was a demonstration of a few minutes, then the speaker's voice
rang out vibrantly:

"Dear friends, I thank you for such a welcome. I am going to make a
short speech, but not because I want to: the occasion demands it.
There are many people here, who want to know what this is all about. I
shall tell them and then we will get down to business.

"Perhaps if I had not been fired from one of the banks in this city,
about four years ago, I should not be here now trying to organize a
bank union. But I don't want any of you to think it is revenge I am
after; I am really here to make it impossible for any clerk to be
discharged and disgraced as I was, without a trial. You all know my
story, how I was denied the right to plead my own cause, and all the
rest of it. It is hard for me to forgive--I never can forgive them;
but let us forget them. Those days of tyranny are over--dating from
to-day."

Nelson was smothered in cheers and clapping of hands.

"The great necessity for clerk union," he resumed, "is based on a
condition of affairs, still prevalent in the business, which made it
easy for the bank to fire and blackball myself. I represented the
clerk who had no protection; the insignificant individual. He
is--rather I should say, dating from to-day--he has been clay in the
potter's hands; but the potter has got to go out of business, and we're
here now to see that he does." (Here, the bankclerks expressed their
endorsement of the idea in clapping and laughter.) "Heretofore, my
friends, we have been the mere tools of a combination of rich
institutions; they have hired and fired us how and when they pleased.
We are sick of it; it's bad business."

"You bet it is," cried someone in the crowd; and the galleries enjoyed
the show.

"I see a great many girls here to-day," continued the speaker, "and
they look like the friends of bankclerks. Now what is going to become
of them unless we can make enough money to support them? An engagement
never made any girl happy, after it was more than two or three years of
age. How many of us have been engaged for five and ten years, and
can't even yet afford to make good our promise? I'm glad you take it
as a joke, instead of growing angry with me; but, my bank friends, it
is not a joke, particularly to the girl who is waiting for you and me."

The seriousness of Nelson's tone had its effect on the audience, and
the silence that followed his last sentence was tense.

"There