A mass meeting of the unemployed3 had been called to protest against their wrongs and particularly to denounce the men who had advanced the price of bread by creating a corner in wheat.
On his way down town Stuart read with astonishment4 that Dr. Woodman would preside over this gathering5. He determined6 to go. As he hurried through the routine work of his office, giving his orders for the day, he received a telephone call from Nan, asking him to accompany her to this meeting.
"I don't think you ought to go," he answered emphatically.
"Why?"
"Well, there might be a riot for one thing."
"I'm not afraid."
"And you might hear some very plain talk about your husband."
"That's exactly why I wish to go!"
"I don't think it wise," Stuart protested.
"I'm going, anyhow. Won't you accompany me?"
"If you will go—yes."
"That's a good boy. I'll send one of my cars to the office for you immediately."
An hour later when Stuart, seated by Nan's side, reached union Square, the automobile7 was stopped by the police and turned into Seventeenth Street.
Every inch of space in the Square seemed blocked by a solid mass of motionless humanity. Stuart left the car in Seventeenth Street and succeeded finally in forcing a way through the crowd to a position within a hundred feet of the rude platform that had been erected8 for the orators9. The scene about the stand bristled11 with policemen, most of them apparently12 picked men, their new uniforms glittering in the sun and their polished clubs flashing defiance13 as they twirled them in the faces of the people with deliberate provocation14.
Besides the special detail of picked men who moved about the stand, occasionally clubbing an inoffensive man, a battalion15 of three hundred reserves was drawn16 up in serried17 lines about a hundred yards to the north on the edge of Fourth Avenue. Between these reserves and the crowd about the stand an open space was kept clear for their possible assault in case of any disturbance18.
Near these reserves stood the big red automobile of Hamberger, the police captain of the District. He was reputed to be a millionaire, though his salary had never been more than enough to support his wife and children. The sight of his fat insolent19 face as the representative of Law and Order gave Stuart the impression of farce20 so irresistibly21 that he laughed. Surely some of Bivens's sinister philosophy to which he had listened yesterday had a pretty solid basis in the facts of our everyday life.
When the speaking began Stuart pressed his way as close as possible, drawing Nan with him.
He was astonished at the genuine eloquence22 and power with which the first speaker, evidently of anarchistic24 leanings, developed his theme, a passionate25 plea for freedom and the highest development of the individual man. He sketched26 the growth of the American Republic from its crude beginning in the unbroken forests, and showed with clear historic grasp how all the thinking and creative deeds which had added anything to the sum of human progress belonged to this period of anarchistic liberties. He traced the growth of tyranny in the development of our system of laws until to-day we were less free than the people of England, who lived under the hereditary27 king against whom our fathers had rebelled. A tyranny of corrupt28 and ignorant politicians he denounced as the lowest and vilest29 yet evolved in history.
His concluding sentences roused his crowd to a pitch of wild enthusiasm.
"In the Old World, from which your fathers and mothers fled in search of freedom, men enslaved their fellow-men by becoming lords, dukes or kings, murdering or poisoning their way to a castle or a throne. The methods of your modern masters are more subtle and successful. You vote to make them your masters, and still imagine that you are free.
"Freedom belongs to him who would be free. And at last the masses of the people are becoming restless, not so much because they lack leisure and luxury, but because they have nothing to live for.
"Millions ask the question: Is life worth living?
"Because they have begun to ask it, they will never cease until they have made it worth living.
"A deep, half-confused consciousness of the injustice30 of life has begun to clutch our throats. We begin to curse both church and state, thank God, at last! Statesmen must hear or die. Property must respond or strengthen its bolts and bars and there's no room on the door for another bolt. The church that has no answer to this cry is dead already."
A cheer like the roar of an angry sea swept the crowd. Again and again it rose and fell, increasing in volume as its contagious31 spirit set fire to the restless minds of the thousands who had packed the Square but could not hear the man who was voicing their faith.
In the deep roar of their cheers there was no sodden32 despair. As Stuart looked into the faces of the crowd he saw no trace of the degeneracy and loss of elemental manhood which makes the sight of an European mob loathsome33 and hopeless. These men were still men, the might of freemen in their souls and good right arms.
