Part 8
“Then, comrades, admitting that all tastes are natural, and ours, though different they may be, have need to be appeased in their turn. We will content ourselves by indicating the means which we think proper to satisfy them. For the present we will continue the series by saying what we think suitable concerning a gala reception at the opera. In fact, nothing more easy. A single man may act, but two are better, in order to succeed properly in the operation without any danger to them. Thus: two comrades, each provided with a strong knife, having a saw blade, and each man carrying a small bomb of very small dimensions, loaded with chlorate of potash, and having in the middle a small glass tube containing a tablespoonful of sulphuric acid. This small tube is placed erect and buried half its length in the chlorate, must be closed at top by a strong cork, and at bottom by a round piece of cork four millimetres thick (if you wish the bomb to burst at the end of two hours), because the acid requires about half an hour to pierce each millimetre through the thickness of the round piece of cork. If you wish the bomb to burst at the end of three hours the round piece of cork must be six millimetres thick, and so on, half an hour for every millimetre thickness. Moreover, comrades may try beforehand with a small pinch of chlorate (the explosion in the open air does not make much noise), and cover their faces and hands for fear of the broken pieces. These little preparatory experiments will serve them to appreciate the quality of the acid and cork used, as well as the exact time which the acid requires to pierce each millimetre of cork of the same piece. As we have said, the bombs do not require to be voluminous. A simple small glass mustard pot, having the shape of a small cask lengthened, is quite sufficient for the quantity of matter, of which here is the description:--Let us suppose that the vase contains 500 grammes of matter. You will then put--1st, 3-5, viz., 300 grammes chlorate of potash; 2nd, 2-5, viz., 100 grammes sulphur; 3rd, 1-5, viz., 100 grammes sugar, maintaining always these proportions according to the size of the vase. Afterwards each of these matters must be ground very fine separately, then mixed gently and thoroughly (although the operation offers not the least danger). The efficacy of the operation depends on the fine grinding and perfect mixture. After that charge the bomb, as it has been said, in a manner that the round piece of cork, four or six millimetres, be fully mixed in the matter above mentioned. These matters cost but little. The chlorate of potash is sold nearly in powder and crystallized. It must be quite dry. The sulphur is sold in small sticks of two or three centimetres diameter. The sugar must be of good quality, and quite dry. All these matters are easily crushed--afterwards the mixing is easy. The greater expense is for the two comrades, on account of the payment of their seats, which must be hired beforehand, on gala days especially. Their seats must be at the top of the theatre. Thus, the two comrades having their tickets in their pockets, go home and load their bombs only at the moment of setting out for the theatre, having calculated for the time of explosion at the end of three hours, supposing that time to be suitable. Afterwards let us suppose they have required half an hour to reach their seats in the theatre, the bombs will have then only two hours and a half to sleep. As soon as arrived the men will keep as close as possible to the walls or pillars along which the gaspipes are fixed. Then, when no one is noticing them, they begin by bursting slightly those pipes with their saw blades. It is easily done, because the lead can be cut through without any noise. When two, or three, or four of these pipes are slightly open, the men place their bombs on the ground by the side of the pipes, concealing them as much as possible from the sight of the public. They may go away quietly at the end of the first act; the rest of the operation will be completed without them. Then they have time to go home, and even go to bed, so as to prove an alibi at the time of the explosion. Now, this is how the rest of the operation will conclude: At first, the gas escaping will ascend and accumulate under the vault of the theatre during the two hours required for the explosion of the bombs. At that time there will be a quantity sufficient to set fire everywhere and burst the roof and walls of the theatre, and the _débris_ falling back will have the effect of grapeshot on the jolly spectators. Afterwards the fire, fed by the wood, the stuffs, and the grease, will terminate the operation suitably. As we have said at the beginning, the work is easy for two companions who live in a town where there is a large theatre suitable to receive the higher class of the inhabitants. For that it requires only hatred in the heart and to be pitiless. After all, what do we care for feelings of humanity, even with regard to the women and children of that race of robbers and real criminals? Do not their young become wolves likewise? Are their females less eager for prey than the males? On another part the workers or starving people may be tranquil, because none of them are to be seen at those feasts of gold and diamonds which too often are given in honour of any travelling monarch at the expense of the poor people. Therefore, it is pious work to profit by those frequent occasions; to crown worthily those revels which the bandits throw as a defiance at our misery and sufferings. For an Anarchist gala of that kind the little money necessary must be easier to find than for a platonic propaganda. It is saying, comrades, that certain enjoyments are still permitted to us, waiting for the grand day when the social equilibrium will be brutally established.”
