Bonbright did go alone. He went early in order to obtain a good
position in the hall, a mammoth gathering place capable of seating
three thousand people. He entered quietly, unostentatiously, and
walked to a place well toward the front, and he entered unobserved.
The street before the hall was full of arguing, gesticulating men.
Inside were other loudly talking knots, sweltering in the closeness
of the place. In corners, small impromptu meetings were listening to
harangues not on the evening's program. Already half the seats were
taken by the less emotional, more stolid men, who were content to
wait in silence for the real business of the meeting. There was an
air of suspense, of tenseness, of excitement. Bonbright could feel
it. It made him tingle; it gave him a Sensation of vibrating
emptiness resembling that of a man descending in a swift elevator.
Bonbright was not accustomed to public speaking, but, somehow, he did
not regard what he was about to say as a public speech.
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