oups of workmen going in the same
direction as themselves, and as they reached the place in the
Lichterfelder Strasse, they were accompanied by a long stream of
people. At the entrance to the club they found themselves in the midst
of a crowd, and could only advance very slowly unless, like the others,
they pushed and elbowed their way. Mounting a few steps they reached an
enormous garden, lighted by the fitful beams of the moon as she emerged
from the clouds, and a few gaslamps. On the right was a Gothic
building, which would have been sufficiently handsome if built in
stone, but with barbarous taste had been executed in wood. At the end
of the garden some more steps led to a broad, four-cornered courtyard,
on the right of which the iron spire of the National Memorial was dimly
visible, while to the left was a large building of red and yellow brick
with a four-square tower at either end, a pavilion projecting from the
center, and a number of large windows. Over the entrance in the center
of the building was the inscription in gold letters on a blue ground:

"Gemesst im edeln Geistensaft
Des Wemes Geist, des Brodes Kraft"

In the little anteroom a few sharp-looking, rather conceited young men
were standing, either the instigators or organizers of the meeting.
They eyed the people who came in with a quick look of assurance,
offering a pamphlet, which nearly every one bought. Through this
anteroom was the hall, large enough to hold a thousand people
comfortably. Several tables for beer stood between red-covered pillars
which supported the ceiling, and on the right was a platform for the
speakers. Wilhelm, Schrotter, and Paul Haber found places not far from
this, although the hall was soon filled up after they came in.

Wilhelm's first impression was not favorable. He had bought a pamphlet
at the door, and in it he read foolish jokes, clumsy tirades against
capitalists, and drearily silly verses. If the party possessed quick
and cultivated writers, they had certainly not been employed on this
leaflet. His finer senses were as shocked at the meeting as his taste
was at the pamphlet. Mingled odors of tobacco-smoke, beer, human
breath, and damp clothes filled the air; the people at the tables had
an indescribably common stamp, unlovely manners, harsh, loud voices,
and unattractive faces. They gossiped and laughed noisily, and coarse
expressions were frequent. The earnest moral tone, the almost gloomy
melancholy wh