t
length there came a lull in the panting tumult. Then the chair made
an announcement which brought forth in fuller volume than ever a
responsive roar of approval. He announced that on the following night
and on the night after, Congressman Mallard would speak at Madison
Square Garden, under the largest roof on Manhattan Island. The
committee in charge had been emboldened by the size of this present
outpouring to engage the garden; the money to pay the rent for those
two nights had already been subscribed; admission would be free; all
would be welcome to come and--quoting the chairman--"to hear the truth
about the war into which the Government, at the bidding of the
capitalistic classes, had plunged the people of the nation." Then in
ten words he introduced the speaker, and as the speaker raised his
arms above his head invoking quiet, there fell, magically, a quick,
deep, breathless hush upon the palpitant gathering.

"And this"--he began without preamble in that great resonant voice of
his, that was like a blast of a trumpet--"and this, my countrymen, is
the answer which the plain people of this great city make to the
corrupted and misguided press that would crucify any man who dares
defy it."

He spoke for more than an hour, and when he was done his hearers were
as madmen and madwomen. And yet so skilfully had he phrased his
utterances, so craftily had he injected the hot poison, so deftly had
he avoided counselling outright disobedience to the law, that sundry
secret-service men who had been detailed to attend the meeting and to
arrest the speaker, United States representative though he be, in case
he preached a single sentence of what might be interpreted as open
treason, were completely circumvented.

It is said that on this night Congressman Mallard made the best speech
he ever made in his whole life. But as to that we cannot be sure, and
for this reason:

On Monday morning, as has twice been stated in this account,
Congressman Mallard's name was in every paper, nearly, in America. On
Tuesday morning not a line concerning him or concerning his speech or
the remarkable demonstration of the night before--not a line of news,
not a line of editorial comment, not a paragraph--appeared in any
newspaper printed in the English language on this continent. The
silent war had started.

Tuesday evening at eight-fifteen Congressman Mallard came to Madison
Square Garden, accompanied by the honour guard of his sponsors. T