lped down one glass of beer after another to
quiet himself. In his mind he saw a vision of violent revolt, the
masses furiously attacking the idol with axes and clubs, and hacking it
to pieces. The bourgeois state was just such an idol. Hoeflinger got up
on a chair and asked all those who had not yet joined the organization,
to sign their names. He reminded them of the powers that work up singly
from the depths and are back of every uprising of mankind: discipline,
devotion and perseverance. He informed the meeting that a food-centre
had been established at which a striker's wife could for a minimum
price get her supply of coal, bread and potatoes; out of this centre
was to grow the workingmen's consumers' league. Finally he warned the
men earnestly against damage to the company's property, smashing of
windows and breaking of machines. Help should come in a positive and
constructive manner, and the destructive tactics of passive resistance
and of sabotage should be discarded as being unworthy of a German
workingman. One should not forget that besides a strong body one had to
transmit to one's children class honor and trade character.

These words from the lips of the childless man stung Victor into
opposition. He gasped for air and struck the table with his fist. Then
he hissed like a rocket; he, too, could talk as well as the long one.
Before anybody had noticed him, he was standing on his chair,
challenging attention by an imperious movement of his fist, and
swallowed once more. "Attention, Garibaldi wants to speak!" called a
workingman that knew him. All looked astonished at the stranger. Many
laughed at his agitation. His necktie glowed lurid like a midsummer eve
bonfire against the pictures and trophies on the walls.

"Workingmen, proletaires!" he began. "I am of another opinion. Why?
Because capitalists are vampires and scoundrels. Why should so many
precautions be taken? Up and on, as the old Swiss used to do--that is
what I say. If our fathers in Switzerland had waited until a consumers'
league had been established and the men of Zurich or Basel sent money,
all the cats would still be sitting on their tails and we should be
paying our debts with Austrian coin. By God! They rose with clubs and
ploughshares, and when the others sent a new army, they attacked it
again and again, until there was none left. We must smash all the iron
and other idols and serve their servant with the arrows of Tell. And
when new ones