y, and, as a natural
consequence, they return from the army into work-a-day life, as the
bitter enemies of a government which dismisses many of them as
helpless cripples or as physical wrecks without ever thinking of
making suitable award. Then, still more frequently, our sons, after
spending the best strength they have in the service of the state, in
hard toil, and in exposing themselves to all rigors of a changeable
climate, are sent back into the world, dismissed from the army, just
because of some trivial offence,--kicked out into the cold as one
might a dog, compelling him to hunt for food and to seek a new master.
Therefore, I say, let us compel the government to spend hereafter the
money so uselessly wasted for the enlargement of an army that has
already overgrown its proper size, rather for more useful purposes, so
that the people, the masses, will know what they have sacrificed
themselves for."

The words of the speaker, drawn so largely from his own bitter
experiences, were frequently interrupted by a loud acclaim; but as
Schmitz now stepped down from his eminence to mingle with his
auditors, the large crowd that filled the hall to suffocation began to
rend the air with frantic cheers. They threw up their caps and shouted
approval; scores of them cried: "Bravo, Schmitz!"; while others
crowded up to him to shake him by the hand. It was an ovation as
enthusiastic as Schmitz had never aspired to in his boldest moments,
and his natural vanity felt intensely gratified. As to these people,
he had indeed gained them over to his way of thinking.

His words had sounded so convincing, they had struck the popular chord
so accurately, that many a one in this dense throng who had merely
come that night as a spectator, drawn by idle curiosity, had been
convinced of the justice of the Socialist cause, and resolved to join
the party which espoused the claims of the poor.

And so Schmitz had that night become not only an adherent but a leader
of the "red" party,--a party which in this large manufacturing town
was becoming more and more formidable.

CHAPTER IX

RESIGNATIONS ARE IN ORDER

Sergeant-Major Krohn, the regimental chief clerk, was leaning against
the iron railing which shut off from the vulgar civilian world the
edifice holding the offices and administrative bureaux.

He was smoking his morning cigar with considerable zest and reading
the _Deutsche Zeitung_, which the letter-carrier had just left for