The overcoat and the hat with the furry ears had
disappeared, and the little man stood there bare-headed, before
that great audience.
My experience in the world is limited, but I have never heard
anything like that speech for sheer power. It was as unruly and
powerful and resistless as life itself. It was not like any other
speech I ever heard, for it was no mere giving out by the orator
of ideas and thoughts and feelings of his own. It seemed
rather--how shall I describe it?--as though the speaker was
looking into the very hearts of that vast gathering of poor men
and poor women and merely telling them what they themselves felt,
but could not tell. And I shall never forget the breathless hush
of the people or the quality of their responses to the orator's
words. It was as though they said, "Yes, yes" with a feeling of
vast relief--"Yes, yes--at last our own hopes and fears and
desires are being uttered--yes, yes."
As for the orator himself, he held up one maimed hand and leaned
over the edge of the platform, and his undistinguished face
glowed with the white light of a great passion within. The man
had utterly forgotten himself.
I confess, among those eager working people, clad in their poor
garments, I confess I was profoundly moved.
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