ifty marks a day would reach, and kept the
wolf from many a door. But the miraculous loaves and fishes of the
gospel would have been necessary to successfully alleviate even the
distress which he saw with his own eyes, and although much of the
preaching of the social democrats still seemed to him mere
phrase-making and altogether mistaken, he yet came gradually to the
conclusion that somewhere--he did not precisely know where--in the
construction of the social machine there must be a flaw, seeing that
there were so many people who could and would work, and yet were doomed
to despair and ruin for lack of employment. The spring of 1878 came
round, and brought with it two attempts on the life of the emperor
within three weeks. Scarcely had the people recovered from the horror
caused by Hodel's crime when it was shaken to its depths by Nobiling's
murderous shot.

On that terrible Sunday, June the 2d, Wilhelm had dined with Schrotter,
and about three o'clock they started for a walk. In the few steps that
separate the Mittelstrasse from the Linden they saw what was going on
in the town. In Unter den Linden, however, they were received by the
yells of the newspaper men calling out the first special editions, and
found themselves in the stream of people pouring toward the Palace or
to No. 18, where they pointed out the window on the second floor from
which the too-well-aimed shot had fallen.

From the special editions, from the confused remarks and exclamations
of the crowd in which the two friends found themselves, and the
information they obtained from the grim-looking policemen, rougher and
less communicative than ever, they learned all that was necessary of
the bloody deed which had taken place an hour ago. Wilhelm could
scarcely control his horror, and even Schrotter, though calmer, was
deeply moved and downcast. All pleasure in their walk was gone, and
they decided to return to Schrotter's house.

"It is simply hideous," said Wilhelm, as they turned into the
Friedrichstrasse, "that we have such brutes living among us! We know,
of course, that there is a great deal of distress, but a man who can
revenge his own trouble on the person of the emperor must be lower than
the beasts of the field. And men who at this time of day have such
ideas on State organization are electors!"

"Good heavens!" cried Schrotter, with unconscious vehemence, "you are
surely not going to make the popular mistake of drawing sweeping
conclusion