The Face and the Mask | Page 5

made some fiery speeches that were much applauded. At last
Anarchist news became a drug in the market, and the editor of the
paper young Marshall Simkins belonged to, told him that he would now
have to turn his attention to Parliamentary work, as he would print no
more Anarchist news in the sheet.
One might think that young Simkins would have been glad to get rid of
his anarchist work, as he had no love for the cause. He was glad to get
rid of it, but he found some difficulty in sending in his resignation. The

moment he spoke of resigning, the members became suspicious of him.
He had always been rather better dressed than the others, and, besides,
he drank less beer. If a man wishes to be in good standing in the
League he must not be fastidious as to dress, and he must be
constructed to hold at least a gallon of beer at a sitting. Simkins was
merely a "quart" man, and this would have told against him all along if
it had not been for the extra gunpowder he put in his speeches. On
several occasions seasoned Anarchists had gathered about him and
begged him to give up his designs on the Parliament buildings.
The older heads claimed that, desirable as was the obliteration of the
Houses of Parliament, the time was not yet ripe for it. England, they
pointed out, was the only place where Anarchists could live and talk
unmolested, so, while they were quite anxious that Simkins should go
and blow up Vienna, Berlin, or Paris, they were not willing for him to
begin on London. Simkins was usually calmed down with much
difficulty, and finally, after hissing "Cowards!" two or three times
under his breath, he concluded with, "Oh, very well, then, you know
better than I do--I am only a young recruit; but allow me at least to
blow up Waterloo Bridge, or spring a bomb in Fleet Street just to show
that we are up and doing."
But this the Anarchists would not sanction. If he wanted to blow up
bridges, he could try his hand on those across the Seine. They had
given their word that there would be no explosions in London so long
as England afforded them an asylum.
"But look at Trafalgar Square," cried Simkins angrily; "we are not
allowed to meet there."
"Who wants to meet there?" said the chairman. "It is ever so much
more comfortable in these rooms, and there is no beer in Trafalgar
Square." "Yes, yes," put in several others; "the time is not yet ripe for
it." Thus was Simkins calmed down, and beer allowed to flow again in
tranquillity, while some foreign Anarchist, who was not allowed to set
foot in his native country, would get up and harangue the crowd in
broken English and tell them what great things would yet be done by
dynamite.

But when Simkins sent in his resignation a change came over their
feelings towards him, and he saw at once that he was a marked man.
The chairman, in a whisper, advised him to withdraw his resignation.
So Simkins, who was a shrewd young fellow, understanding the temper
of the assembly, arose and said:--
"I have no desire to resign, but you do nothing except talk, and I want
to belong to an Anarchist Society that acts." He stayed away from the
next meeting, and tried to drop them in that way, but a committee from
the League called upon him at his lodgings, and his landlady thought
that young Simkins had got into bad ways when he had such
evil-looking men visiting him.
Simkins was in a dilemma, and could not make up his mind what to do.
The Anarchists apparently were not to be shaken off. He applied to his
editor for advice on the situation, but that good man could think of no
way out of the trouble.
"You ought to have known better," he said, "than to mix up with such
people."
"But how was I to get the news?" asked Simkins, with some
indignation. The editor shrugged his shoulders. That was not his part of
the business; and if the Anarchists chose to make things uncomfortable
for the young man, he could not help it.
Simkins' fellow-lodger, a student who was studying chemistry in
London, noticed that the reporter was becoming gaunt with anxiety.
"Simkins," said Sedlitz to him one morning, "you are haggard and
careworn: what is the matter with you? Are you in love, or is it merely
debt that is bothering you?"
"Neither," replied Simkins.
"Then cheer up," said Sedlitz. "If one or the other is not interfering with
you, anything else is easily remedied."

"I am not so sure of that," rejoined Simkins; and