where the weather and the quality of the orator were equally
uncertain; there were hall meetings every night, and one
could hear speakers of national prominence. These dis~
cussed the political situation from every point of view,
and all that troubled Jurgis was the impossibility of carry~
ing off but a small part of the treasures they offered him.

There was a man who was known in the party as the
"Little Giant." The Lord had used up so much material
in the making of his head that there had not been enough
to complete his legs; but he got about on the platform,
and when he shook his raven whiskers the pillars of Capi~
talism rocked. He had written a veritable encyclopedia
upon the subject, a book that was nearly as big as himself.
-- And then there was a young author, who came from
California, and had been a salmon-fisher, an oyster-pirate,
a longshoreman, a sailor; who had tramped the country
and been sent to jail, had lived in the Whitechapel slums,
and been to the Klondike in search of gold. All these
things he pictured in his books, and because he was a man
of genius he forced the world to hear him. Now he was
famous, but wherever he went he still preached the gospel
of the poor. -- And then there was one who was known
as the "millionaire Socialist." He had made a fortune in
business, and spent nearly all of it in building up a maga~
zine, which the post-office department had tried to suppress,
and had driven to Canada. He was a quiet-mannered man,
whom you would have taken for anything in the world
but a Socialist agitator. His speech was simple and in~
formal -- he could not understand why any one should get
excited about these things. It was a process of economic
evolution, he said, and he exhibited its laws and methods.
Life was a struggle for existence, and the strong overcame
the weak, and in turn were overcome by the strongest.
Those who lost in the struggle were generally exterminated;
but now and then they had been known to save themselves
by combination -- which was a new and higher kind of
strength. It was so that the gregarious animals had over~
come the predaceous; it was so, in human history, that
the people had mastered the kings. The workers were

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v?