Pelle the Conqueror, Vol 3 by Martin Anderson Nexo

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Well, there he stood, with a child in his arms, and he was going to die!
But that didn't matter--he had got through the wall! Behind him the fire
was pressing forward; it had eaten a small hole through the door, and
had thus created the necessary draught. The hole grew larger; sparks
rose as under a pair of bellows, and a dry, burning heat blew through
the opening. Small, almost imperceptible flames were dancing over the
polished surface; very soon the whole door would burst into a blaze. His
clothes smelt of singeing; his hands were curiously dry like decaying
wood, and he felt as if the hair at the back of his head was curling.
And down below they were shouting his name. But all that was of no
consequence; only his head was so heavy with the smoke and heat! He felt
that he was on the point of falling. Was the child still alive? he
wondered. But he dared not look to see; he had spread his jacket over
its face in order to protect it.

He clutched the window-frame, and directed his dying thoughts toward
Ellen and the children. Why was he not with them? What nonsense had it
been that induced him to leave them? He could no longer recollect; but
if it had not been all up with him now he would have hurried home to
them, to play with Young Lasse. But now he must die; in a moment he
would fall, suffocated--even before the flames could reach him.

There was some slight satisfaction in that--it was as though he had
played a trick on some one.

Suddenly something shot up before his dying gaze and called him back. It
was the end of a fire-escape, and a fireman rose out of the smoke just
in front of him, seized the child, and handed it down. Pelle stood there
wrestling with the idea that he must move from where he was; but before
it had passed through his mind a fireman had seized him by the scruff of
his neck and had run down the ladder with him.

The fresh air aroused him. He sprang up from the stretcher on which the
fireman had laid him and looked excitedly about him. At the same moment
the people began quite senselessly to shout his name and to clap their
hands, and Madam Johnsen pushed her way through the barrier and threw
herself upon him. "Pelle!" she cried, weeping; "oh, you are alive,
Pelle!"

"Yes, of course I'm alive--but that's nothing to cry about."

"No, but we thought you were caught in there. But how you look, you poor
boy!" She took him with her to a working-man's home, and helped him to
set himself to rights. When he had once seen a looking-glass he
understood! He was unrecognizable, what with smoke and ashes, which had
burnt themselves into his skin and would not come off. And under the
grime there was a bad burn on one of his cheeks. He went to one of the
firemen and had a plaster applied.

"You really want a pair of eyebrows too," said the fireman. "You've been
properly in the fire, haven't you?"

"Why did the fire-engines take so long?" asked Pelle.

"Long? They were ten minutes getting here after the alarm was given. We
got the alarm at eight, and now it's half-past."

Pelle was silent; he was quite taken aback; he felt as though the whole
night must have gone by, so much had happened. Half an hour--and in that
time he had helped to snatch several people out of the claws of death
and had seen others fall into them. And he himself was singed by the
close passage of death! The knowledge was lurking somewhere at the back
of his mind, an accomplished but elusive fact; when he clenched his fist
cracks appeared in the skin, and his clothes smelt like burnt horn. In
the court the firemen were working unceasingly.

Some, from the tops of their ladders in the court, were pouring streams
of water upon the flames; others were forcing their way into the body of
the building and searching the rooms; and from time to time a fireman
made his appearance carrying a charred body. Then the inmates of the
"Ark" were called inside the barrier in order to identify the body. They
hurried weeping through the crowd, seeking one another; it was
impossible for the police to assemble them or to ascertain how many had
failed to escape.

Suddenly all eyes were directed toward the roof of the front portion of
the building, where the fire had not as yet entirely prevailed. There
stood the crazy Vinslev, playing on his flute; and when the cracking of
the fire was muffled for a moment one could hear his crazy music
"Listen! Listen! He is playing the march!" they cried. Yes, he was
playing the march, but it was interwoven with his own fantasies, so that
the well-known melody sounded quite insane on Vinslev's flute.

The firemen erected a ladder and ran up to the roof in order to save
him, but he fled before them. When he could go no farther he leaped into
the sea of flame.

