the circumstance that this strike, no bigger in the beginning than a man's hand, had in a few short days spread all over a section of the country at least a thousand miles in circuit and seized even upon the great New York Central road, alarmed the most phlegmatic and indifferent sort of people and set them a thinking, "Where will it end?" In the crowds that gathered around the bulletin boards in front of the various newspaper offices there was evidence of the strong public feeling prevailing. To some it looked as if the spectre of Communism was stalking over the land, and though men affected unconcern there was a deep-seated and sensitive dread that right here in the midst of us it was possible such scenes as unhappy Pittsburgh witnessed might be realized.

It is needless to say that the one overmastering subject of thought and conversation was the strike. While confined to the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania Central roads it might not offer such a share of interest and concern to New Yorkers, but when it extended itself and struck the two great arteries-Erie and New York Central-by which the metropolis holds her chief communication with the West, then indeed it aroused alarm. No class was unaffected by the prevailing apprehension, and it was freely speculated on whether within this very week the terrible epidemic which has played such sad havoc in Pittsburgh might not run down these conductors, the Erie and Central roads, and plunge right in among us.

The perturbation of railroad stocks showed how the influence of the strike had penetrated there. In the leading hotels men thrown together as strangers made acquaintances in smoking-rooms and at the bar over the one paramount topic. In the drinking-saloons high and heated controversies occurred at times where it happened that a friend of the strikers had a passageat-arms with a citizen of conservative instincts, to whom the violation of law and order is the one unpardonable

must have had strike within its There was much

sin. Not one of the seven thousand liquor stores and beer-saloons in New York city but either mention or discussion of the walls during the hours of yesterday. demagogery, and men who in their hearts don't care for the working classes were very profuse in their sympathies for the strikers so long as they perceived it was politic to be so. At the Grand Central depot, on Forty-second street, and at the Hudson River freight depot, on Thirtieth street, many people, curious to see how the Vanderbilt railroads stood the pressure, lingered for a while during the day. The rumors of a strike on the Broadway and Seventh avenue line of street cars on account of a reduction of wages of the drivers and conductors the previous night, turned attention in that direction as being possibly the prospective point of departure for a carnival of commotion and disorder.

Among the staid and solid classes the inquiry was frequent as to the condition of the National Guard, whether the regiments were prepared to turn out at a moment's notice, and so on. To some nervous people of means this was a subject of uppermost concern, and yet nobody could be found to give a really true and satisfactory statement as to that question. It was generally assumed, however, that the city regiments were well able to cope with any emergency within the ken of present observation. Citizens of leisure and of large bank accounts relieved their anxieties by calling on Inspector Walling at Police Head-quarters and receiving assurances that there was nothing to occasion alarm as far as this city is concerned, and that "the finest police force in the world" was never in finer condition than it is to-day.

The leaders of the "Social Democracy" and the "International Society" were uncommonly busy making preparations for the mass-meeting of workingmen in Tompkins square next Wednesday. This they look

upon as the acceptable time, and meet for the promulgation of their communistic doctrines. As far as the Herald reporter could learn outside of the ranks of these socialists, the project of holding a meeting in Tompkins square, which is sure to be dominated by the spirit of communism, is deprecated by workingmen themselves, who, however ready to denounce capital, are not yet prepared to take it to their embrace.

"I tell you what it is," said a thoughtful appearing man in a Sixth avenue car to the reporter, "there are at least thirty thousand men in this city to-day who would hail a strike of the railroad employés-street car and steam railroads-with rapture, because such a strike would make confusion, and under cover of it they would hope to start a reign of anarchy and plunder that would have few parallels in history. We are standing on a volcano, and all possible caution is needed to save us."

On the west side of the town, where the 'longshoremen muster in large numbers, the strike was viewed from almost one standpoint alone. It was right and justifiable, and the railroad corporations were a grasping, avaricious, soulless set. That was about the burden of sentiment. "They have been coining fortunes out of poor men's blood," asserted a mud-spattered truck driver in front of the White Star dock to a group of six or eight sympathetic listeners. "Yes," he continued, "and if they" (it is to be supposed he meant railroad directors) "got only a taste of what they give other people, it might do them good. Dog gone it, if I ain't glad to heer the strikers burned up six or eight millions of their property. That's what'll fetch 'em, you bet. Jist see how it's fotched 'em already. There's the Fort Wayne road consents to give back the reduction, and the Union Pacific says it won't reduce at all, and so on; you see, the strikers didn't do amiss no how."

This speaker was a type of many, breathing a fierce and unrelenting hostility to capital, especially that in

vested in railroads. About twenty men were sitting at lunch-time along a pile of lumber beside the new stone warehouses going up on West Broadway, and as the reporter lounged past he overheard a man with a huge chunk of bread in his fist, exclaim: "Well, boys, our time's come at last. We have been kicked and cuffed, and our wages has been regulated for us long enough, and now, by God, I think we ought to have a chance to regulate somebody else's wages." The sentiment seemed to meet general approval, as the response, "That's so," was loud and earnest.

Further on, near College place, a group of masons and bricklayers were discussing the great event, and one of the number cried out, "Our societies ought to meet in Tompkins square, and let it be known to the world that the cause of them men in Pennsylvany is ours. Labor is as good as capital any day, and may be a damn sight better." "That's the talk," said one of the listeners, encouragingly. "Give it to 'em while you're at it." "Well, I was sayin'," resumed the former speaker, "that labor is as good as capital and better, because without the one you can't do much with the other, and now I say it would have been fitter when these railroads was runnin' agin each other to carry freight the cheapest that they turned round to see how their employés was situated before they went to work to cut down their wages, in order to make up for their own foolishness." Clumsily as this idea was expressed, it was well and quickly appreciated, showing that the working people are ever ready to believe anything against capital.

On the east side of town, among the stevedores and laborers on Front and South streets, there was but one feeling, and that, of course, in favor of the strikers. Backed up against a bale of cotton, the speaker among his fellows might be heard explaining in his rude way the nature of the issues involved in the struggle going on. "No man has a right to starve in a country like