(early in the summer of 1884) a branch of the Social Democratic Federation. Andreas Scheu, a member of the Council of the Federation in London, who had recently removed to Edinburgh in connection with his profession as a furniture designer, and who had at once founded a branch of the Federation in that city, visited our Glasgow branch, and gave us a glowing account of Morris, boldly idolizing him—alike as the beau-ideal of a poet-artist, and as an archetype of a Socialist comrade. We were, of course, exceedingly desirous that Morris should address a meeting under the auspices of the branch when he came to speak for the Sunday Lecture Society, but his engagements would not allow his doing so. He readily, however, agreed to meet the members of the branch on the Sunday evening after his lecture in the St. Andrews Hall.
He was booked to speak for the Edinburgh branch of the Federation on the Saturday evening before coming to Glasgow, and so eager was I to see and hear him, that instead of waiting until he came to Glasgow on the Sunday, I made a special journey to Edinburgh on the Saturday evening.
The Edinburgh meeting was held in a little hall in Picardy Place, which the branch had recently acquired as its club-room. The hall had been newly 'carved out' of a first-floor dwelling, and was decorated with fine taste and furnished with specially designed cane-bottom chairs—the joint result of Andreas Scheu's artistic skill and the bounty of an Edinburgh merchant who was friendly to the cause.[1] I remember on seeing the club-room how
- ↑ The donor of the gift of £100 was a Mr. Millar who had warm sympathy with Socialism and working-class interests. He also gave £1000 for the holding of an Industrial Remuneration Conference, to consider the best means of improving working-class wages. This Conference, which was held in Edinburgh, January 1886, created considerable public interest at the time. Among those who attended and spoke at the Conference were Alfred Russel Wallace, A.J. Balfour, Bernard Shaw, John Burns, Professor Leone Levi, Robert Giffen, Sir Thomas Brassey, Professor Marshall, and Dr. G.B. Clark. The proceedings were afterwards published in a special volume.
