The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
General
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
Social justice; Social problems
I can still see him wiping the blood-stained froth from his
lips; I went to help him; but all he could gasp was, "Weib!
Kinder! (Wife, children!)" Never shall I forget the despair in
his face. I supported him gently; again and again I wiped the
blood from his lips; every breath brought up a flood; his poor
eyes thanked me, though he could not speak, and soon his eyes
closed; flickered out, as one might say, and he lay there still
enough in his own blood; "murdered," as I said to myself when I
laid the poor body back; "murdered!"
(_As a result of this police action, the narrator goes to the
next meeting of the strikers with a bomb in his pocket._)
The crowd began to drift away at the edges. I was alone and
curiously watchful. I saw the mayor and the officials move
off towards the business part of the town. It looked for a
few minutes as if everything was going to pass over in peace;
but I was not relieved. I could hear my own heart beating,
and suddenly I felt something in the air; it was sentient
with expectancy. I slowly turned my head. I was on the very
outskirts of the crowd, and as I turned I saw that Bonfield
had marched out his police, and was minded to take his own way
with the meeting now that the mayor had left. I felt personal
antagonism stiffen my muscles.... It grew darker and darker
every moment. Suddenly there came a flash, and then a peal of
thunder. At the end of the flash, as it seemed to me, I saw
the white clubs falling, saw the police striking down the men
running along the sidewalk. At once my mind was made up. I put
my left hand on the outside of my trousers to hold the bomb
tight, and my right hand into the pocket, and drew the tape.
I heard a little rasp. I began to count slowly, "One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven;" as I got to seven the police
were quite close to me, bludgeoning every one furiously. Two or
three of the foremost had drawn their revolvers. The crowd were
flying in all directions. Suddenly there was a shot, and then
a dozen shots, all, it seemed to me, fired by the police. Rage
blazed in me.
I took the bomb out of my pocket, careless whether I was seen
or not, and looked for the right place to throw it; then I
hurled it over my shoulder high in the air, towards the middle
of the police, and at the same moment I stumbled forward, just
as if I had fallen, throwing myself on my hands and face, for
I had seen the spark. It seemed as if I had been on my hands
for an eternity, when I was crushed to the ground, and my ears
split with the roar. I scrambled to my feet again, gasping.
Men were thrown down in front of me, and were getting up on
their hands. I heard groans and cries, and shrieks behind me.
I turned around; as I turned a strong arm was thrust through
mine, and I heard Lingg say--
"Come, Rudolph, this way;" and he drew me to the sidewalk, and
we walked past where the police had been.
"Don't look," he whispered suddenly; "don't look."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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