The market-place and the banks of the canal were thick with people;
shoulder to shoulder they stood there, gazing at the voluptuous
spectacle of the burning "Ark." The grime and poverty and the reek of
centuries were going up in flames. How it rustled and blazed and
crackled! The crowd was in the best of spirits owing to the victory of
Labor; no one had been much inclined to sleep that night; and here was a
truly remarkable display of fireworks, a magnificent illumination in
honor of the victory of the poor! There were admiring cries of "Ah!"
people hissed in imitation of the sound of rockets and clapped their
hands when the flames leaped up or a roof crashed in.

Pelle moved about in the crowd, collecting the bewildered inmates of the
"Ark" by the gates of the prison, so that those who had relatives could
find them. They were weeping, and it was difficult to console them.
Alas, now the "Ark" was burnt, the beloved place of refuge for so many
ruined souls! "How can you take it to heart so?" said Pelle consolingly.
"You will be lodged overnight by the city, and afterward you will move
into proper dwelling-houses, where everything is clean and new. And you
needn't cry over your possessions, I'll soon get up a collection, and
you'll have better things than you had before."

Nevertheless they wept; like homeless wild beasts they whimpered and
rambled restlessly to and fro, seeking for they knew not what. Their
forest fastness, their glorious hiding-place, was burning! What was all
the rest of the city to them? It was not for them; it was as though
there was no place of refuge left for them in all the world! Every
moment a few of them slipped away, seeking again to enter the site of
the fire, like horses that seek to return to the burning stable. Pelle
might have spared his efforts at consolation; they were races apart, a
different species of humanity. In the dark, impenetrable entrails of the
"Ark" they had made for themselves a world of poverty and extremest
want; and they had been as fantastically gay in their careless existence
as though their world had been one of wealth and fortune. And now it was
all going up in flame!

The fire was unsparing; its purifying flames could not be withstood. The
flames tore off great sheets of the old wallpapers and flung them out
half-burned into the street. There were many layers pasted together,
many colors and patterns, one dimly showing through another, making the
most curious and fantastic pictures. And on the reverse side of these
sheets was a layer as of coagulated blood; this was the charred remnant
of the mysterious world of cupboards and chimney-corners, the fauna of
the fireplace, that had filled the children's sleep with dreams, and in
the little mussel-shaped bodies was contained the concentrated
exhalation of the poor man's night! And now the "Ark" must have been hot
right through to the ground, for the rats were beginning to leave. They
came in long, winding files from the entry, and up out of the cellars of
the old iron merchant and the old clothes dealer, headed by the old,
scabby males which used to visit the dustbins in the middle of the day.
The onlookers cheered and drove them back again.

About ten o'clock the fire was visibly decreasing and the work of
clearance could begin. The crowd scattered, a little disappointed that
all was over so soon. The "Ark" was an extinct bonfire! There could not
have been a sackful of sound firewood in all that heap of lumber!

Pelle took Madam Johnsen and her little grand-daughter to his lodgings
with him. The old woman had been complaining all the time; she was
afraid of being given over to the public authorities. But when she heard
that she was to go with Pelle she was reassured.

On the High Bridge they met the first dust-carts on their way outward.
They were decked out with green garlands and little national flags.

XXXVII

The next day broke with a lofty, radiant Sabbath sky. There was
something about it that reminded one of Easter--Easter morning, with its
hymns and the pure winds of resurrection. _The Working Man_ rung in
the day with a long and serious leading article--a greeting to the rosy
dawn--and invited the working-classes to attend a giant assembly on the
Common during the afternoon. All through the forenoon great industry
prevailed--wardrobes had to be overhauled, provision-baskets packed, and
liquid refreshment provided. There was much running across landings and
up and down stairs, much lending and borrowing. This was to be not
merely a feast of victory; it was also intended as a demonstration--that
was quite clear. The world should see how well they were still holding
together after all these weeks of the lock-out! They were to appear in
full strength, and they must look their best.

In the afternoon the people streamed from all sides toward the Labor
Building; it looked as though the whole city was flocking thither. In
the big court-yard, and all along the wide street as far as High Street,
the trades unions were gathered about their banners. The great review
had all been planned beforehand, and all went as by clockwork by those
who were accustomed to handling great masses of men; there was no
running from side to side; every one found his place with ease. Pelle
and Stolpe, who had devised the programme, went along the ranks setting
all to rights.

