A Girl Among the Anarchists

ay was neither salubrious nor beautiful, and the constant and inevitable encounters with loquacious Mrs. Wattles and her satellites something of a trial; but

mployed in learning how to set type, and print, and the various arts connected with

work, stirring up lagging enthusiasms, doing odd cobbling jobs whenever he had the chance, and varying the proceedings with occasional outbursts of Shakespearian recitation. These recitations were remarkable performances, and made up in vigour for what they perhaps lacked in elegance and finesse. Carter would at times put in an appearance, mostly with a view to leaning up against a type-rack or other suitable article of furnitur

t our paper we printed various booklets and pamphlets, organised Anarchist meetings, and during some six weeks hou

urger's Bohemians, and evidently took all the discomforts and privations of their situation as a first-class joke. Kosinksi detested them most cordially, though, spite of himself, he was a tremendous favourite in their ranks, a

drole, le pa

l original! They soon learned, however, not to take liberties with Kosinski, for when one sprightly little man of their number, who affected pretty things in the way of cravats and garters, pre

manner of blunders was a perpetual fount of amusement to the humour-loving Gauls. His timidity with wo

th-brush. This was of course a libel and gross exaggeration, but his extreme personal cleanliness was none the less a fact. Now when he first reached London he had scarcely left the station, besooted and begrimed after his long journey, when his eye was arrested by the appearance of a horse-trough. "Most opportune!" mused Kosinski, "how public-spirited and hygienic this London County Council really is!" and straightway divesting himself of his hat and collar and similar encumbrances, and spreading out on the rim of th

ss-who for hours and days together would argue on obscure questions of metaphysics. He had argued himself out of employment, out of his country, almost out of the society and the tolerance of his fellows. Life altogether was one long argument to this man, no act or word, however insignificant, could he be induced to pass over withou

lid as a brick wall, there landed at the Tocsin a small batch of three Italians fresh from their native country. It was the year of the coercion laws

o be the normal condition of the atmosphere. Stumbling into the lighted office from the blind stifling darkness outside, the leader of the party, a rema

come the greatest danger of all and

ng like this. It is truly terrible! But how do you live here? How do you get through your work?... How do you find your way about the streets? Why, we've been wandering about the streets ever since eleven o'clock this morning, walking round and round ourselves, stumbling over kerb-stones, appealing to policemen and passers-by, getting

o-morrow at the latest. We should be better off in prison in Italy than at liberty here. You see, Comrade," he said, turnin

lways like this, I a

g your climate. But I see now only too well that my compatriots were right in calling it impossible, and s

his eyes bright with the vivacity of the perennial youth of the enthusiast. The delicacy of his features, the easy grace of his walk, and the freedom and confidence of his manners, all suggested his semi-aristocratic origin and upbringing. He was evidently a man of romantic tastes and inclinations, governed by sentiment rather than by reason; a lov

ns were warm exponents of the doctrine of free-love, and, unlike their more theoretic Northern confréres, they carried their theories into practice with considerable gusto. Many Anarchists of Teutonic and Scandinavian race evidently regarded free-love as an unpleasant duty rather than as a natural and agreeable condition of life-the cha

gentleman confided to me. "Moreover, it was ten years that I had lived with Rosalie, uninterruptedly....

umble slave to duty, which he performed with ev

is movements were jerky, and altogether, about his entire person, there was a noticeable lack of repose. He was about thirty-five years of age, though he gave the impression of a rather older man. The fact that he was very short-sighted gave a peculiar look to his face, which was kindly enough in expr

ual brilliancy-a fighter and an idealist, not a theoriser. I knew him very well by renown, for he was of European fame in the Anarchist party, and the bête noire of the international police. Enrico Bonafede was a man born out of his time-long after it and long before-whose tremendous energy was wasted in the too strait limits of modern civilised society. In a heroic a

were at once sympathetic to me, and I viewed their advent with pleasure. We celebrated it by an unusually lavish banquet of fried fish and potatoes, for they we

nser with the advance of evening, and it became evident that lodging-searching was quite out of the question for the time being, it was agreed that we should all spend the night in the office, where heaps of old papers and sacking made up into not altogether desp

o keep the revolutionary standard afloat and the Anarchist ideas circulating, despite coercion laws and the imprisonment and banishment of its most prominent advocates. Kosinksi joined enthusiastically in the discussion, and the hours passed rapidly and very agreeably. I suc

itable lodging in the shape of a garret in the Wattles's house which overlooked the courtyard of the Tocsin. They were frequently in the office, much to the indigna

terious reason no one ever took him to task over it. It was impossible to take Short seriously, or to treat him as you would any other human being. When he was insolent people shrugged their shoulders and laughed, when he told lies they did not deign to investigate the truth, and thus in a despised and

l falls along the slippery icy pavement, I arrived at the office of the Tocsin. The first thing that struck my eye on approaching was the unusual appearance of the Wattles's g

rturbed, "yesterday was the hanniversary of old Wattles's wed

y the sound of blows and scuffling inside the shop, mingled with loud oaths in the fa

s informant, "there is something wrong. What is all th

It's the same every year. They both gets roarin' drunk, and then Mrs. Wattles closes the shop next mornin' so as to give 'im a jolly good 'idin'.

