the organ, had looked on and listened in horrified amazement. He saw that the hour for riot and bloodshed had arrived, and he made one supreme effort to avert the final catastrophe. He sprang to the platform and shouted to the mob. Men turned to see who it was that was speaking, and then turned away. They did not care to hear him. They paid no more attention to him than if he had been a man of straw, except that some of them laughed at him, some mocked him, some ridiculed him. His appeal for wisdom and order fell on deaf ears. These men had no use, to-day, for sermons or religion, or pious advice. What they wanted was action—and plenty of it.
When he found that his effort was utterly useless, the rector stopped speaking and came down from the platform. At the foot of the steps he met Lamar, gazing, with frightened eyes, at the disappearing crowd.
"Lamar," he cried, "stop them! They're wild! They're rushing to destruction!"
"I can't," replied Lamar. "No man can stop them. God in heaven couldn't stop them now!"
From Lamar's lips the ejaculation was impious, but the clergyman did not stop to consider it.
"Then come with me," he said. "Let's follow on and do what we may to prevent bloodshed and arson."
Lamar made no reply, but he started on in obedience to the request. So they went on their hopeless mission, servant of Christ and enemy of God together, both rejected by those whom they had served, hissed and hooted at as they made their way through crowded streets black with the breaking storm.
The march of the workmen themselves was not without the semblance of order. But idle men on every corner joined them, vicious men, whose only occupation it was to prey upon society, fell into their ranks; hoodlums and hotheads, shouting their enthusiasm, went joyously along; the curious and sensation loving followed on behind in scores; even women and children
