r one of the nice people who bowed to her at
church! She tried to make her escape, but it was as impossible to get
from Sophie's grasp as from the clutch of a small and very friendly bear
who had tucked your arm in his. So down the avenue and across into a
side street she was swept with the eager, excited band of
strike-breakers to Union Hall.

It was a small hall and crowded before they entered it. Confusion was
piled upon confusion. Hertha, dropped for a moment by Sophie, who turned
to speak to her organizer about whom the girls had joked, started at
once to leave the building, but, half lifted off her feet, was forcibly
pushed into a seat between two workers. Here she was compelled to remain
while a man with a long, dirty beard addressed the meeting in an unknown
tongue. So many people were moving about and talking in the rear of the
hall that, it seemed to her, even if she had understood Yiddish, she
would not have known what was being said. But occasionally the woman at
her left would interpret. "He tell you to get a card. Give name. See?"

There was nothing to attract her in the crowd, now that she saw it
assembled in this ill-smelling place. She thought the men rude and she
wished heartily to get away. But she was wedged in her seat and must
remain until time brought release. For a few minutes, however, when
Sophie Switsky was on the platform, Hertha listened with attention. Not
that she understood the words--Sophie used Yiddish--but emotion may
transcend and illumine any speech. Here stood a working girl, young,
almost childlike in appearance, whose face and tragic tones told of a
willingness to die if need be for a cause. Watching her, for the first
time since she had joined the crowd of strikers, Hertha forgot herself.
For a little she felt her heart beat in sympathy. But with a sudden
shock self-consciousness returned. Sophie had beckoned her, asking her
to come to the platform. "Tell what you did!" she called out, smiling.
"Some understand the English." The southern girl shook her head and when
the woman at her side tried to help her to the aisle, gripped her seat
with both hands. The horror of being made conspicuous swept over her
again, and she sat with burning cheeks until Sophie mercifully went back
to her Yiddish and left her alone.

The speeches were at length over and by dodging and doubling, running
from one "Imperial" girl only to have to run from another, Hertha
escaped from Union Hall leaving no