The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 5, 1926, Page 11

ic Stretched herself still more. Actually, tt tre were the first already. They were in te And they were packed into a single 86, linked to each other, grown together h one another, and from all sides new mul- ides were still coming. pt jhe wanted to stop. But her neighbor took ff ‘by the hand. Drew her along. ~Pushed her \? st the first rows into the mass, and tried to 1) ‘ce their way through to the center. And she ceeded.» They: traversed the masses up to S giant gathering. At least the people had med themselves in a circle around this cart their faces confronted each other, large solemn: other Mellicher was somewhat taken | | lack at first, This mighty gathering of faces frightened her. Were there really so many pli? Were there really so many hungry es Jo the city? And were they all outcast . rtured like herself?’ She became anx- s. She even cowered. But when she raised | Wr head again, and blinked into this thou-| a | BEd-fold face, she saw herself in each only t a mirror. That was actually only her face. a at was she herself. That was she naked : d wretched as she stood in life, only ini an ‘a heard of multiplicity and magnitude. ld | Even the words which swelled up about her n her own. She listened long. Whether a Le n spoke or a woman. a girl or a lad, it was d- ays her voice which rang out. Which iled or sobbed, which could only sputter or enthlenpy ods aoe edt gotta m: behihdthe bars ;: cers love them, em behind the bars! ang &sh r of Fate. n YOUR love to nd of hate nn above you; aw and State es so: innocent guilty say it. of the world, u come to your own, the reins of Power, State and throne? | together, and your wives’ in that holds these twain: wo dying lives. e-@ stafiamer, And this voice became ever louder, ilgeva-more wailing, ever more resounding, ly ed higher and moved her like a roaring g | wind, O, it even bore her aloft. It carried her n, | on high. It raised the others, too. It lent them ir | wings. It drew her erect. As she was forced \d | to close her eyes, quaking, she felt that it be- of | came even mightier, that it gathered itself to- gether and massed itself over their heads like f. | a hurricane. r.| It was still when she sensed earth under her d | feet again and opened her eyes. Even uncan- »- | nily still. The whole human mass had become d. | rigid and their faces were uplifted as if by e | force. She turned around. Then she under- n, | stood... The people were listening. To the side d | of her a man had got on the cart and had | scre raised his hands. Now he also opened his s,| mouth. His voice sped over the masses like r- | an explosion. g| She listened. She couldn’t exactly understand d | him, in spite of the fact that she stood right be- r- hind him, What was he saying? At last a few i | sentences reached her ear. He spoke of. their w | misery. Of the starvation that had come upon e | them. Of the unemployment. Of the futile efforts r. | to help and that now they could starve altogether. s. | “Nobody helps us! Nobody is concerned about us! Nobody stands by us!” He hurled the sen- tences from himself as if starvation were at pe i eB ea og ig a eu lip throat. (THEN his voice became harder. Firmer. The tall figure of the speaker became more tense. “What shall we do? Shall we continue to starve! Shall we wait until we have collapsed! There is only one thing!” His voice swelled. “We must help ourselves!” He trumpeted it over their heads like a fanfare and it flowed into these people like a hot stream. All sensed it on their flesh. It ran like a touch of ague over all their thin, famished bodies. All were burned by its contact. They cowered before it, but they also sun that it lifted them up again. The man eile’ on. “Isn’t that our right!” boomed his voice now. * “Are we not human beings so that we can help’ ourselves? And who will hinder us? Those who have locked us out? Those who sit on the monéy? Those:who close their shops to’ us?Thosé who have trampeled ‘on us our whole’ lifé long!” His form grew.> “Weare the people today! We are almost:the entire city!’ He shouted that with more heat and like a threat. Mother :Méllicher was bewildered by. it. It ‘alarmed’ her.::She repeated it’ softly.. Was not that sedition? Was it not even more? Did not that mean that they should: revolt? Perhaps march through the streets. Strike! Shoot! She. shook herself. She wanted to cast it off again. She shivered. And did it not make the others shiver, too? She looked around. Did they not rise up against these words? Did they. not revolt against them? She was startled. They even cheered those words. They pres nearer to the man. They raised their hands. They repeated his words. They shouted them to each other. They shaped them into screams. They threw them back again and mingled with their thunderous applause. OTHER Mellicher shivered still more. But what should she do? Now these words were even embracing her, too.. Now they were thunder- ing aplause around her. . Now they tried to force their way into her. And was not that that force, which came upon her with the applause, which she had already sensed on the march, the force of hundreds, yes, of those thousands who were bearing their eet! and their hunger, And these Thay wete ieaes ria cay a6? one tried to repeat the words, They should help them- selves. It bowed her deeply. What was that? Could they do that? Was not that sinful? And who had spoken it? Was it a person at all who had said it? One of them. One of the poor. She looked towards the cart. There the man still stood. Five steps in-front of her. Tall. Haggard like herself. One hand stertched to the sky. The sign to be still. All were still again, for a woman stood beside him. Mother Mellicher’s. pupils widened. She knew the woman. She refiected. She had merely walk- ed beside hre. It was the stooped, hunchbacked one who had no bread or potatoes any more. Only she looked larger. The