* * * * *
The above is a fair sample of the vile stuff by which Anarchist assassins are made.
XIV.
THE LIGHTER SIDE OF ANARCHISM.
Paradoxical and absurd as it must appear to people of ordinary intelligence (and Anarchists are certainly of _extra_-ordinary intelligence), it is nevertheless the fact that among the devotees of knife, torch and bomb, the motto “Anarchy is Order” is a favourite one. It is inscribed on their banners, and is reiterated in their speeches with a persistency which becomes positively tiresome to listen to. Yet, strange to say (or, is it strange?) the very reverse of order is the prevailing condition among Anarchists themselves. For example, if I desire to become the happy possessor of an Anarchistic newspaper, I find that, in some cases, it has no fixed price; that, in place of the familiar “Price One Penny” of conventional journalism, it is inscribed “Pay What You Like,” or “Subscription Voluntary.”
The natural outcome of such a method (or, rather, lack of method) is that a journal produced on such “principles” speedily becomes defunct. Such was the fate of the _Sheffield Anarchist_, the first English Anarchist journal courageous enough to reduce its chaotic “pay what you like” “principles” to practice.
Having produced your paper on the “pay what you like” system, you scan its contents, and find disorder in its very lines, as witness the following, reproduced from the _Alarm_, the organ of the Associated Anarchists:--
WE TAKE ANYTHING!!!
Although money is handiest, stern necessity compels us to be universalist, and we therefore wish to make known here, that in payment for literature supplied by us, we take anything which we can use for The Alarm, or sell in support of it. Odd type, ink, furniture, wearing apparel, boots, jewellery, books, back numbers or sets of any paper, used or unused stamps. American paper currency, tea, sugar, cocoa, crockery ware, cutlery, etc. We ought not to have any bad debts at this rate.
Here is Anarchy indeed! You will notice that the right hand side of the column is uneven, giving it the appearance of poetry. This is due to the fact that, to use a printer’s idiom, the lines have not been “justified;” or, in plain English, the spaces between the words should have been so altered as to make each line spread out to fill the column exact.
As a further instance of this Anarchistic disorder, I give the following: From the offices in Drury Lane of a curious four-page journal, printed by hand on yellow tissue paper, entitled the _Atheistic Communistic Scorcher_, emanated a still more curious, and, in many respects, amusing, pamphlet, entitled, “An Appeal to the Half-Starved, Herring-Gutted, Poverty-Struck, Parish-Damned Inhabitants of a Disunited Kingdom.” The following extract is an exact reproduction from the original (note the capitals and punctuation marks):--
We Require A Commune, to Take every Child,--Woman, and Man. Register them on the Roll of the Commune--Find how many Houses,--Tables, Chairs, Boots, Coats, Hats,--how much Food,--Animal, Vegetable, Cereal, are required for the Citizen. Then how many hours Labor from each Citizen.--(About One or Two hours.) from each one will do it, Them that wont work hang them, Labor will then be pleasant,--Why Is it so Irksome--To-Day? Because of excessive work and Insufficient pay,--That Land & Money Theives, may Batten and Fatten--On the Plunder of the Proletaire.
Some Anarchist journals--the Paris _La Revolte_, for example--even dispensed with editors, and allowed every comrade connected with the “group” which ran the paper to “have his say,” so far as the exigencies of space would allow him. This explains the fact that articles in direct contradiction to each other often appeared in the same journal.
Some of the advertisements to be found in Anarchistic newspapers are certainly amusing, as witness the following:--
A SEVERE WINTER IS INEVITABLE: therefore advertiser intends making preparations accordingly. Anyone willing to help form a “Help Myself” society should communicate with W. G. C., office of ----.
POACHER wants trustworthy comrade; mostly night work. Apply ----.
Another advertisement offered £5 reward for an honest lawyer. We know there is one somewhere in the East End; he is painted on a public-house sign-board, with his head under his arm.
THE ANTI-BROKER BRIGADE having reached a sufficient strength is ready to assist comrades and friends who require its services, free of charge. Apply to W. C., office of this paper.
The above advertisement appeared in the _Commonweal_, and referred to a group of fifteen stalwart Anarchists who conscientiously and on principle objected to pay rent under any circumstances, and who helped each other “shoot the moon.”
