Dr. Lecher went on with his pantomime speech, contented, untroubled.  Here and there and now and then powerful voices burst above the din, and delivered an ejaculation that was heard.  Then the din ceased for a moment or two, and gave opportunity to hear what the Chair might answer; then the noise broke out again.  Apparently the President was being charged with all sorts of illegal exercises of power in the interest of the Right (the Government side):  among these, with arbitrarily closing an Order of Business before it was finished; with an unfair distribution of the right to the floor; with refusal of the floor, upon quibble and protest, to members entitled to it; with stopping a speaker’s speech upon quibble and protest; and with other transgressions of the Rules of the House.  One of the interrupters who made himself heard was a young fellow of slight build and neat dress, who stood a little apart from the solid crowd and leaned negligently, with folded arms and feet crossed, against a desk.  Trim and handsome; strong face and thin features; black hair roughed up; parsimonious moustache; resonant great voice, of good tone and pitch.  It is Wolf, capable and hospitable with sword and pistol; fighter of the recent duel with Count Badeni, the head of the Government.  He shot Badeni through the arm and then walked over in the politest way and inspected his game, shook hands, expressed regret, and all that.  Out of him came early this thundering peal, audible above the storm: 

‘I demand the floor.  I wish to offer a motion.’

In the sudden lull which followed, the President answered, ’Dr. Lecher has the floor.’

Wolf.  ‘I move the close of the sitting!’

P.  ‘Representative Lecher has the floor.’ [Stormy outburst from the
Left—­that is, the Opposition.]

Wolf.  ’I demand the floor for the introduction of a formal notion. [Pause].  Mr. President, are you going to grant it, or not? [Crash of approval from the Left.] I will keep on demanding the floor till I get it.’

P.  ‘I call Representative Wolf to order.  Dr. Lecher has the floor.’

Wolf.  ‘Mr. President, are you going to observe the Rules of this House?’ [Tempest of applause and confused ejaculations from the Left—­a boom and roar which long endured, and stopped all business for the time being.]

Dr. von Pessler.  ’By the Rules motions are in order, and the Chair must put them to vote.’

For answer the President (who is a Pole—­I make this remark in passing) began to jangle his bell with energy at the moment that that wild pandemonium of voices broke out again.

Wolf (hearable above the storm).  ’Mr. President, I demand the floor.  We intend to find out, here and now, which is the hardest, a Pole’s skull or a German’s!’

This brought out a perfect cyclone of satisfaction from the Left.  In the midst of it someone again moved an Adjournment.  The President blandly answered that Dr. Lecher had the floor.  Which was true; and he was speaking, too, calmly, earnestly, and argumentatively; and the official stenographers had left their places and were at his elbows taking down his words, he leaning and orating into their ears—­a most curious and interesting scene.