Where had such crowds met before? Somewhere he had seen them in body or in spirit. Was it in the streets of Paris before the French Revolution sent those long lines of death carts rumbling34 over her pavements to the guillotine?
"Who is that fellow, Jim," Nan asked.
"Haven't the remotest idea."
"He's a great orator10 if he is an anarchist23. He made the cold chills run down my back."
"Yes, I'm just wondering how many more such firebrands of eloquence could be found in this swaying forest of nobodies."
He watched the sneering35 faces of the policemen as they demanded silence of the crowd. They couldn't understand what the fools were cheering about. They had instructions to pull the whole "show" at a nod from the censor36. But he had deemed it as harmless as a Sunday-school picnic. The words of the orator had rolled from his uniform like water from a duck's back.
The next speaker devoted37 his time to a fierce denunciation of the church, and ended with a bitter denial of the existence of God.
When the last echoes of the cheers had died away there was a stir near the stand and Stuart saw the stalwart figure of Dr. Woodman suddenly rise. He lifted his arm over the crowd, demanding silence.
Stuart could see that his old friend was deeply moved. His big hands were trembling and his voice vibrant38 with emotion as he stepped to the edge of the platform and faced the crowd. Among the five thousand people who stood within ear shot at least a hundred recognized him and gave a hearty39 cheer.
The doctor plunged40 at once into the message with which his heart was quivering:
"Let no man tell you, my friends, that the God of our fathers is a myth. You can't lose faith in God because you have not lost faith in eternal justice. This faith is just coming into conscious existence in the hearts of millions. By this sign we know that a new age is born. Poets and artists no longer gaze into heaven. Their eyes are fixed41 on earth. Men have ceased to long for another world, therefore their hope is now for this one. To bring Justice and Beauty to pass on this earth in wisdom and fearlessness of Death—this is the new creed42 of the people!
"My friends, no such people ever lived in history before. This continent has been the great white plain of eternity43 on which the chains of ages have been broken, freeing the human soul and body at one stroke, placing in men's hands, the mighty44 weapon of progress and defense—universal suffrage45. The workingman of to-day lives better than the kings of the Middle Ages. Have patience, my friends, the workingman of to-morrow will be the heir of all the knowledge, of all the pain and all the glory of the centuries.
"There can be no other meaning to the drama of history, the sweep of whose movement is always upward for the life of millions, always writing in letters of fire across the sky 'THE LAW—THE LAW!'
"I have seen this mighty city grow from comparatively small and mean conditions. And I have watched slowly growing here a new City of the Soul, the gradual development of civilization itself into a joyous46 religion whose God is Justice and Righteousness. Each year I have seen the streets cleaner, its parks more beautiful, its homes sweeter, its schools finer, its hospitals, asylums47 and play grounds more magnificent and all its charities more efficient. I have watched the municipality slowly but surely absorb the functions of the ancient church, and for the first time in the history of the world begin to do its work with the divine breadth of God's boundless48 love.
"We should not be so impatient, we should not be discouraged. The progress of the world has really just begun.
"And so I, who watch the darkness pass and see the eastern sky begin to glow—I cry to you who may still be below: 'Be of good cheer—the day dawns!'"
A feeble cheer rose from the hundred or more who knew the doctor personally. It was the only response the sullen49 crowd gave to his burst of epic50 feeling. They were not in sympathy with his optimism. The anguish51 of the present moment of bread-hunger and cold was too keen. Men with empty stomachs had no historic perspective. They felt instinctively52 that it was just as black for a man who starved to death in the ideal "City of the Soul" as it was for the wretch53 who starved in chains in Egypt three thousand years ago.
When the doctor sat down Stuart saw Harriet suddenly lean over, draw his big shaggy head down and kiss him. He hadn't recognized her before.
The next speaker made his attack on the corruption54 and graft55 of our system of government with brutal56 frankness. He assailed57 the foundations of the Republic and at last the principles which underlie58 civilized59 society itself. Undoubtedly60 he was a madman, driven insane by the fierce struggle for bread, but none the less a dangerous maniac61. With scathing62, bitter wit he flayed63 the corruption of our system of democracy.
