CHAPTER XII.
THE LEAGUE OF TRUE CHRISTIANS
Odd, mysterious things were happening. One morning hundreds of men and women stood before advertising kiosks at the Schottentor, before the Opera, in the Stubenring, and in other localities, where someone had attached, by means of a tack, small octavo leaflets bearing the following legend:
“Citizens of Vienna and Austria! Arise before you are destroyed altogether! With the Jews you drove out prosperity, hope and the possibility of future development! Accursed be the demagogues who misled you! The League of True Christians.”
People read the impudent words aloud; many were indignant, and declared it was the work of Freemasons; others went away silently, and still others had the courage to voice their approval and to look defiantly at those who differed.
A few days later new posters appeared in various places, reading:
“Vienna is becoming provincialized! Citizens of Vienna, do you not see it? Another year or two, and the old metropolis, once the seat of emperors, will have become a shabby little hamlet, forgotten by all the world!”
As the burden of the poster was also being published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, it began to affect the people’s nerves, and to cause restlessness throughout the city. Was there not some truth in this last statement of the mysterious League of True Christians? It gave rise to heated discussions at meetings, in the barroom, and on the tramway. Somehow the remark about the provincialization of Vienna hovered in the air--it seemed to acquire wings, for soon it was heard everywhere, and even the Christian _Weltpresse_ quite unintentionally closed an editorial with: “We must do everything to avoid provincialization!”
The government, very much annoyed, exhorted the police to discover the malefactor who was putting up the posters. But their efforts were in vain. New leaflets appeared every day or two, always in different places--on the doors of the houses and churches, once even on the portals of the Chancellor’s Palace, of Police Headquarters, and of the Parliament Building. Always they bore a terse but effective attack on the government, an inflammatory suggestion to the people. And each time the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, having received a mailed copy the day before, was enabled to publish in its early morning edition the contents of the leaflet which would be put up that day.
After a short while all Vienna was seething with excitement; almost all conversation centered about these leaflets, and everybody puzzled over who might be behind this mysterious League. From week to week the number of those who agreed with the message of the little proclamations increased, Social-Democratic meetings again drew large crowds, and the Chancellor’s prestige fell to an appreciable extent.
One afternoon Lotte went over to Leo’s earlier than he had expected. As she had her own key to the apartment, and since Leo was not waiting for her in the living-room as he usually did, she went directly into the studio. Leo quickly threw a cloth over a little wooden table, and then greeted her with a somewhat embarrassed air.
Lotte pulled his little beard, looked straight into his eyes, and said:
“Look here, Leo, you’re trying to hide something from me! What have you got there under that cloth?”
Leo laughed heartily.
“You’ve the eyes of a lynx, darling mine! Well, I guess I’ll have to tell you my secret now.”
He pulled off the cloth, and Lotte saw, beside a box of type and a miniature hand-press, a pile of newly printed sheets. Amazed, she read:
“Citizens of Vienna! Are you better or worse off today than in the time of the Jews? Think it over calmly, and you will find the right answer! Years ago we all cried: ‘Throw out the Jews!’ But today we cry: ‘Let in the Jews who really want to work loyally with us!’
The League of True Christians.”
Dumfounded, uncomprehending, Lotte dropped the paper and picked up another sheet, on which was printed:
“We are not longing for the Jewish bankers. But if we want to escape hopeless misery we must welcome back the intelligent, clever Jews who can be of value to us. Arise, and act, before it is too late!
The League of True Christians.”
Lotte looked inquiringly at her fiancé.
He picked her up, kissed the tip of her nose, and again roared with laughter.
“Don’t you understand, you child? I, all by myself, am that League of True Christians that has been driving Vienna crazy for weeks! And I shan’t stop before the great storm breaks. Mark my words, these two leaflets will do the work! They’re my gas and stink bombs and flares, with which I kill, suffocate, and illuminate.”
Lotte was trembling.
“If you’re caught at it, Leo, it’ll be all over with you!”
“If--if! But they won’t get me! I have a marvellous technique for putting up the leaflets! As I stroll past a door or a wall in the morning--without stopping for a second, but while walking--I push in the tack to which the paper has already been attached. And even if the police tear down the leaflet a few minutes later there’s no harm done, for the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ has already printed its contents. You can trust me, dear; it has to be done this way. I’ve mapped out my course to a ‘T,’ and I’m devilish careful anyway.”
Swinging her slender legs as she sat perched on the broad drawing-table, Lotte spoke thoughtfully:
“You know, Leo, I think you’ve already accomplished a great deal. We had quite a crowd at our house yesterday, ten men and women, and mostly all the conversation was about the expulsion of the Jews and its consequences. Everybody, including Hofrat Tumpel, agreed that the expulsion should have been limited to some of the Eastern Jews--to those who could not prove that they had a decent occupation. And finally Hofrat Tumpel, who, a year ago, used to become furious if you dared to differ ever so slightly with the Chancellor, remarked:
“‘Yes, it seems that a very delicate mechanism has been interfered with too abruptly! There are some Jewish qualities that are not to be underestimated, and which we miss badly.’
“This may of course have something to do with the fact that the Hofrat’s brother owns the bookshop in the Seilergasse where only _de luxe_ and artistic editions are sold. Since the Jews are gone his business amounts to practically nothing, and on two occasions his brother, the Hofrat, has had to give him large sums of money to save him from bankruptcy. Another thing, Leo: I always keep my eyes and ears open--in the morning when I do my shopping, and at concerts, at the opera, and on the tramway. And I always hear people recalling the past more and more wistfully, and speaking of it as if it had been very beautiful. ‘In the old days, when the Jews were still here,’--they say that in every imaginable tone of voice, but never with hatred. You know, I think people are actually becoming lonesome for the Jews!”
Leo rewarded her keenness by pressing her to his breast. “And I’ll do my share to make their longing irresistible.”
“But be very careful, Leo! Don’t forget that if they kill you I’ll have to die, too!”