It is not a disreputable thing to be so in France. An Emma Goldman there
would be an object of respect. The prime minister of France was
generally regarded as an anarchist before he went into office. A man of
the type of Herve would be deemed a madman here. Even a man as little
radical as Jaures would be considered a terrible social danger in
America and could not conceivably have the power he exerts in France,
where they have a respect for ideas as such.

But, combined with this interest in social things and this willingness
to entertain the most radical ideas, there is a note of pessimism and
disillusionment. Anatole France's work shows this double tendency well.
He reflects the social revolt and lack of respect for the old society in
a most subtle way, but also he mirrors the failing hope of the social
enthusiast. He has a deep sympathy for the social idealist, but nearly
every book suggests the inevitable wreckage of enthusiasm on the rocks
of actuality.

When, after an absence of several years, I returned from Europe and went
again to Chicago, I found Terry alone, disheartened, and different from
the Terry I had known. Soon I saw that in him had taken place a process
not unlike that which had happened to my friends abroad and which was
reflected in European literature. His letters and Marie's had already
indicated, as we have seen, his social disappointment. But I found him
more bitter even than I had expected; cut off even from the anarchists,
nourishing almost insanely his individuality, full of Nietzsche's
philosophy of egotism, rejecting everything passionately, turning from
his friends, turning from himself. Old society had long been dead for
him and now he had no hope for the new!

Besides, Marie was not with him: she had revolted and run away. I had
expected to see her in Chicago; she had written me that she would be
there, but when I arrived I learned from Terry and Katie that she had
gone away. During the few weeks preceding my return to Chicago, the
quarrels between the three had grown in poignancy. Terry, unlike some of
the disappointed anarchists I have known, could not settle back into an
easy acceptance of life. With him it was all or nothing. More and more
fiercely he rejected all society, even, as we have seen anarchist
society. Of course, Marie came more and more in the way of this general
anathema. She was young and pleasure-loving, and at last her nature
could no longer stand this general rejec