fellow from amidst a wilderness
of beard.

"Your election to the Assembly is a certainty," declared another.

"You carry deadly weapons against Christ," said a professor.

Mr. Hans smiled, and nodded so often that he was seized with a pain in
the muscles of the face and neck. At length, the chairman's bell came
to the rescue.

"The Rev. Mr. Morgenroth will now address the meeting."

The clergyman mounted the rostrum, but scarcely had he appeared there,
when the crowd became possessed by a legion of hissing demons.

"Gentlemen," began the fearless priest, "the duty of my calling as well
as personal conviction demands that I should enter a solemn protest
against the sundering of school and church."

Further the priest was not allowed to proceed. Loud howling, hissing,
and whistling drowned his voice. The president called for order.

"In the name of good-breeding, I beg this most honorable assembly to
hear the speaker out in patience," cried Mr. Schwefel.

The mob relaxed into unwilling silence like a growling beast.

"Not all the citizens of this town are affected with infidelity," the
reverend gentleman went on to say. "Many honorable gentlemen believe in
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and in his church. These citizens wish
their children to receive a religious education; it would, therefore,
be unmitigated terrorism, tyrannical constraint of conscience, to force
Christian parents to bring up their children in the spirit of
unbelief."

This palpable truth progress could not bear to listen to. A mad yell
was set up. Clenched fists were shaken at the clergyman, and fierce
threats thundered from all sides of the church. "Down with the priest!"
"Down with the accursed blackcoat!" "Down with the dog of a Jesuit!"
and similar exclamations resounded from all sides. The chairman rang
his bell in vain. The mob grew still more furious and noisy. The
clergyman was compelled to come down.

"Such is the liberty, the education, the tolerance, the humanity of
progress," said he sadly to his colleague.

Once more the bell of the chairman was heard amid the tumult.

"Mr. Seicht, officer of the crown, will now address the meeting,"
Schwefel announced.

The audience were seized with amazement, and not without a cause. A
dignitary of a higher order, a member of the administration, ascended
the pulpit for the purpose of making an assault upon Christian
education. He was about to make war upon morals and faith, the true
supp