The big fat sleek64 captain of police had drawn near, and listened to this part of his speech with secret enjoyment65. A triumphant66 smile played about the corners of his mouth. He knew that the speaker was hitting the bull's eye now with every shot, but he squared his massive form and looked over the cheering crowd of hungry poverty-stricken men and women with an expression of quiet contempt. Clearly he had a very simple and comprehensive answer. It was not necessary for him to speak it. His whole body fairly shouted it:
"Well, what are you going to do about it, you weak-kneed, blear-eyed scum of the earth!"
For the moment Stuart could not determine which one of the men he hated most—the madman who was doing his best to pull the house down which sheltered him or the stupid beast who stood over him clothed with the supreme67 authority of law.
The speaker closed his tirade68 with a fierce personal attack on the man who had made five millions in a corner on bread and flaunted69 his ill-gotten gains in the face of starving men and women.
Nan's face flashed with sudden rage.
"Take me to my car, Jim. I've an idea—I'm going to execute it at once."
"Wouldn't you like to meet the doctor and his daughter before you go?"
"Thanks, hardly. You know he is on Mr. Bivens's black list."
"I'd forgotten that," he answered regretfully. "I'd like awfully70 for you to meet Harriet. I'm sure you'd like her."
Nan smiled.
"I could see she likes you. I don't think she took a fancy to me, however."
"Nonsense, Nan." he said, with annoyance71. "She couldn't have seen you. I didn't know she was here until she kissed her father."
"Perhaps my eyes are keener than yours."
The captain of the district brushed rudely past and sprang into his automobile. He waved his hand to his chauffeur72. His gesture was mistaken by a pair of keen restless eyes for a command to his reserves to disperse73 the crowd.
A pale, shabby young fellow leaped past the line of police into the open space and rushed straight for the reserves. His long thin arm was lifted high in the air clutching a black thing with a lighted fuse sparkling from its crest74.
A murmur75 rippled76 the crowd, the police stood still and stared, and the next moment the bomb exploded in the boy's hand and his body lay on the stones a mangled77 heap of torn flesh and blood-soaked rags.
The police charged the crowd and clubbed them without mercy. The people fled in confusion in every direction, and in five minutes the Square was cleared.
Stuart had hurried Nan to her car, and rushed back to the scene of the tragedy. He readily passed the lines of the police, who recognized him as the district attorney.
The doctor reached the spot and Harriet was holding the dying boy's head in her lap.
Stuart bent78 over her curiously79 and slowly asked:
"You were not afraid to rush up here with your father and take that poor mangled thing in your arms?"
"Of course not," she replied simply. "Papa says he's dying—nothing can be done for him. They've sent for an ambulance."
The doctor stood staring at the dying boy and a tear had slowly gathered in his kindly80 eye.
He pressed Stuart's arm and spoke81 in low tones:
"I've made some big mistakes in my life, my boy. I'm just beginning to see them. I've read a new message in the flutter of this poor fellow's pulse. I'll not be slow to heed82 it."
But Stuart stood watching with growing wonder Harriet's deft83 little hand brush the damp hair back from the poor disfigured face.
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收听单词发音
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1
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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8
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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12
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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19
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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23
anarchist
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| n.无政府主义者 | |
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anarchistic
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| 无政府主义的 | |
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25
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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26
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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27
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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29
vilest
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| adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 )；可耻的；极坏的；非常讨厌的 | |
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30
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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31
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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32
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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33
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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34
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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35
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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36
censor
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| n./vt.审查，审查员；删改 | |
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37
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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38
vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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39
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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40
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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41
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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42
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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44
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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46
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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asylums
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| n.避难所( asylum的名词复数 )；庇护；政治避难；精神病院 | |
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48
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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49
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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50
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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51
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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52
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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53
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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54
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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55
graft
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| n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接 | |
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56
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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57
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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58
underlie
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| v.位于...之下，成为...的基础 | |
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59
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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60
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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61
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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62
scathing
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| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
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63
flayed
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| v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 )；把…打得皮开肉绽；剥（通常指动物）的皮；严厉批评 | |
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64
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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65
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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66
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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67
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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68
tirade
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| n.冗长的攻击性演说 | |
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69
flaunted
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| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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70
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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71
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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72
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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73
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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74
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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75
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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76
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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77
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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78
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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79
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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81
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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82
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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