assions of both parties were most inflamed and scenes
of violence most frequent it was somehow noised about that at a certain
hour of a certain day some one--none could say who--would stand upon the
steps of the Capitol and speak to the people, expounding a plan for
reconciliation of all conflicting interests and pacification of the
quarrel. At the appointed hour thousands had assembled to hear--glowering
capitalists attended by hireling body-guards with firearms, sullen
laborers with dynamite bombs concealed in their clothing. All eyes were
directed to the specified spot, where suddenly appeared (none saw
whence--it seemed as if he had been there all the time, such his
tranquillity) a tall, pale man clad in a long robe, bare-headed, his hair
falling lightly upon his shoulders, his eyes full of compassion, and with
such majesty of face and mien that all were awed to silence ere he spoke.
Stepping slowly forward toward the throng and raising his right hand from
the elbow, the index finger extended upward, he said, in a voice ineffably
sweet and serious: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even
so do ye also unto them."

These strange words he repeated in the same solemn tones three times;
then, as the expectant multitude waited breathless for his discourse,
stepped quietly down into the midst of them, every one afterward declaring
that he passed within a pace of where himself had stood. For a moment the
crowd was speechless with surprise and disappointment, then broke into
wild, fierce cries: "Lynch him, lynch him!" and some have testified that
they heard the word "crucify." Struggling into looser order, the
infuriated mob started in mad pursuit; but each man ran a different way
and the stranger was seen again by none of them.

THE LAND BEYOND THE BLOW

(After the method of Swift, who followed Lucian, and was himself followed
by Voltaire and many others.)

THITHER

A crowd of men were assisting at a dog-fight. The scene was one of
indescribable confusion. In the center of the tumult the dogs, obscure in
a cloud of dust, rolled over and over, howling, yarring, tearing each
other with sickening ferocity. About them the hardly less ferocious men
shouted, cursed and struck, encouraged the animals with sibilant
utterances and threatened with awful forms of death and perdition all who
tried to put an end to the combat. Caught in the thick of this pitiless
mob I endeavored to make my way to a place of