for seditious utterances, a
former clergyman whose attitude in the present crisis had cost him his
pulpit, and a former college professor of avowedly anarchistic
tendencies--met him at the Pennsylvania Station. Of the three only the
clergyman had a name which bespoke Anglo-Saxon ancestry. These three
men accompanied him to the home of the editor, where they dined
together; and when the dinner was ended an automobile bore the party
through a heavy snowstorm to the hall where Mallard was to speak.

That is to say, it bore the party to within a block and a half of the
hall. It could get no nearer than that by reason of the fact that the
narrow street from house line on one side to house line on the other
was jammed with men and women, thousands of them, who, coming too
late to secure admission to the hall--the hall was crowded as early as
seven o'clock--had stayed on, outside, content to see their champion
and to cheer him since they might not hear him. They were half frozen.
The snow in which they stood had soaked their shoes and chilled their
feet; there were holes in the shoes which some of them wore. The snow
stuck to their hats and clung on their shoulders, making streaks there
like fleecy epaulets done in the colour of peace, which also is the
colour of cowardice and surrender. There was a cold wind which made
them all shiver and set the teeth of many of them to chattering; but
they had waited.

A squad of twenty-odd policemen, aligned in a triangular formation
about Mallard and his sponsors and, with Captain Bull Hargis of the
Traffic Squad as its massive apex, this human ploughshare literally
slugged a path through the mob to the side entrance of the hall. By
sheer force the living wedge made a furrow in the multitude--a furrow
that instantly closed in behind it as it pressed forward. Undoubtedly
the policemen saved Congressman Mallard from being crushed and
buffeted down under the caressing hands of those who strove with his
bodyguard to touch him, to embrace him, to clasp his hand.
Foreign-born women, whose sons were in the draft, sought to kiss the
hem of his garments when he passed them by, and as they stooped they
were bowled over by the uniformed burlies and some of them were
trampled. Disregarding the buffeting blows of the policemen's gloved
fists, men, old, young and middle-aged, flung themselves against the
escorts, crying out greetings. Above the hysterical yelling rose
shrill cries of pain, curses, s