"Bring forth the masters of this city, who starve the poor,
while they themselves riot in wantonness!"
But the members of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Bankers'
Association of Western City were not within hearing, nor are their
numbers as a rule to be found in the telephone book. Carpenter
looked about the place, now lined pretty well with cripples and
invalids. Only a couple of hours of spreading rumor had been needed
to bring them forth, unholy and dreadful secrets, dragged from the
dark corners and back alley-ways of these tenements. He gazed from
one crooked and distorted face to another, and put his hand to his
forehead with a gesture of despair. "No, no!" he said. "It is of no
use!" He lifted his voice, calling once more to the masters of the
city. "You make them faster than I can heal them! You make them by
machinery--and he who would help them must break the machine!"
He turned to me; and I was startled, for it was as if he had been
inside my mind. "I know, it will not be easy! But remember, I broke
the empire of Rome!"
That was his last flare.
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