they went
roaring, and silence fell.
1t was permissible for Bunny to
get out now, and run into the hall.