tiring aid.

"I have but a word to add. Since my ruin, I have seen my wife and only
child, a daughter of twenty, languish and die before my very eyes. This
has embittered me against the men who have worked the ruin of the masses
more than anything else. I have pledged myself to avenge the sufferings
of humanity. I shall be doing something for the good of the race;
something to atone for the evil deeds I myself have done."

There is nothing in the recital of Harrington's life's history that is
of an exceptional nature. True, no one present is aware that he had at
one time been the head of the great bond issue plot.

But the delegates are looking for something of a far different tone than
a mere recital of crime and a fall from affluence to penury. Several of
the committeemen are on their feet demanding the floor.

Cyrus Fielding, the delegate representing the federation of stone
masons, is recognized by the chair.

Fielding is a man of short stature, his eyes betray a lacklustre that
might be the result of over-indulgence in liquor or want of rest; he is
thin and poorly clad, his face is cleanly shaven. At every pause in his
speech he runs his fingers through his thick dishevelled black hair, and
finishes this mannerism with wiping his forehead with the back of his
hand. His delivery is awkward and these repeated movements intensify
this awkwardness.

"I have a grievance against the Trusts that dates back as far as my
birth. I never had a fair start. My father was a victim of the power of
gold and I inherited his misfortune.

"My first work was as a helper in the great Pennsylvania Iron Trust's
works that are owned by that old man, the self-styled philanthropist,
Ephraim Barnaby, a hypocrite of the first water, who goes about the
world asking people how he can best dispose of his fabulous fortune.

"From the rank of helper I soon rose to the position of foreman of the
moulding shop. This was a most important place and I felt proud that I
had attained it in so short a period as three years.

"It was my ambition to learn all I could relating to the work in the
iron industry. Toward this end I spent four hours every night in reading
and experimenting. At the end of another three years I had a fund of
knowledge that put me in the front rank as a constructing engineer.

"But I was not a graduate of a college of engineering, so I could not
get the degree. The opportunity of utilizing my practical knowledge by
formin