that anarchism in Austria rapidly declined, and at
the same time it soon lost its leaders. Stellmacher and Kammerer were
executed, Peukert escaped to England, most of the other agitators were
fast in prison, the journals were suppressed and the groups broken
up."[13]

While these events were taking place in Austria, anarchist agitation was
manifesting itself in several great strikes that broke out in the
industrial centers of Southern France. At Lyons, Fournier, who shot his
employer in the open street, was honored in a public meeting by the
presentation of a revolver. A great demonstration was planned for Paris,
but, as there happened to be a review of troops on the day set, the
anarchists decided to abandon the demonstration. In the autumn of the
same year (1882), troubles arose in Monceau-les-Mines and at Blanzy,
where the workers were bent under a terrible capitalist and clerical
domination. Under the circumstances, the anarchist propaganda was very
welcome, and it was only a short time until it produced an
anti-religious demonstration. Three or four hundred men, armed with
pitchforks and revolvers, spread over the country, breaking the crosses
and the statues of the Virgin which were placed at the junctions of the
roads. They called the working classes to arms and took as hostages
landlords, cures, and functionaries. These riots were the childlike
manifestations of exasperated and miserable men, destined in advance to
failure. Numerous arrests followed, and in the mines the workers
suffered increased oppression.

In 1882 the great silk industry of Lyons was undergoing a serious
crisis, and the misery among the weavers was intense. The anarchists
were carrying on a big agitation led by Kropotkin, Gautier, Bordas,
Bernard, and others. In the center of this city reduced almost to
starvation there was, says Kropotkin, an "underground cafe at the
Theatre Bellecour, which remained open all night, and where, in the
small hours of the morning, one could see newspaper men and politicians
feasting and drinking in company with gay women. Not a meeting was held
but some menacing allusion was made to that cafe, and one night a
dynamite cartridge was exploded in it by an unknown hand. A worker who
was occasionally there, a socialist, jumped to blow out the lighted fuse
of the cartridge, and was killed, while a few of the feasting
politicians were slightly wounded. Next day a dynamite cartridge was
exploded at the doors of a r