cart lifted her up. Her face also appeared changed to her. The woman began more softly than the man. “Yes,” she repeated, “today we are all. We are almost the entire city. What do we want? We want work! We want bread! We want to be able to live!” She paused and drew breath into her lungs. “Is that too much? We ought to want much more!” “Yes!” she cried further, “what is our life? Poverty! What do we have? What do we do? We work! We grudge! We overburden ourselves until we collapse! Is that life?” She bent for- ward and her head become pointed, “We ought to want much more!” she cried once more. “For once, rest! A house! A garden! Joy!! And why not? Are there two kinds of people? Are we created unequal? Why do we have nothing and the others everything? Why are we starving, and the others eat their fill? Why are we sitting in the shade and the others in the sun? Is the sun too small?” She bent her arms backward in a bow. Bi is rte !’ she screamed as loud as she could MotuER Mellicher had held her breath while the woman spoke. The. man’s words had bowed her down. The words of the woman raised her up again. That was the hunchback. That was the one who had lamented beside her. And now she was standing there. Now she had raised herself above the others, And what did she say? Did an outcast speak like that. Did an unfor- tunate one speak like that. Who had put that in this mouth? Who drove this out of the woman? Was not that also sedition? Was not that also revolt! But this time she absorbed every word, she shouted along, raged the loudest, answered with all her senses, and pressed towards her in order to embrace her. Ho—wasn’t this woman a part of herself? Force seemed to have poured itself suddenly from the woman into her. But this time it was not the community of endurance which burningly swept over her. It was*something stronger. Something bigger. Something unheard of. Something which had never yet overflowed her body, which bore her aloft and even hurled her out of her patience. What was it. She had drawn herself to her full height and her eyes glowed like two lights, ‘Was she perhaps also a rebel? Was she perhaps also a seditious person? Did she also want more than work and bread? And what did she want? She had to press her\hands against her breast, so strongly did everything within her rear up. Certainly she wanted more! Certainly she wanted a little joy. Certainly she wanted a house! A garden. Certainly she wanted to rest a little and leisure! O! how much she Wanted! She stretched her arms up. She flew out of herself. Her face was in flames. Meanwhile, however, another woman’ bad climbed up on the cart. She was larger than the,” hunchback. More masculine. She had a hard, sullen face, and small wrinkles lined her fore- head. “Women!” she shouted loudly. “Men!” and her face became still harder. “Why do we ag so long! Why are we talking so much! Why don’t we go!” She looked for a moment over as approval thundered around the woman, the masses as if she saw into everyone’s mind. : is the bread! Where ig the work! Where re those who. hinder us?” “In the city!” shrieked some who stood near y- “In the city!” the others cried, too. “In the city!” answered mother Mellicher also. And the shout sped farther. The answer leaped from all of them. From the entire“ gathering. Shaped it- self into a_ clamor. Echoed back again. “In the city!!” screamed the woman ag loud as she could scream. “In the city!” and her two hands stretched towards the nearest houses.. All took the ery up still faster. It whipped all still more powerfully. All shouted it again in chorus. All pointed to the city. The centermost were already crowding into a procession, “Tn! the city!” once more screamed ' the‘ hutich- back who had stepped up- beside the big woman. A thin, white-haired old woman, who had been pressed firmly against them, shouted the same. “In the city!” now shouted mother Mellicher, who was thrown by the onset against the cart, and she swung herself up with the three. “In the city!’ And she suddenly brought the cry from out of herself as if her whole life depended upon it. As if her freedom dwelt in this city. As if in this city she could be emancipated from her en- tire misery. From her hunger. From her need. As if there were a better life in or behind this city. And the people who now gathered in the proces- sion behind and beneath her seemed to sense the same. Their faces were still sallow and small. Still thin and sunken. Their bodies still swayed back and forth heavily and painfully. But their eyes were more fiery. Their faces glowed. Every- thing about them grew. They became larger. More powerful. “They raised themselves out of- their wretchedness as if they had wings. This made mother Mellicher even freer. ‘It surged about her.- It penetrated her. It moved ‘ her profoundly. Weren’t they already growing above the city? And who wag there to oppose her’ and these people? Who would stop their march? Who would lift his hand against this host? Who? Who? She jumped down off the cart again and placed herself among the leaders of the proces- sion. Who? Who? she thought once more as they began to march. First they streamed over the meadows. Then they tramped ponderously over the uneven pave- ment. Behind the park they turned into the city. Their procession spread out in tiers like a blunt- ed wedge. At the first crosgstreet, soldiers were supposed to be stationed. Somewhat farther on they actual- ly saw a chain of policemen and a machine gun. But what was that to these people. What was that against their onward march. Could they be held up at all? They marched on. Mother Mellicher still marched at the head. She was not small any more, not cowering any more, not cast out any more, not alone any more. She was completely grown together, fused with the others. Submerged in them. In their revolt. In their onward march, She only walked, and she walked as she had never walked before in all her life. a