it began to be rumoured that he shared Owen's
views. He always paid for the pamphlets that Owen gave him, and on one
occasion, when Owen bought a thousand leaflets to give away, Barrington
contributed a shilling towards the half-crown that Owen paid for them.
But he never took any part in the arguments that sometimes raged during
the dinner-hour or at breakfast-time.

It was a good thing for Owen that he had his enthusiasm for 'the cause'
to occupy his mind. Socialism was to him what drink was to some of the
others--the thing that enable them to forget and tolerate the
conditions under which they were forced to exist. Some of them were so
muddled with beer, and others so besotted with admiration of their
Liberal and Tory masters, that they were oblivious of the misery of
their own lives, and in a similar way, Owen was so much occupied in
trying to rouse them from their lethargy and so engrossed in trying to
think out new arguments to convince them of the possibility of bringing
about an improvement in their condition that he had no time to dwell
upon his own poverty; the money that he spent on leaflets and pamphlets
to give away might have been better spent on food and clothing for
himself, because most of those to whom he gave them were by no means
grateful; but he never thought of that; and after all, nearly everyone
spends money on some hobby or other. Some people deny themselves the
necessaries or comforts of life in order that they may be able to help
to fatten a publican. Others deny themselves in order to enable a lazy
parson to live in idleness and luxury; and others spend much time and
money that they really need for themselves in buying Socialist
literature to give away to people who don't want to know about
Socialism.

One Sunday morning towards the end of July, a band of about twenty-five
men and women on bicycles invaded the town. Two of them--who rode a
few yards in front of the others, had affixed to the handlebars of each
of their machines a slender, upright standard from the top of one of
which fluttered a small flag of crimson silk with 'International
Brotherhood and Peace' in gold letters. The other standard was similar
in size and colour, but with a different legend: 'One for all and All
for one.'

As they rode along they gave leaflets to the people in the streets, and
whenever they came to a place where there were many people they
dismounted and walked about, giving their leaflets to whoev