With the men there were no difficulties; but the women and children had
of course misunderstood their instructions. They should have gone direct
to the Common, but had turned up here with all their impedimenta. They
stood crowding together on both the side-walks; and when the procession
got under way they broke up and attached themselves to its sides. They
had fought through the campaign, and their place was beside their
husbands and fathers! It was a bannered procession with a double escort
of women and children! Had the like ever been seen?

No, the city had never seen such a going forth of the people! Like a
giant serpent the procession unrolled itself; when its head was at the
end of the street the greater part of its body was still coiled
together. But what was the matter in front there? The head of the
procession was turning toward the wrong side--toward the city, instead
of taking the direct way to the Common, as the police had ordered! That
wouldn't do! That would lead to a collision with the police! Make haste
and get Pelle to turn the stream before a catastrophe occurs!--Pelle?
But there he is, right in front! He himself has made a mistake as to the
direction! Ah, well, then, there is nothing to be said about it. But
what in the world was he thinking of?

Pelle marches in the front rank beside the standard-bearer. He sees and
hears nothing, but his luminous gaze sweeps over the heads of the crowd.
His skin is still blackened by the smoke of the fire; it is peeling off
his hands; his hair and moustache seem to have been cropped very
strangely; and the skin is drawn round the burn on his cheek. He is
conscious of one thing only: the rhythmic tread of fifty thousand men!
As a child he has known it in dreams, heard it like a surging out of
doors when he laid his head upon his pillow. This is the great
procession of the Chosen People, and he is leading them into the
Promised Land! And where should their road lie if not through the
capital?

At the North Wall the mounted police are drawn up, closing the inner
city. They are drawn up diagonally across the thoroughfare, and were
backing their horses into the procession, in order to force it to turn
aside. But they were swept aside, and the stream flowed on; nothing can
stop it.

It passes down the street with difficulty, like a viscous mass that
makes its way but slowly, yet cannot be held back. It is full of a
peaceful might. Who would venture to hew a way into it? The police are
following it like watchful dogs, and on the side-walks the people stand
pressed against the houses; they greet the procession or scoff at it,
according as they are friends or foes. Upstairs, behind the big windows,
are gaily clad ladies and gentlemen, quizzing the procession with half-
scornful, half-uneasy smiles. What weird, hungry, unkempt world is this
that has suddenly risen up from obscurity to take possession of the
highway? And behind their transparent lace curtains the manufacturers
gaze and grumble. What novel kind of demonstration is this? The people
have been forgiven, and instead of going quietly back to their work they
begin to parade the city as though to show how many they are--yes, and
how thin starvation has made them!

It is a curious procession in every way. If they wanted to demonstrate
how roughly they have been handled, they could not have done better!
They all bear the marks of battle--they are pale and sallow and ill-
clad; their Sunday best hangs in the great common wardrobe still; what
they wear to-day is patched and mended. Hunger has refined their
features; they are more like a procession of ghosts who have shaken off
the heavy bonds of earth and are ready to take possession of the world
of the spirit, than people who hope to conquer the Promised Land for
themselves and posterity. Such a procession of conquerors! They are all
limping! A flock with broken wings, that none the less are seeking to
fly. And whither are they going?

One of their choirs breaks into song: "We are bound for the Land of
Fortune!"

And where does that land lie? has any of your watchers seen it? Or was
it not merely a deceitful dream, engendered by hunger? Eat enough,
really enough, for once, good people, and then let us talk together!
What is it yonder? The emptiness that gave birth to you and even yet
surges crazily in your starving blood? Or the land of the living? Is
this then the beginning of a new world for you? Or is the curse eternal
that brings you into the world to be slaves?

There is a peculiar, confident rhythm in their tread which drowns all
other sounds, and seems to say, "We are the masters, poor as we look to
the eye! We have used four million kroner in waging the war, and twenty
millions have been wasted because they brought the work of our hands to
a standstill! We come from the darkness, and we go toward the light, and
no one can hold us back! Behind us lie hunger and poverty, ignorance and
slavery, and before us lies a happy existence, radiant with the rising
sun of Freedom! From this day onward a new age begins; we are its
youthful might, and we demand power for ten thousand families! The few
have long enough prevailed!"

