"I once thought that I could help the mob to organise its own freedom.
But now I see that we are all the mob, that all human beings are alike,
and that all I or anyone can do is to save his own soul, to win his own
freedom, and perhaps to teach others to do the same, not so much through
social propaganda as by digging down to a deeper personal culture.
Though I sometimes think that just now the prison would help me, yet I
also long at times to talk to the crowd. I wish to tell the smug ones
that we waste our lives in holding on to things that in our hearts we
hold contemptible. I wish to tell the mob just why there are thirty
thousand steady men out of work in this city: to do this I may take to
the curbstone."
After his speech Terry returned to the home of Katie and Marie, as has
been described by Marie, but on no basis of permanence. He thus speaks
of it:
"You may think that I, too, have 'cashed in' my ideals; for I am back at
the Salon--for how long nobody knows--by special proxy request of
Katie. I will spare myself and you any moralising on my relapse."
Katie, explaining Terry's return, said: "When he went away, Marie was
sad all the time. She could not eat nor sleep and was looking for her
lover every day. After weeks had passed I said to her: 'When you see
Terry at the Social Science League, bring him home.' 'Do you mean it,
Katie?' asked Marie, her eyes sparkling. She did so, and Terry went
quietly into his room, and the next morning I made coffee as usual and
Terry came out, and it was all right; it might have been all right for
good, if this damned Nietzsche business had not come up." But that is
anticipating.
It was after Terry's return that the famous miner Haywood, just after
his acquittal from the charge of murder in connection with the Idaho
labour troubles, visited Chicago, and spent most of his time at the
Salon with Terry and Marie and several of their friends. The Salon was
temporarily revived, like the flash in the pan, under Haywood's
stimulating influence. Terry wrote of him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account