Having been turned out of Anderton's Hotel, the Society, on the
application of Olivier, was accepted solemnly at Willis's, probably
because the managers regarded the mere fact of our venturing to approach
them as a certificate of high rank in the world of learned societies.
One meeting of this period is perhaps worthy of record. On 16th March,
1888, Mr. R.B. Haldane, M.P., subsequently Secretary of State for War
and Lord Chancellor, addressed the Society on "Radical Remedies for
Economic Evils." In the pages of the "Radical," Vol. II, No. 8, for
March, 1888, can be found a vivid contemporary account of the
proceedings from the pen of Mr. George Standring, entitled "Butchered to
Make a Fabian Holiday." After describing the criticism of the lecture by
Sidney Webb, Mrs. Besant, and Bernard Shaw the report proceeds:--
"The massacre was concluded by two other members of the Society and then
the chairman called on Mr. Haldane to reply. Hideous mockery! The
chairman knew that Haldane was _dead_! He had seen him torn and tossed
and trampled under foot. Perhaps he expected the ghost of the M.P. to
rise and conclude the debate with frightful jabberings of fleshless
jaws and gestures of bony hands. Indeed I heard a rustling of papers as
if one gathered his notes for a speech; but I felt unable to face the
grisly horror of a phantom replying to his assassins; so I fled.
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