On the outskirts of the park-like square a small boy was urging a
smaller girl to hurry. "Angel's legs won't go no more," the diminutive
female was wailing as her companion dragged her along.
Meanwhile the impassioned words of the last oration were being echoed
and emphasized by mutterings and imprecations. The mob, in fact, was
beginning to respond, just as its promoters had intended that it should,
and as their dangerous eloquence continued to pour forth, the emotions
of the crowd accordingly grew fiercer, louder, until from sullen
mutterings, the applauding echoes grew to clamor and uproar. And
following the impassioned harangue of the last speaker upon the
program--a red-haired gentleman, unpleasantly dirty--the cheers gave
place to groans, the groans grew to threats, to curses, and the
confusion spread like the roar of a coming storm.
Suddenly above the noise, came the measured tramp of feet. In the
momentary lull succeeding, "The police, the police," a voice rang out on
the silence, and the single cry swelled to a roar from hundreds of
throats, and as suddenly died away to an expectant silence. At that a
voice, loud with authority, rang out upon the stillness, "In the name of
the Commonwealth," the measured words declared, "I command you to
immediately and peaceably disperse!"
The answer came in a chorus of jeers, hoots, yells of derision, and the
howling mob began to seize whatever promised to be a weapon of defense
or attack. Growing in numbers as dusk fell, the crowd now was spreading
back into the surrounding streets. Merchants who had not already done
so, were hurriedly closing their stores. The cars were blocked, and foot
travellers fleeing in all directions. From the thickest of the crowd, a
mighty creature of bone and muscle, a giant in height and breadth,
grasping an iron support twisted from a bench, had forced his way out to
the street, and now was using it to pry up the bricks from the sidewalk,
which in turn were seized by his companions.
Above the uproar and confusion the voice of authority, ringing out its
words of command, was heard again.
Head and shoulders above the crowd, the giant stood erect, waving his
iron bar above his head. "At 'em, men," he cried, "at 'em before they
fire!"
But as he paused, another cry arose, a frightened, childish wail, that
came from a very diminutive female clinging to his knees. "My Tomlin,"
it cried.
The giant's arm dropped, and as the crowd swept on and left him
standing, Mr. Tomlin looked down to behold the Angel, and holding fast
to her, the badly frightened but defiant personage of Joey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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