2-888-428 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Electoral Meeting in the Salle Martel, Paris, 1850. '...a scene of the present Socialist Electoral agitation...The platform is crowded with well-dressed persons; an orator is in the Tribune; and under him is a bust of Liberty with a Phrygian cap. "There were about 4000 people present, but more than half the number went thither, I am assured, in the expectation of witnessing some fun. Of fun, however, there was very little, the whole time being occupied with a dismal homily from the Carlist Abbe Chantome, who predicted 'that Socialism would soon melt the ice of the North Pole, and would immediately after convert the Cossacks, in their own tents, to Republicanism.'...The immediate results of the meeting must have been profitable, as a small sum was paid by each person as he entered...' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.