Civilization, Western -- Fiction; France -- Civilization -- Fiction; Penguins -- Fiction; Satire
From that day onward, anarchist attempts followed one another every
week without interruption. The victims were numerous, and almost all of
them belonged to the poorer classes. These crimes roused public
resentment. It was among domestic servants, hotel-keepers, and the
employees of such small shops as the Trusts still allowed to exist,
that indignation burst forth most vehemently. In popular districts
women might be heard demanding unusual punishments for the dynamitards.
(They were called by this old name, although it was hardly appropriate
to them, since, to these unknown chemists, dynamite was an innocent
material only fit to destroy ant-hills, and they considered it mere
child’s play to explode nitro-glycerine with a cartridge made of
fulminate of mercury.) Business ceased suddenly, and those who were
least rich were the first to feel the effects. They spoke of doing
justice themselves to the anarchists. In the mean time the factory
workers remained hostile or indifferent to violent action. They were
threatened, as a result of the decline of business, with a likelihood
of losing their work, or even a lock-out in all the factories. The
Federation of Trade Unions proposed a general strike as the most
powerful means of influencing the employers, and the best aid that
could be given to the revolutionists, but all the trades with the
exception of the gilders refused to cease work.
The police made numerous arrests. Troops summoned from all parts of the
National Federation protected the offices of the Trusts, the houses of
the multi-millionaires, the public halls, the banks, and the big shops.
A fortnight passed without a single explosion, and it was concluded
that the dynamitards, in all probability but a handful of persons,
perhaps even still fewer, had all been killed or captured, or that they
were in hiding, or had taken flight. Confidence returned; it returned
at first among the poorer classes. Two or three hundred thousand
soldiers, who bad been lodged in the most closely populated districts,
stimulated trade, and people began to cry out: “Hurrah for the army!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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