and on entering the office of the Tocsin I foun

at the office, of whom nobody perhaps knew anything; they would stroll in, seat themselves round the fire, enter into discussion, and, if hungry, occasionally partake of the plat du jour. The most rudimentary notions of Anarchist etiquette forbade any of us from inquiring the name, address, or intentions of such intr

gure of Giannoli struggling feebly in the embrace of a tall brawny, one-eyed man with thick curling black hair, who appeared to be in a state of demi-déshabille. By degrees a few other familiar figures became one by one discernible to me as I stood mute and unobserved at the head of the stairs. Bonafede and Gnecco were there; they, too, surrounded by the invading mob, exchanging greetings and experiences. Old M'Dermott, standing up against his stove, was striking a most impressive attitude, for the old fellow had to live up to the reputation he had established among foreigners of being the greatest orator in the E

They appeared mostly to belong to the working-classes. Their clothes, or what remained of them, were woefully tattered-and they were few and rudimentary indeed, for most of what had been spared by the hazards of travel were drying down below. Their hair was uncut,

on, for by now my name had become well known in the International Anarchist party. "Isabel Meredith" was exclaim

ained in Italian, "have escaped like ourselves from the savage reaction which actually holds Italy in its sway

ns of a dark young man of extraordinarily alert physiognomy who had shed his boots and was gazing dolefully at his wounded feet. "What would I not give," he exclaimed, "to be

andists, and propagandists entail bellies! All these fellows se

ivals, a sober-looking young fellow with a remarkably long nose, contributed an enormous lobster which he had acquired en route, while Kosinski volunteered to fetch bread and other provender. A Homeric repast ensued, for all these Anarchists had cultivate

uple, but not inadmirable in his qualities of courage and cheerfulness-the kind of man who would have cracked a joke on his death-bed and sung lustily en route to t

raging to keep themselves from actually dying of hunger on their journey. Yet there was about him such a prudent and circumspect air that he might well have hesitated to pick up a pin that "wasn't his'n." He was evidently of an acquisitive turn, however, for over his should

hard work and thrift; he was destined by nature to rear a large family and to shine in the ranks of excellent family men. He was moulded for the threshold, poor boy, neither for the revolutionary camp nor for the scaffold, and it was thwarted domestic instinct which led him to steal. There was good nature in his face and weakness; it was the face of a you

the labouring and peasant class. One other of their number arrested my attention, a stupid, sleepy young man, who seemed quite unaffected by the many vicissitudes of his journey. His features were undefined and his complexion undefinable, very greasy and suggestive of an unwholesome fungus. He

co and Giannoli were anxious for news of comrades left behind in Italy. So-and-so was in prison, another had remained behind in

rancs among them. It is not every one who could have housed them all, but I did. I could not hire a Palazzo or a barrack for them, but we managed very comfortably in one large room. There were fourteen of us besides la Antonietta. There was only one bed, but what a size! We managed well enough by sleeping in two relays. However, even in two relays it took some organisation to get us all in. It was a fine double bed, you know, evidently intended for three or four ... even for five

round to complain about our numbers, and at not receiving his rent. But we were prepared for him. We assembled in full force, and sang the Marseillaise and the Inno dei Lavoratori, and dance

cted large quantities of stones in the day-time, and then at night with a skeleton key I had acquired-it came out of Meneghino's bag which we always jeered at-I let myself in and from the farthest sacks I abstracted potatoes and refilled them with stones. I calculated that at the slow rate he used them he would not notice his loss till March. What a scene there will be then, Misericordia! During the last fortnight of our stay we lived almost entirely on my potatoes. I don't know how the

h food as you like, and the best quality at that; no work, a comfortable cell, and a bed all to yourself! And the bread! I never tasted anything like it in my life

thin forty-eight hours! Once again they were all at a loss but for me!" and here he tapped his forehead in token of deference to his superior wits. "I had noticed the fat letters Morì received from home the first day of

eyes and laughed foolishly. He seemed neither ashamed of hims

cs; would you believe me? and that went some way to get us over here. Altogether we managed to collect sufficient mone

the travellers chimed in with a separate account of the h

imals who had succumbed to the inclemency of the elements. All the great rivers were frozen over, and traffic had to be suspended along them. Unwonted numbers of starving sea-gulls and other sea-birds flocked to London in search of human charity, for the very fis

and soul together. By night, when chance allowed, they had crept unobserved into barns and stables, and, lying close up against the dormant cattle, they had striven to restore animation to their frozen limbs by means of the beasts' warm breath. Once an old farm-woman had found them, and, taking pity on their woebegone condition, had regaled the whole party on hot milk and bread; and this was now looked back on as a gala day, for not every day had afforded such fare. At times in the course of their weary tramp

of these adventures had terminated. "You have not yet t

a bicycle! Yes, Antonietta weighed a bicycle in the scales against the Social Revolution, and found the Social Revolution wanting! So much for the idealism of women! Never speak to me of them again. The last we saw o

outh and eye told of the depth of scorn and disgust which he felt for the