Imperturbably they march onward, despite the wounds that must yet be
smarting; for see, they limp! Why should they still doubt?

Listen, they are singing! Hoarsely the sound emerges from ten thousand
throats, as though the song had grown rusty, or must first tear itself
free. A new instrument this, that has not yet been tuned by the master--
its first notes are discords! But the song runs to and fro along the
procession in rhythmical waves, it is an army on the march, and their
eyes kindle and blaze with the growing sense of their power, the
consciousness that they are the many! And the sound grows mighty, a
storm that rolls above the housetops, "Brother, soon will dawn the day!"

Touch not the humblest of them now! A vast, intoxicating power has
descended upon them; each one has grown beyond himself, and believes
himself capable of performing miracles. There are no loose particles;
the whole is a mighty avalanche. Touch but one of them and the might of
the mass will pour into him. He will be oblivious of consequences, but
will behave as though urged by destiny--as though the vast being of
which he forms a part will assume all responsibility, and constitutes
the law!

It is intoxicating to walk in the ranks, to be permitted to bear the
Union banners; even to look on fills one with strength and joy. Mothers
and children accompany the men, although they have for the most part to
walk in the gutters. It is great sport to fall out and watch the whole
mighty procession go by, and then, by taking a short cut, again to
station one's self at the head. Stand at a street-corner, and it will
take hours for the whole to pass you. _Trapp, trapp! Trapp, trapp!_
It gets into one's blood, and remains there, like an eternal rhythm.

One Union passes and another comes up; the machinists, with the sturdy
Munck at their head, as standard-bearer, the same who struck the three
blows of doom that summoned five and forty thousand men to the battle
for the right of combination! Hurrah for Munck! Here are the house-
painters, the printers, the glove-makers, the tinsmiths, the cork-
cutters, the leather-dressers, and a group of seamen with bandy legs. At
the head of these last marches Howling Peter, the giant transfigured!
The copper-smiths, the coal-miners, the carpenters, the journeymen
bakers, and the coach-builders! A queer sort of procession this! But
here are the girdlers and there the plasterers, the stucco-workers, and
the goldsmiths, and even the sand-blasters are here! The tailors and the
shoemakers are easy to recognize. And there, God bless me, are the
slipper-makers, close at their heels; they wouldn't be left in the cold!
The gilders, the tanners, the weavers, and the tobacco-workers! The
file-cutters, the bricklayers'-laborers, the pattern-makers, the
coopers, the book-binders, the joiners and shipbuilders! What, is there
no end to them? Hi, make way for the journeymen glaziers! Yes, you may
well smile--they are all their own masters! And here come the
gasworkers, and the water-company's men, and the cabinet-makers, who
turn in their toes like the blacksmiths, and march just in front of
them, as though these had anything to learn from them! Those are the
skilful ivory-turners, and those the brush-makers; spectacled these, and
with brushes growing out of their noses--that is, when they are old.
Well, so it is all over at last! The tail consists of a swarm of
frolicsome youngsters.

But no--these are the milk-boys, these young vagabonds! And behind them
come the factory-girls and behind them it all begins again--the
pianoforte-makers, the millers, the saddlers, and the paper-hangers--
banners as far as one can see! How big and how gay the world is, after
all! How many callings men pursue, so that work shall never fail them!
Ah, here are the masons, with all the old veterans at their head--those
have been in the movement since the beginning! Look, how steady on his
leg is old Stolpe! And the slaters, with the Vanishing Man at their
head--they look as if they don't much care about walking on the level
earth! And here are the sawyers, and the brewers, and the chair-makers!
Year by year their wages have been beaten down so that at the beginning
of the struggle they were earning only half as much as ten years ago;
but see how cheerful they look! Now there will be food in the larder
once more. Those faded-looking women there are weavers; they have no
banner; eight ore the hour won't run to flags. And finally a handful of
newspaper-women from _The Working Man_. God how weary they look!
Their legs are like lead from going up and down so many stairs. Each has
a bundle of papers under her arm, as a sign of her calling.

