“An ant,” continued the young member gravely, “can bear nearly a thousand times the weight of its own body over it, without being crushed. How many times your own weight do you think you could carry? But science can supply what nature has denied to us. We can make our fists be to us just what its horns are to a bull, or its claws and its teeth to a lion; only, you see, we have to learn how to do this carefully, and systematically. When a horse kicks, or a dog bites, no one in the world can teach them to do it better, but most men have no idea how to hit straight from the shoulder with all the strength of the body behind the blow. A boy who has learned how to defend himself will be a thousand times less molested by others, and more independent. When grown men, in a fit of passion, pull out a knife to avenge an injury, it is, nine times out of ten, because they have not learned the use of their fists.”
Then the young member, suddenly leaving the platform, came down amongst them.
“Who will learn?” he asked smiling.
Not a boy but came pressing around him. Benches were pushed against the walls, and the lesson began.
He made the boys who were to fight take off their tunics and roll up the sleeves of their more or less ragged shirts. He placed them in the correct attitude of defense, the right fist closed and held near the body and the left slightly extended. He showed them how to thrust straight from the shoulder for the right-hand stroke, and for the left-hand stroke; then how to parry the right-hand stroke with the left arm raised and slightly bent, and how to parry the left-hand stroke with the right arm bent forward and protecting the face. He showed them how to take their opponent’s head prisoner, and he showed the imprisoned one how to get free.
“Now, Kosta!” he cried, “straight out from the shoulder! Follow your blow! Come with it! Come with it! Be ready, Aleko! Raise your left arm. There you see …. That is the way!”
When the lesson was over and the boys had shouldered their boxes, Aleko lingered until the two members came out down the steps into the street smoking their cigarettes. He stood himself right in the way of the younger member.
“Tell me, Kyrie, if you please, when you strike straight out from the shoulder and the other one does not know how to parry the blow, what happens?”
The member laughed.
“Why, he will see stars, my boy, especially if your blow lands on his chin.”