At the offices of the _Torch of Anarchy_, in Ossulton Street, Somer’s Town, occurred a number of amusing episodes. One in particular is worth recounting. Some “comrades” who had been expelled from Italy struck a bargain with the Anarchist printer of the _Torch_ to get out some revolutionary pamphlets in Italian, and in consideration of the working of his press by them he agreed to quote very reduced prices. It was a glorious sight to see these brawny sons of the Revolution perspiring at the press, singing Caserio’s “Hymn to Liberty,” and rejoicing in the thought that through their efforts the principles of Anarchy would be spread through their native land. Everyone was happy until some inquisitive fellow looked at the “proofs,” and made a terrible discovery. The wily printer, it seems, had undertaken a large printing contract for some local clergymen, and for months these firebrands had been printing tracts and sermons!
To the crank, the Anarchist movement acts as a magnet. It was while working as a compositor in the offices of _Freedom_ that I came across as fine a specimen as one could wish to meet in a day’s march. And among Anarchists one finds the crank _par excellence_. One day a middle-aged, respectably-dressed person of ordinary appearance, except for a wild gleam in the eyes, entered the office and asked to see the manager. He wanted an estimate for printing a twenty-page pamphlet. A satisfactory quotation having been given, he produced a roll of MS. from the inside pocket of his coat, and gave an order for the printing of 1,000 copies. After he had gone we examined the MS., and found it to contain as curious a medley of sense and nonsense (mostly of the latter) as one could hope to find outside the four walls of a lunatic asylum.
The brochure, a printed copy of which I have before me as I write, was entitled, “The Truth--the Way to the Physical, Moral, Mental, and Spiritual Regeneration, and the Life,” by Alfred E. Gaynor, who modestly described himself as follows:--
“Water Bearer. Spirit Architect and Constructor of the Universe, The Osiris, or Incarnate Representative of the Solar Power. Occultist and Metaphysician. Social Surveyor, Counsellor, and Transformer. Boudha, Krishna, and Jesus Christ Resurrected. Second Person of the Trinity. The Messiah, or Son of Man. Redeemer of Humanity from the Powers of Darkness. Leader of the Heavenly Hosts, and Spiritual Commander of the Forces against Mammon. Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Last Avatar of Vishnu.”
Interspersed through the pages of this pamphlet are a number of quotations from such curiously assorted sources as the Bible, the _Free-thinker_, Sir Monier-Williams, the _Torch of Anarchy_, the Bhagavadgita, and Volney’s “Ruins of Empires.”
The mission of the new Messiah was to “pull down all the old devil-erected structures--the kingdoms, governments, and religious institutions of the world--by nullifying the means by which they are enabled to maintain their Satanic dominance, _i.e._, MONEY; abolishing barter and trade, and cancelling all mammon-made laws, deeds, charters, stocks, bonds, notes, and other red-tape and paper chains which hold mankind in the bondage of delusion, and upon their site to build up a _New Dispensation_ and a _New Humanity_.” The name of the new world was to be “Olombia, or the New Columbia State of the World.” It was to be a “Saturnian, or No-Money Commonwealth”; its members the “Spirit-Builders of the White Light and the Truth University.” Everything under the new dispensation was to be free, gratis, and for nothing--free material, free labour, free habitation--in fact, free beer, free ’bacca, and free mutton-chops.
Individuals in Olombia, or the “Realm of Celestial Light”--the “Kingdom of Heaven now established on Earth”--were to be organised on the Anarchist pattern of “groups” freely federated, and classified under various industrial denominations called Orders, such as the Order of Agriculturists, the Orders of Engineers, Carpenters, Masons, Tailors, Bootmakers, Electricians, Journalists, Designers, Musicians, Teachers, etc., which were to take upon themselves the Commonwealth management and operation of the sources of production and supply; of its land, buildings, storages, manufactories, farming, means of transportation, etc. (which, of course, existed only in our “Messiah’s” imagination).
Every person between the ages of 21 and 50 who partook of the Commonwealth supplies was to identify himself with one of these Orders, and in return the “Kingdom of Heaven now established on Earth” was to guarantee to each of its members a free livelihood, free conveyance, free education, free literature, free amusements--in fact, free everything!
Six hours was to be the Commonwealth working day; five days the Commonwealth working week; twenty days the Commonwealth working month; ten months the Commonwealth working year, and twenty-nine years the Commonwealth working limit. Starting work at the age of twenty-one, the “Spirit-Builders of the White Light” were to retire at the age of forty-nine--the fiftieth birthday beginning each individual’s Jubilee, the entering into which bestowed “Olombia Citizenship,” together with “an undivided, untaxed, and untrammelled interest in the _Whole Earth_ with all its productions, and a right to all that is desired for the maintenance of life, health, liberty, development, culture and pleasure, ‘without money and without price.’”
One can only exclaim, “Oh, what must it be to be there!”
