he City Hall, which was crowded, as the papers said, "to
suffocation." Not prepossessing, this modern Robespierre; younger than he
looked, for life had put its mark on him; once, in the days of severe
work in the mines, his body had been hard, and now had grown stout. In
the eyes of a complacent, arm-chair historian he must have appeared one
of the, strange and terrifying creatures which, in times of upheaval, are
thrust from the depths of democracies to the surface, with gifts to voice
the longings and passions of those below. He did not blink in the light;
he was sure of himself, he had a creed and believed in it; he gazed
around him with the leonine stare of the conqueror, and a hush came over
the hall as he arose. His speech was taken down verbatim, to be submitted
to the sharpest of legal eyes, when was discovered the possession of a
power--rare among agitators--to pour forth in torrents apparently
unpremeditated appeals, to skirt the border of sedition and never
transgress it, to weigh his phrases before he gave them birth, and to
remember them. If he said an incendiary thing one moment he qualified it
the next; he justified violence only to deprecate it; and months later,
when on trial for his life and certain remarks were quoted against him,
he confounded his prosecutors by demanding the contexts. Skilfully,
always within the limits of their intelligence, he outlined to his
hearers his philosophy and proclaimed it as that of the world's
oppressed. Their cause was his--the cause of human progress; he
universalized, it. The world belonged to the "producer," if only he had
the courage to take possession of his own....

Suddenly the inspirer was transformed into the man of affairs who calmly
proposed the organization of a strike committee, three members of which
were to be chosen by each nationality. And the resolution, translated
into many tongues, was adopted amidst an uproar of enthusiasm. Until that
moment the revolt had been personal, local, founded on a particular
grievance which had to do with wages and the material struggle for
existence. Now all was changed; now they were convinced that the
deprivation and suffering to which they had pledged themselves were not
for selfish ends alone, but also vicarious, dedicated to the liberation
of all the downtrodden of the earth. Antonelli became a saviour; they
reached out to touch him as he passed; they trooped into the snowy
street, young men and old, and girls, and