which had a surprisingly youthful and even
humorous expression, looked out from under coarse, thick, gray brows. A
very remarkable face and figure he presented. I soon learned that he
was R---- D----, the leader of whom I had often heard, and heard no good
thing. He was quite a different type from Bill Hahn: he was the man
of authority, the organizer, the diplomat--as Bill was the prophet,
preaching a holy war.

How wonderful human nature is! Only a short time before I had been
thrilled by the intensity of the passion of the throng, but here the
mood suddenly changed to one of friendly gayety. Fully a third of those
present were women, some of them plainly from the mills and some of
them curiously different--women from other walks in life who had thrown
themselves heart and soul into the strike. Without ceremony but with
much laughing and joking, they found their places around the tables. A
cook, who appeared in a dim doorway was greeted with a shout, to which
he responded with a wide smile, waving the long spoon which he held in
his hand.

I shall not attempt to give any complete description of the gathering
or of what they said or did. I think I could devote a dozen pages to the
single man who was placed next to me. I was interested in him from the
outset. The first thing that struck me about him was an air of neatness,
even fastidiousness, about his person--though he wore no stiff collar,
only a soft woollen shirt without a necktie. He had the long sensitive,
beautiful hands of an artist, but his face was thin and marked with
the pallor peculiar to the indoor worker. I soon learned that he was a
weaver in the mills, an Englishman by birth, and we had not talked two
minutes before I found that, while he had never had any education in
the schools, he had been a gluttonous reader of books--all kind of
books--and, what is more, had thought about them and was ready with
vigorous (and narrow) opinions about this author or that. And he knew
more about economics and sociology, I firmly believe, than half the
college professors. A truly remarkable man.

It was an Italian restaurant, and I remember how, in my hunger, I
assailed the generous dishes of boiled meat and spaghetti. A red wine
was served in large bottles which circulated rapidly around the table,
and almost immediately the room began to fill with tobacco smoke. Every
one seemed to be talking and laughing at once, in the liveliest spirit
of good fellowship. They j