Another beautiful and rather rare specimen of the Anarchist crank I discovered in the same printing office. He was a believer in natural living, and a “dress reformer” with a vengeance. He existed entirely on a diet of nuts and cold water--aye, and what is the most amazing part about it, flourished and grew fat on that diet. In the office the Anarchists possessed a large old-fashioned printing-press, which was turned by hand. This was very exhausting work, and would knock an ordinary man out of breath in about ten minutes or so. The machine had, consequently, to be worked by some four or five men in shifts of about a quarter of an hour each. But this nut-eater outdid all of us roast beef and pudding devourers, for he was able to work at the machine for about an hour right off without any apparent sign of exhaustion. His greatest fad, however, was in the “dress reform” line. He believed in “natural dress,” and detested “conventionality.” Barbers, hatters, hosiers, and bootmakers he abominated, and walked the streets in all weathers hatless, bare-footed, and minus shirt, collar and tie, and even waistcoat. One fine hot summer’s day he was arrested in the City, a howling mob following him to the Guildhall, where he was charged with being insufficiently clad. He was actually parading the streets “mid nodings on” except a pair of short bathing pants!
An amusing incident once occurred at an Anarchist meeting in South Place Chapel, Finsbury. It was a public meeting to “commemorate the Chicago Martyrs.” One of the orators on this occasion was vehemently dramatic in his style, and was trying to inspire someone among his listeners with the necessity of “acting.” Warming to his work, he concluded his speech with this fiery peroration: “Comrades! the Cause of Anarchy is worth working for! worth fighting for!--aye, and, if needs be, worth dying for!”--and down came his fist with tremendous force on a small three-legged table which stood on the platform, smashing it to utter smithereens, amid the uproarious laughter of everyone present.
XV.
THE ABSURDITIES OF ANARCHISM.
The Anarchist is nothing if not an utopist. His ideas have their foundation, not in the sure and solid basis of science, but in the unstable grounds of sentiment. Facts, in his scheme, are not necessary; in his blissful ignorance he dreams of stepping out of the “hell of commercialism” right into that questionable heaven of Anarchist-Communism. For him the laws of social evolution are as nothing, or do not exist; and the angelic creatures he sometimes depicts as modern men and women capable of living harmoniously without government are but creatures of his own vivid imagination.
An instance of this general Anarchist ignorance of the laws of social evolution, in a literature teeming with instances, occurs in No. 1 of the _Alarm_, a now happily defunct weekly (and weakly) sheet issued by the (once) Associated Anarchists, who conclude a statement of policy with the following interesting but laughable information: “And we mean to have Anarchy in our time.”[4]
[4] In one sense this prophesy was fulfilled; for, within a few months disorder reigned supreme among the “Associated,” who constituted themselves into rival factions, each faction in turn carrying out the Anarchist doctrine of “individual expropriation” by means of periodic raids (at dead of night) on the possessions of the opposing faction (a common occurrence among Anarchists): the whole culminating in the introduction of the police on the invitation of the Anarchists themselves!
Passing from this, let us look at another phase of the folly of Anarchism. A Communist-Anarchist is certainly a political freak; his creed, as he himself tells us, is “two-sided” (not to say one-sided)--“its political theory is absolute individual liberty, its economic substance that of Communism.” What better evidence could one require of the absurdity of Communist-Anarchism? Communism, meaning the collective ownership and control of the land and instruments of labour, necessarily involves authority to enforce the will of the collectivity; Anarchism, on the other hand, is the negation of authority--the doctrine of individual supremacy. Consequently, to talk of Communist-Anarchism is to talk arrant nonsense; it is to talk of authority without authority, organisation without organisation, administration without administration! So that “Communist-Anarchist” is simply another name for Socialist-Individualist, or, Socialist-Anti-Socialist! What could be plainer?
Now, a consequence of holding such a mixture of opposite ideas is that the Anarchist “movement” in time resolves itself, as we find it to-day, into a medley of different sects, all at variance with each other. One thing, anyway, is certain, and that is, that the Anarchists have not made a mistake in choosing their name; for where two or three are gathered together in the name of Anarchy, there also, of a surety, are chaos and confusion. Much as rum follows missionary, so chaos dogs the footsteps of Anarchy. Chaos in the “movement” and chaos in the brains of those who compose it. Anarchy is emphatically not order--Kropotkin, Malatesta and Co. to the contrary notwithstanding.
Again, a logical consequence of a belief in Anarchist-Communism is that a thinking person, conscientiously holding such paradoxical views, is certain, sooner or later, to renounce one or the other--Anarchism or Communism.