_Trapp, trapp, trapp, trapp!_ On they go, with a slow, deliberate
step. Whither? Where Pelle wills. "_Brother, soon will dawn the
day!_" One hears the song over and over again; when one division has
finished it the next takes it up. The side-streets are spewing their
contents out upon the procession; shrunken creatures that against their
will were singed in the struggle, and cannot recover their feet again.
But they follow the procession with big eyes and break into fanatical
explanations.

A young fellow stands on the side-walk yonder; he has hidden himself
behind some women, and is stretching his neck to see. For his own Union
is coming now, to which he was faithless in the conflict. Remorse has
brought him hither. But the rhythm of the marching feet carries him
away, so that he forgets all and marches off beside them. He imagines
himself in the ranks, singing and proud of the victory. And suddenly
some of his comrades seize him and drag him into the ranks; they lift
him up and march away with him. A trophy, a trophy! A pity he can't be
stuck on a pole and carried high overhead!

Pelle is still at the head of the procession, at the side of the sturdy
Munck. His aspect is quiet and smiling, but inwardly he is full of
unruly energy; never before has he felt so strong! On the side-walks the
police keep step with him, silent and fateful. He leads the procession
diagonally across the King's New Market, and suddenly a shiver runs
through the whole; he is going to make a demonstration in front of
Schloss Amalienborg! No one has thought of that! Only the police are too
clever for them the streets leading to the castle are held by troops.

Gradually the procession widens out until it fills the entire market-
place. A hundred and fifty trades unions, each with its waving standard!
A tremendous spectacle! Every banner has its motto or device. Red is the
color of all those banners which wave above the societies which were
established in the days of Socialism, and among them are many national
flags--blue, red, and white--the standards of the old guilds and
corporations. Those belong to ancient societies which have gradually
joined the movement. Over all waves the standard of the millers, which
is some hundreds of years old! It displays a curious-looking scrawl
which is the monogram of the first absolute king!

But the real standard is not here, the red banner of the International,
which led the movement through the first troubled years. The old men
would speedily recognize it, and the young men too, they have heard so
many legends attaching to it. If it still exists it is well hidden; it
would have too great an effect on the authorities--would be like a red
rag to a bull.

And as they stand staring it suddenly rises in the air--slashed and
tattered, imperishable as to color. Pelle stands on the box of a
carriage, solemnly raising it in the air. For a moment they are taken by
surprise; then they begin to shout, until the shouts grow to a tempest
of sound. They are greeting the flag of brotherhood, the blood-red sign
of the International--and Pelle, too, who is raising it in his blistered
hands--Pelle, the good comrade, who saved the child from the fire;
Pelle, who has led the movement cause to victory!

And Pelle stands there laughing at them frankly, like a great child.
This would have been the place to give them all a few words, but he has
not yet recovered his mighty voice. So he waves it round over them with
a slow movement as though he were administering an oath to them all. And
he is very silent. This is an old dream of his, and at last it has come
to fulfillment!

The police are pushing into the crowd in squads, but the banner has
disappeared; Munck is standing with an empty stave in his hands, and is
on the point of fixing his Union banner on it.

"You must take care to get these people away from here, or we shall hold
you responsible for the consequences," says the Police inspector, with a
look that promises mischief. Pelle looks in the face. "He'd like to
throw me into prison, if only he had the courage," he thought, and then
he sets the procession in motion again.

* * * * *

Out on the Common the great gathering of people rocked to and fro, in
restless confusion. From beyond its confines it looked like a dark,
raging sea. About each of the numerous speakers' platforms stood a
densely packed crowd, listening to the leaders who were demonstrating
the great significance of the day. But the majority did not feel
inclined to-day to stand in a crowd about a platform. They felt a
longing to surrender themselves to careless enjoyment, after all the
hardships they had endured; to stand on their heads in the grass, to
play the clown for a moment. Group upon group lay all over the great
Common, eating and playing. The men had thrown off their coats and were
wrestling with one another, or trying to revive the gymnastic exercises
of their boyhood. They laughed more than they spoke; if any one
introduced a serious subject it was immediately suppressed with a
punning remark. Nobody was serious to-day!

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