by the secret rings who formed he "inner circle" of bank directors and shareholders, while the great number of cruel and brutal evictions of those who were in the clutches of the banks, and whose homes were sold up to pay the banks debts, excited the indignation of the people to the pitch of frenzy. This indignation became greater still when it was seen that the rings (whose gold in the Money Stronghold was protected from their creditors by legal chicanery) were "rigging" the market, and were thus enabled through their agents to invariably obtain possession of the sold-up properties at phenomenally low figures. Then it was that the ruined middle class became formidable revolutionists, and in their deeds of desperate daring and even heroic revolutionary enterprise, surpassed anything that had been done by the habitually half-starved poor.
But at last the Federal Government took a step in an individualistic direction which had for its members and the class to which they belonged the most disastrous consequences. The various branches of the public service, though very corrupt, and used as a means of rewarding political and personal friends, or finding positions for the friends or relatives of women who secretly prostituted themselves to men in power, were yet regarded with hope by reformers, as stepping stones which they thought would lead to democratic State ownership of all means of production and exchange. But shortly after the financial crash which has just been referred to, the Government decided to dispose of the Australian Railways to the highest bidders. The financial "Inner Circle" at once formed a syndicate and purchased the railways. They then discharged large numbers of railway employés, and proceeded to work the railways on what they termed "commercial principle." The discharged men who previously had considered themselves a sort of "aristocracy of labor," and were noted for their comparative conservatism and contempt for those shut out of the sphere of government employment, now became furious in their denunciation of the ruling classes, and one of them one day observing the chief of the railway syndicate driving along the "block," seated between his two mistresses (seduced workmen's wives) shot him dead. The assassin was publicly executed but received an ovation from the assembled populace, and only the presence of a very strong military guard and the restraining influence of the Brotherhood chiefs, prevented his rescue. The whole of the ex-railway employés became energetic members of the Brotherhood.
The people, were now thoroughly ripe for insurrection, but awaited a leader. Such a person was found in Oliver Spence, a powerfully built and determined man who had been of what was termed "good family," was well read and a keen observer of men and things. The ruthless competition of the great syndicates had ruined his father, a small capitalist, and forced Oliver to turn his abnormal physical strength to account by earning his living as a navvy. This man's self-acquired military knowledge and inborn military genius at once marked him out to his comrades; and he speedily became the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Brotherhood of the Poor.
