ly:

"Are you not, every one of you, a slave of the capitalist class?"

It was perfectly still for a second after he spoke, and before I knew
what I was doing, I responded:

"Why, no, I'm not."

It seemed to astonish the group around me: white faces turned my way.

But it would have been difficult to dash that swarthy young man. He was
as full of questions as a porcupine is full of quills.

"Well, sir," said he, "if I can prove to you that you are a slave, will
you believe it?"

"No," I said, "unless you make me feel like a slave, too! No man is a
slave who does not feel slavish."

But I was no match for that astonishing young orator; and he had the
advantage over me of a soap box! Moreover, at that moment, the keen-eyed
assistant, never missing an opportunity, offered me one of his little
red books.

"If you can read this without feeling a slave," he remarked, "you're
John D. himself in disguise."

I bought his little red book and put it with the pamphlet of the
freethinker, and the tract of the God-fearing man, and stepped out of
that group, feeling no more servile than when I went in. And I said to
myself:

"This, surely, is a curious place to be in."

For I was now strangely interested in these men of the eddy.

"There are more gods preached here," I said, "than ever were known on
the Acropolis."

Up the square a few paces I saw a covered wagon with a dense crowd
around it. And in front of it upon a little platform which raised the
speaker high above the heads of the audience stood a woman, speaking
with shrill ardour. Most of the hearers were men; and she was telling
them with logic and authority that the progress of civilization waited
upon the votes of women. The army of the world stood still until the
rear rank of its women could be brought into line! Morals languished,
religion faded, industries were brutalized, home life destroyed! If only
women had their rights the world would at once become a beautiful and
charming place! Oh, she was a powerful and earnest speaker; she made me
desire above everything, at the first opportunity, to use my share of
the power in this Government to provide each woman with a vote. And just
as I had reached this compliant stage there came a girl smiling and
passing her little basket. The sheer art of it! So I dropped in my coin
and took the little leaflet she gave me and put it side by side with the
other literature of my accumulating library.

And so I came awa