itself between the orator and his audience. And one went out better from the hall where Jaurès had been spreading forth the sonorous and limpid floods of his vigorous and healthy eloquence."
M. Romain Rolland has also described delightfully the impression that Jaurès made on him when he spoke:[1] "I have listened to him often in the Chamber, at socialist congresses, at meetings held on behalf of oppressed nations.… Again I see his full face calm and happy, like that of a kindly bearded ogre; his small eyes bright and smiling; eyes as quick to follow the flight of ideas as to observe human nature. I see him pacing up and down the platform, walking with heavy steps like a bear, his arms crossed behind his back, turning sharply to hurl at the crowd, in his monotonous, metallic voice, words like the call of a trumpet, which reached the farthest seats in the vast amphitheatre, and went straight to the heart, making the soul of the whole multitude leap in one united emotion" …
Partly no doubt because of this wonderful gift of speech, Jaurès became very widely known. Camille Huysmans, the Secretary of the International Socialist Bureau, speaking in its name at the funeral of Jaurès, said: "We are, throughout the world, ten millions of organized workmen for whom the name of Jaurès incarnated the most
- ↑ Au dessus de la Mêlée, par Romain Rolland.
