as the speaker developed
his subject the faces changed, and they were soon responsive to his
every demand upon them. The clear ringing voice, insistent, strong, yet
catching a cadence of gentleness and winsomeness that moved them to
approval of everything he said.

There was deep humanity about him, that was strangely in contrast with
the monster he had been to their fancy before they saw and heard him.
This was not the politics of the vulgar kind, of which the newspapers
had told; on the contrary, every man in the hall felt this was the
politics to which every reasonable man subscribed. It was the politics
of the fireside, of sweetness and light, of justice and truth, of
humanity and God.

In burning words he denounced the wrongs under which the people
suffered, winning them by his warm-blooded championship of their cause,
appealing to them to forsake the other parties, form an independent
party for themselves; and sketching in glowing words the picture of the
world as it might be, if only a saner and more human view were taken by
those who ruled.

It made an indelible impression on Robert's mind. The way was so simple,
so clear, so sure, that if only men like Hardie could go round every
town and village in the land, he believed that a Utopia might be brought
into being in a very few years; that even the rich people, the usurpers,
would agree that this state of affairs might be brought about, and that
they'd gladly give up all they had of power over the lives of others, to
work cooperatively for the good of all; and already he was deciding in
youth's way, he would give his life, every moment of it, to help Hardie
and Smillie, and all those other great spirits to win the world to this
state of affairs. Body and soul he would devote to it, and so help to
make the world a brighter and happier place for all human beings.

His was the temperament that having found an ideal would storm the gates
of Heaven to realize it; or wade through hell, suffering all its
penalties to gaze upon the face of that he sought.

So the meeting ended in great enthusiasm, and the audience was amazed
and pleased to find that this man Hardie was not the vulgar-minded,
loud-mouthed ignorant agitator of which the press had told them; but was
just one of themselves, burning with a sense of their wrongs, with
ability to express their thoughts in their own words, and with an
uncompromising hatred of the system which bred these wrongs in their
li